It was a charlie foxtrot tango at this hospital including the CDC. (and it could have been any hospital) But just because they screwed this up doesn't mean the US can't handle Ebola and prevent wide spread outbreaks.
The US does have the facilities and professionals to handle something like Ebola...easily, but no one was willing to spend the time or money on something that was considered romote. See everything that happened AFTER 9-11.
CDC didn't want to "take over" or tell them what to do at the hospital and should have. The whole government taking over...local/state rights.....blah, blah, blah.... held them back.
Hosptial admin passed along info, but didn't require training in it or set protocols/procedures for their workflow. They didn't have a "go to" person to make the decisions in the absence of a protocol. Didn't cough up funds for the high end PPE they needed. (why should we stock this? do we have a need for it? We might? well, then, we will get it when we need it. --been there, done this SO many times)
Healthcare workers didn't push partly because so many other fights and many (most) general healthcare workers wouldn't know exactly what type of PPE they'd need. And in my experience you are wrong about physicians telling adminstrators to GTFO... for equipment, staff, supplies, etc... not going to happen. Good way to lose privlileges at the hospital and that'll make being employeed as a physician VERY hard.
Physicians don't hold the purse strings. They are employees. Nothing happens financially without admin types approval.
At the bedside, life or death situation, spur of the moment thing, yes, a physician/nurse will buck the system, but being prepared for an Ebola patient wasn't that kind of a situation. And ultimately they did buck the system.... that's why we have infected nurses. The crap protocol in place broke down.....nurses said f*** this and jumped in to take care of the patient.
