* * Ebola Discussion

[southcoast]

Science generally doesn't do experiments to prove the null hypothesis. Which is what you are asking me for. There is no evidence to prove that quarantining an entire state does anything positive because no one has ever done that. The reason is that no one has ever thought it might be effective.

You quarantine people who pose some risk of spreading the disease. The two infected people are in Dallas, I fail to see how quarantining Amarillo will prevent the disease from spreading.

What you propose is the medical equivalent of Captain Renault ordering his officers to "Round up the usual suspects." It will use a lot of resources, cost a lot of money, and give the appearance of doing something while doing nothing.

If I didn't know better, I'd think that you were the head of the CDC in disguise.

Do you believe the nurse who flew to Cleveland, or any of those who had come into contact with the Ebola victim should have been allowed to board a commercial flight out of Dallas?

No to suggest you have given any indication either way, but seems a valid question?

 

[Iggy]

Sure is fortuitous that Ebola came along. Media had about plumb wore out the ISSI thing and the election is still 20 days away..

I figger Ebola will start to fade about a week before the elections.

 

[GaryS]

It's a valid question, but not related to your original suggestion. Which was to forbid anyone from going to or leaving Texas to be on the safe side.

Do you believe the nurse who flew to Cleveland, or any of those who had come into contact with the Ebola victim should have been allowed to board a commercial flight out of Dallas?

No to suggest you have given any indication either way, but seems a valid question?

 

[GF]

Sure is fortuitous that Ebola came along. Media had about plumb wore out the ISSI thing and the election is still 20 days away..

I figger Ebola will start to fade about a week before the elections.

And there it is.

This is about as big a deal, and will kill as many people as Bird Flu did.

GF

 

[southcoast]

It's a valid question, but not related to your original suggestion. Which was to forbid anyone from going to or leaving Texas to be on the safe side.

On the contrary it is definitely related. My original suggestion was merely this question taken to its logical extreme.

So again, I await your response to the question.

 

[GaryS]

I love this!

 

[ChattanoogaPhil]

Apparently, the 2nd Ebola nurse called the CDC advising who she was and that she was running a low grade fever. According to the nurse, CDC said she was ok to fly.

How much more stupid can things get?

 

[venomballistics]

On the contrary it is definitely related. My original suggestion was merely this question taken to its logical extreme.

So again, I await your response to the question.

extreme yes, logical ... thats up for debate.
the area you lock down becomes a death sentence for all those in that zone if that area exceeds the capacity to treat it.

I suspect we could handle a few blocks via this method at best.

If it were my show the contact tracking would be three layers deep. primary two would be in quarantine, the third monitored.

Next would be a perimeter starting 2 miles past the city limits staffed with volunteer varminters working inward to eradicate every varmint and stray.

If any of the first three contact layers included a worker at a food processing plant, that plant would fall under quarantine.

Flights to and from epidemic areas stopped.

The PSA campaign would be even more involved.

 

[venomballistics]

Apparently, the 2nd Ebola nurse called the CDC advising who she was and that she was running a low grade fever. According to the nurse, CDC said she was ok to fly.

How much more stupid can things get?

lemme guess, if it turns up in Akron ... it's all her fault.
"Beep beep beep"

 

[ladder13]

Would some of you guys cool it a little?

Some of these comments are uncalled for..............

Please keep in mind what we here on the scene are enduring and don't make cruel posts that you wouldn't want someone in Dallas to make if it was your city that was affected.

Couldn't agree more. No one should wish ill or "like" a post wishing ill of any residents of any city or state in this country, like what was done here about a week ago.

 

[labworm]

Couldn't agree more. No one should wish ill or "like" a post wishing ill of any residents of any city or state in this country, like what was done here about a week ago.

Hard to argue with facts.
I remember the likes.

 

[venomballistics]

Couldn't agree more. No one should wish ill or "like" a post wishing ill of any residents of any city or state in this country, like what was done here about a week ago.

correct,
the enemy is a virus, not the people.
They are deserving of respect and dignity.
The hard part is the fact some will be violated for the greater good.

 

[LVSteve]

Apparently, the 2nd Ebola nurse called the CDC advising who she was and that she was running a low grade fever. According to the nurse, CDC said she was ok to fly.

How much more stupid can things get?

