WEBVTT - Quarantine 0:00:03.200 --> 0:00:06.080 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how stuff 0:00:06.080 --> 0:00:13.960 Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:14.040 --> 0:00:16.880 My name is Robert Lamb and I'm truly Douglas. And 0:00:17.120 --> 0:00:19.159 the episode that we just put out Tuesday was of 0:00:19.200 --> 0:00:22.560 course on its bowlow where we talked about about the 0:00:22.720 --> 0:00:25.800 virus itself, about how it spreads, about how we can 0:00:25.840 --> 0:00:28.960 attempt to treat it, and how it plays into the 0:00:29.000 --> 0:00:33.159 current sort of global climate bega that global ideas and 0:00:33.200 --> 0:00:38.360 fears and paranoia regarding that particular virus. So in this episode, 0:00:38.360 --> 0:00:41.080 we're going to talk about another closely related topic here, 0:00:41.080 --> 0:00:45.360 and that is quarantine, because that inevitably that's that's a 0:00:45.440 --> 0:00:48.000 lot of what we're talking about when we're talking about it, bou, 0:00:48.040 --> 0:00:51.520 because quarantine is necessary to protect those that are treating 0:00:51.520 --> 0:00:53.960 the illness. Yeah, and also is one of those things 0:00:53.960 --> 0:00:58.320 that kind of plays into the whole Hollywood sensationalized idea 0:00:58.400 --> 0:01:01.440 of what a quarantine is, whether or not you're drawing 0:01:01.520 --> 0:01:03.920 that from your from each you know, when when the 0:01:03.920 --> 0:01:07.920 government comes into like quarantine the house and because it's scary, right, 0:01:08.000 --> 0:01:10.759 people in suits and they've wrapped the house and in 0:01:10.800 --> 0:01:13.720 the in this giant plastic bubble. Yeah, or if you're 0:01:13.760 --> 0:01:16.800 even thinking about the movie Outbreak again, it's the it's 0:01:16.840 --> 0:01:19.600 the men in suits, you know, it's sort of like 0:01:19.959 --> 0:01:24.560 the storm They look like Stormtroopers, except for definitely not 0:01:24.600 --> 0:01:27.000 as you know, hard schoold. Yeah. I mean, on one hand, 0:01:27.040 --> 0:01:30.240 it's it's very much the idea that you have you 0:01:30.280 --> 0:01:33.000 have become something alien because you were infected or may 0:01:33.040 --> 0:01:35.840 have been infected, And I look like something alien now 0:01:35.880 --> 0:01:38.320 because I'm in this dehumanizing suit. Like it's a very 0:01:38.360 --> 0:01:41.600 dehumanizing level to it. And then on another level, and 0:01:41.680 --> 0:01:44.800 we were talking about this an email just the other day, 0:01:45.800 --> 0:01:48.440 there's a dramatic sense to this too. There's the old 0:01:48.480 --> 0:01:50.760 saying you don't bring a cannon on the stage unless 0:01:50.760 --> 0:01:54.440 you're gonna fire it. And I feel, essentially the cases 0:01:54.680 --> 0:01:58.880 you do not introduce quarantine into a TV show, movie, novel, book, 0:01:58.880 --> 0:02:03.040 comic book, et cetera, unless somebody is going to break quarantine. 0:02:03.160 --> 0:02:06.880 So it gives us this kind of skewed fictional idea 0:02:06.920 --> 0:02:10.640 about what quarantine is, how quarantine works, to what degree 0:02:10.760 --> 0:02:13.560 quarantine is effective or or is ineffective. I mean, we 0:02:13.600 --> 0:02:16.959 just have a very unreal vision of what it is. Yeah, 0:02:17.000 --> 0:02:20.320 And I was also thinking about Dr Alan Jamison. He 0:02:20.600 --> 0:02:24.040 is a retired doctor who was working with Medical Teams 0:02:24.040 --> 0:02:27.600 International to treat ebola patients, and he recently returned home 0:02:27.639 --> 0:02:30.960 to Tennessee in the United States, and he quarantined himself. 0:02:31.880 --> 0:02:34.000 I think he did this not because he had any 0:02:34.040 --> 0:02:37.959 symptoms of ebola, but I think he understood that this 0:02:38.000 --> 0:02:43.120 topic right now is so supercharged and so emotionally just 0:02:43.360 --> 0:02:45.520 laden with fire works, with people getting angry. That he 0:02:45.600 --> 0:02:48.160 was like, whoa, whoa, guys, before you start, you know, 0:02:48.800 --> 0:02:53.680 congregating around my house, which works and fire I'm just 0:02:53.680 --> 0:02:56.320 gonna I'm gonna lay low twenty one days, just to 0:02:56.360 --> 0:02:59.639 make sure, so don't anybody get crazy. So I thought 0:02:59.680 --> 0:03:01.920 that was a smart move on his part, because he 0:03:02.080 --> 0:03:06.000 is isolating himself. His family's dropping off food on his porch. 