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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.
WTF am I supposed to do? Look around for suspicious hemorrhaging people?
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
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.
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.
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!
After the Singularity, we'll get computer viruses and bad OS updates.
The aid workers who picked it up despite taking precautions will sure be comforted by your sentiment.
Even in modern hospitals, disease outbreaks happen despite precautions.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
yes
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
Nice rhetorical scoring, but, yes, it *is* totally different. Comparing the poverty, lack of trust in government workers and dysfunctional healthcare system in the US South to those factors in Africa is like comparing the neighborhood pool to Lake Erie.
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
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.
Most officials will always have a vested interested in lying about it, regardless.
If Ebola is a big threat, they can prepare themselves while keeping the public blissfully unaware, helping to ensure their survival.
If Ebola is not a big threat, they can whip up a managed amount of fear in order to secure more funding, feel powerful, have fun dicking around with their toys, etc.
[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