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The CDC Is Carefully Controlling How Scared You Are About Ebola
HughPickens.com writes: Russell Berman reports in The Atlantic that the Obama administration is trying to navigate a tricky course: Can officials increase public vigilance about the deadly Ebola virus without inciting a panic? "Ebola is scary. It's a deadly disease. But we know how to stop it," says Dr. Thomas Frieden, the CDC director. speaking "calmly and clearly, sticking to an even pitch and avoiding the familiar political image of the whip-smart fast-talker." International groups wanted the U.S. to step in sooner to help fight the outbreak in west Africa, while more recently some Republicans have called on the administration to ban travel from the most affected countries.
Frieden and other officials say such a move would be counterproductive, citing lessons learned from the SARS outbreak a decade ago. "The SARS outbreak cost the world more than $40 billion, but it wasn't to control the outbreak," says Frieden. "Those were costs from unnecessary and ineffective travel restrictions and trade changes that could have been avoided." The government announced Wednesday that it was stepping up protective measures at five airports, where authorities will screen travelers from Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea with targeted questions and fever checks, an action, officials acknowledge, that was taken not only to stop the spread of the disease but simply to make people feel safer. According to Berman, the message is this: Be afraid of Ebola. Just not too afraid.
Frieden and other officials say such a move would be counterproductive, citing lessons learned from the SARS outbreak a decade ago. "The SARS outbreak cost the world more than $40 billion, but it wasn't to control the outbreak," says Frieden. "Those were costs from unnecessary and ineffective travel restrictions and trade changes that could have been avoided." The government announced Wednesday that it was stepping up protective measures at five airports, where authorities will screen travelers from Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea with targeted questions and fever checks, an action, officials acknowledge, that was taken not only to stop the spread of the disease but simply to make people feel safer. According to Berman, the message is this: Be afraid of Ebola. Just not too afraid.
I'm shitting in my pants right now. Do I need to be afraid of my poop?
WTF am I supposed to do? Look around for suspicious hemorrhaging people?
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
Can officials increase public vigilance about the deadly Ebola virus without inciting a panic?
No.
Some officials have a vested interest in intentionally inciting a panic. The fox is already guarding the henhouse, the REAL question is: How much of a panic will officials incite while increasing public vigilance.
The reason Ebola is spreading in Africa is because of poverty and customs. In some places the doctors have run out of gloves. With a disease like Ebola, that is not something you want. Secondly, in some places they have customs like washing the body of the deceased, then having the wife drink the water to prove she didn't try to kill him. Once again, that is not the kind of tradition you want to have if you're going to stop the spread of Ebola.
Airborne Ebola would be a serious problem. What we have with the current epidemic is an education/sanitation problem, not a disease problem.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
"Ebola is scary. It's a deadly disease. But we know how to stop it."
Full stop, that's it. Quit worrying. For better or for worse, the United States is not eastern Africa. We cannot and will not have a massive epidemic here. A coworker of mine died from H1N1 "swine flu" a few years back. RIP Dusty. Swine flu was a valid health concern, it was something to be alarmed about and take extraordinary precautions against. Ebola is not.
Media's doing what media does, hyping and scaring to rake in eyeballs and sell their advertisements.
Thanks to the War on Drugs, it's easier to buy meth than it is to buy cold medicine!
Heard an expert on infectious diseases interviewed the other day and they said the temperature taking of passengers was a joke as Ebola victims don't show a temperature until many, many days after they've been infected (i.e. it would not have caught the guy who recently died in Dallas from Ebola because he didn't have a fever when he came in). It just gives the appearance the govt is in control somehow, when they really aren't.
Definitely can't trust the government is saying regarding the disease if/once it gets established in the U.S., as preventing panic is the highest priority. The disease expert did say the industry and Feds were working night and day to get a blood test created and available and said they were probably a month or so away from that (if things continued moving along).
Ebola is worse than the government says and this Ebola epidemic is all Obama's fault. If we only elected Romney and stuck with libertarian principles of government this Ebola outbreak would have never started to begin with.
Ebola has already gone from outbreaks in communities to outbreaks that threaten whole countries.
It's on the verge of repeating the process, but now at a global, not country or community level. So the question is, will it develop enough of a reservoir internationally to repeat its' performance, this time around? We simply don't know - and we won't know until we either beat it or lose to it.
To compound the problem, the right solution to this outbreak may not be the right solution to the next one, but we'll "go with what worked the last time" because that's both easy and politically correct.
No matter how you look at it, we're all in trouble.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
International groups wanted the U.S. to step in sooner
We all agree that the US is not the World's police. Since when did the US become the World's nurse?
I feel like perhaps instead of clamoring for more of the US' filthy capitalist money and help, the World should understand that it is very big, and has plenty of resources to help itself. These international groups should be able to handle crises without the US...
*sigh*. I think it's about being scared of being scared of Ebola at this point.
Nobody cares about your disgusting hygiene habits.
Who is "panicking?" Why do these people think someone is going to panic if they're given unfiltered facts?
I suspect these people have a false model of actual people in their heads. We are not trembling in fear of Ebola. We are not trembling in fear of terrorists*. Please stop governing as if you're dealing with terrified sheep.
(* the wars and killing were about rage, not fear)
The fear of being called "racist" is going to get people killed. Maybe it already has.
I can't tell whether you're intentionally joking, or super-high.
You're confused. Wingnut media exists to keep former conservatives superstitious and terrified so they don't see through the Republican extremist nonsense. It's not Obama who's terrorizing you, it's lying wingnut media that wants you to be terrorized into voting for regressive Republicans.
They're doing everything they can to scare you shitless!
