This is Progress?

In the days of sail, a ship would enter a foreign port and be held offshore at anchor until they were visited and inspected by a public health officer, who certified as to whether or not any members of the ship’s company were carrying any dangerous communicable disease.

If any such disease was found, a yellow flag was hoisted to the masthead, and the ship was put into “quarantine,” meaning that no one could go ashore until the disease was eradicated from the ship,

Today we have a cruise ship, some of whose passengers are suffering from a highly contagious and deadly disease. News media are carrying this story and terrifying people world wide. And for some reason, the World Health Organization does not plan to quarantine that ship. They are bringing it into port and will distribute all of its passengers, with their possible infectious status, to their home countries.

WTF? Do they want to spread this disease throughout the world? Are they unaware of the meaning of “quarantine?” Do they know that we once had a policy, hundreds of years ago, which very effectively prevented the spread of deadly and costly diseases?

Apparently not.