21 Days: Would you volunteer?

[TroyF]

If there was a .00000005% chance I could infect somebody with a disease that kills at a 60% clip that I potentially might have? If there was a chance that getting someone else sick could also cause a national panic?


How about 25 million times YES. For the record, I rarely drink and if I do, it's at home. I don't drive with even a drop of alcohol in me. I take great precautions if I'm sick with a cold, much less something more serious. Even though I have a nighmarish commute now, I do not drive tired. I'll sit in a parking lot for an hour before I'll put the life of someone else at risk.

So, I get paid, get access to everything I need for 21 days and make it go from a 99.9999999999% certainty to a 100% certainty that I don't make anyone else sick.

Sign me up.

[larrymcg421]

Originally Posted by TroyF

If there was a .00000005% chance I could infect somebody with a disease that kills at a 60% clip that I potentially might have?

Then I recommend quarantining yourself indefinitely.

[Logan]

Originally Posted by larrymcg421

What would prevent me from infecting my family is that if I developed a fever, I would go to the hospital instead of staying home and puking on them.

As PM said about it being so easy to say you'd lock yourself away for 21 days until the situation presented itself, I refuse to believe if you were standing in a room with a confirmed ebola patient and that dude sneezed in the open, that you would just turn around and lock yourself in your house and go about your life as normal, hugging and kissing your wife and kids.

Bullfuckingshit. It's okay to act somewhat irrationally sometimes.

[molson]

Originally Posted by TroyF

If there was a .00000005% chance I could infect somebody with a disease that kills at a 60% clip that I potentially might have?

If that's the standard for tolerable risk of harm to others we need to revisit or criminal sentencing laws. I suppose there's some slight risk that you'll go crazy and harm someone else (better than .00000005%, I'd bet), but there are many, many other people walking our streets who pose a much higher risk of either molesting or raping or murdering.

[larrymcg421]

Originally Posted by Logan

As PM said about it being so easy to say you'd lock yourself away for 21 days until the situation presented itself, I refuse to believe if you were standing in a room with a confirmed ebola patient and that dude sneezed in the open, that you would just turn around and lock yourself in your house and go about your life as normal, hugging and kissing your wife and kids.

Bullfuckingshit. It's okay to act somewhat irrationally sometimes.

There's a pretty big difference between a confirmed ebola patient and someone who has been to West Africa.

[Logan]

Originally Posted by larrymcg421

There's a pretty big difference between a confirmed ebola patient and someone who has been to West Africa.

But you said you wouldn't move until you showed symptoms, no?

[TroyF]

Originally Posted by larrymcg421

Then I recommend quarantining yourself indefinitely.

Pray tell Larry, what other diseases or viruses do I carry or could contract in my work that have a 60% mortality rate? (I've stated I am careful with even a cold, much less the flu.)

[BishopMVP]

I'm still not sure exactly why I'm volunteering unless there's financial compensation involved, but if it was an added condition for doing a dangerous job I would do it. Reminds me of how Astronauts have to spend time in quarantine when they come back. This nurse is being needlessly antagonistic.

Now, the girl in CT who went to a family wedding in Nigeria and was banned from attending school I disagree with. That one is fear mongering IMO.

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

My only issue would be foregoing exercise - but if I thought I was possibly contagious I'm sure I could make the sacrifice and just do some exercise videos on the tv and stuff.

This would kill it for me too. Yeah I could do endless pushups and situps, but that would get old after a bit. I need some exercise variety and would have to get outside at some point. I would go nuts.

[ColtCrazy]

I would have zero problem with this. I'm an only child that's quite used to being alone for extended periods of time. 21 days wouldn't bother me at all, especially with access to TV, internet, and movies.

[Klinglerware]

Originally Posted by TroyF

So, I get paid, get access to everything I need for 21 days and make it go from a 99.9999999999% certainty to a 100% certainty that I don't make anyone else sick.

Sign me up.

But looking into this, it looks like quarantined individuals aren't "getting paid" for the most part. If you are a NY resident, there is some vague notion of "financial compensation", if you are not, then so far the policy is "sorry charlie".

This article seemed like a good discussion of the unintended consequences:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/v...r-quarantines/

A quarantine might be a good idea, but only if you have full compliance. If a quarantine will mean a loss of income, you will see greater motivation to avoid it (similar to the implied argument in the article that the low levels jury duty "pay" is a rather weak incentive for compliance). All it takes is a few highly motivated avoiders to undo any benefit from a mandated quarantine.

If you are serious about doing a quarantine "the right way", you can't do this on the cheap. You better pay up, and pay well.

[PilotMan]

No alcohol, because this should mirror the concept of a quarantine in some fashion except that it's not official and the conditions are much better. Alcohol wouldn't be allowed for sure in a true quarantine. So in this situation it can't. Sorry Lathum. Besides after a 21 day binge you might need another 60 to detox, lol.

[PilotMan]

Oh and I'll add that only about 50% of hotels will actually work to set up your gaming systems. Most all rooms now have flat screens with HDMI inputs but the hotels lock the features of the television so you can only do what they allow. There are some ways around this but they don't always work.

