Syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer said Thursday night that America needs to stop abiding by the “rules of normal,” telling Fox News “Special Report” anchor Bret Baier that we are currently “playing by the rules of normal infectious diseases, and the rules aren’t normal here.”
Krauthammer also said this extends to privacy concerns, as one of the chief means to stop Ebola is by making the public aware of the names of people who have Ebola.
Bret Baier: “You hear the nurses speak out, and you hear the unions talk about the lack of training across the country. It is pretty stark.”
Charles Krauthammer: “It is really scary. Imagine if you’re a nurse, imagine if you’re involved in the treatment. But imagine if you’re a member of the general public. Remember what Dr. Frieden said at the beginning: We have the protocols, we’ve done this before, we’re the best at tracing that there is. Sure there are protocols, but unless you train them, unless you have drills, unless you’ve done this over and over again as only a few specialized facilities have done, you really screw it up in the beginning, which is understandable.”
“So these people at this hospital in Texas were doing this for the first time and they did it terribly wrong exposing all kinds of people. They are playing by the rules of normal infectious diseases, and the rules aren’t normal here. This is a pathogen that kills 70 percent of those who get it. Let me give you one example of not changing the rules: they withheld the name of the first woman to get this for a day. Why in God’s name…yes I understand the privacy issue, but if you say the way to control this is by having the contacts contacted, the fastest way to alert anybody who had contact with her is to give out her name! And yet, for a day they withheld it on the grounds of, in normal times, privacy, we have to suspend the normal times and treat this as a real danger. Even though it is not widespread, it is lethal”