Imagine a suicide bomber type of person deliberately exposing themselves to Ebola and traveling to a place that he wishes to attack. Then making it a point to shake hands with a lot of people in multiple areas. But even more likely is the idea that suggesting such a plan could be placed into action would shut down economies in cities all over the world. After all, how many people will eat at a fast food joint or attend a ball game if Ebola is known to be in an area. We suufer throm the very large system vulnerability in that our society is so large and so complex that there are just so many ways we can come to harm.
Maybe I'm just jaded, but it feels like the Ebola scare is being hyped because it would be convenient if everyone forgot about ISIS, Ukraine, and how James Clapper should be charged for perjury.
Don't get me wrong. It's a terrible thing, and a risk to the USA. But it's not that big of a risk. And there are more important things that should be vieing for prime-time on the news reels.
Finally, my strategy of spending all my time alone at my computer, having no close contact with other people is starting to pay off.
Once everyone else has died off from ebola, the geeks, nerds, and dorks shall inherit the earth.
The CDC is being dangerously politically correct with public health. Travel to west Africa should be shut down immediately. Americans are at increased risk for no reason. Help them with the epidemic *there*.
Am I the only one who isn't even slightly scared about ebola? It isn't transmitted through the air or casual contact, so its' pretty easy to avoid. What is there to be scared of?
The CDC isn't controlling how scared you are. They are actually being honest about how dangerous this disease is, and what we can do to stop it. The worst you can say (and the worst the article actually says) is that they're trying to control the tone of their own messaging.
If the CDC were actually controlling how scared people are, then I wouldn't keep having friends freaking out like it's the end of the Mayan calendar.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
People are the same the world over.
In many communities where Ebola is running rampant, superstition, and a belief in shamanistic or animistic magic are helping spread the disease and prevent proper care.
And here in the US, I've seen a well-shared Facebook link to a 'natural health' site that tells you how you can get Ebola from ATM keypads and doorknobs, but you can protect yourself via essential oils and the immune system boosting properties of silver! No need for autism creating vaccines!
I'm so glad I don't live in a place where people think magic potions and mystic talismans will ward off disease!
It seems to me the best way (every time) to alleviate fear is by spreading truth. The CDC should set itself the task of disseminating as much information about Ebola and how it's spread as possible.
I wonder who keeps removing my comments?
Liberia and rest of Africa have huge cell-phone coverage.
Could someone point me towards recent pictures of people suffering and dying of this disease, so I know what symptoms to avoid?
Thanks.
A plane from Liberia arrives at JFK. When entering the country, agents are asking questions about whether the traveller has been in areas where Ebola has been present, have they been exposed, do they know anyone that was exposed, how are they feeling, etc. Finally they non-invasively check the traveller for fever. Ok.....so let's say a plane holds 200 people. The first 121 people off the plane all answer the questions properly, and test negative for fever. Out they go into the US. Traveller 122 has a fever, and has answered that he's been in an area where ebola is present. We throw this guy into isolation! What about the prior 121 people that were on the plane with him while he expressed symptoms, and are already shaking hands, kissing relatives and generally spreading into taxis and our general population. What about the next 78 people in line?
Are we (our wonderful ATA people) smarter than this? Doubtful.
After the Singularity, we'll get computer viruses and bad OS updates.
This whole ebola scare is nothing more than a marketing campaign so the drug companies can peddle their ineffective wares.
Unnecessary and ineffective travel restrictions? Have these guys been to an airport recently?
The government doesn't give squat about unnecessary and ineffective policies. It will be decades before we can get back to reasonable airport security. A waste and burden on all Americans, helping to keep the economy down (viz. international tourism) with no end in sight.
If the government believes that people will feel safer with more restrictions, then that's what will happen. Hell, even if that weren't the case the government will still do it because they can say that it's to keep people safer.
This will just be another excuse for draconian policies. Trading more freedoms for more safety, because "safety at any cost" lets them reform the nation.
The CDC cares about controlling the disease. They couldn't care less about people being scared except when panicky people starting interfering with controlling the disease.
The Department of Homeland Security is in charge of fear.
Bird flu, swine flu - I was never afraid of these things. My attitude was perhaps a bit on the "I'll believe it when I see it" side of things. But something about Ebola scares me... I saw the "Frontline", where they went to pick people up in remote villages that were exhibiting symptoms (in a hearse no less - for lack of an ambulance). I guess what scared me was - the fact that their population density is so sparse and yet it was still spreading. Also, the sheer terrifying nature in which the victims die - painfully and helplessly (more or less)... I realize that they have customs and rituals (along with a lack of education) that simplify the virus' job of transmitting itself - but I can't help but wonder if our more germ conscious society would be better defended, with the increase in travel and population density.
This is sort of like the Nicholas Cage film where our hero (Cage, of course), suits up to face the Plague or the Deadly Nerve Gas, and his boss coaches him, "You'll do OK, pal, the suit will protect you. That is unless your nose starts to itch, you brush against your face mask with your hand inadvertedly, and you loosen the positive pressure seal on the mask. If you do that, there are no guarantees. Your only hope is to jam this syringe through your sternum into your heart and hope that his experimental antibody that has never been tested before happens to work . . ."
People have not worked with half-mask respirators and other gear doing orchard spraying or other such work? No matter how careful you are with the gear, you end up touching something -- oops, let's just wash our hands and then shower down real good.
An Intelligent computer would realize humans are a virus and exterminate us.
What incentive is there to purchase and expensive plane ticket to go from one place without health care to another across an ocean? If people want to migrate, they will come to the US. The Central America scenerio might, just might come into play if the US places travel restrictions on West Africa.
I suspect the TSA won't be as quick to do anal probes now the Ebola is a factor.
