Ebola outbreak.

sucks2beme

So how long before somebody raids one of those old Soviet
germ warfare sites that were abandoned and hauls out
something that's both 90% lethal and fast spreading?

Mikey081057

sucks2beme wrote: »

So how long before somebody raids one of those old Soviet
germ warfare sites that were abandoned and hauls out
something that's both 90% lethal and fast spreading?

Putin may give it to them.

tonyb

Some stuff is just too dangerous to use as a weapon. Remember, a virus doesn't know race or politics, doesn't have prejudices. That's why you see chemical warfare as more desirable means. Smaller, containable, dissipates.

There are a few rules that are being broken here, rules that every normal common sense scientist dealing with viruses knows. One is containment and the other quarantine.

We as a country are separated by the rest of the world by 2 oceans which gives us a unique separation that has enabled us to stay pretty much virus free for the most part. Travel is the number one way to spread a virus. Yet we did nothing to close up air travel from any infected countries. Did nothing to close our southern border from infectious diseases from Honduras, Mexico...and other southern countries.

There can only be 2 reasons for this. One....the powers at be are so incompetent or two, it's being done on purpose....for whatever reasons. You tell me which.

I also think we are being told a fairy tale when we hear how on top of the situation everyone involved is. What if an infected person coughs ? A droplet of saliva falls on a counter...a keyboard....food...a shopping cart. The possibilities are endless.

Know what happens then ? You, the American citizen will be contained, quarantined, in huge swaths. Maybe even martial law enacted. That might explain a few things too.

Msabot1

What about the exchange of money?....What happens when if this thing gets so out of hand that the number of cases overwhelms the containment facilities? The fact of the matter remains...the virus is here...it is too late for the We should have...We could have argument.....

tonyb

Msabot1 wrote: »

What about the exchange of money?....What happens when if this thing gets so out of hand that the number of cases overwhelms the containment facilities? The fact of the matter remains...the virus is here...it is too late for the We should have...We could have argument.....

What happens ? You ever play connect the dots ?

Fema isn't stockpiling for nothing. Every branch of government isn't being armed for nothing. They aren't buying billions of bullets for training. Your local police aren't acquiring military gear because they have nothing else to do. Policies aren't in place to suspend due process for the heck of it.

Still, even though the virus is here, we still need some accountability in all this. Where is that ? What processes are in place to hold those accountable ? None...we get a song and dance routine, congressional hearings that take years and come away with zip.

One other thing to consider in all this. The effect of human error. No matter how well prepared, human error can be devastating. For instance, the hospital knew of the protocol for Ebola, yet even after telling them he traveled from Liberia....a hot spot of infection, they sent him home with antibiotics.

westmassguy

Suspected case in Hawaii now

WilliamM2

Damn, talk about paranoid. One case and martial law is coming...

WilliamM2

It's a government plot, we're all gonna die...

tonyb

WilliamM2 wrote: »

Damn, talk about paranoid. One case and martial law is coming...

Didn't say that chief....but if we have a break out like they do in Africa, how do you think they'll contain it ? How are those countries containing it now in Africa ? By martial law maybe ?

Better questions are...what are WE doing ? Restricting travel from infested countries ? Nope
Restricting our southern border ?
Nope
Quarantine any of those even suspected of carrying diseases, screening anyone ?
Nope

So if your a free thinking person with half a brain, the outcome becomes obvious.

WilliamM2

tonyb wrote: »

Nope
So if your a free thinking person with half a brain, the outcome becomes obvious.

Too bad your a bit short of a half.

tonyb

WilliamM2 wrote: »

tonyb wrote: »

Nope
So if your a free thinking person with half a brain, the outcome becomes obvious.

Too bad your a bit short of a half.

LOL....the wife may agree with that statement.

But if I'm short of a half, that means the powers at be are non-existent.

Mikey081057

BTW France and UK have suspended travel from infected countries...We on the other hand know better.

But hey it's October... Let's switch subjects and talk about the economy...

tonyb

Mikey081057 wrote: »

BTW France and UK have suspended travel from infected countries...We on the other hand know better....

Yeah....because we have the "smartest man in the room" on our side. lol

Mikey081057

tonyb wrote: »

Mikey081057 wrote: »

BTW France and UK have suspended travel from infected countries...We on the other hand know better....