0:03:06.120 --> 0:03:08.840 It's a great excuse to to get out of social commitments, 0:03:09.200 --> 0:03:11.160 you know. And so I'd love to go to that 0:03:11.200 --> 0:03:13.840 baby shower, but I just got back. I really am. 0:03:14.520 --> 0:03:16.840 I'm not sick, there's nothing wrong with me, but just 0:03:16.880 --> 0:03:19.840 to be on the safe side, I can't go. I'm 0:03:19.840 --> 0:03:23.040 going to quarantine myself. Yeah, yeah, I'm gonna The next 0:03:23.040 --> 0:03:25.560 time I get an evite for a baby shower. I'm 0:03:25.600 --> 0:03:28.440 gonna put that in my no reply. Sorry. In quarantine 0:03:28.480 --> 0:03:32.760 self quarantine, sorry, So why would you quarantine someone or 0:03:32.800 --> 0:03:36.960 why would a community quarantine itself? Um, Viral strains like 0:03:37.000 --> 0:03:41.360 tuberculosis might be a reason. Bioterrorism has been thrown around 0:03:41.400 --> 0:03:43.760 as well, the idea that you might use one of 0:03:43.760 --> 0:03:47.480 these viral strains in warfare and try to contain it. Yeah, 0:03:47.520 --> 0:03:50.120 I mean, and in this at this level of the scenario, 0:03:50.240 --> 0:03:52.400 it plays that exactly like it does in the movies. 0:03:52.640 --> 0:03:58.480 There's something there's something either unknown that is potentially communicable 0:03:58.680 --> 0:04:01.160 or or it is very much danger. It can something 0:04:01.200 --> 0:04:06.000 that can spread and potentially become a major outbreak. So 0:04:06.080 --> 0:04:08.000 you want to contain it. You want to keep it 0:04:08.040 --> 0:04:14.640 from jumping to new individuals. And when we talk about outbreak, epidemic, pandemic, 0:04:14.720 --> 0:04:17.200 let's give a little bit more definition to that. Um. 0:04:17.200 --> 0:04:20.840 This is actually from web MD. Uh. They say that 0:04:21.000 --> 0:04:23.760 with an outbreak, we're talking about a disease outbreak that 0:04:23.839 --> 0:04:27.440 happens when a disease occurs in greater numbers than expected 0:04:27.480 --> 0:04:30.640 in a community or region during a season. So the 0:04:30.680 --> 0:04:33.240 flu would be a good example of this. Yeah, and 0:04:33.240 --> 0:04:35.880 then an epidemic. And epidemic is when an infectious disease 0:04:35.920 --> 0:04:38.680 spreads rapidly too many more people. And this may be 0:04:39.120 --> 0:04:41.839 just within the same region, it may involve several countries 0:04:41.960 --> 0:04:44.800 that it's it can it can, it can vary in 0:04:44.880 --> 0:04:47.919 size and still be an epidemic. And then finally you 0:04:47.960 --> 0:04:51.400 have the idea of the pandemic. And in a pandemic, 0:04:51.400 --> 0:04:54.800 you're dealing with a global situation. And in examples of 0:04:54.839 --> 0:04:59.360 this would be AIDS, HIV and various strains of influenza. Yeah, 0:04:59.360 --> 0:05:01.479 and just to go by to epidemic Stars is a 0:05:01.520 --> 0:05:03.920 good example that. Yeah. So I like to think of 0:05:03.960 --> 0:05:06.600 these also in terms of of Beatlemania, right, I mean, 0:05:06.640 --> 0:05:10.839 you have a very regional outbreak of enthusiasm over a 0:05:10.839 --> 0:05:14.240 particular musical act, and then it it grows and it 0:05:14.279 --> 0:05:17.120 becomes popular in other areas and it eventually reaches a 0:05:17.200 --> 0:05:21.440 point at which it's a global phenomenon. Okay, And it's 0:05:21.440 --> 0:05:23.599 the same thing with any kind and essentially it's just 0:05:23.680 --> 0:05:25.880 a this in this case is a viral idea of 0:05:26.040 --> 0:05:32.760 viral taste. Music as virus um celebrity as virus that spreads. 0:05:32.760 --> 0:05:34.920 But but of course it's based on. That idea is 0:05:34.960 --> 0:05:38.400 based on a very real model of how infectious agents 0:05:38.400 --> 0:05:42.840 spread through a species, right Beatles music spreading throughout a community. 