I was sent to Maine by the U.S. Public Health Service in 1969 as acting state epidemiologist; to perform epidemiology, tuberculosis control, venereal disease control and immunization. Maine was the first state in the country to close its tuberculosis sanatorium.
On one occasion, we incarcerated an uncooperative patient to prevent his spreading TB germs.
We tracked down a migrant worker named as a contact of a case of syphilis.
We controlled known typhoid carriers to prevent their working as food handlers.
Epidemiology and communicable disease control are not new. The science is well understood. Ebola is a retrovirus, which invades cells, hijacks the DNA to make copies of itself and then releases the copies.
A person is infectious only when symptomatic. That is why Kaci Hickox did not need to be quarantined. She only requires monitoring, and isolation only if she becomes infectious.
I fear that the hysterical overreaction by Govs. Chris Christie and Paul LePage reflects a lack of education about the biology of infectious disease and a dangerous distrust in the proper use of science.
In this modern world, we fly in space, travel undersea in submarines and use cell phones and computers. To ignore science is to display a depth of ignorance that is difficult to comprehend.
Highly placed elected officials need to look before leaping, and to think before opining. LePage does not need to “trust” Hickox so much as he needs to be a trustworthy administrator of the power of the state.
O. Thomas Feagin
Readfield
Former epidemiologist
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