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Ebola Quarantine Center In Liberia Looted
An anonymous reader writes The BBC and other outlets are reporting that a major quarantine center for patients who have been infected with the Ebola virus in Liberia has been looted and ransacked. Reports vary on the motive of the attack, but officials have confirmed that the Ebola patients are missing and that the quarantine center's medical supplies have been stolen. Officials say that the looters are highly likely to contract the virus themselves and worsen the epidemic further, as the WHO counts 1000+ lives claimed by the virus total."
â¦I don't know what is.
Start mass-producing the Darwin Awards.
There is more to it. Media hide a lot of shit. My family got quite repulsed when I told them the problem of contagion is due to in most parts of that area, the ritual ceremony being drinking the water you use to wash the corpse.
I just hope this isn't a deliberate attempt to spread the virus, remove medical supplies and become martyrs
Maybe we can create group Award, now that Darwinism has become a team sport!
As the quarantine centre has been looted, maybe they should try to contain the outbreak by extending the quarantine to the whole city. Declare martial law and not allow anyone to enter or leave the city.
Wasn't there enough information posted and published everywhere in the mass media in Liberia to inform even the dumbest people not to do that at all? I mean, after 1000 people die in a quite horrid way, a bunch of RFSP (Really F****** Stupid People) storms an Ebola Quarantine Center, lets the infected patients flee, steals the medical supplies and probably believes they just fulfilled the will of their ancestors.
Then, after these RFSP let the infected escape, possibly carrying the bodies oozing with Ebola infected fluids in their own arms home, put them on a bed, washing these infected fluids away, and then using the towels to wash and dry themselves, get infected in turn. And if they didn't get infected by just caring for their relative expiring from one of the most horrid diseases, they will get infected when they kiss the deceased or 'ritually' wash him, or when they cuddle up (or doing some more improper things) with the oozing cadaver full of filovirii looking for the next host to infect. And if that was not enough, they will 'celebrate' the death of their relative by eating some bush meat, containing yet another Ebola strain.
Lather, rinse, repeat, this time multiplied by 500, because the whole clan of course has to conglomerate around the putrid cadaver of a usually quite controllable disease. And of course, these relatives, in the two weeks that the virus takes to manifest itself, return home into their jungle villages in the four corners of Liberia and adjoining countries.
That's how you make an epidemic spread like wildfire.
Now, if the authorities in African countries are smart, the next time such crap happens, don't use rifles. Use flame throwers. Disinfects looters, kills the sick in a safe way and prevents more spread. As brutal as it may sound, this will probably save many more lives than just letting these people who just proved that the ancestors of homo sapiens which still live on trees are quite much smarter 'live their culture'.
And showing the burning looters screaming in agony (because they just got BBQed by desperate authorities trying to contain the outbreak) on national TV will make sure the next bunch of idiots reconsiders their idea of looting a health center trying to contain one of the deadliest viral diseases known to mankind.
Reference?
None. The librarian is dead...
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
but that would be callous because , unfortunately potentially the looter might contaminate other innocent people and worsen the epidemic. And also they are making it worst by destroying the (already strapped) existing infrastructure to treat epidemic. Unfortunately with some people thinking the doctor spread Ebola, and the funerary practice and belief winning over simple science and hygiene, my expectation of the locals are low. Fortunately due to our own procedure ebola is unlikely to become an epidemic in our region.
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
visit randi.org
It's probably easier to let these people die of ebola than it is to change the mind of someone who stubbornly believes in things that are false. There have been many information campaigns about the causes and prevention of transmission of ebola, up to and including rap songs, and yet they can't help themselves.
Last I checked, there is a not insignificant number of people in the US who refuse childhood immunizations, and the very white, very old Vatican opposed condoms at the height of the HIV epidemic. You may argue the severity, but these are the same strain of stupidity to which all humans are susceptible.
"Wasn't there enough information posted and published everywhere in the mass media in Liberia to inform even the dumbest people not to do that at all? I mean, after 1000 people die in a quite horrid way, a bunch of RFSP (Really F****** Stupid People) storms an Ebola Quarantine Center, lets the infected patients flee, steals the medical supplies and probably believes they just fulfilled the will of their ancestors."
Think of it as evolution in action.
People who don't believe in Ebola are removed from the gene pool.
I think it's necessary to understand what's going on Liberia. People there are uneducated, prone to superstition and there's a lot of ignorance about the Ebola outbreak over there, however people are acting rationally based on what they see. What they've seen is that when people go to one of these facilities, they tend to end up dead. If you're living there, ignorance of modern medicine and viruses and whatnot and you witness a loved one being taken to a hospital, it's understandable why people will not take it willingly.