Yeah....because we have the "smartest man in the room" on our side. lol

We won't do anything about it until someone contracts ebola from a golf cart.

Msabot1

WilliamM2 wrote: »

Damn, talk about paranoid. One case and martial law is coming...

Coming?? It is here and has been for a very long time....What do you think the American Flag with gold fringe on three borders denotes? It is not just for decoration my friend.....Sorry if I'm off subject here...But with this martial law talk..had to voice this...goes back to Admirality Law...complete suspension of civil rights and being under military authority....

tonyb

Mikey081057 wrote: »

tonyb wrote: »

Mikey081057 wrote: »

BTW France and UK have suspended travel from infected countries...We on the other hand know better....

Yeah....because we have the "smartest man in the room" on our side. lol

We won't do anything about it until someone contracts ebola from a golf cart.

lol...good one.

Or Brussel Sprouts in school.

ZLTFUL

The facts are that from 1976 when Ebola was first discovered until the end of 2013, *only* 1716 cases of Ebola were reported.
Where the concern lies is that from January 1st 2014 through August 26th 2014, 3069 cases were reported.

Not only that, the WHO has admitted that those numbers are still quite probably vastly underestimated.

The concern (and a legitimate one at that) is that the virus has mutated enough to become vastly more virulent than previous outbreaks. So far, 4 African strains of the virus have been identified. Another, the "Reston" strain is believe to originate in south eastern Asia.

The other concern is that the disease can also infect other mammals. And not just primates. It can be transmitted to pigs and most meat inspection protocols can't identify it on the production/inspection lines. Even scarier is that in 2012, tests showed that the virus could be transmitted from pig to primate without physical contact.

Dogs are another species that can contract the virus...and even worse, remain asymptomatic which makes detection of the virus in dogs very difficult.

I don't think it is some government plot or some grand conspiracy. I just look back at the past and see that this thing hasn't even yet begun. Bubonic plaque, small pox, influenza...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_epidemics

Mikey081057

All the talk from the so-called experts in the news is ignorant of history and how viruses tend to be more resilient than any other living thing. History has always taught us that "if we only didn't do this and if we knew then what we know now..."

Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

tonyb

Mikey081057 wrote: »

Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

Amen brother....and that's all I'm sayin'.

Viruses mutate, change, become resilient to current methods. Natures perfect killer. Does it make sense to fight a perfect killer off shore....or bring it here to fight it ? Oh wait...there's that half a brain thing again.

While we are at it, instead of fighting terrorists overseas, why not let them in the door, fly them in...bus them around the country so we can fight them here in every state ? Must need a Harvard education to figure that one out.

tonyb

They are saying up to as much as 80 people could have been in contact with this guy. They still have not been able to contact them all. Kids in 5 different schools had contact with the man, and now some parents are pulling kids from those schools. I know I would. They tell us those in contact are being "monitored". What does that mean ? Sure doesn't mean quarantined in my book. The kids who had contact were allowed to go back to school while being monitored. HUH ??

Who cleaned up the vomit ? The vomit this guy spewed outside the apartment he was staying at ? Who had contact with that.....where did it go ? Any birds or mice pick at it ? Dog come by and give it a lick ?

Ahhh....but we are prepared they tell us. Yeah....right.

Mikey081057

And the likelihood of a chucklehead "healthcare professional" not following screening procedures and mis diagnosing the potential risk can happen multiple times at multiple locations and the effects be devastating. Viruses do not work like simple math, they have the potential to spread exponentially 1 becomes 2... 2 becomes 4... four becomes 16.... 16 becomes 65,536...65,536 becomes 4,294,967,296. It will take a very small number of infected people to potentially spark of a pandemic. Then the chance that it could mutate during this time also becomes a huge risk... In the case of viruses an ounce of prevention is worth a million tons of cure.

But there is no need to suspend travel from infected countries.???.. It is inconceivable to me that our "leaders" are not taking the most extreme steps to protect us because they fear the optics would make them look stupid.

I would much rather look stupid than be stupid.

tonyb

Politics my friend....should be classified as a deadly virus itself.

Mikey081057

And another reason to shut travel down. This is far from under control

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2778022/UN-Ebola-chief-raises-nightmare-prospect-virus-mutate-airborne.html

Mikey081057

And meanwhile back in TX.. First it was 12 people then 80 people now a 100 people who have potential risk....The facts/truth are lagging. What is the number going to be by the end of today?


