The CDC and the other masters of "da rules" are busy deflecting blame and seeking to quell reasonable fears by blaming the nurse who has now contracted ebola with breaking those rules and inviting infection upon herself.

It would be funny if it was not tragic. While health authorities are still running in circles and spewing authoritative nonsense concerning how this crap is spread, while not sure of anything, they simultaneously claim to know how its not spread, and how to avoid contracting the disease. Meantime, they pooh-pooh the one way that virtually insures that there will be no spread here. Shut the border like its the Korean DMZ. Control "legal" international flight like El Al airlines does. Stop the b.s.

Issuing a set of protocols from some office in D.C. or Atlanta, or wherever is stupid, at best, and disingenuous at worst. Conditions on the ground can make following even the best advice impossible.

I'm not sure if its still the case, though I strongly suspect that it is, there were protocols for dealing with MRSA in nursing homes twenty years ago, which were impossible to follow in real life. One which sticks in my mind is that when a patient was isolated with MRSA (at that time, and I believe now, also considered a non-airborne illness; more BS. There were many cases of MRSA found in the nose and to suggest that everyone was sticking things up their nose is farfetched; I'm pretty sure not everyone picks their nose in a hospital/nursing environment), anyone coming in contact needed to be wearing at least rudimentary protective garb in the room. However, they were prohibited from wearing that garb, after contact, anywhere outside of the room. Many CNAs to whom I spoke personally, spoke to the impossibility of this. They told me about, literally, trying to balance, at the threshold in the doorway, with the closing door leaning on them, on one foot to remove the shoe protection. Why? Because few (if any) of the rooms in a nursing home (or in a hospital, for that matter) have the small room, with doors on each side, that would allow them to avoid breaching the "absolutely yes" inside, "absolutely no" outside protocol for protective gear. Frankly, no way to avoid a breach. But I'll bet dollars to donuts that the bureaucrats who devised the protocol never gave one thought to this dilemma. For them, that was OK. Blame the CNA and, coincidentally, deflect at least some of the investigation that should have taken place as to why MRSA can run rampant.

By the way, what sort of protocol has the Liberian family (who we know had physical contact with the foreign visitor) sitting out the waiting period in one apartment, and not isolated from each other? Is it some weird new triage: if one is infected, may as well say good-bye to the whole group - if one goes, they all go?

If, and its a big if, the horses are not all out of the barn by now, its time for the one protocol that might just work. Slam shut the borders.

But what do I know?