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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.
Ebola victims don't show a temperature until many, many days after they've been infected
But people aren't contagious until after they show symptoms, e.g. fever. Taking people's temperature is a perfectly valid measure.
Maybe you should get some facts to go along with your strong opinions.
Uh, there are people who are more knowledgeable than you at CDC who have thought of these exact problems. Also, they aren't panicking like you are, which gives them a much greater chance of solving the problem.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
[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