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
They need to stop passenger flights out of the region, they can still allow flights in for those that want to go there. The President and CDC and just relying on dumb luck when dealing with this problem. Liberals are always trying to blame FOXNEWS when they are in charge, tge truth of the matter is they don't know how to handle security matters.
When someone is trying to tell me they don't want to discuss this any further and this is the end of the conversation, that is when I really start to worry.
Honest question here:
Are infectious diseases like this, and other things you may catch on a plane more likely due to proximity?
Meaning, if you take the average room you have in a modern theater (not even stadium seating, just, you know, enough room for an average to small person to be comfortable, and a larger person to not be immobilized)?
Honestly, the level of intimacy in coach is kinda creepy.
So the CDC would have us believe that there would be a huge economic impact because of a travel ban on the countries of West Africa? Really? So with the WHOLE of Africa having a whopping GDP of ~$2.5BN vs. that of one CITY (Hong Kong) with a GDP of ~$500BN. Wow..... I would pretty much put that kind of reasoning up there with criminal negligence.
A few homeless people who hang out in the NYC subways all day catch it and see how controlled it is. Total nightmare scenario, and far from unrealistic. Why bother with suicide bombers when all you have to do is get a half dozen people infected and send them on the next airplanes to who knows where with instructions to maximize exposure. They don't even need to be successful and you'll see travel restrictions that dwarf after 9/11. Just what the world economy doesn't need right now.
Or at least that used to be the system until SARS/H1N1. Has this changed? Will an airline cheerfully let you reschedule if you tell them you have a fever and a bad sore throat, or do they demand "a doctor's note"?
The fact is a travel ban would not affect the ability for aid to reach the countries where you have an epidemic, quite the opposite. The travel ban that would be implemented would be designed to stop people from leaving the hotzone countries who are not involved with any sort of medical or aid activities relating to control of the epidemic. It would not affect medical experts or aid officials from reaching the hotzone countries. The law would be designed to stop exactly the kind of people as Duncan who was coming to the US for personal reasons. All other travel except those experts and workers involved with control of the epidemic would be banned. By putting in such a ban, we are making the effort to contain the virus and the job of the CDC and WHO much easier by increasing the chance that the virus will not spread beyond the areas where it is currently found, thus allowing resources to be more focused on those particular regions, so that the CDC and WHO is not dealing with an ever increasing list of territory that is affected and so that it does not turn into a whack a mole game.
Restricting travel to just the experts and authorities would bring the level of travel to a relative trickle. This would make it much easier to carefully vet and examine the relatively few experts who might leave the hotzone countries, if necessary, through a isolation period and an intensive medical examination which is much more involved than what is done at an airport gate. So it makes the relative trickle of travel much easier to control and regulate and to assure that anyone crossing is not infected.
The problem with trying to detect the disease at a higher levels of travel where travel is not being limited to just experts and authorities, is the volume is higher and its not as easy to do the more intensive examination. Many everyday would-be travellers will lie on any questionaire, if they are experiencing any symptoms. The temperature symptoms can be covered up and suppressed with tylenol as well. There is a clear incentive for Ebola infected individuals to come to the USA, now that a Liberian has already done so and recieved free medical treatment, and many will lie, fake and cover up to do it.
The CDC knows all of this. That is why the CDC is lying through their teeth. The CDC is knowingly exposing Americans to increased danger from Ebola and when it is not necessary to do so. This is criminal negligence. The american people are being lied to.
Another fact is we have numerous experts who admit that we cannot take it for granted the virus is not easy to pass. There is a concern the virus may be airborne, and the more widely the virus would become geographically dispersed, the possibility of an airborne mutation increases. The fact that the USA has an advanced medical system is not an excuse or a reason to allow people to come to the country from areas which have an active outbreak, in fact such statements are the height of arrogance, especially since even our own resources would be taxed to deal with these situations, and as well the long incubation period and the tendancy for some people not to seek medical treatment and instead transmit the virus. The fact is despite all of the medical facility in the US the virus could be transmitted in the public nonetheless. We are dealing with human nature here.
To say that somehow that its okay to not be worried or to take lightly a very dangerous virus such as this because the US has running water and soap is such an arrogant and simplistic way of thinking, and it almost seems like they are exploiting the ignorance of the public to suggest such a thing. People obviously do not wash their hands every 20 seconds, even in the US, and all it would take is for someone to say come into contact with a bodily fluid say on a subway seat and then transfer that to their mouths via their hand within a period of just a few seconds. This may not be an unlikely scenario, especially with a virus that causes profuse secretions, but even if just one person were to die from such a
Below is the list of what exposure it takes to become infected with the various viruses listed below.
Cholera 1,000,000 viral particles2
EBOLA 1-10 viral particles infective dose 3,4
Flu 100-1000 viral particles
Norovirus 1- 10 viral particles infectve dose1
Hepatitis A 1-10 viral particles infective dose1
Measles 100-12500
Q-Fever 1-10 viral particles infective dose2
Rotovirus 10-100 viral particles1
Smallpox 10 -100 viral particles infective dose2
Infectivity in semen is up to 82 days after onset of symptoms - Ebolavirus has been isolated from semen 61 to 82 days after the onset of illness, and transmission through semen has occurred 7 weeks after clinical recovery4
Rodents and Shrew can carry Ebola - The Ebolavirus genome was discovered in two species of rodents and one species of shrew living in forest border areas, raising the possibility that these animals may be intermediary hosts4
Transmission by dogs - Serological evidence of immunity markers to ebolavirus in serum collected from domesticated dogs suggests asymptomatic infection is plausible, likely following exposure to infected humans or animal carrion4
Up to 6 Days outside the body (the colder, darker and more humid the longer it survives, sewer would be a good place for it to flourish Texas) - Only one laboratory study, which was done under environmental conditions that favor virus persistence, has been reported. This study found that under these ideal conditions Ebola virus could remain active for up to 6 days!5 v These conditions included low light and cooler temperatures (think winter, less daylight colder temperatures.
