outbreak! (ebola, sars, coronavirus, etc)

I get the impression the CDC assumed a certain minimal level of competency/care at the average US hospital that was unwarranted in retrospect. federalism in action tbh

Yeah, that and salad bars. Spray that sneeze guard down with bleach and turn the heat lamps up to 11.

― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, October 15, 2014 2:27 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

standard salad bar recipe iirc

maybe if I get to the Indian restaurant early....

Salad Bars

cdc is an advisory / research body

they can't swoop in with helicopters and commandos and take over the hospital like something out of the movies

i feel like they should be treating patients as though the ebola is already airborne transmittable

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/16/us/ebola-infected-dallas-health-worker-was-on-flight.html

Frontier said in a statement that the aircraft “received a thorough cleaning per our normal procedures,”

why do i doubt the effectiveness of these "normal procedures"?

xpost But apparently after the infection spreads, they admit they could have sent "a more robust hospital infection control team" and say they could have "been more hands on at the hospital on day one about exactly how this (case) should be managed." And that "we will do that from now on any time we have a confirmed case."

So helicopters and ET spacemen? Of course not. Yet clearly they could have done more because they have said next time they will do more.

why do i doubt the effectiveness of these "normal procedures"?

Crop dusting: To covertly release intestinal gas while walking. Coined in 1985 on a Northwest Airlines flight from Boston to Frankfurt by Sol Squire, on-board translator, who had just walked the length of the DC-10 aircraft and noted he had "crop dusted" the passenger load.

xpost

i think they overestimated the hospital's ability to handle it themselves.

btw this whole thing provides me with reason #4,226 not to fly.

i think i'm just gonna get a hot dog. fuck a buffet.

make sure to buy it off a street stand

think i'm just gonna get a hot dog.

You, my friend, have just opened a whole 'nother can of worms.

i know, i was joking.

i'll just go eat at the chinese place down the street, surely nothing to worry about there.

or maybe i'll just get a vacuum-sealed bag of dried fruit.

why not just try that new liberian cuisine place that just opened up?

All the food is poison.

That's why I have been slowly exposing myself to all known toxins for my entire life. By the time I'm dead, I will be unkillable.

why not just try that new liberian cuisine place that just opened up?

― Mordy, Wednesday, October 15, 2014 12:42 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i actually almost ate liberian food a few months ago (in tenessee), but the restaurant wasn't open at a convenient time. i'm sure it would have been tasty. i worry about their business now. :(

saw those lie-beral media stories about how hep c and ebola are equally contagious, but man i don't fear getting hep c from just getting on a plane.

Last night a guy on the train got up, put his umbrella on an empty seat, went out between the train cars, and proceeded to loudly vomit for about three stops. I guess that was preferable to throwing up in the train but I wonder about the people walking below.

― Immediate Follower (NA), Wednesday, October 15, 2014 2:43 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Was this guy wearing a Dave Matthews Band shirt?

I'm glad people are finally listening to me i.e. building a wall around Texas.

saw a tweet yesterday noting that some politicians are hollering for an "ebola czar" and the guy's response, which was "that's called 'the surgeon general' and the gop won't confirm one, because nra."

yeah http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/10/14/after-smearing-surgeon-general-nominee-fox-wond/201147

This might be easily googlable, but what are the US/Europe/China etc. doing to help stop the spread in Africa? In addition to having humanitarian merit in its own right, doing so would obviously lessen the likelihood of spread to the US/Europe/China.

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/ebola-virus-outbreak/another-100-u-s-troops-arrive-liberia-fight-ebola-n225581

though the short answer is surely "not enough"

everyone itt needs to take a deep breath

and inhale ebola germs? hell no.

omg is shortness of breath a symptom of ebola

a reporter that was in Liberia is coming to give a lecture/town hall at my house on Friday...... :x

what are the US/Europe/China etc. doing to help stop the spread in Africa?

friend of mine works for the public health service. his normal beat is tracking/dealing with pertussis in washington state due to anti-vaxxers

he spent seven weeks in guinea from july-sept and is going back for (at least) a month starting next week. so it's not like the us/europe/china is doing nothing, but rather that the conditions are overwhelming

a health care infrastructure can't be built up instantly

im pretty much just staying inside and eating thoroughly boiled vegetables until this whole mess blows over.

a health care infrastructure can't be built up instantly

― Aimless, Wednesday, October 15, 2014 2:44 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

A thought that actually crossed my mind recently was whether any of these Bush/Cheney-connected "logistics" companies that we were so dependent on in Iraq (KBR etc.) are capable of rapidly setting up health infrastructure as well.

probably not (cruel irony eh)

just repurpose the for-profit prison industry and keep ebola locked up in a fully staffed facility!

i imagine you'd have to pay contractors an incredible amount of money to risk exposure to dangers they can't shoot

stockholders in those companies aren't going to have anyone to serve them at their summer homes when we're all dead from ebola
not a longterm strategy

Erik Prince is mostly working in Africa these days, organizing logistics in dangerous places.

aaaggggghhhh

I know, right?

A thought that actually crossed my mind recently was whether any of these Bush/Cheney-connected "logistics" companies that we were so dependent on in Iraq (KBR etc.) are capable of rapidly setting up health infrastructure as well.

― my jaw left (Hurting 2), Wednesday, October 15, 2014 3:53 PM (14 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

strong opposite-world vibes

Dallas-based ilx user here, I walked right by the Ivy Apartments a couple of weeks ago #nofear

stockholders in those companies aren't going to have anyone to serve them at their summer homes when we're all dead from ebola
not a longterm strategy

― cross over the mushroom circle (La Lechera), Wednesday, October 15, 2014 7:06 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It is bleakly possible that this is why the 1% supports causes that kill access to EITHER sex ed or birth control/family planning or abortion: all the better to keep manufacturing lots of disadvantaged ppl who will compete to serve them in the future.

Like the further above it all you want to be, the more serfs it's going to take to keep you there.

this discussion does bring one of those sad world-historical ironies into focus, namely that the USA can expend billions (trillions?) of dollars and many wasted lives invading a sovereign country but can't commit a fraction of those resources to combating a disease that may very well kill 5,000 a week in west africa.

erik prince makes my skin crawl

erik price has got to be one of the more hated people on earth

Unfortunately that doesn't stop him from making billions of dollars and engineering human suffering wherever there's money in it.