We are so concerned about the freedom of 1 person travelling from Liberia. How many freedoms of Americans will it take to do the right thing?

Msabot1

Texas is just the end of the line for this case...What about the two flights he took to get here? The passengers and aircrew? The baggage handlers,TSA people and the ticket processors....Anyone who had potential to have come in contact with this guy...are they being tracked?.....And this case is the only one to have come to light so far..believe me..there are others yet to surface...

tonyb

Doing the right thing isn't up there on the priority list. It's all about saving face for a political ideology....a failed one at that. Closing the border, restricting air travel goes against amnesty, illegal immigration reforms, which the prez has said, even promised that he would pass after the elections by executive orders. Once again, politics is put ahead of performing duty....and that duty is keeping American citizens safe. Regardless of how you swing with your politics, every president has that basic duty.

Now for me, I've learned along time ago not to believe a word any government official tells you...from either side. We were told Isis was a JV team, the world would be better off with regime changes in Libya and Egypt. Told the Arab spring was a bunch of lawyers and doctors. Told nothing to see at Benghazi, fast and furious, the IRS scandals. Told you could keep your health plan...etc on that one. Told the economy is staggering well off....that America has never been safer or borders more secure. Just recently the CDC said that an Ebola case from international travel was highly unlikely. Well duh...

Lie after lie after lie....and those are just some of many. Doing the right thing....has nothing to do with anything anymore. A reflection of how far south we as a society have become.

Hard to keep politics out of anything, it's been injected into everything. Schools, work, sports, auto's, energy, shopping, watching TV, food, Healthcare, jobs, taxes, extra curricular activities, restaurants, bailouts and subsidies, banks, the poor, social behavior, race, internet, police, farming, garbage, weddings, you name it....politics is present, you can't escape it anymore.

....and that's the reason we see such a divide in this country today.

scubalab

What really bothers me about this story is that this guy apparently was working with Ebola infected people, yet failed to mention this to the hospital staff upon first visit?!? Apparently, he took a pregnant woman infected with Ebola to the hospital, she was turned away, he took her home, CARRIED HER INTO HER HOUSE, and she later died. Did he FORGET about that little encounter?!? Everyone is so quick to blame the hospital for turning him away. Flu-like symptoms are very common.

If he was asked about foreign travel, I find it VERY irresponsible, almost criminal, on his part if he did in-fact neglect to mention, "oh, by the way, when I was in Liberia, I carried an Ebola infected pregnant woman who later died into her house with my bare hands". I find it harder to believe that if he DID mention this, that they would have treated the initial visit as they had.

There's way more to this story yet to come out of the woodwork, and unfortunately, I don't have the greatest faith in anything I read in the media...

Mikey081057

And even more curious... after "oh, by the way, when I was in Liberia, I carried an Ebola infected pregnant woman who later died into her house with my bare hands".

I then decided to hop a flight to the US.

Unbelievable ... Isn't this the **** horror movies are made of?

sucks2beme

We as Americans don't like limits. That means we don't take orders
from big brother very well. This is the issue. They CAN'T clamp down
things. End of story. I don't care if It's Obama, Bush, or Teddy Cruz
in the oval office. What makes you think it would be any different?
This might spur some changes, but as we have seen in the past,
only big events can have an impact. And don't mistake poor judgement for
for a conspiracy. Generally, conspiracies require some planning and
thinking. Most of the time stuff just happens and people react.
Pearl Harbor, 9-1-1, all stuff that looks obvious in hindsight.
We spend more time thinking about football then how things run.
If we spent half that effort into useful stuff, what a different world it would be.

BlueFox

Mikey081057 wrote: »

And meanwhile back in TX.. First it was 12 people then 80 people now a 100 people who have potential risk....The facts/truth are lagging. What is the number going to be by the end of today?

Since these things are exponential in growth, I suspect we are already in the tens of thousands of people who have had a level of tangential exposure. After all, isn't everyone connected to Kevin Bacon?

We are so concerned about the freedom of 1 person travelling from Liberia. How many freedoms of Americans will it take to do the right thing?

While I agree in principle with some of the political comments in this thread, the fact is that if the government had taken the steps suggested by some then the exact same members of the lunatic fringe complaining about the lack of action would now be complaining about the actions.

With that said, until this is resolved, Africa needs to be quarantined. Of course, that will not stop it, but will slow it down.