Ebola is impossible to catch unless you are directly exposed to someone who is symptomatic. That is why the people treating the victims wear the space suits. The reason those not directly exposed don't need to worry is that the virus dies within an hour or two of leaving the victim's body, I suppose when it dries out. The flu virus on the other hand can survive for days or weeks on a door handle or on dust particles in the air.
I'm still trying to figure out what it has to do with politics.
Or maybe the limited resources in the area of the outbreak make it impossible to be 100% perfect in your procedures and you do the best you can in a difficult situation.
The answer to stemming the tide of people taking Ebola elsewhere is to get it under control in Liberia/Sierra Leone/Ghana so there's no Ebola to take elsewhere. Until we do that the danger to other countries will continue regardless of what you do.
Another thing, it's starting to look like if you discover and start treating it early and aggressively that you have a good chance of surviving Ebola. If L/SL/G had as good a medical system as the US I suspect the survival rate would be much better.
The big problem with Targeted Trolls is that they don't tend to be solitary creatures like the Classic Troll. While they will act alone, they can also get together with other Targeted Trolls to harass the person/people who have entered their cross-hairs. This amplifies the harassment and can make it impossible for them to be ignored. (For example, if one of them tracks down the victim's home address and posts it with a threatening message.)
In a country like Liberia with its poor transportation systems I think the 101st Airborne Division with their helicopters and skilled pilots is one of the things you need to deliver material and personnel in the area. From the Whitehouse Fact Sheet on the response:
Scaling-up the DoD presence in West Africa. Following the completion of AFRICOM’s assessment, DoD announced the planned deployment of 3,200 troops, including 700 from the 101st Airborne Division headquarters element to Liberia. These forces will deploy in late October and become the headquarters staff for the Joint Forces Command, led by Major General Gary Volesky. The total U.S. troop commitment will depend on the requirements on the ground;
So out of at least 3,200 troops only 700 of them are from the 101st Airborne and the other units are yet to be specified. It makes sense to jump start the transportation system so the guys that follow can hit the ground running (or at least jogging;). If there are 100 choppers and pilots it probably takes the other 600 to support them. You need mechanics, airfield personnel for things like fueling and air traffic control, a kitchen to feed 700 people or more, a medical unit and the officers to manage it all.
If Ebola were even half as transmissible as the flu I'd stock up my pantry and not leave my house for two months. Fortunately it's so hard to transmit to others that it has no chance of reaching epidemic proportions in a country like the US with a first world health system. It's difficult to be perfect and there may be a few cases that slip through the cracks like Thomas Duncan but even if some ISIS terrorist tried to bring it here deliberately there's no chance for it to develop into a widespread epidemic as long as it's so difficult to transmit.
The US military personnel sent to Liberia are there to build some treatment centers and to expedite logistics for materials to fight the epidemic. They are not treating or even being exposed to the people who are contagious with Ebola. Your post is just more fear mongering.
It should be said that most of the mistakes here were by the hospital in Texas, not the CDC. If the CDC had descended on the hospital like a ton of bricks and the first inkling of Ebola they might have prevented most of that from happening then people would be complaining about Federal overreach. Instead they're complaining they didn't do enough. Regardless of what it does there's a certain sector of the American public that will always find a way to fault the government.
... It's all well-and-good for Finland to look down on us for it, but Finland doesn't have to deal with a MUCH larger minority and impoverished population who are way more prone to crime than your average European suburbanite. Let's see how Finland behaves when we ship over the 20% of our population of children living in poverty. Let's see if Finland is so liberal on crime when we up their black and hispanic populations to 30% (like in the U.S.) of their total population instead of the 0.5% it currently is.
Or we could do like Finland does and make sure none of our citizens live in such abject poverty that a life of crime appears attractive. We could make sure that children's brains aren't stunted by growing up without enough food to eat or with poor nutrition. The Finns care far more about social welfare than we do in the US.
The health of an economy has more to do with how fast money is moving through it than the absolute wealth in it. More income equality increases the spending ability of those toward the lower end of the income spectrum who are more likely to spend it immediately into the economy.
Take me for instance. I'm not rich but as an IT professional I do ok. Ever since I paid off my house 5 years ago I haven't changed my spending habits much so the money is just accumulating instead of being spent back into the economy. That doesn't help the economy much. (My excuse is I'm close to retirement and I'm building my nest egg.)
No pure "ism" whether it's capital, social, commune or whatever will work in its pure form. They are way to idealistic about the nature of human beings. The strongest most resilient societies take the best of a variety of ism's to maximize the benefit to their members. If you're too much of a purist for your favorite ideology all you will ever be is disappointed when people don't conform to your idea of what they should be.