Can be destroyed by UV light except when contained in organic debris (dried blood, puke, saliva, and other bodily fluids) - Ebolavirus was found, relative to other enveloped viruses, to be quite sensitive to inactivation by ultraviolet light and drying; yet sub-populations did persist in organic debris5
Can maintain infectivity indefinitely if freeze dried (Dry Ice can accomplish this) - The Ebola virus can also survive for several days at 39F (4C)(Think winter time), and is indefinitely stable at -70C. Infectivity can be preserved by lyophilization (freeze-drying)3
When a person infected with Ebola coughs or sneezes it aerosolizes Ebola in this case it is spreadable in the vicinity of the infected person for up to 104 minutes. Distance is assumed at 3 feet but that is in a room with NO MOVING AIR. Depending upon size or aerosolized particles depends on how long they remain suspended in air. To see a demonstration of particles suspended in air look at a beam of sunshine coming through the window and notice the dust glistening it, notice how long it is suspended in the air, now imagine something so small you cannot even see it and it is suspended in the air like dust. If you are lucky enough not to have dust bang a pillow, the couch in front of a beam of sunlight or light. What does this mean? you could walk into a room up to 104 minutes after someone coughed or sneezed take a breath and become infected - Marburg, Ebola, and Reston viruses, at 50% to 55% relative humidity and 72F, had biological decay rates of 3.04%, 3.06%. and 1.55% per minute, respectively. These rates indicate that 99% loss in aerosol infectivity would occur in 93, 104, and 162 minutes, respectively.6
“The precautionary principle—that any action designed to reduce risk should not await scientific certainty—compels the use of respiratory protection for a pathogen like Ebola virus that has:
No proven pre- or post-exposure treatment modalities
A high case-fatality rate
Unclear modes of transmission
We believe there is scientific an
If you live in North America and you don't have any direct flights to your city from Africa, just go get a flu shot.
And if you've been avoiding one, get your polio shots too.
Those are real threats that kill people.
But Ebola?
Not here.
More people die texting in just one city here than die from Ebola.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
There's a simple way of dealing with that. Don't be a racist nut job. Have actual valid reasons for your positions and keep the outrage to a reasonable level.
The reasons why people get called out for racism is because they're being racist. The opposition to the President's policies by and large isn't fact base. Obamacre that inspired a huge backlash from the right was a conservative policy suggestion from the Heritage Foundation including all the most hated provision. Obama himself isn't a lefty, he's a moderate right politician. It's just the racism that blinds so many right wing nutjobs to what Obama is actually doing.
What's more, for all the whining about Benghazi, how many GOP supporters took note of the much bigger travesty that was Iraq when Bush was handling things? Tens of thousands of innocent civilians died during that debacle, I haven't seen recent numbers, but it was well over 100k.
The guy that came to U.S. probably did so because he knew he was exposed and he'd get better treatment here. It won't be long before it happens more and more. Like I'm really going to believe what the gov't says after all the lies during the past 6 years of the current administration.
yes
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
In order to spread, the Ebola virus is taking advantage of poverty, lack of trust in government workers, and a dysfunctional healthcare system.
The situation in the American South is totally different though, right? It's all gonna be fine...?
some Republicans have called on the administration to ban travel from the most affected countries. [snip] Frieden and other officials say such a move would be counterproductive Remember back in July when the FAA banned air travel to and from Tel Aviv because one Hamas missile hit about a mile away from the airport? Now we have a deadly outbreak of disease in another part of the world, at least one person with that disease who has managed to enter the US and possibly infect others, and we still don't curtail travel from those areas? If you're going to do it for a relatively minor threat, it's insane not do do it for a major one.
"The SARS outbreak cost the world more than $40 billion, but it wasn't to control the outbreak," says Frieden. "Those were costs from unnecessary and ineffective travel restrictions and trade changes that could have been avoided."
Is this guy serious? While ways are pondered to fight against the spread of a deadly disease, and we should be doing everything we can, this guy is worrying about how much money ****THE WORLD**** lost..
Stop transportation to and from for starters.. It's a no brainer... All those caught in the middle can sit, quarantined in a prison cell until they're cleared.
HAZMAT FAIL! Gotta do up those zippers all the way, or it doesn't work.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
he's a moderate right politician. It's just the racism that blinds so many right wing nutjobs to what Obama is actually doing.
Bullshit -
"America and Islam are not exclusive and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles of justice and progress, tolerance and the dignity of all human beings."
"I don't take a dime of their [lobbyist] money, and when I am president, they won't find a job in my White House."
"I think when you spread the wealth around it's good for everybody."
"I will cut taxes - cut taxes - for 95 percent of all working families, because, in an economy like this, the last thing we should do is raise taxes on the middle class."
"If the people cannot trust their government to do the job for which it exists - to protect them and to promote their common welfare - all else is lost."
"It's time to fundamentally change the way that we do business in Washington. To help build a new foundation for the 21st century, we need to reform our government so that it is more efficient, more transparent, and more creative. That will demand new thinking and a new sense of responsibility for every dollar that is spent."
"We can't have special interests sitting shotgun. We gotta have middle class families up in front. We don't mind the Republicans joining us. They can come for the ride, but they gotta sit in back."
"What Washington needs is adult supervision."
"You will not see any of your taxes increase one single dime."
