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Ebola Has Made It To the United States
An anonymous reader sends news that the CDC has confirmed the first case of Ebola diagnosed on U.S. soil.
An unnamed patient at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas was placed in isolation while awaiting test results for the dreaded virus. Apparently, the patient had traveled recently to a West African country, where the disease is spreading, and later developed symptoms that suggested Ebola. A blood specimen from the patient was sent to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, a testing process that can take 24 to 48 hours to confirm an Ebola infection — or not. The results came back about 3:32 p.m.
In other Ebola news, outbreaks in Nigeria and Senegal appear to be completely contained.
... crack each others heads open and feast on the goo inside?
Then how the hell did it end up in Texas?
Most likely it came from somewhere other than Nigeria or Senegal. Most of the active cases are in Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone.
Best solution right now is to panic and start looting. Mostly because looting looks fun and angry mobs make for good tv
Time to cut off texas from the rest of the US... oh wait they've been working on that for us for years.
Why are you telling us? I'm sure the nincompoops at CDC are standing around by the water cooler trying to figure out what to do and they're certainly not reading slashdot! Quick! Get on the phone and lend them your expertise in this area!
Why SHOULDN'T first world countries get to share the misery of their less fortunate bretheren, anyway?
Because they bring it on themselves. By tolerating corrupt government, they squander resources, and have nothing left to spend on healthcare infrastructure. Corruption also leads to poverty, since people don't work hard if their property will be stolen. It also leads to deep distrust of government and authority, which leads to distrust of health care providers, which leads to looting of clinics.
Helping people, maybe?
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
Because why shouldn't people that manage their society's competently be punished for less competent societies failing?
Lets say your country works really hard and does everything right. They keep a reasonable budget, work hard, enact sensible policies, and generally just do a good job.
Then lets say your neighbor is full of complete fucktards that spend more money then they have, slack off doing nothing half the time, enact dumb counter productive laws, and generally make every mistake possible one after the other...
Should country A1 be punished for the incompetence of country B1? I would argue not since the people in the first country had no control over what the other country did.
Now you seem to be suggesting that all countries are responsible for all countries. That is interesting because responsibility and power/rights go hand in hand. So if I am responsible for how other countries act and perform... then I must likewise have the right to dictate policies in those countries. In effect, for your argument to make any sense, we'd have to have a global government and it would be that global government that would be responsible for everything.
No such global government exists. The UN is a diplomatic institution and not a governing body despite their aspirations. Their authority comes with the consent of member nations and is precisely limited by treaties that would be binding with or without the UN. So the UN is not a governing body.
And that means I am not responsible for the failures of other countries. Not my fault.
If they want to give up their domestic freedoms and make their nation subordinate to another... and that other nation agrees to take responsibility for them... then fine. Lacking that... obviously we are not responsible for them.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
> By tolerating corrupt government, they squander resources, and have nothing left to spend on healthcare infrastructure.
Hey, come on now, the USA isn't that bad.
A fool and his hard drive are soon parted.
Actually our culture 'n heritage has us burning our dead on a side of bacon wrapped beef soaked in victory oil while the kardashians lip-sink the national anthem with their tits out... you know, 'merica.
I mean why would anyone travel to west Africa at this point? Curiosity?
Because the number of deaths from Ebola, even in West Africa, is miniscule compared to other causes, and it is easy to avoid just by washing your hands and using hand sanitizer. Also, avoid touching dead people. Other that that, you will be fine.
Maybe people have pointed out that Ebola is not very contagious and is spread through direct contact with bodily fluids. However, the Ebola Reston strain is airborne though only dangerous to monkeys.
The current strain in Liberia and other places is Ebola Zaire, and is not airborne, but there is nothing preventing its mutation into something that is more contagious like Reston, so we should be cautious.
"What lies behind us, and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." Ralph Waldo Emerson
rabies virus, it could result in the infected person becoming insane and attacking everyone that he sees. But unlike regular rabies, you don't have to get bitten to become infected... Ebola can be transmitted simply by touching someone. This could result in extremely rapid disease transmission, perhaps triggering a worldwide pandemic.
