Quarantine?

[Juliana]

I have a question about a minor plot point; at the end of my wip, my teen lovers are up against a 200-year-old half-demon, and then the police arrive and kill him. He looks human, but when my demons die, their bones literally crumble away to dust. So the police are puzzled, and (as it's set in present-day USA) they bring in the CDC to rope off the place and examine it for bio threats.

Now, originally I had my teens returning home after the whole thing, but I'm going to have to quarantine them, aren't I?

Does a 24hr stint in hospital sound like enough for veracity?

 

[Kerrybuchanan]

I think it would have to be a lot longer than 24 hours, more like weeks or months. Can you think of a plot twist that breaks them out of quarantine early?

 

[ratsy]

I think I would buy in if they were quarantined for 24 hours if the CDC established there was no viable threat. That's as an uninformed reader on the subject matter

 

[Juliana]

Hmm, maybe I'll have to find a way past the police seeing what happens to his body. I may have to add a river to the setting... Body washed away might work.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I think quarantine lasts a lot longer than 24 yours. For me as a reader, it would have to be 48 hours at the least to be credible.

 

[The Judge]

For a biological threat, I'd expect a lot more than 24 hours with present day medical knowledge -- the armed forces coming back from helping with the Ebola horror are effectively quarantined for 2 or 3 weeks, I think, and that's with something where they know what the disease is and how it presents. If they're really worried about an unknown disease they'd be keeping them much longer I'd have thought. At which point civil liberties groups might start getting interested, of course.

But I wonder if bio-containment is one of the least of the issues if the demon is seen to crumble like that. Won't demon-hunters, official or otherwise, be on the scene pretty soon, wanting to get hold of your characters?

I think your idea of having the body washed away is probably the best way to go to avoid any problems.

 

[SciFrac]

I think your idea of having the body washed away is probably the best way to go to avoid any problems.

I agree, the body washing away makes it even more mysterious. unless you need some answers to set up a second book? But in my opinion, you might have a bigger issue...

the police arrive and kill him

This makes your characters passive. I think most readers would enjoy a more active role from a main character, but in this version they leave center stage and give it to the police. Just something to think about.

 

[Juliana]

I may try the river thing instead. See how that works out.

SciFrac, don't worry, it's not as passive as it sounds. There's a lot of other stuff going on, and the police are there because my demon has been set up by another demon who wants to take his place. A pack politics thing... It's not completely out of the blue.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

When I was a child, I seem to remember there was a bad flu epidemic and houses where someone was sick with it were quarantined for three weeks. But I may be thinking of something else.

So I think avoiding quarantining your characters is the best way to go.

Unless you want to pick up the rest of your story like:

CHAPTER TEN
Three Weeks Later​

 

[SciFrac]

SciFrac, don't worry, it's not as passive as it sounds. There's a lot of other stuff going on,

All righty then. You're the curator of your story. Carry on.

 

[Juliana]

So I think avoiding quarantining your characters is the best way to go.

Unless you want to pick up the rest of your story like:

CHAPTER TEN
Three Weeks Later​

That would really mess things up!

All right then, river it is. Thank you so much to everyone. Now for some (luckily minor) tweaking. *cracks knuckles*

 

[ratsy]

Okay, now that it's settled, let's see if we can keep this thread going till 2017

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

The length of quarantine depends on the agent suspected. As there is no biological agent I know of that could do that (by the way is it just the bones that crumble or does the whole demon do it?) they would be looking at a chemical agent.

My guess is that the first step would be for your teens to be disinfected - that means a lot of cold showers and scrubbing with certain chemicals, then a quarantine while certain tests are performed. That battery of tests would cover most of the known toxic agents, and would probably be done within twenty four hours - there are some analyses that take longer. Testing for biological agents - bacteria and viruses etc, takes longer.) Obviously given your scenario, nothing would be found.

As chemicals can't be passed person to person - ie they don't spread like diseases, the chances are that they would then be sent home with advice to see the doctors if they develop any symptoms. They might also be asked to return for check ups for a time.

Cheers, Greg.

 

[Juliana]

Thanks Greg!

I've decided to rewrite the scene, though. It's only supposed to be a short scene, and the whole CDC thing was over-complicating things.

 

[tinkerdan]

In many cases the Quarantine might be implemented in the persons home with everyone in that home being subject to it depending on known factors. There was a recent incident with an ebola quarantine victim who was wandering around their neighborhood causing the neighbors concern so in some cases there might be room for fudging.