0:05:43.040 --> 0:05:45.560 The world great, but not so much with with the 0:05:45.640 --> 0:05:48.760 virus UM. Now we could go like, I don't know 0:05:48.839 --> 0:05:52.000 for days about the history of quarantines, because it's a 0:05:52.080 --> 0:05:56.680 really rich history. Imagine every single country has has um, 0:05:56.720 --> 0:05:59.159 you know, some sort of protocol in place or history 0:05:59.160 --> 0:06:02.359 with quarantine. So we won't go way deep in there, 0:06:02.480 --> 0:06:05.880 but just to give everybody an idea of the practice 0:06:05.960 --> 0:06:10.640 of quarantining in earnest This began in the fourteenth century 0:06:10.800 --> 0:06:14.640 and according to the Centers for Disease Control, what was 0:06:14.760 --> 0:06:17.560 happening is that there was this effort to protect coastal 0:06:17.640 --> 0:06:22.040 cities from plague epidemics. So ships arriving in Venice, which 0:06:22.040 --> 0:06:23.719 would have been the seat of power at that time, 0:06:24.160 --> 0:06:27.440 from infected ports, were required to sit at anchor for 0:06:27.440 --> 0:06:31.560 forty days before landing. This practice, called quarantine, was derived 0:06:31.560 --> 0:06:38.000 from the Italian words quaranta. Quaranta means forty and journey 0:06:38.080 --> 0:06:40.880 means days. So that's how we got the term in 0:06:40.920 --> 0:06:44.960 the first place. During that same time, UM, since you know, 0:06:45.000 --> 0:06:47.440 the plague was a fact of life for hundreds of 0:06:47.560 --> 0:06:50.839 years in Europe and UM, in Asia and the Middle East, 0:06:51.920 --> 0:06:58.039 finding sick people and quarantine quarantine them was actually a job. Yeah, 0:06:58.880 --> 0:07:03.240 and uh, what happened is that not many people really 0:07:03.279 --> 0:07:06.000 wanted to volunteer for it. So what you would have 0:07:06.200 --> 0:07:11.120 is usually older women without any other means of income, 0:07:11.600 --> 0:07:16.720 who would search dead bodies or really sick people and um, 0:07:16.960 --> 0:07:20.120 they would look for these plague victims and then they 0:07:20.120 --> 0:07:23.120 would announce to local officials where they had found them 0:07:23.160 --> 0:07:25.680 in the families, and they get a few pence for 0:07:25.760 --> 0:07:28.160 each body, or for turning in a family that was 0:07:28.200 --> 0:07:30.880 harboring one of the bodies. Yeah, it's and this is 0:07:30.880 --> 0:07:34.720 interesting to note because it's easy to forget, especially looking 0:07:34.720 --> 0:07:37.400 at the Western and the United States model of quarantine. 0:07:37.760 --> 0:07:40.400 The quarantine is largely self reporting. It's more of an 0:07:40.400 --> 0:07:42.920 honor system. I just came from somewhere. I think I 0:07:43.000 --> 0:07:46.840 might be sick. Yes, quarantine me because I want treatment 0:07:46.840 --> 0:07:50.080 if there's something wrong with me, and maybe a distant second, 0:07:50.080 --> 0:07:51.840 I don't want to get anyone else sick either. But 0:07:52.240 --> 0:07:54.680 essentially there's gonna there's gonna be some self interest there. 0:07:54.880 --> 0:07:56.840 You go back to this older model and there is 0:07:56.880 --> 0:07:59.200 more of a sense of please don't board me up 0:07:59.240 --> 0:08:02.520 in my house. Uh, let me be sick on my 0:08:02.560 --> 0:08:05.680 own land or die in peace. And and one of 0:08:05.680 --> 0:08:08.960 the problems is that you you see, uh, there's a 0:08:09.000 --> 0:08:12.239 lot of space between those two attitudes, and you find 0:08:12.320 --> 0:08:15.680 various points on that on that line elsewhere in the 0:08:15.680 --> 0:08:18.200 world right now, as we discussed in our Bola episode, 0:08:18.480 --> 0:08:20.680 one of the problems that you have, you have locals 0:08:20.720 --> 0:08:23.360 who are going to be distrustive of outsiders who are 0:08:23.360 --> 0:08:25.280 coming in and saying, hey, let me treat you. Let 0:08:25.480 --> 0:08:27.840 why don't you come into our tent and let us 0:08:28.000 --> 0:08:30.480 treat you for your problems, and then telling you how 0:08:30.520 --> 0:08:33.920 to care for your dad, etcetera. Yeah, And then I 0:08:33.960 --> 0:08:36.160 think this example is like a really good sort of 0:08:36.200 --> 0:08:39.080 like how