If this happens, millions of Resident Evil fans all over the world will be writhing on the floor in full nerdgasm.
> By tolerating corrupt government, they squander resources, and have nothing left to spend on healthcare infrastructure.
Hey, come on now, the USA isn't that bad.
I was going to mod you +1 funny, but you stole my joke.
Where the fuck are you from?
link
"The best means of prevention are similar to those you would practice to prevent the common cold or the flu, and it starts at your bathroom sink. Thoroughly washing your hands, and practicing good hygiene with soap and water, is a good first step to preventing infection."
The early signs and symptoms of the Ebola virus include:
Symptoms may become increasingly severe over time, the Mayo Clinic said, with additional symptoms present, including:
Be careful, but not frightened.
If the universe is someone's simulation -- does that mean the stars are just stuck pixels?
To reply to my own post, I did a bit more research:
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/e...
This story says that the person didn't start having symptoms until well after his flight. It's doubtful he contaminated the plane at all. So it's just him and his close contacts from when he started to become show symptoms.
--PM
I'm not sure what you're asking. Texas is obviously a 3rd world country. That's where Ebola has the best chance. The absolute worst healthcare for the poor, superstition supersedes science, public "schools" that teach fairy stories, byzantine legal structure, corrupt governance... Nope, no surprises here. Ebola's a perfect fit with Texas.
Maybe an immigrant traveling back to the home country for a visit.
Maybe to attend a funeral.
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
...it's the only way to be sure.
Left MS Windows for Linux Mint and never looked back!
Vote for Bernie in 2016!
Travel has almost never been restricted by the US government, with Cuba serving as the inexplicable exception. The Soviet Union was the big enemy for decades, and yet Americans regularly visited whether for university terms abroad or Intourist package tours. North Korea? The State Department might put out a travel advisory that it's not a good idea to go there, but it's perfectly legal for Americans to participated in the organized tour. That permissiveness even applies to war zones: when the US was bombing Serbia or NATO was carried out air strikes in Libya, you still could freely visit (there was a period when you couldn't bring any goods back from Yugoslavia, though).
Have you travelled in Third World countries in the last decade? In Africa and India it's now utterly commonplace for people, even the illiterate, to take out credit to buy a fancy mobile phone. Those acclaimed microcredit initiatives that do social good are now accompanied by innumerable sleasy microcredit lenders that hand out loans easily, and can be brutal about repayment. Credit has been a thing, and a rising problem, in the Third World for some years now.
Because we don't go around kissing dead people on the mouth?
I'm not clear as to why every single person flying into an airport from the hot spots isn't put in quarantine upon landing.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Overheard at the TSA: OMG NAIL CLIPPERS, TACKLE HIM!!
Whew, that was close! Hey Lou, what about this guy? He's bleeding from his eyeballs! Let 'im through Joe, nothing in the book about that.
Is the end of humanity due to the Ebola virus an acceptable excuse for adultery?
Asking for a friend.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Actually, BOTH !!
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
India might barely make the cut of 3rd world but there's no comparison between India and the places where Ebola is currently rampant.
The per capita of liberia is $400 while india is over $1500 not to mention india's goverment and economy is infinitely more stable.
Even in places like guatemala (which I visited last year and is also infinitely more stable than liberia) a majority of cell phones are
prepaid. Less than 50% of the people in liberia even have cell phones. So yes, some of the "rising 3rd world countries" like
india and guatemala have some credit available but nothing close to the US where someone can buy a house on credit or get
credit cards with limits that grossly exceed their annual income.
AC, that is your opinion. You and my parent poster seem to have a dismal view of our individual existences. I have learned, ''differently''. That it's not a 'dark, dismal world', that it's a ''what you make of it'' world, depending on your attitude towards it. To believe that our lives are totally left up to 'excessive chance' is somewhat naive. Science is cool and all, it has many answers, though not all of them, imo. Try to start venturing onto a different, but an also 'plausible' path. There is room for both the science and the spiritual.
