The Ebola Outbreak

Miragedriver said:

You are so very right Popeye!

5 Viruses That Are Scarier Than Ebola

After reading that I don’t want to come out of my home


I will now get back to bottling my Malbec

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I still remember that my heart would skip a beat every time I saw meat for about a month after I took microbiology class in grad school. you would not believe how many different kinds of little critters live in meat and how many of them can survive all sorts of cooking methods. I was particular fond of a picture of a brain of a human who ate some meat contaminated with some kind of worm. His brain literally became scrambled bits and pieces... yummy... At the time, we actually joked about becoming vegetarians. But seriously, if you want to become a vegetarian, looking at a few of those pics will give you amazing motivation to avoid meat once and for all...

This just in... a 2nd health care worker that tended to Thomas Duncan has tested positive for Ebola.

Miragedriver said:

Granted, I am not 100% sane, but then, which of us is. With that said, if I was in charge of country “B” and my neighbor, country “A” is found to have foot and mouth in its animal livestock then an immediate import ban would be implemented. Why is it not the same for ebola, or is that all a bit too much like common sense?

This is not to say we (collective we) should not help. An outbreak control requires a coordinated series of medical services, along with a certain level of community engagement. The necessary medical services required include rapid detection and contact tracing, quick access to appropriate laboratory services, proper management of those who are infected, and proper disposal of the dead through cremation or burial. Prevention includes decreasing the spread of disease from infected animals to humans. This may be done by only handling potentially infected bush meat while wearing proper protective clothing and by thoroughly cooking it before consumption. It also includes wearing proper protective clothing and washing hands when around a person with the disease."


I will now get back to bottling my Malbec

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I remember first seeing the border between The Netherlands and Germany, with barbed wire on both sides of the barrier across the road. That was in 1948. Nowadays you see that you've passed the border because some traffic signs are slightly different. In large parts of Africa they've never had barbed wire about the borders nor barriers across most roads just as you mostly don't see where the border is between Russia and Ukraine.
The people cathing and using bush meat are mostly to poor to pay for your protective measures. You can start designing measures to arrest the spread of ebola after accepting these facts.

The interesting thing is there are no direct flights from Ebola stricken areas to the US. People fly via Europe to the US. So the TSA is screening zero passengers and how would they know unless the traveler declared it. Is this just show by Obama? I imagine unless Europe takes steps there's no way to restrict air flights hence why nothing can be done without affecting Europe because it will be difficult to restrict and screen everyone from Europe flying to the US.

delft said:

I remember first seeing the border between The Netherlands and Germany, with barbed wire on both sides of the barrier across the road. That was in 1948. Nowadays you see that you've passed the border because some traffic signs are slightly different. In large parts of Africa they've never had barbed wire about the borders nor barriers across most roads just as you mostly don't see where the border is between Russia and Ukraine.
The people cathing and using bush meat are mostly to poor to pay for your protective measures. You can start designing measures to arrest the spread of ebola after accepting these facts.

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My intent in the example was to stop the people form those nations infected from boarding an aircraft and traveling to my nation and spreading the infirmity. Either that or place them in quarantine upon arrival.

Miragedriver said:

My intent in the example was to stop the people form those nations infected from boarding an aircraft and traveling to my nation and spreading the infirmity. Either that or place them in quarantine upon arrival.

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I would just ban all commercial flights to those countries to help slow the spread. As for the argument about needing flights in to help, I would have special charter flights where these planes get decon after every flight. That's just me.

The man from Liberia who ended up in Dallas supposedly lied on his questionnaire about his exposure to Ebola.

joshuatree said:

I would just ban all commercial flights to those countries to help slow the spread. As for the argument about needing flights in to help, I would have special charter flights where these planes get decon after every flight. That's just me.

The man from Liberia who ended up in Dallas supposedly lied on his questionnaire about his exposure to Ebola.

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The argument against that is such ban would create panic in those countries, create huge refugee flow to neighboring countries. Porous borders mean you'll never seal off one of those countries. Neighboring countries are just as poor and poorly equipped to handle infections. So now the epidemic is bigger and spreading faster. No easy solution.

Miragedriver said:

My intent in the example was to stop the people form those nations infected from boarding an aircraft and traveling to my nation and spreading the infirmity. Either that or place them in quarantine upon arrival.

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Ever since this ebola epidemic first broke I have been an advocate of travel bans.

Mandatory quarantines are a good idea too, and it should definitely be longer than the average incubation period of 21 days since average means it can take longer and what if people first get infected when they are on the plane?

A mandatory quarantine period of 30 days for people who have been to the affected countries in the past 30 days would provide a good cushion.

Fellow passengers will have to be quarantined too. People subject to the quarantine due to their own travels should also be publicly identified. This would be a good way to minimize spreading the infection to the general population and put social pressure on the selfish and irresponsible people who have been to those countries and choose to then travel elsewhere.

I don't know what the visa requirements are for the affected countries but if a visa is required to travel to those countries then that is one way to determine if someone has been there in the past 30 days.

Medical personnel can be sent to the affected countries to help fight the epidemic, that is their job afterall, but sending anyone else there to do any other kind of work, including troops to help build facilities etc is taking an unnecessary risk.

As much as I value building goodwill for the US internationally, putting more of our people and possibly the whole country at risk with a deadly epidemic is not a good way to do it. Send money or other resources to locals to do the work. I give the Obama administration a big fat "F" for its strategy in handling the ebola outbreak.

Can you explain why US troops instead of health workers being sent to West Africa?

An interesting and provocative article


Can you point to anything wrong or inaccurate in the article?

The US doesn't need troops to counter China in Africa especially when there are no Chinese troops deployed in Africa. I bet one reason the US is afraid is a terrorist organization getting their hands on Ebola. So many people infected it wouldn't be hard for a terrorist organization to get a sample. The troops are there probably to control containment of those infected which fits nicely with the crisis.