people might get paranoid because again they're trying 0:08:39.080 --> 0:08:41.520 to hold onto their family. And so you've got this person, 0:08:41.640 --> 0:08:44.040 this this older lady going around. She's the plague hunter, 0:08:44.760 --> 0:08:46.400 and you don't want her stopping by her home. But 0:08:46.440 --> 0:08:48.760 at the same time, this was a way to try 0:08:48.800 --> 0:08:52.200 to prevent further transmission. So you see our our modern 0:08:52.480 --> 0:08:56.280 quarantine practices, especially here in the state's kind of evolved 0:08:56.280 --> 0:09:01.960 over time. And in between state and local authorities UM made. 0:09:02.080 --> 0:09:05.920 They made the sporadic attempts to impose quarantine requirements over time, 0:09:06.280 --> 0:09:08.360 generally in response to what's going on in the world 0:09:08.400 --> 0:09:11.520 and what's coming in and crossing the border. UM. Continued 0:09:11.559 --> 0:09:15.320 outbreaks of yellow fever finally prompted Congress to pass federal 0:09:15.360 --> 0:09:20.360 quarantine legislation in eighteen seventy eight. UM outbreaks of cholera 0:09:20.480 --> 0:09:24.280 from passengerships arriving from Europe forced US some reinterpretations of 0:09:24.320 --> 0:09:27.400 this law in e and this provided the federal government 0:09:27.400 --> 0:09:31.840 with more authority in imposing those quarantine requirements, so much 0:09:31.880 --> 0:09:36.600 so that during World War One, thirty thousand prostitutes were 0:09:37.360 --> 0:09:41.880 rounded up. UM. Not because they were, you know, dealing 0:09:41.880 --> 0:09:45.640 in prostitution. UM, it was because they were known to 0:09:45.679 --> 0:09:48.120 be hookers. In the United States wanted their soldiers to 0:09:48.160 --> 0:09:53.280 be venearial disease free. Oh good luck with that, Yeah, 0:09:53.400 --> 0:09:56.800 all right, exactly. Uh So that again wasn't an attempt 0:09:56.800 --> 0:09:59.920 to try to uh, you know, quash any sort of 0:10:00.040 --> 0:10:04.040 transmission here. Then, moving a little a little further on 0:10:04.040 --> 0:10:07.920 the timeline, Public Health Service Act of nineteen four established 0:10:07.920 --> 0:10:10.320 the federal government's quarantine authority for the first time, and 0:10:10.360 --> 0:10:14.520 this act gave US Public Health Service responsibility for preventing 0:10:14.600 --> 0:10:19.319 the introduction, transmission, and spread of communal diseases from foreign 0:10:19.400 --> 0:10:22.719 countries into the United States. Now this is now originally 0:10:22.800 --> 0:10:26.640 part of the Treasury Department Quarantine and Public Health Service 0:10:26.679 --> 0:10:30.360 or phs UM. The parent organization became part of the 0:10:30.440 --> 0:10:33.800 Federal Security Agency in nineteen thirty nine, and in nineteen 0:10:34.360 --> 0:10:36.960 PHS and Quarantine joined the Department of Health, Education, and 0:10:37.000 --> 0:10:40.160 Welfare UH and the quarantine was then transferred to the 0:10:40.200 --> 0:10:42.720 agency that we now know as the Centers for Disease 0:10:42.760 --> 0:10:46.679 Control and Prevention in sixty seven, and the VDC remained 0:10:46.720 --> 0:10:50.320 a part of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare 0:10:50.400 --> 0:10:53.880 until nineteen eighty, when the department was reorganized into the 0:10:53.920 --> 0:10:57.320 Department of Health and Human Services. And so today the 0:10:57.320 --> 0:11:01.559 Division of Global Migration and Wuarantine is part of CDC's 0:11:01.640 --> 0:11:06.079 National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases and it's 0:11:06.080 --> 0:11:08.719 headquartered right here in Atlanta. That's right. And just uh, 0:11:09.080 --> 0:11:12.240 you know, a reminder of zoonotic um is just referring 0:11:12.280 --> 0:11:16.480 to diseases that are transferred between animals and humans, Alright, 0:11:16.559 --> 0:11:20.480 So when can the government quarantine its own citizens. Well, 0:11:20.600 --> 0:11:24.599 here in the US, under forty two Code of Federal Regulations, 0:11:24.679 --> 0:11:29.080 Parts seventy and seventy one, the CDC is authorized to detain, 0:11:29.520 --> 0:11:32.719 medically examined and released persons arriving into the US and 0:11:32.760 --> 0:11:37.520 traveling between states who are suspected of carrying a communicable disease. 