The medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) is warning that some mandatory US state Ebola quarantine measures are having a “chilling effect” on its work of fighting the killer virus in Africa.  This comes as the governors of conservatives states are flustered, having tried to quarantine a nurse who doesn’t have Ebola.

Kaci Hickox went out for a bike ride with her boyfriend on Thursday morning and ordered a pizza on Thursday evening.  She insists that she will go out into her community, despite the order from the republican governor of Maine that she stay in what is effectively house arrest.  Hickox was taken to her home in Maine after the republican governor of New Jersey attempted to have her quarantined in a tent outside a hospital, with now shower and an improvised latrine, but caved under intense bad publicity and sent her home.

Why are these political conservatives persecuting this woman?  At this point, it’s because she refuses to back down.  Kaci had just arrived back in the United States from her heroic volunteer work with MSF fighting the West African Ebola Epidemic.  Even though two blood tests show she does not have the virus, the conservatives are playing to the fears of the irrational mob hysteria that’s whipped up by Murdoch-style political “news”.  I guess “burn the witch!” is so much easier than reading test results.  The governors ordered mandatory 21-day blanket quarantines on all health care workers returning from volunteer work in countries that have reported Ebola cases – regardless of whether the medical professional actually has the virus.

“There is rising anxiety and confusion among staff members in the field over what they may face when they return home upon completion of their assignments in West Africa,” said MSF executive director Sophie Delaunay.

The volunteers are already giving up a month or more out of their lives, usually funded with their earned vacation time.  Many just can’t afford to spend another three weeks out of work in an arbitrary quarantine.  Those who can afford it are making arrangements to stay in Europe, where the brain is still located between the ears and not up the bum, for 21-days to avoid mandatory detention dictated by craven political pandering to the dumbest American voters.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has also condemned the actions of the US governors.

“Returning health workers are exceptional people who are giving of themselves for humanity,” Ban said.  “They should not be subjected to restrictions that are not based on science.”