"When I was a kid I inhaled frequently. That was the point."
"We need to change our tax code so that people like me & an awful lot of Members of Congress, pay our fair share of taxes."
I don't hate him because he is black, I hate him because he is a tool and fool, and he is causing irreparable harm to this country. And, BTW, I'm not Republican.
If an infectious person is puking his guts out next to you, what do you think? Read the Hot Zone by Michael Crichton. He describes such a case of Marburg thoroughly.
Obamacre that inspired a huge backlash from the right was a conservative policy suggestion from the Heritage Foundation including all the most hated provision.
This is not the entire truth and you know it. Of course the admin loves to point out a bit written by the right. but what you conveniently leave out, is that it was never intended to be countrywide. What is constitutional for the state is not always constitutional for the fed, - 10th amendment issue
as for iraq (and the wars in general) more of our troops have died since obama took over than prior to that. the reasons why? I cant tell
no, disagreeing with the president does in fact get one called a racist, for example, I am not happy that bush has not closed gitmo, I am mad he still harasses medical marijuana patients after saying he would not. I am mad that my health care costs almost double what I was paying 3 years ago, and my coverage is no wheres near as good as it was. Im mad that I could not keep my doctor. Im mad that the cost of gas is still over 3$ a gallon. Not all of these things are totally the presidents control, but also none of them are related to his race. sadly, if im not called a racist by obama supporters at least once aday, id be shocked as it never happens
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
There are always those douches who never wash their hands after using the toilet.
Now it's a good time to have a campaign:
WASH YOUR HANDS OR DIE OF EBOLA.
Pardon my ire, but what the fuck should I or anyone else care about how much fear the government thinks we should feel? Are people really that stupid that they'll entrust their emotional response to the advice of government and media? Maybe they should be advising us on the facts and not trying to control our reactions. "Trust us, little children, everything's under control, no need to panic -- until we tell you otherwise."
Tired of that bullshit.
"Molest me not with this pocket calculator stuff."
- Deep Thought
Famine, plague, war, or birth control. Choose. I guess you have. --Malthus.
Too late. Game over.
The West will begin mining the harbors and cratering the airports so
nothing can leave. They will landmine the jungle. Anything that leaves
is sunk or shot. Snipers sans Frontieres. Quarantine with extreme
prejudice.
Civilization is a choice. Make it. Soon.
Or don't, and the population goes back to the under-billion level
before the West started feeding everyone... no global warming,
no traffic problems...
There's a simple way of dealing with that. Don't be a racist nut job. Have actual valid reasons for your positions and keep the outrage to a reasonable level.
Coming from a person of color, far too often accusations of racism are used to silence legitimate dissent and debate.
Having valid reason and articulable concerns will not be enough to protect anyone from charges of racism.
We shouldn't be allowing anyone to enter this country if they have been to a country with an outbreak of any hemorrhagic disease in the past 90 days. For now, that means certain west African nations. The people in Zambia are every bit as black as the ones in Liberia and THEY aren't letting Liberians in.
Obama himself isn't a lefty, he's a moderate right politician. It's just the racism that blinds so many right wing nutjobs to what Obama is actually doing.
Depends on your politics. If you're an anti-war lefty, there's not much difference between Obama, Bush, Clinton, Bush or Reagan.
If you're a small government righty, again, Obama, Bush, Clinton, Bush and Reagan aren't much different.
Me, I'm a fiscal moderate and a social conservative. There are lightyears between Obama and Bush, from my perspective.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
Obama is using Ebola as a weapon against freedom. It has been predicted for at least three years.
Obama will use it to implement a martial law to control
1. Free speech.
2. Free press.
3. Right to bear arms.
4. Travel
5. Food and water.
6. Education.
7. Healthcare
The goal is to establish a one world government, a one world currency system all under control of a few, and converting most of the world governments to a fascist police state is required to accomplish those goals.
The economic collapse can't be avoided, and Ebola is a means to an end.
After your return to the United States
If you were exposed to Ebola during your trip, call your doctor even if you do not have symptoms. Your doctor should evaluate your exposure level and symptoms if you have them and consult with public health authorities to determine whether actions, such as medical evaluation and testing for Ebola, monitoring, or travel restrictions are needed.
Pay attention to your health after you return, even if you were not exposed to Ebola during your trip.
Monitor your health for 21 days if you were in an area with an Ebola outbreak.
Take your temperature every morning and evening.
Watch for other Ebola symptoms: severe headache, muscle pain, vomiting, diarrhea, stomach pain, or unexplained bleeding or bruising.
If your temperature is above 101.5F (38.6C) and you have any other Ebola symptoms, seek medical care immediately.
Tell the doctor about your recent travel and your symptoms before you go to the doctor’s office or hospital. Advance notice will help the doctor care for you and protect other people who may be in the doctor’s office or hospital.
Limit your contact with other people when you travel to the doctor; avoid public transportation.
Do not travel anywhere except to the doctor’s office or hospital.
During the time that you are monitoring your health, you can continue your normal activities, including work. If you get symptoms of Ebola, it is important to stay apart from other people and to call your doctor right away.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
This is an important and worrying epidemic not because of how many infections or deaths there are now, but because of how many there will be by christmas, or in a year's time. Even with strict border controls, I expect that this is going to be all over the place in less than 3 years time, and very likely less if the virus mutates enough to have a greater contagious time for pre-symptomatic individuals. Containment for this virus is incredibly expensive, and spreading the virus around is incredibly cheap.
People just don't get non-linear progression and expansion. Ebola will hit the world hard before it is ready.
