Ebola outbreak

[DramatistDreamer]

We still don't have a Surgeon General?! WTF?! Why isn't anyone insisting that one be put in place ASAP?! The NRA has gone beyond securing rights for hunters and sportsmen, they are truly despicable.

JaneAusten, you have made all very salient points in your post. Thank you for taking the time to express them. I also wonder why no one sees the connection between underfunded agencies and the inability to thoroughly respond effectively to crises.

Years ago, during the financial crises, when people were complaining about the huge bonuses bankers were still getting and Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein said he thought it was correct because bankers were doing 'God's work', I knew people had lost their minds. The idea that some in the banking industry were entitled to huge bonuses but teachers, researchers, etc. were not entitled?

As I understand the travel ban instituted, it is within the countries closest in proximity to the outbreak that have the ban, not every African country has a travel ban. I am sort of curious as to how one in the U.S. would actually work, however but I believe there would be numerous ways to get around it. And the exemptions would stretch to infinity making the ban virtually unenforceable. Frankly, this is the other side of globalization.

[marceline]

We haven't had a Surgeon General for 18 months. I'm really wishing we could get Jocelyn Elders back. She told the truth and didn't care who didn't like it and I think history has shown that she was far ahead of her time. I consider her firing to be one of Clinton's biggest mistakes.

[DRW50]

I get that you don't need to be a doctor for this particular "czar" (why are we using that term??) role, but I'm still baffled. It's like asking to get attacked.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/report-obama-to-appoint-ron-klain-ebola-czar

[SFK]

I live in a suburb of D.C. and almost every minute of the local news beyond sports and weather has become devoted to Ebola. Nurse Nina's private plane landed in Frederick, MD last night and our local FOX affiliate followed her ambulance motorcade down to NIH in Bethesda white Bronco-style. Someone sneezed outside the Pentagon today and the hysteria continues.

[ellabelle]

My twitter feed blew up with the "Pentagon/Puke/Ebola" story.

You know, I feel badly for any newly pregnant woman this winter. Every twinge of morning sickness, especially if you happen to be on an airplane, and people are going to lose their minds.

[dragonflies]

A doctor recently said that if you ban travel from certain countries, people will find other ways to get here

[reallyhateskateonlost]

There is no other news. Bermuda is getting hit with a catergory 3 hurricane and the news channels don't care. The carelessness of this disease is shameful. It never should have gotten this far.

[alphanguy74]

essentially he's saying that it make thing worse in AFRICA. If we don't allow anyone in with a passport from the affected countries, then it will help us. Like I said, theyr'e not gonna swim or boards rafts and cross the atlantic ocean.

He said they find other ways to move, not other ways to COME HERE.

[Eric83]

But there are no racist sentiments.

Read this article please:

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/ebola-africas-image-takes-hit-26306653

I wish the Native Americans had the option to withdraw themselves from the hundreds of diseases brought here by some of these folks' ancestors.

[DRW50]

That makes me sick. This is another example of those in America who are giddy over this disease, as it affects those they see as beneath them.

[Juliajms]

Those fools in black face are too stupid to know the only people they are degrading are themselves.

Where I see clear cut racism in this situation is how the orphans are treated. As to the outbreak, it's hard to know how much is racism and how much is just fear of contagion. People throughout history have been very irrational when there is an outbreak of this nature.

I haven't seen anyone giddy over it. To me it's simply an example of low IQ. Never underestimate how literally stupid some people are. When I get down about human nature though, I try to remember how many truly selfless aid workers are out there trying to help. Many of whom came down with the disease themselves. There may be plenty of bad people in the world, but there are a lot of good people too.

[DramatistDreamer]

By the way, the quarantine has been lifted for the majority of the people who came within indirect or direct contact with Thomas Eric Duncan (including the fiancée and the people who were in the apartment with Mr. Duncan) with no reports of infection by any except for the two nurses at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital.

I wonder whether anyone will ever discover how the two nurses became infected.

[Juliajms]

^ That's good news.

More good news, looks like they'll be ready to test a vaccine before much longer.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/21/health/ebola-outbreak/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

[ellabelle]

I read somewhere that Nina Pham was not wearing protective gear around him the first time she went into his room, before they were certain he had Ebola, so that would be my best guess. Another nurse said that event with "protective" gear, their necks were still exposed. Also, I've read that infection is most likely to occur when you're removing the protective gear. There is actually a special process for taking everything off after you've been in the patient's room, and unless you've had special training, it's apparently quite easy to accidentally expose yourself to the disease that way. So those would be my best guesses as to how they got it.

[JaneAusten]

I'd say if this is the extent people have been infected, MAJOR plus and gee we didn't even have to close the borders for this to become manageable.

While I know this is a highly infectious disease and very scary, this isolationist attitude by many in the media and politicians is mind boggling, These are supposed to be people who are more informed and educated yet they sound ridiculous in talking about some of this.

And by the way, the genius Ted Cruz was blaming Obama because we didn't have a Surgeon General and that the person Obama presented didn't get confirmed because he had no medical background. Really Ted? And now republicans are denying that it was the NRA's campaign that caused them to pull support from Dr. Murthy(oh he is a graduate of Harvard Medical School by the way). I consider myself a moderate but this is too much from these yokels.