From: archer@utkvm1.utk.edu (T. Archer)
Subject: Re: infectious decease (Re: = Opportunity etc.)
Organization: University of Tennessee 
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 21:21:12 GMT

In article <shashi.726848263@aix3090b.uky.edu> shashi@aix3090b.uky.edu (Shashi Sathaye) writes:
>me>>Vow, do you mean if I get cold, I should just 'remove' myself? 

>ARCHER>Yes

>me>>What does remove mean? 

>ARCHER>Call in sick.  Don't go to the movies.  Stay away from other people.  Don't 
>ARCHER>be an infection vector.
>As a short term solution this is sensible. In case of many diseases however, 
>it is not quite known when the germs are spread around.

>me>>What do I live on when I have removed myself? 

>ARCHER>Your savings or your insurance.
>Assuming I have it.
That is correct.  What do you suggest as an alternative.

>me>>Should I just wither
>me>>and die?

>ARCHER>What alternative do you suggest?
>I can learn to live without 'infecting' other people. Diseases do not
>get spread by just being around people with diseases. 

That depends on the specific bacillus or virus.  Tuburculosis can be spread 
by casual contact.  Rabies can be spread by saliva.  Measles is 
transmitted by an airbourne virus and CAN be caught by just being 
around people with diesases.  Sometimes learning to live without infecting 
other people means non engaging in sex.  Sometimes it means quarentine.

>Read books written 
>around 1910 describing Bubonic plague that went around in Cities for 2 years.
>What controlled the disease was not the 'militant solutions' - like burn 
>everything that the person has touched, but tremendous efforts of those who
>worked to find the `cause' of the disease - and eventually a cure and people
>who helped to kill the infected rats - in spite of the danger involved.

Read books written in the 1500's.  There was a successful plague solution 
proposed. Go a league out of town.  Burn EVERYTHING within a league of that 
1 league circle, placing the town in a circle of ash.  Slay anyone who 
attempts to enter the town and burn the bodies where they fall.  If someone 
gets sick, slay them, thier families, and burn thier house down around 
them.  It worked.  It was applied a total of twice during the plague 
outbreaks in the middle ages.  It seems that people were too nice even then  
to apply such a draconian policy most of the time.  But it worked.  To claim 
that it cannot is fallacy.  Successful defeat of such a policy lies in 
attacking it on moral grounds and finding a practical alternative.

>me>>What if I was diagnosed wrong?

>ARCHER>Then you probably will die.  Incorrect diagnosis is going to exist under any 
>ARCHER>system.
>But then I actually would have been murdered by heartless people like you.

I am not heartless.  I am perfectly willing to help anyone that I can.  I am 
not willing to be coerced into helping people that I may or may not want 
to.  It's not charity if you use someone else's money.

>If I was allowed to go around and get more medical advice, I have a better 
>chance to live and know that my disease is non-infectious after all.

You also have a better chance to place others at risk.  If you are 
demonstrably a disease vector, you do not have the right to place the 
general public at risk.

>Your whole attitude about contagious decease can not be applied practically.

Certainly it can.

>It just has too many holes. If I am supposed to remove myself when I have
>'cold' even, who will be able to check me? Are doctors and other people in
>medical profession above being infected? 

That is the risk they choose to take when they enter the medical 
profession.  You co-workers at the office and fellow movie goers do not have 
that choice.  

>If I want to live on my insurance, how do I get medicine - if there is any -
>to cure my disease? The people in the drug store will be infected by me.

Most drug stores deliver to people who are quarentined.

> If 
>I make someone in my house come near me, they will get it, so should I leave
>home?

That depends.  What is more important to you, staying at home, or keeping 
the people around you healthy?

>Send me e-mail next time you get a flue. I will send you flowers, but then
>you have to manage to get them without infecting a single soul.

Send them to the house and have the delivery person leave them on the front 
porch.  I'll pick them up after he has gone.

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