Jimenez Grugbaye, the cabby who transported Duncan and his landlords and their desperately ill pregnant daughter, has reported that they denied in response to direct questions that she had Ebola. They insisted her condition was strictly related to pregnancy complications. The cabby said "I decided to ask him to intervene a bit as to regarding this sickness, what type of sickness it really was, and she told me and reassured me it was not the Ebola thing, it was like abortion."
It seems quite likely they told Duncan the same story. After all, their daughter was dying, and they needed to enlist muscle to seek help for her.
You can make the argument that Duncan should have known she had Ebola. After all, the cabby also reported that, after earning his fare and reflecting upon what he had seen, he was sufficiently alarmed that he fumigated his cab twice and visited a clinic to be checked.
However, the fact remains that Duncan did not object when, after his first ER visit in Dallas, he was sent on his way with a worse than useless antibiotic prescription. That argues that he didn't know how much trouble he was in. Or he was in a state of serious denial (Hey — I helped my landlord's daughter. She was a horrible mess, but it wasn't Ebola. And I was OK at the airport, and the Dallas docs didn't think my illness was a big deal even after I told them I was from West Africa. Whew! So far, so good!).
He'd procured his ticket and visa well in advance of his Ebola exposure. I think his plan was to convert his tourist visa into permanent US residency either by marrying his GF or simply overstaying his visa. Then Ebola hit him from left field.
I remember the cab driver saying that he didn’t touch the pregnant girl but everyone else did trying to help her into the car and out again. They all died...and now Duncan too.
Bottom Line with an Ebola epidemic raging, in West Africa, America should not be subjected to even being exposed to the virus... All people from the Ebola HotSpot countries should been banned long ago from entering the USA... No VISAS issued period.. We cannot leave the safety of Americans left to the confused or intentional decisions of individual citizens of the Ebola stricken West African countries. It is insanity to not have invoked a NO VISA policy months and months ago.. We should not have to discussing whether what ever it was in Duncan’s head - it does not matter - what matters if we the USA - the U.S. Government has a WRONG - harmful and DEADLY policy and it should be reversed...
A very logical summation.
It looks to me like he acted admirably in trying to help a sick young woman. He probably didn’t know, at the time, that she had Ebola. There are still less that 10k cases in 10 months in three countries.
But obviously it’s on everybody’s minds there, and I’m sure a lot of people run fast in the other direction whenever somebody comes down sick. That he tried to help at what he had to have known was some considerable risk to himself was admirable.
She then died before he left the country, and it is obvious he must have heard of what, and known at that point he had been exposed. So from then on his behavior was a good deal less admirable.
I think nobody has yet really internalized that in the modern globalized world, it is quite simply impossible to stop the spread of a disease like this at national or continental borders. So in psychological self defense we project our anxieties and fears onto the individuals who actually act as the disease vectors, making them morally responsible for the spread of the disease.
The new attempts to “stop the spread” of Ebola by taking temperatures at entry airports is a classic example of security theater. It would not have stopped Duncan from entering, but we all pretend it will somehow prevent future cases from coming in
As for the denial, that’s exactly what anyone would do ASSUMING the man even knew the pregnant woman died from Ebola before he left Liberia.
Imagine the sense of relief anyone would have every step of the way, first when he had no symptoms, then when he was cleared at the airport, then when even an American hospital sent him home:
That argues that he didn't know how much trouble he was in. Or he was in a state of serious denial (Hey — I helped my landlord's daughter. She was a horrible mess, but it wasn't Ebola. And I was OK at the airport, and the Dallas docs didn't think my illness was a big deal even after I told them I was from West Africa. Whew! So far, so good!).
That very scenario could be playing out on every single flight from affected countries, with those other passengers being just truly lucky.
By permitting people to enter this country from affected countries (not to mention illegally across the border), our government is forcing us all to play Russian roulette with Ebola and other diseases.
It's not the fault of the people coming here LEGALLY. We really don't even know whether he lied on a form. If he did, then how many other passengers are lying on that form?
Right now, we could be reading a very sad story about a man who never made it to the United States to see his son because Ebola killed him in Liberia. There wouldn't be a story of a man who brought the illness to Dallas if the U.S. government didn't have a policy permitting travel from countries that are being ravaged by the disease.