No guarantee that it would work in this situation.

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by BishopMVP

I'm still not sure exactly why I'm volunteering unless there's financial compensation involved

For the good of mankind. By doing this you are showing you are a truly altruistic individual. No compensation.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Klinglerware

If you are serious about doing a quarantine "the right way", you can't do this on the cheap. You better pay up, and pay well.

Or (in the case of an actual quarantine) you better mean it when you say it & be willing to enforce it by whatever means necessary.

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by Edward64

So do you think your wife is unreasonable? I don't think so, I think its prudent.

I think we are all more conservative with our kids than we would be for ourselves. I don't think it's a stretch that we also expect to be in this situation.

I would be appalled if I learned that my kids had tried jumping their car over raised railroad tracks with passengers in the car and no seatbelts. Shocked and appalled. I did it and survived but that doesn't mean that I want my kids to do it.

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by nol

The fact that this isn't an overwhelming "yes" among sports text sim players (aka people who are certainly at the high end of the spectrum in terms of tolerance for solitude and quiet) shows how unreasonable an expectation this is for people who present no immediate threat to public health.

The no alcohol thing has me leaning no for volunteering, but I suppose I could suck it up for 3 weeks if absolutely necessary or if extra financial compensation were involved.

I was out with the Mrs. all day today, and I was contemplating this very fact throughout the day. This particular demographic IS more prone to quiet, solitary behavior, I am no exception. Only child + single working mom = many many hours of time alone to play Strat O Matic as a kid. I think you hit the nail on the head and I think that to expect someone to just be willing to self quarantine because they should want to is a wholly unrealistic expectation.

[BishopMVP]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

For the good of mankind. By doing this you are showing you are a truly altruistic individual. No compensation.

But I can only assume you're somehow tying this in to the Ebola stuff, in which case I don't understand the weird limitations. If that Maine nurse wanted a flatscreen, an xBox, the ability to order delivery food, and alcohol to get drunk for all 21 days, I don't think anyone would've objected.

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by Lathum

I'm still looking for an answer as to why no alcohol.

How many 2.5 star hotels have a minibar you can raid?

You can't leave, so good luck getting your own, and presumably volunteering for quarantine doesn't include someone willing to bring you booze.

[Izulde]

I would volunteer in a second. No work obligations, no need to prepare food or do laundry or any of that stuff, no other people distractions... I could get a lot of things done.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by SackAttack

How many 2.5 star hotels have a minibar you can raid?

You can't leave, so good luck getting your own, and presumably volunteering for quarantine doesn't include someone willing to bring you booze.

I would bring my own at the start. Smuggle it in cruise ship style.

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by BishopMVP

But I can only assume you're somehow tying this in to the Ebola stuff, in which case I don't understand the weird limitations. If that Maine nurse wanted a flatscreen, an xBox, the ability to order delivery food, and alcohol to get drunk for all 21 days, I don't think anyone would've objected.

I do, if she is being monitored for fever and sickness drinking alcohol could certainly complicate it. It's not so much would you go to W Africa and then go home and be willing to sit for 21 days, but would you be willing to do it in a place that wasn't your home but wasn't awful either.

I think we can agree that all the stipulations aren't awful, would not be considered substandard either. Each state is different. If you were forced to be quarantined in a tent in Jersey, or in a makeshift hospital room in Texas, the chances are that many times the location might be worse off than the situation I'm posing here.

I just shake my head when I hear some of the comments about the nurse in Maine. A petition signed by 3000 people to have her nursing license revoked? Calling her selfish among many more awful things because she supposedly should just lock herself away. The speed at which many are willing to force others to abandon their rights is numbing. From a Social Psychology standpoint it's very similar to the mindset that Hitler used to lock up the Jews or the US used to lock up the Japanese. It's all about awareness and the search for the right answers instead of making choices that we'll look back on a realize we were wrong.

[OldGiants]

Huh. I thought this about jury duty on a murder case.

[Logan]

Originally Posted by OldGiants

Huh. I thought this about jury duty on a murder case.

I'm only a yes if I can sneakily promote the hotel to Court TV cameras and then get the hook-up with the big suite.

[Julio Riddols]

I couldn't order delivery? If I could order delivery this would be an absolute breeze. Otherwise I have no idea what mid range hotel food consists of since at the hotel I work at (probably not mid range) that means a continental breakfast. Essentially bread and bread-ish stuff. Also, assuming I could bring some things with me for quarantine, I would bring my laptop and tablet and a pair of dumbbells.

[Desnudo]

Originally Posted by flere-imsaho

I've got two kids under the age of 6.

Spending 21 days alone in a hotel room sounds like heaven right about now.

==========

Seriously, though, if this is in relation to the Ebola thing, yes, I'd have no problem doing it. When my second son was an infant I got a pretty bad respiratory infection and seriously considered staying in a hotel for a couple of nights until it passed over.

If you offered that to me I'd take it Ebola or no. Download civ and stock up a bar. 21 days go by like 7.