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Health Advisor: Ebola Still Spreading, Worst Outbreak We've Ever Seen

Lasrick writes After four decades of confining Ebola outbreaks to small areas, experts acknowledged in an October 9 New England Journal of Medicine article that "we were wrong" about the scope of the current situation. At the present transmission rate, the number of Ebola cases in West Africa doubles every two to three weeks. Early diagnosis is the key to controlling the epidemic, but that's far easier said than done: "And there are several complicating factors. For one thing, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate that 60 percent of all Ebola patients remain undiagnosed in their communities." A transmission rate below 1 is necessary to keep the outbreak under control (instead of the current rate of 1.5 to 2), and the authors detail what's in the works to help achieve early detection, which is crucial to reducing the current transmission rate.

4 of 244 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Idea by blue+trane · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Money, in the form of direct transfer payments to individuals, fixes both problems. Why can't the Fed fund a basic income at zero cost, as it funds banks?

    Index everything to inflation as a hedge. But prices shouldn't rise because you are improving the General Welfare with created money. Supply isn't affected, since we have untapped production capacity. Why would prices rise again?

  2. Re:Idea by Noah+Haders · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    prices aren't increasing because the items themselves are inherently more expensive. prices rise because government actions (like the one you suggest) continually devalue the currency, so $1 from last year is only worth $0.97 this year. welcome to macroeconomics.

  3. Re:Idea by Immerman · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    So, since the fed is already committed to maintaining inflation to stimulate investment, why not cause it in a way that helps out the bulk of the population, instead of just the people with huge investment portfolios?

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    --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
  4. Re:Idea by Noah+Haders · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    when you give it to people with huge investment portfolios, you're incintivizing people to be ravenous asshole capitalists. this in turn creates jobs for other pepole. when you incentivize people to stay home and fap then not much work will get done.