My coworker, a retired Marine sergeant, is in Jackson Hole right now. What's the address?:)
More seriously I think there may be something to your rant. Saddam Hussein was our bought and paid for guy up until then late 1980's then he wanted to go independent and refused to stay bought. I think at least part of the reason we went after him was as an object lesson to our other bought and paid for dictators around the world. Problem was they didn't really consider all of the chaos that would come from deposing him.
How about when some enterprising group of potential suicide bombers visit Liberia looking to pick up a minor case of Ebola and then going on a world tour using the largest international airports or railways for their travel needs?
Wouldn't that be a little like carrying around a briefcase with unshielded weapons grade plutonium in it? The time between the beginnings of contagiousness and incapacitation is pretty short.
In Afghanistan the Taliban are very hard on women but on the other hand in Iraq under Saddam Hussein the women were some of the most liberated in the Middle East, but much less so now under the current government.
Can someone tell me why so many talking heads are saying "It would be a BAD thing to stop allowing any normal commercial flights INTO the US from that part of Africa till they get it under control?
I don't think there are any direct flights from that area into the US. Thomas Duncan came through Brussels. It's probably impossible to totally quarantine such a large area.
Note that both of the Ebola patients were health care workers directly involved in the care of Mr. Duncan and so were exposed to him when he was extremely contagious. None of the people in the family he was staying with or the Emergency Room workers appear to have been infected and it's been long enough that we would probably know that by now.
There is no such as 'catastrophic man-made global warming', which is why the LIARS renamed it 'climate change', which means something completely different.
You can always tell someone is a climate science denier when they add the adjective "catastrophic" to the front of anthropogenic global warming. The term "climate change" came before "global warming", not after. Gilbert Plass published the peer reviewed paper "The Carbon Dioxide Theory of Climate Change." in 1956. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was created in 1988.
Climate change is inevitable, but the main reason that it's so damaging is because we have large static cities. Nature isn't static. We need to learn now that if we plan on having permanent settlements that they will have to bend with nature. Like it or not, our coastal cities cannot exist as they are now for much longer.
If you're going to take that attitude then you'd better plan for around 300 feet of sea level rise because that's how much there will be if all of the ice in the world melts plus adding in the steric effects of ocean warming.
The only people who still want to debate the causes are those who are motivated to disbelieve in human causes. The scientific community has largely moved beyond that are of argument.
Slashdot Mirror
Ebola is impossible to catch unless you are directly exposed to someone who is symptomatic. That is why the people treating the victims wear the space suits. The reason those not directly exposed don't need to worry is that the virus dies within an hour or two of leaving the victim's body, I suppose when it dries out. The flu virus on the other hand can survive for days or weeks on a door handle or on dust particles in the air.
I'm still trying to figure out what it has to do with politics.
Or maybe the limited resources in the area of the outbreak make it impossible to be 100% perfect in your procedures and you do the best you can in a difficult situation.
The answer to stemming the tide of people taking Ebola elsewhere is to get it under control in Liberia/Sierra Leone/Ghana so there's no Ebola to take elsewhere. Until we do that the danger to other countries will continue regardless of what you do.
Another thing, it's starting to look like if you discover and start treating it early and aggressively that you have a good chance of surviving Ebola. If L/SL/G had as good a medical system as the US I suspect the survival rate would be much better.
It's one thing if you bring someone in for a few days (say 5 or less) but that was stretching things to the breaking point..
The big problem with Targeted Trolls is that they don't tend to be solitary creatures like the Classic Troll. While they will act alone, they can also get together with other Targeted Trolls to harass the person/people who have entered their cross-hairs. This amplifies the harassment and can make it impossible for them to be ignored. (For example, if one of them tracks down the victim's home address and posts it with a threatening message.)
That's happened to climate scientists too.
Exactly. Look at chimpanzee's that share about 99% of human's DNA. Neanderthals would have to be much closer.
Well, she is our titular head of state ...
So when she dies and Charles becomes king does that mean he is the ballular head of state?
(Sorry, I couldn't help myself.)
In a country like Liberia with its poor transportation systems I think the 101st Airborne Division with their helicopters and skilled pilots is one of the things you need to deliver material and personnel in the area. From the Whitehouse Fact Sheet on the response:
Scaling-up the DoD presence in West Africa. Following the completion of AFRICOM’s assessment, DoD announced the planned deployment of 3,200 troops, including 700 from the 101st Airborne Division headquarters element to Liberia. These forces will deploy in late October and become the headquarters staff for the Joint Forces Command, led by Major General Gary Volesky. The total U.S. troop commitment will depend on the requirements on the ground;
So out of at least 3,200 troops only 700 of them are from the 101st Airborne and the other units are yet to be specified. It makes sense to jump start the transportation system so the guys that follow can hit the ground running (or at least jogging ;). If there are 100 choppers and pilots it probably takes the other 600 to support them. You need mechanics, airfield personnel for things like fueling and air traffic control, a kitchen to feed 700 people or more, a medical unit and the officers to manage it all.