Because why shouldn't people that manage their society's competently be punished for less competent societies failing?
You seem to be under the mistaken impression that each of the various countries of the world are hermetically sealed off from one another. It is not true, of course. What we do in the USA does have an affect on others around the world, just as their actions have an affect on us.
Lets say your country works really hard and does everything right. They keep a reasonable budget, work hard, enact sensible policies, and generally just do a good job.
Seriously?!? You are claiming that we in the USA are doing everything right?!? Are you really making that claim? Have you been paying attention the last few years?
Then lets say your neighbor is full of complete fucktards that spend more money then they have, slack off doing nothing half the time, enact dumb counter productive laws, and generally make every mistake possible one after the other...
And this is a pretty apt description of the US Congress of the last few years, at least.
Should country A1 be punished for the incompetence of country B1? I would argue not since the people in the first country had no control over what the other country did.
There you go, again, suggesting that all the countries of the world are hermetically sealed off from each other. Clue: you can find an American expatriate in just about every country, just about every continent of the world. These expats do in fact exert (sometimes greater, sometimes lesser) control over what goes on in those other countries.
Now you seem to be suggesting that all countries are responsible for all countries. That is interesting because responsibility and power/rights go hand in hand. So if I am responsible for how other countries act and perform... then I must likewise have the right to dictate policies in those countries. In effect, for your argument to make any sense, we'd have to have a global government and it would be that global government that would be responsible for everything.
Readjust your tinfoil hat! It seems to be cutting off the oxygen supply to your brain.
And that means I am not responsible for the failures of other countries. Not my fault.
If they want to give up their domestic freedoms and make their nation subordinate to another... and that other nation agrees to take responsibility for them... then fine. Lacking that... obviously we are not responsible for them.
Grow up, little man! If you want to go live on a deserted island where you can create your own libertarian utopia, then go! No one will stop you. But here in this modern world we all have connections with each other. Some are intended and wanted, some are not. If you want to debate what the extent of our responsibility to others in far away places is, then fair call. But to pretend that we who live in a modern society don't have any responsibility for anyone else is just plain asinine.
Why SHOULDN'T first world countries get to share the misery of their less fortunate bretheren, anyway?
For one, because first world countries tend not to have mobs go after health workers and scientists based on belief in things like witchcraft and sorcery, and they also tend not to break people out of isolation in a hospital when the person has a deadly contagious disease. Sometimes a little epidemic is just what you need to get the population on board with modern medicine.
"Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
Tolerating? They don't really have a choice, unfortunately arms merchants, manufacturers and other countries (incl. the USA) have long been supplying these "corrupt governments". This isn't the 1800s where the army and the individual have the same weapons.
Or the person traveled there on vacation and came back with it.
Vacation? In Liberia? In the middle of the biggest Ebola epidemic? Is that person batshit insane?
It would seem that the incubation period can be several weeks but the risk of spreading is only there once symptoms appear. I imagine a person who is not intending on doing ill will with the disease could self monitor and quarantine himself if needed.
It's not like they will let ISIS or ISAL or whatever infect anyone and send them over with the disease to spread it across all populated western areas or anything. And if they tried, they would be captured at the airport or border crossing by the professional TSA.
Wait, maybe they should quarantine some people.
Listening to NPR they just reported that the person had traveled from Liberia to visit family. It was 4 or 5 days after the person arrived in the US before they started feeling sick so it's not likely the folks on the airplane are at risk.
Because sitting next to a person on a cramped plane using the same armrests, bumping shoulders, arms, and legs isn't contact somehow? Nor is using a bathroom toilet on a plane that the infected person used isn't contact with "objects and surfaces contacted by an infected person"? Because using the same seat as that person on subsequent flights isn't contact? Because the baggage handlers didn't possibly touch the surface or handles of luggage contacted by this person?
