Have you thought about this:
try {
ko.applyBindings(PersonListViewModel);
}
catch (err) {
console.log(err.message);
}
I came up with this because in Knockout, i found this code
var alreadyBound = ko.utils.domData.get(node, boundElementDomDataKey);
if (!sourceBindings) {
if (alreadyBound) {
throw Error("You cannot apply bindings multiple times to the same element.");
}
ko.utils.domData.set(node, boundElementDomDataKey, true);
}
So to me its not really an issue that its already bound, its that the error was not caught and dealt with...