Ask me about repetitive DNA
Judging from recent events (HAZMAT suits on a plane?) they aren't at all interested in "carefully controlling" how much fear they induce in the population. If anything I would be surprised if they aren't doing their best to cause panic, seems to be an election time tradition to fixate the public on something besides the important issues (surveillance, abuse of authority, runaway government spending, waste, etc).
But will one be able to press the "Shift" key from Singularity?
Dark Reflection
Thank you. Those of us who issues with both parties appreciate a moderate voice who does think we are racists for thinking things might have been handled better, by both sides.
Too bad so many people deviate from proper behavior.
The challenge with these things is never the specifics of the disease so much as it is when the "proper behavior" gets borked.
And that always seem to happen, otherwise nuke plants wouldn't melt down and other sundry disasters with a human component wouldn't happen.
Meanwhile... 50-100 people die in the US a DAY of good old-fashioned influenza.
slashdot slightly exposes the Rockefeller owned and controlled CDC
Well, when I was in the firebrigade here in Utrecht, we definitely had extensive training material on biological threats. It was assumed some foreign power could deliver bio warheads through lots of delivery systems into our territory. Helos, small planes, one picture even had a makeshift Concorde-Bomber dropping stuff. We now know the Russkies hat an extensive bioweapons program and the Japanese used bioweapons against the Chinese with some real impact.
So, anything is technically possible.
Indeed. SPARTA raises its ugly head:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparta#Education
Now that it did not work out in Russia, it has infected America.
you're something worse, tea party or libertarian. let me guess, voted for ron paul?
social conservatism isn't going to survive the next 3 decades.
How you react to something like the ebola is entirely up to you. No matter what the CDC says, it is up to each individual to either trust what they say or not, to try and evaluate and digest the information or to let their lymbic system do the thinking for them.
The CDC does not control how you will feel regarding anything--they may control the information that has a chance of making you feel one way or another.
Same on you sloppy slashdot.
Russia and their Topol-Ms beg to differ.
>>A waste and burden on all Americans,
Americans? I had to go thru a hand search of my luggage in a town in Finland (north of the Arctic Circle) because passengers on the the aircraft were continuing on to New York. US stupidity is an infection in itself that is spreading globally.
I will be in Conakry, Guinea on Monday.
There's a lot of rubbish that seems to be going on with Ebola. I get the impression that people are fatigued after hearing about hyped up pandemics that came to nothing previously.
I disagree on this one. It's about as communicable as the common cold. 4 days survival on cloth based cash & 3 months in males. 8,000 cases but possibly 10x more as these are in areas that are such a mess.
People are also dismissive I think also because most cases are black people, frankly. It's Africa so we think we are better equipped. Don't mess around, call it for what it is - we think we are superior. Maybe we are better equipped but I look at the hygiene of every day people in Europe, USA, Australia... it's all the same - bad. Nobody washes their hands before eating. When did you see anyone use the washroom to only wash their hands in a restaurant? It needs a lot more than that. People need to wash cash and wipe down keypads. It requires a change in thinking. This change in thinking isn't going to happen until a lot of people are dying.
West Africa is the biggest oil and gas exporter now and interests from the west seem stronger than anywhere in the world. As such flights to there to and from places like the UK, France, Netherlands, Norway are going to continue. Screening or at least some help for people would be a good idea regardless of Ebola.
A blog I run for the wealth
Let's see... There was Todd Kincannon, the former director of the South Carolina GOP.
The following are all things he posted to his Twitter feed:
"People with Ebola in the US need to be humanely put down immediately."
"The protocol for a positive Ebola test should be immediate humane execution and sanitization of the whole area. That will save lives."
"Ebola has a strong transmission vector through health care personnel. No effective way to contain while treating."
"How many new infections are there per victim? If the number is more than 1, euthanize at 50/50. That's just math."
"The people of Africa are to blame for why it's so shitty. They could stop eating each other and learn calculus at any time."
"...if somebody gets through and has Ebola, kill it with fire and salt the earth. Compassion is a killer."
"There's just no other way with Ebola. We need to be napalming villages from the air right now."
That sounds a lot like a panicked reaction to me.
You're assuming that the multi-billion-dollar national security establishment will ever consent to less security. The only way we'll get back to normal procedures at the airports is to put the fear of God back into our politicians by, as Thomas Jefferson might suggest, refreshing the tree of liberty with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
We'll either get our polite, democratic society back or we'll finally end up in the police state we're inexorably drifting towards anyway.
Patch Tuesday will be the new weekend.
Yes it will, but it'll be a different social conservatism, longing for a different imagined past, while still rejecting reality like our current social conservatives.
There will always be a portion of the population that retreats into fantasy.
compare SARS to Ebola
compare a night in jail to Dachau.
There is something worse than Demopublicans? You are a douchelord...
(BTW - Gary Johnson)
There's a simple way of dealing with that. Don't be a racist nut job. Have actual valid reasons for your positions and keep the outrage to a reasonable level.
Coming from a person of color, far too often accusations of racism are used to silence legitimate dissent and debate.
Having valid reason and articulable concerns will not be enough to protect anyone from charges of racism.
We shouldn't be allowing anyone to enter this country if they have been to a country with an outbreak of any hemorrhagic disease in the past 90 days. For now, that means certain west African nations. The people in Zambia are every bit as black as the ones in Liberia and THEY aren't letting Liberians in.
Obama himself isn't a lefty, he's a moderate right politician. It's just the racism that blinds so many right wing nutjobs to what Obama is actually doing.
Depends on your politics. If you're an anti-war lefty, there's not much difference between Obama, Bush, Clinton, Bush or Reagan.
If you're a small government righty, again, Obama, Bush, Clinton, Bush and Reagan aren't much different.