Somehow if you believed that each seat cushion, tray table, arm rest, and bathroom get sanitized with bleach for 10-20 minutes between each flight you are in fantasy land (because that is how long it takes to ensure it is killed).
We were all warned a long time ago that MS products sucked, remember the Magic 8 Ball said, "Outlook not so good"
Well, those flight cancellation fees are pretty outrageous.
Most of these governments are democracies.
In not much more than name. Your view of africa is exceptionally myopic.
Africans have a long tradition of "The Big Man" as leader,
While it is true that the only people who can effectively change a country's government are the citizens themselves, your reductionism to the point of condescension disqualifies you from having a meaningful opinion.
That it's not a 'dark, dismal world', that it's a ''what you make of it'' world, depending on your attitude towards it.
The important question we need to ask is if we want to live in a world of single quotes or double quotes.
"Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
So consider a plane with some passengers that have a cold or flu (happens all the time) and mix it with an Ebola carrier. Would this not make the plane a Petri dish for making an airborne variant of Ebola virus?
Just consider how easy it would be to share bodily fluids via the bathroom on a trans-Atlantic flight. Also consider how passengers are squished together tighter than sardines these days.
Can anyone advise why I should not be terrified to be on the same plane with an Ebola carrier regardless of assurances by medical officials that it is not that contagious.
Income distribution != theft. When you work, you do so understanding that a portion of your income will be taken for taxes and how much is set before you engage in said work. You can then negotiate with those costs factored in. You don't find out how much of your earnings you get to keep 5 years later at gunpoint. That's why we tax based on income and not net wealth.
This* What people fail to realise is that Ebola is not very contagious. It has a high mortality rate which makes it scary as but as far as contagious goes it has nothing on influenza or many other viral infections.
You can't get Ebola from someone sneezing in the room.
You can't get Ebola from someone showing no symptoms. Unless the person is physically ill the virus is not contiguous.
You typically can't get Ebola from very short term contact.
My advice is not to tongue kiss people who just got off the plane from west African countries and you should be fine.
So the US is responsible for the fuck ups of every country we've ever had contact with for the rest of time?
Tell you what, if the US must pay for countries we had contact with that are doing badly... does that mean we get paid or some sort of compensation for the countries that did well? South Korea for example... do they owe us an ongoing tax for not being like north korea? Or does your little line of logic only flow in one direction? Is the US only expected to pay other people but no one has to pay us for good things or hey... why not pay the US for bad things done to it? I mean... there are countries that harm the US on occasion... can we expect a payment there?
See, you're just very comfortable with drawing on the national account because you think it is infinite money. People have a hard time with very large numbers. They tend to see them, go cross eyed, and just identify it as a number too large to be bothered with... which tends to mean that many see large numbers as infinite numbers.
Well, the US treasury is not infinite. The numbers have to be balanced at some point. So despite there being a lot of money in there, it does not mean that you can draw upon it infinitely without feeding more into it. Here again, people will say "just raise taxes"... well, okay... are YOU going to pay those taxes? Most people that say such things don't mean raise taxes on them. They mean raise it on someone else. Which is very cute. I'd be very happy with doing all sorts of things if I didn't have to pay for it. Mind if I push some policies and you pay for it while I don't? See how annoying that is?... If you're at all capable of breaking out of your cognitive dissonance then you've joined the conversation and have begun to understand. If you haven't... oh well. For some... sail boats will always be clouds on the horizon.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
"You can't get Ebola from someone sneezing in the room."
if they're 9 feet away from you.
Right next to you, and yes you can get it.unlikely but possible
"You can't get Ebola from someone showing no symptoms."
true, but bear in mind that includes running a fever. How well do you recognize someone with a slight fever? How any people at the beginning stages still continue their daily routine until the are too sick? I'ts just a cold, at first.
"You typically can't get Ebola from very short term contact."
Um..incorrect.
Look, you are right, it is highly unlikely anyone on the plane got ill. Less s for any who came in contact after the flight.
