Why there's an Ebola quarantine: Almost 470 health officials are monitoring 117 people who had contact with Dr. Spencer

When you hear libs say something like “listen to the science” on Ebola quarantines, they’re wrong. What we should be analyzing is the math. Check out these numbers:

Just to be safe health officials are monitoring 117 New Yorkers who came in contact with Dr. Craig Spencer after… http://t.co/lokvH9n57E

— Fox5NY (@fox5ny) October 31, 2014

And this from the New York Post:

About 470 Health Department workers are responsible for calling all those being monitored twice a day and keeping a log of their temperatures.

“It ensures that health officials can respond rapidly in case a person who is at risk becomes ill, so they can be isolated and evaluated before they become contagious,” Adams said.

So, “just to be safe,” New York City health officials are using a tremendous amount of manpower to actively monitor people who came into contact with one non-quarantined health worker infected by Ebola. Hmmmm. If Kaci Hickox’s “science” says Dr. Spencer wasn’t contagious, then why is New York City spending so much money on monitoring?

@ABCNewsHealth @AaronKatersky All this because one sick doc didn't quarantine.

— H Schachtschneider (@HSchachtschneid) October 30, 2014

Yep. One infected patient has led to 117 others monitored for signs of Ebola by close to 500 health officials. Now imagine in the unlikely event that two people in New York City are infected at the same time. Or three. How could New York City handle that?

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Short answer: Nobody wants to find out and that’s why there is a temporary quarantine in place for heath workers returning from West Africa.

@ABCNewsHealth @AaronKatersky @WorldNews Ask how the monitoring model explodes when more cases start to emerge. Situation gets ugly fast!

— Domani Capital (@AdaptToReality) October 30, 2014

Ugly is right. But it’s odd that these numbers have not being widely reported before now. And it’s odder still that Governors Cuomo and Christie never used this information to defend their policies against the ugly attacks against them. Maybe it’s because they don’t want to panic everyone.

Related:

Full Twitchy coverage on Ebola here.