Trump IS an idiot, but let's talk

Yes, Donald Trump is the master of being an idiot, but we probably do need to talk about this and it would be a shame to let the messenger overshadow the message.

His tweet (I hate the word):

"The U.S. cannot allow EBOLA infected people back. People that go to far away places to help out are great-but must suffer the consequences!"

Clearly rings of the usual Trump lack of empathy, but shouldn't we consider the risk we are taking when we allow empathy and emotion to convince us to drop our guard against such a plague?  There is a risk assessment to be made here, whether it is made by those who take the risk of going into areas where such pathogens exist for humanitarian reasons or the risk our government takes for us when it allows brings those infected into our borders.

So we end up with quotes like this:

""I hope that our understandable fear of the unfamiliar does not trump our compassion when ill Americans return to the U.S. for care," said Dr. Tom Frieden, according to The Associated Press."
 

Let's be honest - the assured self-confidence of our government agencies has more than once lead to problems and there is some history of the control of such pathogens being less than stellar.

The fact the heartless Donald Trump is the messenger here only serves to make it difficult for us to ponder this question; he is such an asshole about most things that valid questions get lost because of the shit he usually talks.

It will be interesting to see how the emotion shifts if we should go from compassion for those who sacrificed to help others, to ebola is on your doorstep.