Nurse Kaci Hickox may have been a hero when she was risking her life treating Ebola patients, but she shows disrespect for Americans when she roams among us at risk of becoming, at any moment, a “Typhoid Mary.”

We can only hope that she is not infected and will not become sick, both for her sake but also for ours.

The problem is not so much that she might spread the disease, but should she become sick, then as with all the other cases, fear will spread and precious resources will be expended tracking down those with whom she has come in contact. Businesses and schools may be closed down, multiple places (not just her home) will be cleansed, and her boyfriend will be subjected to quarantine — heaven forbid that he refuse, as she has done.

She may have been a hero, but in my book she has become a goat for portraying such poor citizenship, just as Dr. Spencer did. These people should not only set a good example, but they — of all people in America — know first hand what happens to people who contract Ebola. And they are willing to risk infecting others for their own personal comfort and convenience — both of which they were willing to give up for strangers in a foreign land.

The chances of spread may be low per encounter, but add up all the other irresponsible returning doctors (I hope it is limited to only those two, but the history of those previously under voluntary home quarantine shows otherwise) and all of their contacts, and we are likely to end up with more infected Americans, each of whom has a lot of contacts to increase the spread. Isn’t that how it spread in Africa in the first place?

When will the federal government put medical science ahead of politics?

Or the doctor who claimed to have self isolated but was really riding every subway in NYC. Sure, hard to transmit but when you have millions of possible encounters, the probabilities change.