It seems the CDC cannot get their ideas straight on the subject. CDC director on hearing the news said she should not have flown. Allegedly*, whoever she called gave her the OK.

Ebola patient flew day before symptoms - CNN.com@@AMEPARAM@@video: 'us/2014/10/15/lead-dnt-marsh-ebola-patient-flight-before-diagnosis.cnn'@@AMEPARAM@@us/2014/10/15/lead-dnt-marsh-ebola-patient-flight-before-diagnosis.cnn

I just hope my 401K does not have too much of my money in airline shares.

Also, just one case or even a strong rumour of one here in Vegas and it will be 9/11 all over again. The hotels laid off 20-30k people in the following weeks. If nobody comes here because they are scared to fly or they think the virus is in the city, it'll happen again.

*I say this in the absence of a recording.

Edited to add: Another news agency says that the CDC did give her the go ahead because her fever was not high enough. Alrighty then.

 

[ChattanoogaPhil]

extreme yes, logical ... thats up for debate.
the area you lock down becomes a death sentence for all those in that zone if that area exceeds the capacity to treat it.

Seeing as how Ebola nurse #2 was flown from Dallas to Atlanta for treatment... I guess that puts max capacity for Dallas metro area at 1.

 

[Kinman]

Complancency will be our undoing...Both cases have had people coming into this country from Africa with temperatures either passed through an airport or sent home from the hospital. Coming in from Africa even after a stop somewhere else with a temperature over 98.6 regardless, should land you in isolation for three weeks...call me over-reactive if you like all day long. I thought is especially irritating that a health care worker with a "low grade" fever of 99 was not at all alarmed and possibly passed hers onto others in the process. If they don't stay on top of this **** we'll end up decimating hundreds if not thousands wholesale when it hits epidemic size. Isolation wards won't cut it when and if it gets that one little jump that will lead towards a quantem leap.
I'm of the minority opinion that if it weren't for these little hiccups in our world history there wouldn't be any room today, call it Darwinism or whatever you want. There are those of us that had ancestors that were resistant to the Black Plague that then passed those genes down to those of us today that are resistant to the B.P. Some of us today may be resistant to the Ebola Virus and should there be a mass epidemic they will survive, who knows it may be a good thing in the world view, less carbon entering the atmosphere, less demand on commerical agriculture, the world could be a better place without those that aren't resistant, for those of us that buy the farm, consider it a gift to those that remain, we leave so that they may have a better world...just think maybe they will learn to live together in some kind of peace and harmony....ya think?

 

[venomballistics]

Seeing as how Ebola nurse #2 was flown from Dallas to Atlanta for treatment... I guess that puts max capacity for Dallas metro area at 1.

I think its something like 14 qualified beds nation wide. Omaha has two.

 

[GaryS]

It's not the number, it's the capability. The first nurse probably should have been flown as well. Emory has the facility (now) and the expertise (now).

Notice that no one that treated the doctor there has become infected.

The take home is that not all hospitals are created equal.

Seeing as how Ebola nurse #2 was flown from Dallas to Atlanta for treatment... I guess that puts max capacity for Dallas metro area at 1.

 

[HOUSTON RICK]

For those who like the complete kit:
Ebola Protection Outbreak Kit

 

[GatorFarmer]

FWIW, I read an interview with one of the Belgian docs who discovered Ebola. He said that the Geneva offices of the WHO were gutted by budget cuts and full of political appointees. The WHO's own director admitted that they dropped the ball. They in fact, in Africa, basically handed the ball off to the CDC as the more competent party....

The Russians claim they will have three vacfines out shortly. They did, allegedly, a lot of biowar work on ebola during the First Cold War.

Ebola is sadly not just a fad scare story. I have been following the story since early summer. I well remember the Kinshasa outbreak of 20 years ago too.

Apparently we have become more inept in this country than either Senegal or Nigeria. We as in our public health infrastructure as a nation and also our State Department - which ought have done a deal to let Liberia stop their own from flying.

All that said, I would volunteer for an ebola ward or corpse disposal detail when the time comes, rather than try to run away. Sometimes stoic fatalism is the best course. If this spreads here, we will all have jobs to do.

 

[Biginge]

If I were a couple hours out from Dulles and didn't feel well (low grade fever) and took a couple of Tylenol wouldn't I pass temp check upon screening check? These "safeguards" are somewhat nieve at best.