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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."

34 of 359 comments (clear)

  1. Forget the Purple Hearts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Start mass-producing the Darwin Awards.

    1. Re:Forget the Purple Hearts by Le+Marteau · · Score: 4, Interesting

      > They aren't called "Arabic numerals" for quaintness.

      Actually, they are. Literally.

      "It should be noted that the Arabic numerals were neither invented by nor used by the Arabs. They were developed in India by the Hindus around 600 A.D"

      http://www.mediahistory.umn.ed...

      --
      Mod down people who tell people how to mod in their sigs
    2. Re:Forget the Purple Hearts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Then also keep in mind that the cultured population that devised such a concise and useful numbering scheme and utilized it for many mathematical advances was exterminated by the ancestors of the current populations of those lands.

      To explain what happened in Koran terms, the faction that accepted "when on jihad, do not harm women, children, or people of the book (Jews and Christians)" was murdered by the faction that accepted "take not the Jew or Christian for a friend, execute the infidel." The world lost a lot of beneficial culture and insightful literature (scientific and non) when that happened.

  2. Re:Niggers. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.

  3. 12% of the population is Muslim by Chrisq · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I just hope this isn't a deliberate attempt to spread the virus, remove medical supplies and become martyrs

  4. Darwinism as a team sport. by hooiberg · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Maybe we can create group Award, now that Darwinism has become a team sport!

    1. Re:Darwinism as a team sport. by I'm+New+Around+Here · · Score: 5, Funny

      While keeping the yearly Darwin Award, Maybe it's time to create a World Darwin Championship, every four years. With an opening ceremony, different disciplines and medals, a Shakira song, vuvuzelas,...

      You can keep your smut to yourself. The last thing I want to see on my TV is Shakira's vuvuzela.

      And I think you spelled it wrong.

      --
      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.
  5. Re:Niggers. by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 3, Funny

    Reference?

    None. The librarian is dead...

    --
    "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
  6. Quarantine vs. being stubborn by kruach+aum · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:Quarantine vs. being stubborn by hooiberg · · Score: 4, Insightful

      These are the same people that believe that having sex with a virgin cures aids, and as such rape babies... I wonder if it is a really bad thing if the entire country were to die of ebola.

    2. Re:Quarantine vs. being stubborn by goose-incarnated · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Sorry, I don't believe it just because a couple of researchers, presumably with an agenda or a desire for further funding of their anthropological tintinnabulations, have written about it.

      WTF is wrong with you? I live here, I've suffered under white rule and my entire family was a struggle family so I've got no agenda. The fact is that this is a belief that is shared by many of the locals here :-( Why don't you believe what newspapers, researchers and people on the ground are telling you - these folk are still stuck in the stone age in many respects. Grab any local newspaper you want and see for yourself the pathetic beliefs these people have:

      Virgin cure belief

      Another one of many

      Here's official african government admitting to the baby-rape problem

      How about bullet-proof vaseline and other stupidities?

      Results of the official inquiry into the massacre

      Strikers use body parts from security gaurd for their muti

      Cutting up a 6 year old girl for body parts for their muti before they even killed her.

      In fact, there are too many stories in the courts to even list. You no longer have the assertions of a couple of anthropologist's, you have the statement of a born-and-bred african who is living here, you have official reports of cases in courts and you also have independent newspapers all verifying the same facts.

      Maintaining your skepticism in the face of all this will just make you look foolish. These thugs from the above stories aren't ignorant; they've all completed high-school (equivalent to a US HS diploma) and many of them even have tertiary education. It has become abundantly clear that the problem cannot be solved by relieving these idiots of their ignorance with education; the problem is not ignorance, it's stupidity.

      --
      I'm a minority race. Save your vitriol for white people.
  7. Re:Motive? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

  8. Re:Niggers. by nospam007 · · Score: 4

    "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.

  9. You have to understand by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:You have to understand by kruach+aum · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You say they act rationally based on what they see, and then describe them engaging in post hoc ergo propter hoc logic (people going to facilities end up dead, therefore the facilities are killing them), and being prejudiced against white people and doctors. I am unsure if you are clear on what "rational" means. Hint: it's not acting based on what you 'feel' is right or true, because feelings are notoriously bad at ferreting out either.

    2. Re:You have to understand by mysidia · · Score: 4, Insightful

      They are forming a reasonable (but false) hypothesis which they cannot prove, given that they do not understand health or disease, and they do not believe the explanation people give them, because they lack the obedience training that westerners have.

    3. Re:You have to understand by kruach+aum · · Score: 3, Informative

      Or perhaps it is you who should google "reductio ad absurdum". Just because I claim that believing invalid arguments are valid is irrational does not mean that to behave rationally means having to know all the laws of logic. It is perfectly rational to believe in inductive arguments, but it is not rational to believe in logical fallacies.

    4. Re:You have to understand by nedlohs · · Score: 5, Insightful

      "post hoc ergo propter hoc" is rational.

      "Everyone who has eaten those berries has died frothing at the mouth a few hours afterwards, thus we should probably not eat those berries" is rational. It might not actually be true, but it's a good first step. When people keep dieing in the same way after everyone has stopped eating said berries then you can move to a different hypothesis - but when that's all the information you have it would be irrational to keep eating the berries.