If Ebola were even half as transmissible as the flu I'd stock up my pantry and not leave my house for two months. Fortunately it's so hard to transmit to others that it has no chance of reaching epidemic proportions in a country like the US with a first world health system. It's difficult to be perfect and there may be a few cases that slip through the cracks like Thomas Duncan but even if some ISIS terrorist tried to bring it here deliberately there's no chance for it to develop into a widespread epidemic as long as it's so difficult to transmit.
The US military personnel sent to Liberia are there to build some treatment centers and to expedite logistics for materials to fight the epidemic. They are not treating or even being exposed to the people who are contagious with Ebola. Your post is just more fear mongering.
The rules were changed so certain judicial nominations couldn't be filibustered but I don't think that applies to appointments like Surgeon General.
It should be said that most of the mistakes here were by the hospital in Texas, not the CDC. If the CDC had descended on the hospital like a ton of bricks and the first inkling of Ebola they might have prevented most of that from happening then people would be complaining about Federal overreach. Instead they're complaining they didn't do enough. Regardless of what it does there's a certain sector of the American public that will always find a way to fault the government.
Maybe the can be laid on thick and scalloped with dimples like they did on Mythbusters.
Or we could do like Finland does and make sure none of our citizens live in such abject poverty that a life of crime appears attractive. We could make sure that children's brains aren't stunted by growing up without enough food to eat or with poor nutrition. The Finns care far more about social welfare than we do in the US.
The health of an economy has more to do with how fast money is moving through it than the absolute wealth in it. More income equality increases the spending ability of those toward the lower end of the income spectrum who are more likely to spend it immediately into the economy.
Take me for instance. I'm not rich but as an IT professional I do ok. Ever since I paid off my house 5 years ago I haven't changed my spending habits much so the money is just accumulating instead of being spent back into the economy. That doesn't help the economy much. (My excuse is I'm close to retirement and I'm building my nest egg.)
No pure "ism" whether it's capital, social, commune or whatever will work in its pure form. They are way to idealistic about the nature of human beings. The strongest most resilient societies take the best of a variety of ism's to maximize the benefit to their members. If you're too much of a purist for your favorite ideology all you will ever be is disappointed when people don't conform to your idea of what they should be.
Snorting it would probably stuff your nose up pretty good at least.
My coworker, a retired Marine sergeant, is in Jackson Hole right now. What's the address? :)
More seriously I think there may be something to your rant. Saddam Hussein was our bought and paid for guy up until then late 1980's then he wanted to go independent and refused to stay bought. I think at least part of the reason we went after him was as an object lesson to our other bought and paid for dictators around the world. Problem was they didn't really consider all of the chaos that would come from deposing him.
Yellowcake uranium is not particularly hazardous unless you snort it like cocaine. It's 99%+ U-238 which has a half-life over 4 billion years.
How about when some enterprising group of potential suicide bombers visit Liberia looking to pick up a minor case of Ebola and then going on a world tour using the largest international airports or railways for their travel needs?
Wouldn't that be a little like carrying around a briefcase with unshielded weapons grade plutonium in it? The time between the beginnings of contagiousness and incapacitation is pretty short.
In Afghanistan the Taliban are very hard on women but on the other hand in Iraq under Saddam Hussein the women were some of the most liberated in the Middle East, but much less so now under the current government.
What a libertarian fantasy world you live in. All the lawyers in the world can't help you if you're dead because of someone else's malfeasance.
Can someone tell me why so many talking heads are saying "It would be a BAD thing to stop allowing any normal commercial flights INTO the US from that part of Africa till they get it under control?
I don't think there are any direct flights from that area into the US. Thomas Duncan came through Brussels. It's probably impossible to totally quarantine such a large area.
Note that both of the Ebola patients were health care workers directly involved in the care of Mr. Duncan and so were exposed to him when he was extremely contagious. None of the people in the family he was staying with or the Emergency Room workers appear to have been infected and it's been long enough that we would probably know that by now.
There is no such as 'catastrophic man-made global warming', which is why the LIARS renamed it 'climate change', which means something completely different.
You can always tell someone is a climate science denier when they add the adjective "catastrophic" to the front of anthropogenic global warming. The term "climate change" came before "global warming", not after. Gilbert Plass published the peer reviewed paper "The Carbon Dioxide Theory of Climate Change." in 1956. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was created in 1988.
Climate change is inevitable, but the main reason that it's so damaging is because we have large static cities. Nature isn't static. We need to learn now that if we plan on having permanent settlements that they will have to bend with nature. Like it or not, our coastal cities cannot exist as they are now for much longer.
If you're going to take that attitude then you'd better plan for around 300 feet of sea level rise because that's how much there will be if all of the ice in the world melts plus adding in the steric effects of ocean warming.
And debate on the causes...
The only people who still want to debate the causes are those who are motivated to disbelieve in human causes. The scientific community has largely moved beyond that are of argument.