A lot of people think this is some "white-man's poison" that's infecting and killing folks. There's enough bad history with westerners fucking around with Africa that you can't really blame them for being predisposed to being suspicious at what doctor's are doing. Of course, that doesn't mean the situation is great for all concerned - it just isn't that surprising giving the environment.
Should Not Feed Trolls(!), but yet again I can not help myself. What about former playmate, former co-anchor Jenny McCarthy, last seen on the (Oprah Winfrey replacement) daytime television show primarily aimed towards women called The View? Considering her anti-vaccination rhetoric, she was lucky to even be given her prominent seat at the table to begin with. Yet there she was, (until she wasn't).
You can't be ahead of the curve, if you're stuck in a loop.
Anyone trying to breach a quarantine center should be shot.
Unfortunately this is the sort of event that can make this virus' infections rates soar beyond control.
Because of a small group of idiots the majority will suffer needlessly.
I see some say "fuck 'em" and some have this attitude of not our problem - for lack of understanding that their problem can become our problem. If that's not a case for a reason to put more resources into education I don't know what is.
It's everyone's problem when some person in Liberia, is now scared for his life and flees without knowing he is carrying the virus. In 48 hours he might be sitting next to you on a bus! -what are you going to say when people start bleeding their internal organs out of all orifices?
You want to give out Darwin awards? start by considering you may get one yourself with such an attitude.
A 'singular oddity' is an event that cannot be explained and only happens when you are alone.
Rumors, childrens gossip and Resident Evil plot lines do not constitute reliable information sources.
You wanted to blame it on race, didn't you Anonymous Coward. You were going to blame it on white males.
Find me the white or asian equivalent. For sheer monumental self-destructive stupidity, niggers are unbeatable.
The Ganges river: Bathing water source, sewer, and final destination for (often partially) cremated remains. Your one on-stop-shopping source for all diseases spread by the fecal-oral route.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganges#Pollution
Black people do not have a monopoly on medically self-destructive traditions.
Do you really believe that a culture/tribe/village/group can develop such stupid rituals to deal with the dead and diseased and survive to this day? Do you really think that `primitive' people don't know anything about quarantaine or other measures against infectious diseases? Do you really think that a group of people that has just seen some of their own die in a horrible way will quietly slink off to meditate on their sins rather than seek (quite possibly rough) justice for this? But you're not one of the RFSP, right?
It is quite possible that this attack was stupid, but clearly we're not getting all of the story here.
Racis! You be hatin on Ebola because its black!
No gay sex means the vast majority of the AIDS infections never happen.
It's good for Africa that they never liked gays there, otherwise they would have an AIDS epidemic on their hands by now. Oh, wait...
Ezekiel 23:20
They don't think it's Ebola but they want to be sure:
http://www.kob.com/article/sto...
And this is just ONE person! Even if this one is not the one, statistics says a plane or boat full of carriers is coming sooner or later. May be time to stock up on Tyvek suits and bleach, for starters...
It isn't an isolated problem.
Afghan Men Struggle With Sexual Identity, Study Finds
An unclassified study from a military research unit in southern Afghanistan details how homosexual behavior is unusually common among men in the large ethnic group known as Pashtuns -- though they seem to be in complete denial about it.
The study, obtained by Fox News, found that Pashtun men commonly have sex with other men, admire other men physically, have sexual relationships with boys and shun women both socially and sexually -- yet they completely reject the label of "homosexual." ...
Apparently, according to the report, Pashtun men interpret the Islamic prohibition on homosexuality to mean they cannot "love" another man -- but that doesn't mean they can't use men for "sexual gratification."
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
Yor idea is sound, but will be downmodded because people in the civilized world do not understand that civilized world solutions do not usually work in a country that culturally is still in the Stone Age.
Religion: The greatest weapon of mass destruction of all time
Call it eBola and we'll have another bubble
The word you are looking for is ignorant I believe, and there's actually a cure for it.
You can't be ahead of the curve, if you're stuck in a loop.
and stupid people like easy explanations, no matter how wrong they are
So tell me...
What is the 'right' explanation for looting the "Blood-stained mattresses, bedding and medical equipment" from a quarantine center set up specifically to deal with Ebola?
I'd say at least half of them have some kind of scene where panicked/ignorant locals ignore the medical experts and raid the quarantine centers. And usually it's one of those turning point moments in the narrative with disastrous consequences.
