On: Using a Tactic Unseen in a Century, Countries Cordon Off Ebola-Racked Areas

[kec]

Quarantines are not orthogonal to using or developing medicine.

Quarantine is also the only reliable way to prevent the spreading of a disease, and really the only way we have to deal with a disease like ebola which has no known cure. It sucks for the healthy ones in the quarantined zone, but allowing anyone to leave the zone while in the middle of an outbreak risks far more lives.

[ghshephard → kec]

"It sucks for the healthy ones in the quarantined zone,"

Note - we aren't talking about smallpox/typhus/flu - ebola is pretty hard to get. As long as you don't touch the body or its fluids, you aren't going to get ebola.