But lets stay aware that it is contagious, and all you need is some a little body fluid exchange...or a kiss on a dead persons lips.
Simple risk analysis. Risk of getting it? very low. Impact if you do get it? likely death.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
You forgot to substantiate your insult/argument. You just said "you are wrong"... Well, maybe I am wrong... but you should offer some reason for concluding that. Simply saying I am wrong is not sufficient.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
My advice is not to tongue kiss people who just got off the plane from west African countries and you should be fine.
The terrorists have already won.
Monstar L
> This isn't the 1800s where the army and the individual have the same weapons.
Clearly you've never been to Texas. Individuals are better armed, have better equipment, and are better at using it.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
If I want something I can pay for it. If my life is on the line, I don't have to worry about how much it costs. I already know two people who have benefited from very expensive life saving procedures. I am sure that when I need something like that, it will at least be there.
I'm not so sure of near-communist countries where beaurocrats are in charge of these things.
This guy from Liberia is already getting the best care available anywhere. He might even pull through because of our "inferior" system.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
The standard definition of Third World poverty is a significant mass of people living under one dollar a day. I'm sorry if a country you like has those statistics, but that's how it goes.
Even domestically it doesn't work. Lets say the government prints lots of money. What are they spending it on? Even if they just use it to pay employees those employees will then go out into the economy and exchange those dollars for goods and services. if the currency is inflationary then the prices will creep up in proportion to the decrease in the scarcity of the dollars.
If any beggar can throw 100,000 dollars on the table then that means prices for a lot of things go up. And the faster they print money... or add zeros to bank accounts... the faster the currency inflates.
Even if you try what Roosevelt and Chavez tried with price controls, you then run into a problem with goods and dollars being valued differently in and out of the country. if these differences become extreme enough then you'll get smuggling. People will either smuggle under priced goods out of the country to make a profit or smuggle over priced items into the country to make a profit. Any big price difference or lack of legal limit on supply is going to trigger a black market. The soviets couldn't shut the black market down so ... good luck trying in the western world.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
Right next to you, and yes you can get it.unlikely but possible
It's not an airborne virus. You need direct contact to bodily fluids meaning the person would need to literally sneeze on your face. That is why ebola only readily spreads in countries where basic hygiene (read: washing your hands) isn't practised.
true, but bear in mind that includes running a fever. How well do you recognize someone with a slight fever? How any people at the beginning stages still continue their daily routine until the are too sick? I'ts just a cold, at first.
It's just a cold at first for a very VERY short time. Ebola once it takes hits you very suddenly. Much like meningococcal which can go from nothing at all to 40+ fever in a matter of hours. You don't need to be some kind of medical genius to recognise people with an onset of severe symptoms, and the symptoms really are severe.
"You typically can't get Ebola from very short term contact."
Um..incorrect.
If you insist. Sure if an ebola victim comes in and start bleeding on you then you'll get it with short term exposure, but the disease is hard to spread. How often do you share bodily fluids with co-workers? In any ordinary scenario you need prolonged contact for the virus to make it across. You shake your co-workers ebola ridden hand and then go to the loo and wash your hands you're in the clear. That's what I mean with prolonged contact, in most normal cases it won't spread and the CDC even listed the highest risk groups are those providing continuous care to a patient.
Anyway in summary you seem to agree with the principle of theres no need to freak out, right?
