>>>When I heard that an MD who had been in contact with Ebola patients was loose in NYC, like millions of others, I said "WHAT???"
>
>Me too. "Tried" to self-isolate? By crossing town on public transport? Either physicians are dumber these days or there's a missing sub-context.
>
>>>Both Christie and Cuomo have backgrounds that have honed their instincts as political leaders and in my judgment they followed them wisely in this case.
>
>Agreed. Politically and expediently, it's easy to present as the needs of the many outweighing the needs of the few. Especially if you aren't likely to be amongst the few.

Update: Christie order the nurse to be released today.

Here's a good analysis of panics like the current Ebola scare posted by one of my favorite commentators today:
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2014/10/munchausen-by-proxy-and-the-media.html

We've had a lot more harmful examples here of the "WHAT???" phenomenon at work here in the US.
Probably the most egregious was the internment of US citizens of Japanese descent during WWII.