Military defends its Ebola precautions as stricter than CDC’s

Military quarantine protocols are stricter than the CDC´s, the US military is imposing strict quarantine for soldiers leaving Liberia they think may have been in contact with Ebola. The following is from the Washington Post:

“Marine Maj. Gen. James Lariviere, a member of the Pentagon’s Joint Staff, told the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform that the Defense Department protocols for dealing with the disease “exceed” the standard set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The current outbreak has killed about 5,000 people, according to the World Health Organization.

General Lavarriere explains to Congressional 

Committee the stricter US Army protocol. 

No U.S. troops will directly treat Ebola patients, but the Pentagon’s guidelines, released Oct. 10, call for troops who deploy to western Africa to monitor their temperature twice a day. Those who report potential exposure to the virus will be subject to additional evaluations by medical professional designated by the Defense Department.

Personnel from the US Army Medical Research Institute

 on Infectious Diseases train a US soldier to dress properly. 

In the 10 days before leaving Africa, commanders have the authority to keep troops in a controlled environment where they can receive additional monitoring. Once they have left Africa, individuals with no known exposure must continue to monitor their temperature for 21 days. Those who are removed from Africa due to an elevated exposure risk must be quarantined for 21 days for closer monitoring.

The Pentagon released a video by General current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The video explains to the troops why they are taking such strict precautions. The gist of it is that US military physicians are much more careful than the US Centers for Disease Control. 

General Dempsey seems to have much 

more common sense than President Obama

General Dempsey explained he has to protect his soldiers “and their families” and he´s not taking this issue lightly (evidently not as lightly as US President Obama or his counterpart from Waziria, President Obombo.

Meanwhile, Reuters reports US Soldiers being isolated in an Italian military base: The U.S. military has started isolating soldiers returning from an Ebola response mission in West Africa. 

The latest measures, along with decisions by some U.S. states to impose mandatory quarantines on health workers returning home from treating Ebola victims in West Africa, have been condemned by health authorities and the United Nations as extreme.

The top health official in charge of dealing with Washington's response to Ebola warned against turning doctors and nurses who travel to West Africa to tackle Ebola into "pariahs".

The Ebola outbreak has killed nearly 5,000 people since March, the vast majority in West Africa, but nine Ebola cases in the United States have caused alarm, and states such as New York and New Jersey have ignored federal advice by introducing their own strict controls.

The UN weights with more stupid comments:

Reuters also informs an UN Official, Stephane Dujarric, the senior spokesman for Ban Ki Moon,  criticized US states imposing their own restrictions:

“The United Nations on Monday sharply criticized the new restrictions imposed by some U.S. states on health workers returning home from the affected West African states of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.

"Returning health workers are exceptional people who are giving of themselves for humanity," Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said. "They should not be subjected to restrictions that are not based on science. Those who develop infections should be supported, not stigmatized.

American soldiers returning from West Africa are also being isolated, even though they showed no symptoms of infection and were not believed to have been exposed to the deadly virus, officials said on Monday.”

Stephane Dujarric, the UN official who 

cried foul because some states are using stricter 

quarantine procedures to avoid Ebola  

My closing remarks:

I suppose the UN will now start criticizing countries which try to defend their population from the Ebola epidemic, but will not criticize the US military for placing  soldiers in quarantine? And what does Italy have to say about its territory being used to warehouse these soldiers?

It seems to me this is becoming a left-right political issue, similar to what happened to the Global Warming craze. The left is coming out en masse to defend Obama, the right is lining up to criticize him. As you can tell I´m siding firmly  on the anti Obama camp. I hate to introduce politics into what´s clearly a scientific and health issue, but the government has been incredibly lax and irresponsible. This tells me the President may be smart, but he allows other considerations to make him behave in a really, really stupid fashion. And that´s all I have to say about this subject, for now...