0:11:38.160 --> 0:11:41.440 And there's there's quite a list of these. Yeah. The 0:11:41.480 --> 0:11:47.080 list includes diphtheria, infectious tuberculosis, yellow fever, hemorrhagic fevers, stars, 0:11:47.280 --> 0:11:53.120 and any kind of new strain of influenza with pandemic potential. Yeah. 0:11:53.120 --> 0:11:56.760 And the last large scale isolation and quarantine was last 0:11:56.920 --> 0:12:01.600 enforced during the influenza pandemic in ninety eighteen, nineteen nineteen. 0:12:01.640 --> 0:12:04.800 That's also known as the Spanish Blue Yeah, and that 0:12:04.880 --> 0:12:09.000 really underscores again what we said about quarantining becoming more 0:12:09.040 --> 0:12:12.240 of an honor system situation here in the United States, 0:12:13.440 --> 0:12:19.160 because beyond that that situation, the only other account that 0:12:19.200 --> 0:12:22.240 we have is that the CDC issued an order in 0:12:22.559 --> 0:12:25.200 in nineteen sixty three to quarantine a single woman for 0:12:25.280 --> 0:12:29.200 smallpox exposure. So yeah, it's largely an artos system at 0:12:29.200 --> 0:12:32.600 this point. That the CDC is not running around pulling 0:12:33.600 --> 0:12:37.400 et shenanigans on anyone and wrapping houses and holding people 0:12:37.440 --> 0:12:40.000 against their will. No, And I think the last sort 0:12:40.040 --> 0:12:43.439 of kerfuffle about this happened in two thousand and seven 0:12:43.440 --> 0:12:48.720 when Andrew Speaker, Atlanta native, was placed under federal quarantine 0:12:49.920 --> 0:12:54.760 because officials learned that with tuberculosis. He had boarded two 0:12:54.960 --> 0:12:58.839 trans atlantic flights because he was he had a destination 0:12:58.880 --> 0:13:02.320 wedding and he knew he had tuberculosis. But well, you know, 0:13:02.360 --> 0:13:05.080 when you got a wedding, I forgot about this case. Yeah. Yeah, 0:13:05.120 --> 0:13:08.600 people were pretty upset about it. Um, so you know, 0:13:08.640 --> 0:13:12.480 and he apologized and he said he didn't realize what 0:13:12.559 --> 0:13:14.720 a bad idea that was. Well, you can get a 0:13:14.720 --> 0:13:19.520 card for that now the Hallmark, I'm sorry, I potentially exposed. Yeah, 0:13:19.559 --> 0:13:24.400 they're they're so funny too. I love those illustrations. Um. 0:13:24.400 --> 0:13:27.160 But yeah, you know, officials found out they detained him 0:13:27.200 --> 0:13:31.679 in Montreal. Um, Now, if you were to break a quarantine, 0:13:32.160 --> 0:13:34.200 if you were put under if he had from the 0:13:34.200 --> 0:13:36.800 get go, then put under quarantine and he broke it, 0:13:36.920 --> 0:13:40.440 that would be a criminal misdemeanor. And in two thousand 0:13:40.520 --> 0:13:43.079 and nine, a twenty seven year old man in Arizona 0:13:43.160 --> 0:13:47.880 diagnosed with the same thing touberculosis, was then quarantine and 0:13:47.960 --> 0:13:51.880 prison hospital ward for ten months because he knew he 0:13:51.960 --> 0:13:54.920 had it, he failed to take his medicine, and he 0:13:55.040 --> 0:13:58.839 endangered others by going out and entertaining friends without wearing 0:13:58.840 --> 0:14:02.840 a mask. So again, as you say, this is not 0:14:03.000 --> 0:14:05.000 like people are going to enter your house and a 0:14:05.000 --> 0:14:09.400 has matt suit. Largely it's self reporting. Now, these laws 0:14:09.440 --> 0:14:11.520 can vary from states to state, and they can be 0:14:11.520 --> 0:14:15.079 really specific or abroad. Um. In some states, local health 0:14:15.120 --> 0:14:19.000 authorities implements state law, and tribes also have police power 0:14:19.080 --> 0:14:22.320 authority to take actions that would promote the health and 0:14:22.360 --> 0:14:25.560 well being of fair community. So, yes, there's a federal 0:14:25.640 --> 0:14:27.800 level to it, but there is very much a state 0:14:27.880 --> 0:14:31.720 level to it. Again giving you this idea that probably 0:14:31.760 --> 0:14:33.520 the has matt suit people are not going to show 0:14:33.640 --> 0:14:37.880 up just because