EBOLA

[Scott Bails]

Sounds pleasant. Thanks.

[Dave (in MA)]

Order your hazmat suit now, and we'll throw in a tinfoil hat absolutely free!

Yeah, it's only the paranoid tinfoil hat black helicopter conspiracy nuts who are concerned.

Related: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...ponse/?hpid=z1

[trurl]

At least if we die from Ebola we can quit bitching about Global War- Climate Chang- weather.

[trurl]

Related: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...ponse/?hpid=z1

Obama skipped a fundraiser? Fuck, this is serious.

[ronmac]

Can't see this thread lasting too long, but what the heck...

There are a lot of inconsistencies with how this is being reported, IMO. No big surprise, considering the state of today's media. But I'm confused at how, on the one hand, they're basically telling you that you have to bathe in a vat of Ebola to catch it but on the other hand, we have two different people now in the U.S., where we presumably have safety measures and protocols, that have been infected.

Basically, what I'm saying is that they're saying that it's rather difficult to contract, since it's not airborne-contagious, but it's fishy to me that two health-care workers who should have practiced at least some sort of safety training have contracted the disease.

Of course the media wants to scare - that's what drives ratings. But the way this is being covered just seems strange to me.

Dallas Nurses Accuse Hospital of Sloppy Ebola Protocols

I think you have better odds of getting the flu and often years go by when you don't. So....

The flu is ten times easier to catch than Ebola.

Order your hazmat suit now, and we'll throw in a tinfoil hat absolutely free!

+1

Obama skipped a fundraiser? Fuck, this is serious.

[dropforge]

Obama skipped a fundraiser? Fuck, this is serious.

[Plasmatopia]

This article doesn't make US hospitals seem all that prepared:

http://time.com/3507798/ebola-atlanta-nebraska-cdc/

[Don Arnold]

What is everyone's take on this, do you think the media is blowing this up to scare everyone?

The media are doing what they do best. It's really up to the viewer/listener/reader to react and respond in keeping with their own experience, knowledge and comfort levels on these outbreaks. For me, we've seen this movie before with AIDS, SARS, and a score of others. I've lived through these, and expect to live through this ebola crisis. Certainly something to watch though, but through some common sense filtering.

[Sputnik]

Given how they've handled everything else related to this, why do you think they'd be competent with flight restrictions?

To me it's not so much a question of competence, but the rationale behind what actions they are taking and which they are not. The idea of containing the infection seems a logical one. I'm not clear why they aren't trying it. If they try it and fail, then competence becomes an issue.

A relative of mine works at a fairly high level of the US federal government, in a department that has involvement with the Ebola situation. This person told me that the government is unconcerned with the current cases of Ebola in the US developing into something larger, because of the level of contact necessary to catch the disease from someone.

Also, the mortality rate from Ebola is about 60% in Africa - but models suggest that it may only be about 25-35% in a first-world nation.

The risk of an Ebola outbreak in the US is still considered to be extremely low, and there is still plenty of time to train and prep hospitals to be much more effective in their screening and treatments in the event that a significant Ebola population was to arise. The fear is not that a few stray people here and there bring the disease to developed nations, but that the disease migrates from the isolated places in Africa where it currently is, to the large population centers in Africa where it currently is not. These large population centers are poor and are presently totally incapable of dealing with an Ebola outbreak. The WHO is trying to equip these places with the materials, manpower and the knowledge that would be necessary to do a much better job, but Ebola has the potential to kill millions of people in these poor urban areas of Africa.

My relative more or less told me this: if you live in the US (or Canada, UK, Western Europe, etc.) and are concerned about Ebola, there are numerous other things you can do for yourself that address much more pressing issues, like: put down the hot dog; don't drive while texting or talking (even hands-free); stop smoking; stop drinking alcohol; exercise, etc. Frankly don't drive at all. Getting into a car puts the average person much closer to death than the likelihood of catching *any* mortal disease (absent obvious risk factors, like working in a hospital taking care of people with mortal diseases).

This makes sense, and is basically how I feel as a citizen of the US. But if larger population centers in Africa are at risk, why aren't they doing more to contain the disease? People must leave Liberia and Sierra Leone to go to other places in Africa. I guess it's simply out of the question to shut the boarders until the risk level is perceived to be higher. Hopefully by the time the risk level is perceived to be that great, it won't be too late to contain it.