When I heard the $1/day figure, I always assumed there was a lot of barter and a lot of "doing without". You live in a shack on land that nobody buys, so you have no rent. Your village holds sway over 100 acres, which you farm and/or hunt. You trade bush meat for vegetables in the market. There's no electricity, so there's no electric bill. You fetch water from a stream, which is filthy; but there's no water bill. There's no sewer bill either. You crap in a hole if you're lucky, or the foul smelling street if you're not. Your family has a member who specializes in something that requires skill, such as being a motorbike mechanic. That pulls in some money. You use that money to buy a few things that can't be obtained by barter or other means. There. You're living on a dollar a day, but you're not a social outcast or any more poor than people around you. Thus, it's not as tragic as it sounds. At least, that's what I always figured. There has to be something that makes it different from just giving an American $1/day and telling them to live. If you did that, the only sensible thing to buy would be magic markers, a cup, and cardboard. Most of us would be miserable. It'd be psychologically debilitating. It'd be nothing like "living on $1/day" in Africa.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
Listening to NPR they just reported that the person had traveled from Liberia to visit family. It was 4 or 5 days after the person arrived in the US before they started feeling sick so it's not likely the folks on the airplane are at risk.
Sure, passengers on the plane are probably ok. How about all the patients in the ER the first time he went to the hospital in Dallas, four days after initial onset of symptomatic EVD, was checked out by doctors there and was sent home? He then came *back* two days later and was admitted and tested postive. So you have people in the ER the first time around, the doctors who conducted exam (I hope to hell they were wearing basic PPE) and then any family members who were around while he was 6+days after becoming symptomatic. Check out the currently known timeline, it's not like he walked off the plane and headed to the hospital, he's been walking around with symptomatic EVD for almost a week before being isolated:
http://www.businessinsider.com...
If my life is on the line, I don't have to worry about how much it costs.
I call BS. If your life is on the line, you *won't* worry about how much it costs, unless it actually happens to save your life, in which case the cost will probably leave you financially crippled for whatever life said treatment left you with. Also, aren't there a number of cases where people didn't get treatment solely because they couldn't afford it?
I'm not so sure of near-communist countries where beaurocrats are in charge of these things.
Sounds like you've been reading too much Sarah Palin propaganda. I'm not aware of any public health care systems where decisions for treatment are made by anyone but doctors. It's the US where insurance bureaucrats make life or death decisions. Keep drinking their kool-aid.
This report also shows that our first case of Ebola was screwed up.
How does a hospital release someone who just traveled from Liberia and has symptoms consistent with Ebola? They allowed this person to expose people for twice as long compared to if they had handled the situation as common sense would dictate. [Isolate and test]
The US track record has to be put in perspective with our whole history and all our contributions. If we are to be held responsible for bad things then we must be rewarded for good things.
Every nation... especially those that have had an impact on human history is going to have bad spots. We're people just like everyone else and being people we make mistakes. We fool ourselves into thinking evil things are justified. We get caught up in things. We are occasionally ignorant or lazy. The US is guilty of this but no more so then any other power on earth. The primary contributor to our occasional evil is our power. This acts as a multiplier on the consequences. Were we largely irrelevant like many of the countries you might cite as more moral, our moral record would likely be similar.
So the evil aspect I have to say is not very credible because it is mostly that we were powerful enough to make bigger mistakes then other people.
In addition, I would point out that the US has both tried to do a lot of good, and has actually done a great deal of good. And that when compared against other powers of similar significance, it is hard to say we have a worse record. Seriously. Compare us to Soviet Russia, the British Empire, the chinese past and present, the Roman Empire, and the Mongol empire.
The US is roughly as powerful those states in their time. We project the same sort of global power. And what do we do with it compared to those powers? You can't compare the US's record to Canada or Finland or something. That is like comparing the violence of a paraplegic with an Olympic athlete. Sure... ideally neither would do violence but the paraplegic literally cannot do violence.
As to our responsibility to other countries. We have a responsibility as human beings to assist other human beings. I will admit that. However, they have a responsibility to respect that aid when it is given, be grateful for it, and not take it for granted by taking measures to avoid similar situations in the future.
THAT is all I expect.
If you show no respect, are ungrateful, and take the assistance for granted... I'm sorely tempted to let you suffer to repay the insult. I don't feel this is unreasonable.
It is a problem when countries are this incompetent. Ideally I would like them to just be more competent. I don't want power over these people. I just want them to take care of their own problems and stop needing everyone to bail them out every five seconds.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.