Me, I'm a fiscal moderate and a social conservative. There are lightyears between Obama and Bush, from my perspective.
LK
+1
A bullet may have your name on it, but artillery is addressed to " Whom It May concern"
[Hospital sent home the ebola patient in Dallas, though he had classic ebola symptoms and had traveled to Liberia.]
Yep, especially when they deny all of the screening questions.. That's helpful.
He denied the screening questions at the airport. ('Let's see. If I answer yes you won't let me fly and will throw me in with everybody else who answered yes. Of COURSE I didn't have contact with Ebola!)
He DIDN'T deny the questions at the hospital. They knew he'd been to Liberia recently. But their bureaucracy didn't get that info to the person who made the release decision.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Of course, some people would say that yes, such interventions for SARS may have wasted $40 billion primarily because SARS wasn't really anything dangerous in the first place, just something ballooned into histrionic nonsense by a paranoid, risk-averse public and a government that likes very much scaring them.
This would be very much like building a giant armored and fenced barn when someone cried wolf.
Yes, at that point, those precautions would have been wasted. That doesn't ipso facto mean that such precautions now (when there really IS a dangerous fucking wolf out there) are overreacting in any way.
-Styopa
It's not a conspiracy!
And how "not worried" was Dusty about swine flu, hmmmm?
Because you're fucking paranoid? Seriously, there are some things we just don't have to argue about. But that would ruin your fun right?
Enterprise is infested with carbon units.
WTF man! Now it's Obama's fault that whooshes happen? *sigh*
Oh awesome. Thanks man. I was worried for a minute but it turns out that the phlegm I'm hacking up is just green so it's all good. I thought it was another sinus infection or maybe bronchitis....
social conservatism isn't going to survive the next 3 decades.
Prognosticators have been predicting the end of social conservatism for 50 years.
You will not live to see our end.
LK.
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
It's not like you can just down a bottle of aspirin to lessen your fever and lie on the EXPANDED questionnaire and bring Ebola into America... Right?
It seems like the administration is trying to minimize the danger. Remember how O told us that it would never reach the US? A coverup is the worst thing that can be done...
almost as effective, dont pee on you hands (although urine is essentially sterile as it leaves your body) or wipe yourself with the bare fingers of your left hand.
There is no right to feel safe thru security vaudeville at the expense of everyone's freedom, privacy and tax money.
We shouldn't be allowing anyone to enter this country if they have been to a country with an outbreak of any hemorrhagic disease in the past 90 days.
Please define "outbreak" as used in the context of a disease communicable by semi-casual contact that has a 21 day incubation period. Let's see what the WHO says:
"A disease outbreak is the occurrence of cases of disease in excess of what would normally be expected in a defined community, geographical area or season. ...
A single case of a communicable disease long absent from a population, or caused by an agent (e.g. bacterium or virus) not previously recognized in that community or area, or the emergence of a previously unknown disease, may also constitute an outbreak and should be reported and investigated. "
For now, that means certain west African nations.
And perhaps Spain. Of course since Spanish borders are open to the rest of the EU, oh dear.
And Dallas. And Atlanta. But the victims didn't get it there, so you might be on to something. Except that we flew them in.
Nope, wait:
"On 30 September, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) declared its first case of Ebola disease. A CDC spokesperson said, "The patient is a man who became infected in Liberia and traveled to Texas, where he was hospitalized with symptoms that were confirmed to be caused by Ebola. ... On 1 October, the Director of Dallas County's health department confirmed that a second person is being closely monitored for Ebola. More contacts of the infected patient are under watch and will be monitored for 21 days and placed in isolation if necessary. Four relatives of the patient were placed legally under strict quarantine. Texas health officials have ordered them to stay at home and be available to undergo regular testing until 19 October, the end of the 21-day incubation period."
Well, that's looking a bit outbreakish by the WHO definition. So I guess we'll need to see if a population 1 outbreak is enough for the rest of the world to close their borders to the US, using your new and effective containment mechanism.
And since France, Germany, Switzerland, Norway, and the UK have all medically evacuated infected peeps, probably should knock them off the old in/out list, as well. Just in case.
It just isn't as simple as you make it out to be, closing our borders to "them African nations" doesn't solve the problem. Helping them with treatment is likely the best course of action.
Realistically, non-airborne EVD isn't that huge of a problem in most western countries. Even if it breaks out, it will be contained and treated fairly rapidly and we'll start burning the bodies or cities. The world collectively needs to address the big outbreak on the African continent before we manage to incubate an airborne mutation.
More soldiers have died under obama and you dont know why? Suicides, from the way america treat your veterans in the wars the republicans started. Sorry for ac, i dont have an account. (norwegian veteran posting)
Well done... fantastic recovery.
WILL be hemorrhaging within the next 15 days, you idiot!..... it's reall SO simple that anybody should be able to do it.
Do NOT demand your political leaders quarantine the handful of small African countries affected. No, the best course of action is to listen to the advice of all the experts as they tell us to do nothing and wait for the disease to go global and kill millions. This was their plan with AIDS, and that workde very well - only millions dies and now the disease gets lots of research dollars because people all over the world are at risk.
The amazing thing is that these elites are all over television telling people that flight restrictions would be bad, because it would prevent aid from reaching the afflicted countries.... as though they think we are so stupid that we will believe that any flight ban on commercial flights could not possibly have exceptions for government flights carrying aid workers.
Everytime some government flunky lies to the public for the benefit of some elected official and/or party GOVERNMENT loses credibility and trust.