Bill

[proggosaurus]

Dallas Nurses Accuse Hospital of Sloppy Ebola Protocols

seen something about this earlier and it seems like a very logical explanation as to how the two nurses became infected and others haven't. the book I quoted from was written nearly 20 years ago when little was really known about the virus other than its deadly habits. nature certainly has an iniquitous way of humbling us whenever we get too comfortable. I think it's a little silly to live in fear of all these things we simply cannot control. I would never enjoy anything whatsoever. I must admit though that it is a little concerning what some delusional sociopath might do with this kinda shit. I think we already know there are plenty of those out there. it only takes one.

[Facelift]

To me it's not so much a question of competence, but the rationale behind what actions they are taking and which they are not. The idea of containing the infection seems a logical one. I'm not clear why they aren't trying it. If they try it and fail, then competence becomes an issue.


This makes sense, and is basically how I feel as a citizen of the US. But if larger population centers in Africa are at risk, why aren't they doing more to contain the disease? People must leave Liberia and Sierra Leone to go to other places in Africa. I guess it's simply out of the question to shut the boarders until the risk level is perceived to be higher. Hopefully by the time the risk level is perceived to be that great, it won't be too late to contain it.

Bill

Apparently, the population centers where they fear an Ebola outbreak (particularly Lagos, in Nigeria) are not easily accessible by the regions where Ebola exists. Which is not to say that Ebola hasn't been in Lagos, but there haven't been any outbreaks. I'm no Africa expert - I'm just repeating what I was told.

[TheLoony]

Got your tinfoil hats ready?

http://www.liberianobserver.com/comm...cine-campaigns

The Ebola Breakout Coincided with UN Vaccine Campaigns

The ebola pandemic began in late February in the former French colony of Guinea while UN agencies were conducting nationwide vaccine campaigns for three other diseases in rural districts. The simultaneous eruptions of this filovirus virus in widely separated zones strongly suggests that the virulent Zaire ebola strain (ZEBOV) was deliberately introduced to test an antidote in secret trials on unsuspecting humans.

The cross-border escape of ebola into neighboring Sierra Leone and Liberia indicates something went terribly wrong during the illegal clinical trials by a major pharmaceutical company. Through the lens darkly, the release of ebola may well have been an act of biowarfare in the post-colonial struggle to control mineral-rich West Africa

Or not. It's a rather involved article that only throws more confusion into the mix.

[proggosaurus]

The risk of an Ebola outbreak in the US is still considered to be extremely low, and there is still plenty of time to train and prep hospitals to be much more effective in their screening and treatments in the event that a significant Ebola population was to arise. The fear is not that a few stray people here and there bring the disease to developed nations, but that the disease migrates from the isolated places in Africa where it currently is, to the large population centers in Africa where it currently is not. These large population centers are poor and are presently totally incapable of dealing with an Ebola outbreak. The WHO is trying to equip these places with the materials, manpower and the knowledge that would be necessary to do a much better job, but Ebola has the potential to kill millions of people in these poor urban areas of Africa.

they've had 30 odd years so far. I wouldn't call Texas isolated. one would at least think that the US would have the strictest protocols when it comes to dealing with infectious patients. no matter how infectious an individual might be at the time, with something as deadly as Ebola, a patient with even the slightest symptoms should be handled with complete protection. it could very well be that the hospital just didn't follow what is already standard procedures. I do agree about the virus migrating to more populated places within Africa first and could easily jump to say South America or other densely populated third world regions. that in itself would certainly stretch any world resources very thin.

[notallwhowander]

While there corruption, collusion, and confluences of interest are worth noting, I try not to dive headlong into conspiratorial thinking anymore. If the waters are muddy, I tend to step back from the pool and wait for things to clear. There is way too much confirmation bias in such speculations to merit their results.

[Gruno]

In before the close!

[Klonk]

Obama skipped a fundraiser? Fuck, this is serious.

[zombywoof]

do you think the media is blowing this up to scare everyone?

Yep.

[Rangershockey7]

Living in New England, where every threat of snow becomes a bunch of meteorologists telling us to go out and by Milk and Eggs because we will be snowed in for 2 or 3 weeks, it is hard to see the truth through the nonsense of the news reporting of this.

I am distressed that our government has been so slow to react. As of a few weeks ago, we knew where there are cases of Ebola, and there were none here. Why didn't we do more to evaluate people coming into our country? It seems simple enough. If I sell my Ford pick up to someone, Ford knows who the new owner is before he even registers it. How can our government not have an idea of the people who have come from the affected areas to our shores?

[Reginod]

If I'd been 2-3 seconds ahead of where i was in traffic the other day, I'd have been t-boned and killed in an intersection.

Ebola's a concern and needs to be dealt with seriously but there are many other ways in we're much more likely to meet an early demise. I'm always pretty careful about who and what I touch so that will continue.

[proggosaurus]

How can our government not have an idea of the people who have come from the affected areas to our shores?

we are depending a lot on the country they leave from. Liberian authorities have reported they checked Thomas Duncan on three occasions before he boarded a flight back to Brussels. keep in mind the only thing they do is take your temperature and give you a health questionnaire. witnesses have said he was helping care for Ebola patients near Monrovia yet he answered "no" to the questions according to those same officials. someone wasn't telling the truth. apparently, the failures didn't stop there since he came to the US, is now deceased and two others have become infected. it's bad enough with what's happening in those countries of West Africa. it's a terrible way to die and a shame the WHO isn't more on top of this. now we have to be concerned about unexpected migration which is exactly what happened. everyone is scrambling for answers and the media will scare the shit out of anybody who will listen. who can you really trust anymore? it's a crap shoot and if my life depends on it, I probably won't be around much longer. maybe Mother Nature, Earth or whatever is just sick and tired of us pestilent humans and needs to clean house. that's seems as plausible as anything else I hear.

[Facelift]

we are depending a lot on the country they leave from. Liberian authorities have reported they checked Thomas Duncan on three occasions before he boarded a flight back to Brussels. keep in mind the only thing they do is take your temperature and give you a health questionnaire. witnesses have said he was helping care for Ebola patients near Monrovia yet he answered "no" to the questions according to those same officials. someone wasn't telling the truth. apparently, the failures didn't stop there since he came to the US, is now deceased and two others have become infected. it's bad enough with what's happening in those countries of West Africa. it's a terrible way to die and a shame the WHO isn't more on top of this. now we have to be concerned about unexpected migration which is exactly what happened. everyone is scrambling for answers and the media will scare the shit out of anybody who will listen. who can you really trust anymore? it's a crap shoot and if my life depends on it, I probably won't be around much longer. maybe Mother Nature, Earth or whatever is just sick and tired of us pestilent humans and needs to clean house. that's seems as plausible as anything else I hear.

Agreed. The US did nothing wrong here. The wrongdoers were Duncan, who lied, and the Texas hospital, whose gross incompetence at virtually every step of the process resulted in (at a minimum) two of its nurses catching the virus. The hospital is going to be paying out millions in damages, even if neither of the nurses die.

[proggosaurus]

Agreed. The US did nothing wrong here. The wrongdoers were Duncan, who lied, and the Texas hospital, whose gross incompetence at virtually every step of the process resulted in (at a minimum) two of its nurses catching the virus. The hospital is going to be paying out millions in damages, even if neither of the nurses die.

not sure how much I would trust Liberia either to be honest. the Texas hospital situation though is a whole new ball of fuck up. I'm sure they've got serious back up and will do everything they can to shift blame but it sure doesn't look good. didn't take long for the latest patient to shipped to Atlanta. I think that's very telling.

[Dave (in MA)]

Got your tinfoil hats ready?


The Ebola Breakout Coincided with UN Vaccine Campaigns

The 2014 Ebola breakout was discovered by the Guinea Ministry of Health on March 10th, the same day that the movie Outbreak was released 19 years earlier.

[Dave (in MA)]

The Obola Response Team is in place.

KEEP CALM
AND
PROJECTILE
VOMIT

[SteveSly]

Got your tinfoil hats ready?

http://www.liberianobserver.com/comm...cine-campaigns

The Ebola Breakout Coincided with UN Vaccine Campaigns



Or not. It's a rather involved article that only throws more confusion into the mix.

As a 28 year employee of a large U.S. based Pharma Company I find this article a bit hard to swallow. The whole African human guinea pig conspiracy thing has been around for years, but there is very little real evidence to support that anything like this, even on a small scale, actually takes place. The Pharma industry is extremely regulated when it comes to any human testing of drugs. Hell, it is extremely regulated when it comes to animal testing too. Meanwhile articles like this throw panic into people, and demean human aid organizations who are trying to do good in this world. I am not saying that there are never abuses by big Pharma or aid organizations, but the sensationalized claims in articles such as this are so completely out of whack that it borders on the ridiculous and scares people away from vaccination programs that are responsible for the eradication (or at least significant reduction) of diseases that plagued mankind for years.