Last night, as I’m multi tasking between the Broncos/Chargers game and checking on news around the world, I see a Breaking News Item. Yes, it is indeed true. There is a doctor in a New York hospital who tested positive for Ebola. As we now know, he has been identified as Dr. Craig Spencer.

Here’s the deal. Dr. Spencer works with Doctors without Borders. Because of the work that organization does, which includes travel to very poor and unhealthy countries, he is not unaware of the dangers that any medical professional faces. I’m sure, given the Doctors without Borders reputation, that Dr. Spencer was very aware of the gravity of Ebola. Doctors without Borders certainly should’ve been, but they’d rather issue a press release that does its best to distance itself from one of their doctors.  You see, he’s not a doc… he’s a field worker.  NICE

Dr. Spencer, you went to Guinea in September of this year. For those who night not know, Guinea is a country battling a massive outbreak of Ebola. It is so bad, that over 900 people who have died from Ebola in that country.  Let me say that again, you went with the Doctors without Borders team to Guinea in September of THIS year. You work for a few weeks in that disease stricken country, and then travel back to the United States on October 14.

Dr. Spencer, unless you were hiding under a rock, you were most certainly aware of the Ebola patients that the United States has seen these last few months; Dr. Ken Brantly, Thomas Eric Duncan, who lied to customs and to Texas Health Presbyterian, putting numerous people at risk, and Nina Pham, one of the nurses who cared for Duncan.

It is bad enough that the CDC has yet to figure out what protocols are needed for the hospitals. They keep changing, which leaves health care professionals around this country in the dark should a patient present with Ebola. Moreover, we have the our men and women of the 101st Airborne plus others with the National Guard and Reserves deployed TO those Ebola stricken countries…without all the necessary medical equipment they need to protect themselves and others.

Dr. Spencer, I’m going to ask you something.  You KNEW that Ebola is a huge problem and that it had traveled to the United States. Can you please explain your travels around Belgium before you arrived back in the United States? Can you PLEASE explain why you used Uber to jaunt around the city? Dr. Spencer, you knew that there is growing uncertainty regarding the few or many ways this disease transmits. And yet you took the subway?! Dr. Spencer, you knew that your body was starting to react and that it was likely serious, and you went bowling?? In fact, as a medical professional, whether you want to admit it or not, you absolutely knew when your body temp is above normal. And yet you STILL went out in public rather than checking yourself into the hospital.

Folks, Dr. Craig Spencer is a medical professional who has worked in ER’s and worked with Doctors without Borders for quite some time. He is a medical professional who likely has more than a rudimentary training in infectious diseases and emergency room protocols. So the ultimate question is this. Why would he place family, friends, and innocent bystanders at risk until he was absolutely sure he is free from the disease? Because, you see, he didn’t, and wasn’t. And now the health care authorities for the city of New York, for the State of New York, the CDC and many others are fanning out across the city to somehow try to find everyone that Dr. Craig Spencer came in contact with.

As Chelsea Carter of CNN reports:

“The physician is a dedicated humanitarian on the staff of New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center who went to an area of medical crisis to help a desperately underserved population,” the hospital said in a statement, without directly identifying Spencer.
“He is a committed and responsible physician who always puts his patients first. He has not been to work at our hospital and has not seen any patients at our hospital since his return from overseas. Our thoughts are with him, and we wish him all the best at this time.”

By the way,  this “dedicated” doctor has a fiancee, named Morgan Dixon.  Due to her exposure, she is now under quarantine.

AND, two of the good doctor’s friends are under quarantine as well.

According to CDC Director Tom Frieden:

“When someone gets Ebola, they are not very infectious initially, but they become increasingly infectious the sicker they get,” said CDC Director Tom Frieden.

Frieden added: “Ebola is a scary disease, and it’s fearsome because of how severe the illness is, but it does not spread easily.”

You know what??  There is a small voice inside me that really really hopes that for once the CDC director is right.  But then again, when we have medical professionals acting recklessly after being exposed to this disease in Guinea, leading to a  fiancee and close friends being quarantined, that voice quits talking.  This writer most certainly hopes for the best for Dr. Craig Spencer, and specifically for his fiancee and all those he came in contact with. Yet, at the same time, this writer is TICKED OFF that this “dedicated humanitarian”, who landed himself in the hospital via emergency transport with a fever of 103 has put so many at risk. And for what?  To be back in New York so you can go for a measly 3-mile run?  Dr. Spencer, Ebola is a VERY serious disease.  The United States is spending military, healthcare, and security capital to try to deal with it, and you know what? You should’ve known better.