You live in a country with a wildly corrupt government that repeatedly lies to you and regularly unburdens you of your basic human rights. Then one day, officials from this government force you and everyone you know at gunpoint to submit to a series of "tests." You notice that, all of a sudden, many of the most social and/or eldest (therefore vocal, therefore most likely to be community leaders/government dissenters) among you go missing and later mysteriously die. For good measure, a number of kids randomly disappear and die as well. The ones that survive tell horrible stories about the dismal conditions in which they were held, where they were injected with any number of things and only a few days later, became sick . The government (the same government that lies to you and considers you subhuman) tells you that the cultural practices that have been with your group for a thousand years are all of a sudden, just now, for reasons they don't have time to explain, causing you to get sick and die, and it just happens to selectively be wiping out the kids and the community leaders.
If it were the US doing this, I conjecture that at the very least, this comment thread would have a radically different tone. Less "these guys are idiots," and more "these guys are heroes." What we're witnessing in Liberia is a tragic consequence of a corrupt power structure attempting, maybe for the first time, to legitimately help people that it has previously subjugated. The whole thing smacks of people acting in their and their community's best interests based on many many previous data points telling them government=bad, therefore avoid government. Unfortunately, it takes time to build a relationship of trust between a government and its citizens, and in the face of the calamity that Liberia is confronting, neither the government nor its citizens have any time to spare.
Develop a biological weapon, using one of the strongest strain of Ebola?
http://www.refworld.org/docid/... Considering often they have lots of wives...however I can swear it is not only the wives that drink it.
Yes it is. It's funny how most of this thread is centered on "idiot looters", when there is a real possibility that someone grabbed a whole bunch of Ebola patients for the purpose of weaponizing it.
Smart people? Holy crap, you're not serious, are you?
I find it funny that this thread has so many replies, when similar titled ones usually only get a few responses.
If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.
He forgot the [Sarcasm] tag.
If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.
You just called half of fourteenth Century Europe racist.
The half that survived - most likely were. They went on to perform the most horrible atrocities on each other and throughout the rest of the known world over the next six hundred years.
Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
kill tens of millions to save millions?
That'll work ::coughcoughsneezeGODZILLA:coughcough::
Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
*A* person is smart.
*PEOPLE* are dumb, panicky animals and you know it.
Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
Yeah, I was thinking that they were planning to spread the disease intentionally
We are Dead Stars looking back Up at the Sky
But they DID fulfill the will of their ancestors: "You buggers didn't listen to us when you were young, you will die a horribe death. EBOLA!"
/They are a dying people. Let them pass.
--Udo.
"and only a few days later, became sick" usually by the time the people are given in the hand of governmental instiuttion theyalready have been sick. Furhtermore a lot of people died at home and at some village a sizable percentage died (50 out of 500 persons was in article recently). So it is not as if people were taken and became sick afterward.
Africa's amazing level of civility is going to screw this up for everyone. I would immediately send UN armed troops there to guard it 24/7 and stop all flights and trains and buses out of Liberia as a precaution and punishment.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
The 30 patients taken and the contaminated materials are now in some field being killed and or and burned. It's not unthinkable that people in the government or just scared individuals will "purge" the area of all infected individuals. I would suspect this more than anything since the areas are prone to religious superstition. They could see this as punishment and the only way to fix the solution is cleansing of the infected.
1) I imagine they do not realise the significance of this particular disease. Disease is far more prevalent there than it is here, why is this one special? How will you convince them that this is so?
2) The familiies are literally being seperated with a very high chance of never seeing their loved ones alive.
I'm sure there are other contributing factors, but do you honestly belive that you would act differently in the same circumstances?
Where is moderation: -1 False?
People who don't believe in Ebola are removed from the gene pool.
Won't do any good. Producing more stupid people is relatively easy. You simply don't educate them.
I'm in no way defending the use of the word, but I do want to point out that there has been somewhat of a movement, in the past few years, to redefine it to refer to a class, rather than a race. This is very much something I'd expect that particular class of people to do, regardless is the color of their skin; and I dare say that I know people of all races who are members of that class, just as I know people of all races who are not. Hell, in some areas I've lived in, most of them are white.
That said, its use in this thread probably *is* racist; typically when someone utters the word, outside of their small group of friends who have already agreed on the refined definition, that's the intent.
APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
"Warlords" on Liberia are so, so stupid they may have had exactly this idea.
Religion: The greatest weapon of mass destruction of all time
that Darwin was right.
Lol, I've seen the poor parts of Liberia (very briefly, yay!) and I don't think there's any kind of mass media reaching those places beside word of mouth.
Furthermore, people in 1st world countries are also less inclined to break people out of quarantine...
Do you have any evidence of this? There hasn't been a major contagious outbreak in most of the west for decades. I predict people well break themselves and their families out of quarantine in an attempt to "save them".
