outbreak! (ebola, sars, coronavirus, etc)

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.

there has historically been very little interest in this thread but maybe it's due for a revival
Evil Taking Sides: Erik Prince or Viktor Bout?

I knew u were my hero when I saw u single handedly keeping that thread alive.

<3

haha!

like you my pulse goes way up when i even think about blackwater much less read about

Yeah, let's just leave it to the local hospitals, they've read the memo, what's the worst that could happen:

http://thescoopblog.dallasnews.com/2014/10/presbyterian-workers-wore-no-protective-gear-for-two-days-while-treating-ebola-patient.html/?hootPostID=c7c473e639ad2859ea04ad2773012ff1

the comments on that are just grotesque. what is wrong with people?

hazmat suits are not recommended when treating patients with ebola, fyi

thoughts from Andrew WK

CNN and CBS both report that Vinson called the CDC "several times" before her flight Monday and complained of a 99.5 degree fever. But according to CBS, they told her she could fly because her temperature was under the 100.4 "high risk" level.

So she felt bad enough to call them several times, and knew she had a fever, but they're all, like, nah, that's cool, just take the flight, what's the worst that can happen, that you have ebola? Nah, that's dumb, where in the world would you catch ebola?

did she have other symptoms? because 99.5 isn't really a fever. not a huge shock they wouldn't prohibit her from traveling with that. tho obv extra caution may have been warranted

idk, I hate to armchair qb disease experts, but why not just wait until the typical incubation period is over? Cuz if she doesn't start showing symptoms til she gets to another city, now you've got a potential outbreak in a second city.

Looks like dallas county is going to legally bar any healthcare workers who care for an Ebola patient to travel

30,000 gun deaths per year vs. ebola. lol @ usa

The WHO has pushed the incubation period out to 42 days.

Recent studies conducted in West Africa have demonstrated that 95% of confirmed cases have an incubation period in the range of 1 to 21 days; 98% have an incubation period that falls within the 1 to 42 day interval.

People understand guns; they accept them.

With all due respect to gun deaths, they don't have the potential to grow exponentially. I mean I think an epidemic here is unlikely, but there is real reason for concern.

http://thescoopblog.dallasnews.com/2014/10/dallas-county-to-discuss-requesting-an-emergency-declaration-from-the-state-because-of-ebola.html/

this shit could stop getting so real any time now. i have a pretty busy rest of october on so if ebola could just chill OK that'd be dope.

The WHO has pushed the incubation period out to 42 days.

dunno that pete townsend is the first guy i'd seek out for public-health advice, but that's just me.

really lookin fwd to my 2 weeks in a big-city hospital this winter.

One thing few people know about is the far reaching power of public health authorities to issue enforceable edicts concerning quarantines and the banning of public gatherings when a pandemic disease threatens whole communities. Most of the laws authorizing these powers have lain unused in western nations since roughly 1920. They still exist, if needed. If they are imposed, we need to cooperate with them.

idk, I hate to armchair qb disease experts, but why not just wait until the typical incubation period is over? Cuz if she doesn't start showing symptoms til she gets to another city, now you've got a potential outbreak in a second city.

― my jaw left (Hurting 2), Wednesday, October 15, 2014 10:19 PM (1 hour ago)

there's a difficult balance to be struck in public health situations like these between being overly safe (dozens of people with any contact with duncan being forbidden to leave their house for 3 weeks) and allowing people to live their lives somewhat normally. it comes with difficult calls. technically 99.5 is not a fever; of course in hindsight the CDC probably wishes it were more cautious, but sometimes the wrong call is made. from what i've read, it doesn't seem like an egregious error. (compared with, say, the hospital discharging duncan originally, given his symptoms and travel history)

i fear we're fast becoming a nation of armchair quarterbacks