      In this case they already have other information - well I'm assuming the health care workers and government and so on are telling them something other than "oh yes, these are death camps where we torture and kill everyone who comes in the door".

    5. Re:You have to understand by ilparatzo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I think that we're all taking this a bit too far down the rabbit hole and forgetting the simple answer ...

      "They have stuff over there that I could sell for money. I don't have money. I'm not a doctor, I don't know what is going on in those tents and I'm not allowed in. How about I just go and take all that stuff and sell it? If I get sick, that's okay, I've been sick before."

      Unless you're trying to write a book and need to up that word count, what more philosophical understanding does it take then that? If you're not careful, scientific over-analysis can just take you farther from the simple truth of a situation or at a minimum overly complicate it.

  10. Where were the guards? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Anyone trying to breach a quarantine center should be shot.

  11. Truly sad by GeekWithAKnife · · Score: 5, Insightful


    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.
    1. Re:Truly sad by GeekWithAKnife · · Score: 3, Insightful


      People cough, they sneeze, they perspire and touch things. If they carry a deadly virus then this is a deadly problem.

      Did you ever use the toilet at work? - ever had issues of a bad stomach doing the rounds? any idea how many people don't wash their hands after taking a piss? -people you shook hands with. I'd not bet my life on this scenario being impossible.

      The fact that this is LESS likely to happen in a "1st world country" does not help right now. I'm not trying to terrify you into wearing a face mask; I am telling you this can get out of hand if we do not do more to help get this under control.
      Look at the hate some morons choose to spew at this very moment, racists, bigots and foolhardy posts. These so called "1st world" people might just ignore what they stupidly think is an African problem.

      While it's a shame that many people simply do not care about the suffering of others; if you ignore this it may just end up killing people you do care about. Does that sink in or are they not the people you typically see when you go to work?

      --
      A 'singular oddity' is an event that cannot be explained and only happens when you are alone.
    2. Re:Truly sad by OzPeter · · Score: 4, Funny

      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!

      Ha! Ain't going to happen.

      I live in a suburb in the US with ZERO public transportation options. Not only that I won't pass them on the street either as there are no frickin' sidewalks as well.

      --
      I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
    3. Re:Truly sad by Carewolf · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Did you ever use the toilet at work? - ever had issues of a bad stomach doing the rounds? any idea how many people don't wash their hands after taking a piss? -people you shook hands with. I'd not bet my life on this scenario being impossible.

      Ebola is not as infectious as the flu. Absolute none of those scenarios would be able to transmit the disease. So yes, you are safe.

  12. Re:Niggers. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3

    Rumors, childrens gossip and Resident Evil plot lines do not constitute reliable information sources.

  13. Re:Motive? by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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
  14. Please stop and think by TeethWhitener · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:Please stop and think by pehrs · · Score: 5, Interesting

      A good and insightful post.

      The only thing you forgot is to mention why Liberia is one of the most miserable parts of Africa.

      Liberia is the only country in Africa founded by United States colonization while occupied by native Africans. It was financed by the American Colonization Society, an organization created to remove unwanted freed black slaves from America, to avoid a slave uprising like what happened in Tahiti. The colonizers became known as Americo-Liberians and promptly started to enslave the locals and selling them back to the US (with support from the American Colonization Society). The Americo-Liberians, led the political, social, cultural and economic sectors of the country and ruled the nation for over 130 years as a dominant minority. The atrocities under that regime were too many to count.

      The US continued to keep it a hell hole in the effort to fight communism, and from 1940 and forward pumped enormous sums into the budget country (about half the GNP was American aid for a while...). Of course most of this money vanished in corruption. But in return the evil communists were kept out. Eventually there was a coup in 1980, finally removing the Americo-Liberians, and starting two civil wars, killing about half a million and displacing about half of the country population. About 85% of the people live under the poverty level today.

      We sometimes speak of the Ghost of King Leopold, after the horrors in Congo. But when it comes to colonialism the American version seen in Liberia was at least as bad. And by doing it as a private enterprise they ensured that, unlike the state colonies, there never was a decolonization with support for forming a stable state.

  15. Re: Motive? by PIBM · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Develop a biological weapon, using one of the strongest strain of Ebola?

  16. Re:Niggers. by ruir · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

  17. Re:Stupidity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It used to be something of a tradition in the west for doctors not to wash their hands. After all, all disease was based in an imbalance of the "humours" of the body.

    Then this guy appeared. Zemmel? Something like that. He realized that the doctors who worked for him at his two hospitals were helping with childbirths while also doing a bit of corpse work on the side. He noticed that by having his doctors wash their hands after handling dead bodies, the amount of deaths to a particular disease dropped considerable.

    Of course nobody believed him, because HUMOURS.

    Then he died and another doctor took over. He scrapped the handwashing regime and deaths from disease immediately spiked back up to SIX TIMES what it had been when Zemmel (or whatever his name was) was the chief doctor. And nobody cared: Because obviously humours were the true cause.

  18. Re:Stupidity by Japie_H · · Score: 5, Informative

    That was Semmelweis: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I...

  19. Re: Motive? by PapayaSF · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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
  20. Re:Stupidity by Kojiro+Ganryu+Sasaki · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yes. That's what I was getting at in my original post. The fact that despite the evidence that exists, they ignore it because it contradicts their beliefs.

    It's really quite fascinating.

    (i'm the anon you're replying to)