Right on Cue: Five Craziest Right-Wing Reactions to New York's First Ebola Case
New York had its first Ebola patient when a doctor returning from Guinea tested positive for the virus Thursday night. The case immediately provoked legitimate concerns from some about screening procedures and the public health response, and some people even expressed concern about doctor's well-being. But, of course others reacted in a completely over-the-top manner, many of them right-wingers looking to score cheap political points on it. Here are five of the craziest reactions:
Ummm, what's the connection?
“Before Obamacare, there had never been a confirmed case of Ebola in the U.S.,” tweeted Nick Muzin, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX)'s deputy chief of staff.
What's next, O-bowla?
“Bowling with ebola is a disastrous public health policy. Obama Administration slowness and inadequacy is endangering Americans,” tweeted former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich.
Trump, of course.
Donald Trump was quick to jump on the bandwagon, tweeting, “Ebola has been confirmed in N.Y.C., with officials frantically trying to find all of the people and things he had contact with.Obama's fault.”
Paranoid much?
Perennial presidential candidate Alan Keyes warned that President Obama had “plans for exploiting the Ebola crisis” by importing “Ebola-infected persons into the United States.”
Blame the courageous doctor.
Fox News's Megyn Kelly took out her ire on the patient himself, saying, “You’re well aware of the contagiousness of this disease. He comes back into New York City. He knows he’s been handling Ebola patients, and he’s here for a week? He doesn’t tell anybody and if he starts to feel symptomatic before his 103 fever, he’s still out there bowling and taxing taxis and not quarantining, not just self-quarantining?”
For it's part, Doctors Without Border, the main NGO coordinating medical relief in Ebola outbreak countries, issued the following statement in response to the hysteria. It reads in part: “As soon as he developed a fever, the...staff member was immediately isolated and referred to Bellevue Hospital. As long as a patient hasn’t developed symptoms, the risk of contagion is close to zero. Ebola is not an airborne virus like the flu. It is only transmitted through direct contact with bodily fluids, such as blood or vomit.”
Health officials in New York have also assured a jittery public that Dr. Craig Spencer poses little public health threat, since his subway travel and bowling outing both occurred before he developed symptoms.
Not that facts will get in the way of the haters.
