
Annoncering

If you're the patient, you should be pretty unhappy, and pretty scared, but the good news is you're in America. The health care here isn't cheap, but it's pretty good, and you might just live through this. Unlike in Liberia, where doctors are a limited and shrinking resource, you'll be surrounded by more doctors than you'll know what to do with. You'll be in quarantine, so your doctors will be wearing protective clothing, and your environment will be clean and relatively comfortable. Best of all, they'll most likely inject you with ZMapp, the cocktail of antibodies that, in the best of circumstances, seriously brings down the chances of you dying. Typically, the odds are about 50–50 without the serum. We don't have good statistics about the odds with the serum, but in the handful of cases when it's been used, the treatment seems promising. So in other words, there's cause for optimism.
Annoncering
Seay told me "the process of what they call 'contact tracing' has already begun." This process, she explained, is when "public health workers track down everybody who came into contact with this individual and start monitoring them for symptoms." So if you came in contact with the mystery patient, you're in for some attention from the CDC. We know that the patient was traveling from Liberia. According to the CDC's press conference yesterday, the patient departed on September 19 and arrived in the US on September 20, so the airport (likely DFW) is probably one place that will be swept for signs of infection, but since it takes some pretty intimate contact to spread Ebola, it's unlikely anything will be found.Moreover, the person had no symptoms until around the 24th, which is when the disease would have become contagious. Between then and the 28th, when the CDC says the person was admitted to the hospital, people who encountered this patient could have been infected, specifically those who—and this is really important—came in contact with the patient's bodily fluids, which, according to the CDC include, but are not limited to, "urine, saliva, feces, vomit, and semen." As in cinematic quarantine scenarios, it's conceivable that people who may have been exposed could find themselves in quarantine, like the unnamed doctor currently being observed in Bethesda, Maryland. However, Seay told me, "I don’t know to what degree that was voluntary or involuntary."
Annoncering
A single patient with Ebola is a localized problem, and precautions should keep it that way. No one wants to use the word "outbreak" unless it's necessary, but the CDC will no doubt take some of the precautions that they would in the event of multiple patients. Residents should expect a public-awareness campaign all around Dallas, instructing people about what they need to do if they think they have Ebola (namely, get the fuck to the hospital). Unfortunately, everyone with flu-like symptoms and every hypochondriac in the Dallas-Fort Worth area will be extremely susceptible to panic. I'm a hypochondriac in Los Angeles, and even I'm about to be on high alert for the next three weeks.

Annoncering