The best thing that officials can do at any time to avoid a public panic is to TELL THE TRUTH. Lying to presumably keep the public from panicking only actually makes a public panick worse as soon as people find out they were lied to; the obvious question that the public asks is "WHY did they lie?" and they fill in the blanks with ideas that are often worse than the reality. The public is left to imagine a disaster is much worse when the reality is just that some politician was worried about his reelection chances. I, for one, am VERY tired of government agency employees putting political spin on things. It's fine for a President's (or a Senators's, or a Representative's) employee (paid for by the party or the politician) to engage in spin for his/her boss, fine for campaign employees to "spin", BUT spokespersons for agencies are on the taxpayer's dime, and are employed by the taxpayers; these folks seem to frequently forget who their employers actually are.
It does not help that government is currently one of the most dishonest things in most people's lives. We live in the era of Snowden, the era of "if you like your health insurance, you can keep it, PERIOD", the era of "it was a YouTube video!" and "what IRS e-mails?". The dishonesty has not been at these levels since "I am NOT a crook" echoed through the airwaves. Nobody should be surprised that people are not very trusting of all the "don't panic" rhetoric from the politicians and their pals. At this point, the natural response of somebody to a government "don't panic" would be "why are they telling me not to panic? could it really be so bad that they are worried I would panic if I knew the truth?". Oh what a tangeld web we weave when first we set out to decieve.
I've heard this before somewhere...
It willbe spread via money, so the US is in high danger.
yes, bush started the wars, and obama has made it even worse. would have been better off pulling out as soon as he got in instead of what we got now
Its been 6 years, I think obama can start to take some of the blame now
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
The non-mainstrean media have reported WHO screaming for help at the top of it's lungs since it started. But the mainstream press haven't. The mainstream press say,'it's not particularly contagious', while acknowledging many doctors have died!?
I kept wondering, 'why would the government...the '1%'...want to suppress this.
Now I get it. It's not because it might cost taxpayers a lot to control, but because it might cost the 'world' (aka the 1%) a lot from unnecessary travel and trade restrictions.
Personally, I think you're rather optimistic in thinking that we will ever get back to reasonable airport security. The incentives just aren't there for the people making the decisions. Too many people are gaining (power or money) from keeping or worsening the status quo for it to ever improve.
I don't hate him because he is black, I hate him because he is a tool and fool, and he is causing irreparable harm to this country. And, BTW, I'm not Republican.
So, basically, you are a (typical) lying charlatan republican that hates him because he is an intelligent black man that is fixing the mess republicans (like yourself) created by Bush's deregulation policies. Got it. Thanks for sharing that with everyone.
Social conservatism is dead, and it died with the re-election of Obama.
Case in point: The Millennials are socially liberal, but fiscally conservative. They're *NOT* libertarians. They are still Democrats that are begging the party for fiscal change. It won't happen, and they will still vote Democrat because above all else their narcissistic social views take precident above all else. Also, they've been brainwashed into paying atonement for "white privilege". That means going bankrupt for purchasing all organic labeled food and losing sleep at night over AGW dogma.
Rome isn't about to burn; it's burning now! America is finished. I expect the 50 state union to dissolve in the next 12 years.
Life is not for the lazy.
Apart from the deranged ramblings of ACs, has anyone heard someone seriously proposing something like this? My gut feeling is "bullshit", but I haven't really attempted to think it through. Ebola is much more interesting.
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
In addition to being present in body fluids, the virus is also present on a patient's skin after symptoms develop, according to Bruce Ribner, the infectious disease specialist who heads the team that has cared for three Ebola patients at Emory University Medical Centre in Atlanta. Speaking at a medical conference last week, Dr Ribner said his team had tested the patients, and finding the virus on the skin underlined how contagious the disease was once symptoms were apparent.
International groups wanted the U.S. to step in sooner to help fight the outbreak in west Africa
What the fuck? Why not ask Russia, Japan, Italy, Brazil, South Africa, etc to step in and stop the outbreak? Why America? Why not someone else? Is Sweden or the UK lacking in medical knowledge? Is it about money? China has none? Is it about personnel? India doesn't have people?
Seriously, why call on America when everyone knows how evil and totalitarian America is? I just do not get it. On one hand, we get, "Get away from us. You are evil." and on the other hand, we have, "Hey, we know you are nice guys. Can you help us?"
Really? If you shit on someone, don't go asking them for help afterwards. America should not help, but America is better than that and will help anyways.
"Someone needs to talk to the tree of liberty about its ghoulish drinking problem." by ohnocitizen
The CDC is a bureaucratic machine.
It has a US centric view... it does not have a global charter.
It does watch for things outside the US but depends on others.
They seem to be almost flat footed on this. Had the folk in
Texas not stumbled they would look good. The folk in Texas did
step on it and now are trying to catch up.
If they had done their job and the politicians done their day job
we would have seen Governors, Mayors, President Obama formally
introduce experts then sit down and listen. However they wanted
camera time, they wanted to be in charge and here we go.
Early on I had a question about Ebola and because I could I submitted /.). A week
a question that took a day to frame (unlike this 40 second
later I got a reply... that was in effect "good question, we do not have
an answer today, we will and here is where you need to look.
Very responsible, very organized but navigates like three oil tankers
and two aircraft carriers tied together with half a million rolls of duct
tape. Slow ponderous relentless... comes to mind. Something about
five captains and a couple dozen tug boat captains applies too.
I went looking for my favorite kitchen rubber gloves today at my
favorite big box shop.... None. Like bottled water after the Napa
quake they have apparently been shipped to high demand locations like Texas
and I hope Africa. There were still gloves that work fine but not
my favorite type in the large economy box. Lots of them at the
local flu shot clinic today so the medical community here is golden.
I should give the important SUMMARY:
My meatloaf smushing and habanero slicing is still safe.
Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't. Mark Twain.