Naw, for the equipped Slashdotter, you will want one of these bad boys.
Gotta cover all your bases.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
I'm off to trademark iBola right now!
Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
Unfortunately for the Vatican, humans are humans, and fighting biology is not all that effective. The Vatican provided a great theoretical solution that doesn't play out that well in reality as practical advice.
This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
Exactly what I was wondering. Even worse if it's a terrorist group behind it with ties to Boka Haram or something along those lines. On the bright side (?) they don't likely have the tech to weaponize anything, and will wind up killing a lot of themselves instead.. or so one can hope. On the dark side, it's likely to make the epidemic much worse no matter what they do.
Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
I think motive is rather obvious. I would discard the idea of superstition and the like.
1) Liberia is poor, like really poor.
2) Drugs are expensive, like really expensive.
3) Drugs in a quarantine zone for a deadly epidemic are in high demand, very high demand.
4) Profit!
I think someone decided that the personal risk was worth it.
I mean, what are these communists doctors doing giving all these profitable drugs to poor people for free. Why not let the invisible hand of the market allow people to sell the expensive drugs to unaffected but scared wealthy people in the area? I mean the rising tide raises all boats, and the trickle down effect, and whatever and the like right?
There is more to it. Media hide a lot of shit. My family got quite repulsed when I told them the problem of contagion is due to in most parts of that area, the ritual ceremony being drinking the water you use to wash the corpse.
Yes, that's obviously why Western Doctors coming to help are getting infected too.
They're all in it for the cultural exchange.
For some reason people like to equate "ignorance" with the lack of access to information --- which I think is patently false
Perhaps the "some reason" you're searching for is the fact that they are right and you are wrong with regard to the definition of ignorance:
On the bright side (?) they don't likely have the tech to weaponize anything, and will wind up killing a lot of themselves instead.. or so one can hope.
Suicidal fanatics don't need tech to weaponize ebola. They can just infect themselves, hop on a plane, and leave spit and sweat on the bathroom door handles on the plane, plus whatever they can do when they get to their destination. The incubation period is long enough for them to fly to Mexico City, get to the US border, and join a group of illegals heading north, before they become too incapacitated to travel. But they need not bother with entering illegally: they can just fly straight in to a US airport.
Q: What does the "B." in Benoit B. Mandelbrot stand for? A: Benoit B. Mandelbrot
Some parts of Nigeria.
Where the only infected people have been the heath care staff who tried to help a sick US citizen.
What is the relevance to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea?
Oh, you thought all black people were the same.
Boy, am I going to be able to fill up my foes list with ignorant racists (tautology) on this one.
Watch this Heartland Institute video
Demographics of slashdot: smart people.
Hahahahahahhahah!!
Demographics of slashdot - mostly overprivileged ignorant morons who think they're smart.
Watch this Heartland Institute video
We whites ain't perfect, but we ain't niggers.
Frankly, you are. I've never met a black person who behaved like your crazy stereotype of a "nigger" (and, as it happens I'm writing this from Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire), but you are it.
Watch this Heartland Institute video
Speaking purely hypothetically here, would flame throwers even work? I thought I had read that you can't "cook" Ebola out of the meat that easily...
Most of the delimitation of the countries in Angola where made by white people, and the culture/tribes are another matter. And I know for sure they surely do it in Angola too. Do not be so fast playing the stupid racism card, the last resort of the stupid.
>where AIDS was/is spread primarily through homosexual sex and intravenous drug use.
and blood transfusions.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
Angola? Please buy a map.
If you're trying to say "the white man made the boarders in Africa" then you are to some extent right, but if you are assuming cultural practices in countries thousands of kilometers appart are the same you're wrong.
Watch this Heartland Institute video
Well I didn't know that, and I am supposedly smart and well education with resources available to me to even easily find that out. All I know is that some doctors have already tried an alternative experimental drug, and that the UN recently authorized the use of experimental drugs that haven't gone though human trials yet. Though it is probably too soon for large volumes of said experimental drugs to be available (or maybe not, this is an emergency).
Nobody said criminals are smart, only that they are sometimes desperate individuals.
Darwin wins. Again.
~X~
Naw, for the equipped Slashdotter, you will want one of these bad boys.
Gotta cover all your bases.
Just what you need for any apocalyptic scenario. It has heat resistant layers, a bulletproof layer, and a layer for make you comfortable in your worktime.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
These thieves belong on the World's Dumbest Criminals TV show. It's very hard to understand some nut breaking in your home and finding powder in that fancy vase and trying to snort your grandmother's ashes. But i do think people screwed up enough to break in a medical lab and steal deadly plague materials while taking zero precautions to keep it contained may top the charts for stupidity. It is rather like Larry, Moe and Curly with a severe suicidal and homicidal personality changes. On the other hand Ebola widely distributed in the Arab nations might be the way to stop all the fussing.