the government is going to lock everybody down. 0:14:38.440 --> 0:14:42.560 So what happens when medical professionals suit up, Well, we've 0:14:42.560 --> 0:14:46.520 had some insight into that lately with the Ebola outbreak 0:14:46.800 --> 0:14:51.400 and um, if you look at Dr William Fisher's interview 0:14:51.440 --> 0:14:54.680 with Time magazine, he shows what it's like suiting up 0:14:54.680 --> 0:14:59.600 in the field. He has helped and guinea, And what 0:14:59.720 --> 0:15:02.040 he's saying is that, again you want to minimize your 0:15:02.040 --> 0:15:06.440 exposure to blood, to vomit, to diarrhea, to any other fluids. 0:15:06.520 --> 0:15:11.160 So they are all required to wear personal protection equipment, 0:15:11.280 --> 0:15:14.320 which starts with a base layer of scrubs that you 0:15:14.400 --> 0:15:17.760 then put a big thick layer of boots on, and 0:15:17.760 --> 0:15:19.960 we're talking like the wash kind of boots that go 0:15:20.040 --> 0:15:23.880 up to your knees. Then they put on an impermeable 0:15:24.000 --> 0:15:27.760 tai BAC suit that is incredibly hot, right, because again 0:15:27.800 --> 0:15:30.960 this is trying to minimize that the any sort of 0:15:31.040 --> 0:15:35.280 air flow that might come in trapping your own stinky 0:15:35.440 --> 0:15:39.640 fetid smell, right, And then you have two pairs of gloves. 0:15:40.040 --> 0:15:43.400 Then you place the impermeable hood over your head, neck 0:15:43.440 --> 0:15:46.720 and shoulders, a respirator covering your nose and mouth, and 0:15:46.720 --> 0:15:50.440 finally goggles. Everything is sealed. There is no speck of 0:15:50.480 --> 0:15:56.080 skin that is visible. So it's basically a full body prophylactic. Yeah, 0:15:56.200 --> 0:15:58.320 and I've seen it flippantly referred to as a as 0:15:58.360 --> 0:16:00.280 a space suit as well, which isn't really like that 0:16:00.360 --> 0:16:03.080 bar off the mark. You're essentially throwing up as many 0:16:03.080 --> 0:16:06.360 barriers as possible between you and the pathogen. Yeah. Also 0:16:06.520 --> 0:16:08.600 I read I don't know if this was from the 0:16:08.640 --> 0:16:12.280 Ion nine article about all the the odd quarantine things, 0:16:12.360 --> 0:16:14.400 but read somewhere. No, it was actually in the Time 0:16:14.400 --> 0:16:18.920 magazine that uh, the astronauts from the moon landing the 0:16:18.960 --> 0:16:22.120 person that they when they came back, they were quarantined. 0:16:22.600 --> 0:16:25.360 And I guess that's sort of like, well, you never know. Well, yeah, 0:16:25.360 --> 0:16:29.520 I mean at the time, what else are you gonna do? Uh. 0:16:29.800 --> 0:16:32.320 One of the important things and will continue to bear 0:16:32.400 --> 0:16:35.240 this out to give in mind, is that the quarantine 0:16:35.600 --> 0:16:38.280 and uh and and has mat and just the effective 0:16:38.320 --> 0:16:43.080 handling of these situations. It's not it's not just about oh, 0:16:43.120 --> 0:16:45.160 here's the suit. It's not just about here is the 0:16:45.760 --> 0:16:48.760 room and here's what's in the room. It's about, Okay, 0:16:48.800 --> 0:16:51.040 who's who's cleaning the suits, how are the suits handled 0:16:51.080 --> 0:16:54.080 after they're used, how are they provided, who's uh, who's 0:16:54.200 --> 0:16:57.240 who's managing the people that are cleaning it, what's you know, 0:16:57.280 --> 0:17:00.480 the various training regimes that are involved in and how 0:17:00.520 --> 0:17:03.520 the the the equipment is handled, and just the overall 0:17:03.560 --> 0:17:07.439 sanitation and management of the whole process. And so there 0:17:07.440 --> 0:17:09.879 are a lot of moving parts there that have to 0:17:09.960 --> 0:17:13.520 be they have to be in working order for a 0:17:13.600 --> 0:17:17.120 proper quarantine situation to take place. Yeah, and we'll look 0:17:17.119 --> 0:17:18.640 at that a little bit closer here when we talk 0:17:18.640 --> 0:17:22.280 about transporting someone who has a deadly virus. But I 0:17:22.280 --> 0:17:25.440 wanted to mention that at airports, and particularly right now, 0:17:25.480 --> 0:17:29.879 this is very active. CDC operates quarantine stations across the 0:17:29.960 --> 0:17:34.000 US and the airports and um officers are trained to 0:17:34.040 --> 0:17:38.080 spot symptoms of a virus, in this case, ebola, and 0:17:38.200 --> 0:17:40.520 anyone who departs from a flight from an affected country 0:17:40.520 --> 0:17:43.840 and appears to have symptoms would be tested and if 0:17:43.840 --> 0:17:46.080 they test positive, they would be rushed to a hospital 0:17:46.160 --> 0:17:49.000 in quarantine. So there are officials who are trained in 0:17:49.000 --> 0:17:51.480 this and they're on the lookout for it. There are 0:17:52.000 --> 0:17:56.040 twenty US quarantine stations located at ports of entry and 0:17:56.160 --> 0:17:59.879 land border crossings where international travelers arrive, and they are 0:18:00.040 --> 0:18:04.080 staffed with quarantine, medical and public health officers from the CDC. 0:18:04.720 --> 0:18:06.879 And indeed, most notably to the news right now, we 0:18:06.920 --> 0:18:10.080 do have one in Atlanta, which we acquired when we 0:18:10.119 --> 0:18:12.800 had the Olympics here and probably a lot of you 0:18:12.920 --> 0:18:16.040 have seen the imagery and the news of the jet 0:18:16.480 --> 0:18:20.439 that the retrofitted jet that was used to transport to 0:18:21.119 --> 0:18:24.840 US citizens who were were over in West Africa and 0:18:24.880 --> 0:18:31.000 who contracted ebola. And this thing is amazing to me, Yeah, 0:18:31.040 --> 0:18:34.359 because you have it's almost like a container within a 0:18:34.440 --> 0:18:38.720 container within the airplane, and it's I feel like people 0:18:38.720 --> 0:18:41.720 were drawn to it as much because it's almost a 0:18:41.760 --> 0:18:45.520 comforting image because you see in this plane a lot 0:18:45.560 --> 0:18:49.359 of money thrown at a single individual to to keep 0:18:49.440 --> 0:18:51.720 to you know, in the name of treating their illness, 0:18:51.760 --> 0:18:54.879 but also in the name of preventing their illness from 0:18:54.920 --> 0:18:57.000 reaching anyone else. But it also ends up sort of 0:18:57.000 --> 0:18:59.640 playing into that pari paranoia because it's because you look 0:18:59.680 --> 0:19:03.199 at you look at the tremendous precautions that were taken 0:19:03.560 --> 0:19:06.439 to protect us from what's going on here. So can 0:19:06.480 --> 0:19:08.800 at times be you can almost oversell it a little 0:19:08.800 --> 0:19:12.639 bit um in terms of just a public perception of 0:19:12.680 --> 0:19:15.760 what's going on. It's like an eighteen million dollar ziplock job. 0:19:16.200 --> 0:19:18.920 Really if you look at it, the plane is large 0:19:19.000 --> 0:19:21.800 enough to accommodate a medical crew and it's outfitted with 0:19:21.840 --> 0:19:27.760 a modular aero medical biological containment system. So we're talking 0:19:27.800 --> 0:19:31.600 about this tent like plastic structure. Now, when we talk 0:19:31.640 --> 0:19:36.000 about the patients, um, you know, he or heart. There 0:19:36.080 --> 0:19:38.560 they are on the gurney and then they are tented 0:19:38.880 --> 0:19:42.959 and plastic and then they're put in another tent. And 0:19:43.040 --> 0:19:47.840 should there be any sort of um instance in which 0:19:48.200 --> 0:19:51.440 there's a hole in that plastic or anything that would 0:19:51.520 --> 0:19:55.000 cause a puncture in it, then what would happen is 0:19:55.040 --> 0:19:58.000 that the air would actually rush in from the inside 0:19:58.040 --> 0:20:00.720 as opposed the as opposed to the air from the 0:20:00.760 --> 0:20:04.719 inside of of that tent going out. And the reason 0:20:04.760 --> 0:20:08.960 for this is that they actually have negative pressure within 0:20:09.000 --> 0:20:12.080 the tent, so that that happens. Yeah, you just want 0:20:12.080 --> 0:20:14.480 to limit the airflows as much as possible, I mean, 0:20:14.480 --> 0:20:17.800 basically cut it off when it comes to breathing the 0:20:18.000 --> 0:20:20.920 sick individuals air. Because and remember that the next time 0:20:21.000 --> 0:20:24.400 you were on on a flight somewhere, you're essentially cramming 0:20:24.440 --> 0:20:27.080 into this small, confined space with everyone, and you have 0:20:27.119 --> 0:20:31.520 this agreement. Hey, everyone, we're going to all watch you know, 0:20:31.600 --> 0:20:34.399 the movie Quarantine on our individual screens, but we were 0:20:34.400 --> 0:20:37.440 going to breathe each other's air for the entire duration 0:20:37.480 --> 0:20:40.760 of this flight. Yeah, in this case, just imagine every 0:20:40.760 --> 0:20:45.480 single person individually tempted so that no pathogens could could 0:20:45.720 --> 0:20:50.040 cross into the cabin area. All right, So how effective 0:20:50.359 --> 0:20:54.480 is quarantining Well, in a large part it comes back 0:20:54.480 --> 0:20:56.199 to what I said earlier about there being a lot 0:20:56.240 --> 0:21:00.840 of moving parts. I mean, the quarantine is more than 0:21:00.880 --> 0:21:03.600 just the suit or the room. It's to what degree 0:21:03.640 --> 0:21:07.280 can you actually instigate a quarantine? Do you have the 0:21:07.320 --> 0:21:10.960 for instance, if you're going to use a quarantine um 0:21:11.600 --> 0:21:15.080 in another country, do you have the means to carry 0:21:15.119 --> 0:21:16.960 it out, you have the personnel to carry it out? 0:21:17.080 --> 0:21:18.879 And then do you have the trust of the individuals 0:21:18.960 --> 0:21:22.320 involved in it? Because if we've we've discussed quarantine is 0:21:22.359 --> 0:21:24.560 large to become an honor system situation here in the 0:21:24.640 --> 0:21:28.239 United States. But in cases where where an individual is 0:21:28.320 --> 0:21:32.440 not trusting of the quarantine situation, if they can break quarantine, well, 0:21:32.560 --> 0:21:34.800 than that throws a monkey wrench into the whole thing. Yeah, 0:21:34.800 --> 0:21:38.840 here's a couple of examples. One is from Dr Howard Markle, 0:21:38.920 --> 0:21:41.119 who is the director of the University of Michigan Medical 0:21:41.160 --> 0:21:43.840 Schools Center for the History of Medicine. He looked to 0:21:43.880 --> 0:21:47.560 the past to see how effective quarantining was, and specifically 0:21:47.600 --> 0:21:50.440 he looked at the Spanish flu pandemic in the US 0:21:50.520 --> 0:21:52.720 and nineteen eighteen, and you look at a bunch of cities, 0:21:52.960 --> 0:21:56.000 and he found that cities that early on adopted what 0:21:56.080 --> 0:22:01.520 he calls old fashioned non pharmaceutical interventions like school closures, 0:22:01.920 --> 0:22:06.159 social distancing in the community, and workplace in quarantine and 0:22:06.320 --> 0:22:09.880 layered multiple interventions at once for a long period of time, 0:22:09.960 --> 0:22:14.160 fared so much better than other cities who did not 0:22:14.960 --> 0:22:19.240 um embrace any of these sort of closures. Uh. And 0:22:19.400 --> 0:22:21.600 when they finally did, they did it slower rates and 0:22:21.680 --> 0:22:26.240 so they had higher infections. So it's not just about 0:22:26.359 --> 0:22:30.000 quarantining is but these other layers of distancing the person 0:22:30.200 --> 0:22:33.679 from the pathogen. Indeed, quarantine is just one tool in 0:22:33.760 --> 0:22:39.159 the overall toolbox of managing infectious diseases. Now, if you 0:22:39.200 --> 0:22:43.280 look at Syria Leone, which now has more cases of 0:22:43.320 --> 0:22:48.000 the Abola virus in any other country in the regions um, 0:22:48.040 --> 0:22:52.679 the quarantine isn't strictly enforced, and neighbors still continue to 0:22:52.680 --> 0:22:55.639 stop buy grooving families who have been affected by a 0:22:55.720 --> 0:22:59.679 Bola And we talked more about this in the in 0:22:59.760 --> 0:23:04.439 the podcast episode an Evil specifically, but as our listener 0:23:04.600 --> 0:23:07.400 Jessica pointed out in the listener email that we read 0:23:08.920 --> 0:23:13.760 the community bond is very important in Sierra Leon in 0:23:13.840 --> 0:23:16.199 a place like that, and so it's very hard to 0:23:16.280 --> 0:23:21.280 stop people from um getting together and grieving for one another, 0:23:22.040 --> 0:23:23.959 or you know, even shutting down that part of their 0:23:24.359 --> 0:23:27.600 lives that is so integral to day to day survival. 0:23:28.040 --> 0:23:30.399 And then you should think about how these developing nations 0:23:30.400 --> 0:23:34.280