I do know for sure Angola does it, but only found an explicit link about it about Nigeria. Boarders and borders are also two different things. And I dont need a map, I worked in Angola. "Death and Funerary Rites Many Angolan communities expect proper funeral rites to be observed and certain rituals to be performed for a dead person. Funerary rites vary somewhat from one group to another, but there are also general elements: ritual mourning, ceremonial washing of the body, and the embracing and kissing of the body by family members."
When will people ever learn!
According to a report I saw (following a link from the Drudge Report yesterday):
1)The early symptoms of Ebola are very similar to those of Malaria, to the point that people with malaria are being thrown into the ebola quarantine camps. (Also: Many of the people who HAVE ebola, or their support network, may THINK thay have malaria.)
2) The camp ran out of gloves and other protective gear - leaving the staff and patients unable to clean up after and avoid contagin from the body fluid spillages of the actual ebola patients. Come in with SUSPECTED ebola and you soon have ebola for sure.
That, alone, would make it rational for someone not yet sick or mildly sick, incarcerated in the camp, to break out and hide out.
3) Stories are circulating in the area that ebola is a myth and the oppressive government factions/first worlders/take your pick of enemies are using this story, plus the odd malaria case here and there, to create death camps and commit genocide in a way that gives them plausible deniability.
That idea, of course, can lead to mass action by some of the local population to "rescue" their fellows and sabotage the camps.
The whole think is a real-world example of the cautionary tale "The Boy who Cried 'Wolf'". When the officials lie to the people for their own benefit, repeatedly, until the people come to expect it, the people won't believe them when they are telling the truth about a real threat - and all suffer.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Sorry I know it's not a joke but.... I know have this image stuck in my head of Bin Laden licking the door handles at various rest rooms... lol
That believes raping a virgin can cure you of AIDS.........
Set the bar low. Very low.
And by birth to some number, which is too many whatever it is, of infants.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
The jobs normally pay enough that the worker has to be a kid living at home or an adult subsidizing his/her income with a subscription to government benefits.
How is it you test for violence and impulsiveness? he wondered aloud.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
Yes it is. It's funny how most of this thread is centered on "idiot looters", when there is a real possibility that someone grabbed a whole bunch of Ebola patients for the purpose of weaponizing it.
If that's a real possibility (its not) then it's not a plausible threat.
Ebola isn't a disease you can drop into the water supply, infect food with or put into gas canisters. It's basically blood borne so to get infected you need direct contact with bodily fluids (because Ebola causes excessive bleeding just about any bodily fluid will contain blood) and skin contact on it's own isn't enough. So weaponising it means either dropping infected courses en mass or direct injection of Ebola into the victims.
However the real reason why that's complete and utter bollocks is the fact that the patients are believed to have walked out of their own accord. The looters were likely after drugs (which are not cheap in Liberia).
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
Being sleepy does not help. I was thinking of Angola and write Angola instead of Africa. Read please most of the delimitation of borders in AFRICA...nevertheless, the same applies to Angola.
Darwin awards... nothing else to say.
Yeah, in that environment intelligence had to be selected for, so their average IQ, assuming identical education and upbringing, will be higher than normal.
Seems as plausible as any other possibility.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
Ok, so now it's one typo for me (boarders/borders) and two for you (Angola/Africa and where/were).
Funerary rites vary somewhat from one group to another, but there are also general elements: ritual mourning, ceremonial washing of the body, and the embracing and kissing of the body by family members."
Sounds like Ireland.
Watch this Heartland Institute video
Yep, and in Ireland they drink the water too...as far as I remember in Catholic countries, some members of the family kiss THE FACE. However they are educated enough to not do that *after* them dying from some horrible disease. So it is not really the same. (and I am against that habit, and against having an open coffin) Then again, you were very quick of accusing me of being racist, however, 1) you do not know my race 2) you ignore one of my ex-wives was black and 3) you do not known your own history, where all the major black inhabitants came all from the regions nowadays known as Congo and Nigeria. There are more pressing matters here than grammar errors, et l'anglais n'est pas notre langue maternelle.
Your implication was that races might well vary in average IQ (and presumably also its distribution). You then went off on a mockery of white guilt. I'm suggesting that it's plausible that, if racial IQ does vary, it might well be that blacks, having faced more adverse conditions for a long time, might have the advantage when starting conditions are reasonably equal.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes