Ebola in the USA... Anyone Concerned?

[Writer]

that's the #1 reason ANYONE here trusting the government should STFU. You can easily click on the source patent link and see THEY have the IP on many versions of the EBOLA virus itself. repeat..the virus, not the Vaccine or solution

They do so because viruses are (somehow!) patentable. You don't want a private company to own the virus and stop/delay research on the virus itself. CDC patents it, and any company can work on it.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[SBS.95]

The UN says we have 60 days or it's game over.


"The UN says the Ebola outbreak must be controlled within 60 days or else the world faces an "unprecedented" situation for which there is no plan."

http://news.sky.com/story/1352857/sixty-days-to-beat-ebola-united-nations-warns

I'm genuinely curious- did you actually read that article or are you just reposting the headline like everyone on social media has been today? I'm not trying to be a dick, but I have seen that headline like half a dozen times already and nobody actually discusses the content of the article.

First, if you're gonna fear-monger, fear-monger correctly. We don't have 60 days. We have 47 days. As stated in the article, that "60 days" report was from October 1st.

Second, that article wasn't entirely bad news. There are reports that the virus is being contained within the same districts of Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea, which may be an indication that the virus is slowing down and burning itself out.

Now on a semi-related good news note- the nurse in Dallas has had her condition bumped up to "good".

 

[AllenCrawley]

I'm not a doom and gloom type of person but...

"A 26-year-old nurse identified as the second Texas hospital worker to test positive for Ebola had traveled on a Frontier Airlines flight from Cleveland to Dallas the evening before she noted the first symptoms of the disease, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday."

"Public Health workers will begin interviewing the 132 passengers on Flight 1143 immediately."

This is how it starts to literally go viral, the one person who has it and travels by plane. Now it goes from one city to who knows how many. I just don't see how this can be stopped from spreading without a vaccine. The number of people that need to be interviewed is going to increase exponentially and how many will voluntarily quarantine themselves for 21 days and not lie about going to a store or to a park.

Sad thing is that this should have probably started with all health workers living in quarantine will treating the patient, but how many would that be and who would have done that?

IMO, as Americans, we've become complacent. Some would say arrogant. There's a sense of "it could never happen here." But let's look at this...

Right now in Dallas, there's a desperate call out for nurses. About 70 (let that number sink in...) health care workers cared for Duncan. Of those, two have already gotten Ebola. Let's take the other 68. Are they still working? If so, who are they potentially infecting? If not, who's taking their place? Basically, ONE dude who lied to obtain "free" medical care has caused mass chaos in just one major U.S. city. Now, that city is short of nurses. The hospital that treated him is basically closed to non-Ebola cases. Dallas has been forced to contact and monitor hundreds of people. Soon, they'll be contacting and monitoring hundreds more, including those who flew with the second infected nurse a couple days ago.

Now, imagine if "only" ten Duncans get through. Or imagine if someone infected by Duncan or a nurse is walking around sick right now, thinking they just have the flu. Ebola spreads exponentially. One person infects two people and so on.

I don't think it's fear-mongering to suggest you stock some food and supplies just in case.

And yet we'll continue to have people posting cute memes, clever comments and fear mongering accusations.

I have never been concerned with any other virus threats of the past but this one certainly gives me pause.

 

[Gale4rc]

@ChickenHawk I take back that gif I posted a while ago. You're right and i'm a little taken back.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[theag]

lol @ the guys seriously discussing patents here

scary shit. I just read some articles. if at least 10% of them are true, it seems like hospital workers in the US are all F*cking stupid morons, judging from all the mistakes they made.

well, back to work..

 

[Guest3722A]

I have one more lil story about The D (Metro-Detroit) that happened a few years back.

One summer, the power grid went off line and the entire area was without power for several days. Everything was off including fueling stations, grocery store coolers (eventually) and things like that. People would drive until they ran out of gas and then just leave their vehicles in the streets. And sleeping in the heat of summer was the only choice - For days. And then fueling stations went back online slowly and people would be backed up for miles trying to get gas, and would wait for hours.

Just something else to think about.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[MJ DeMarco]

CDC: You Can Give—But Can’t Get—Ebola on a Bus

Yup, just another bureaucrat reciting paradoxical barbs to sooth the masses. Listening to these tools is like listening to a politician. They'll tell ya "if you like your healthcare plan, you can keep your healthcare plan" that is, until you realize too late that you cannot. God help us all.

 

[Ryllban]

So, what would you do when you realize it's spreading rapdily in your country?

Im living in Sweden. We have not had any public ebola case yet. But Im on my way to buy a respirator mask, suit and also stock up food + water.

It's like some people say, when the outbreak is here and everybody is rushing to the store, thats when you know you have acted to slow. And if the ebola doesn't spread that crazy in my country, I at least have food + water that I can use .

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Trill2b]

The fact is, it's EXTREMELY difficult to transmit from person to person. You can be on the same plane or even a few seats over.. or EVEN NEXT TO the guy/gall with ebola and even so your risk is VERY low unless you start making out with said guy/girl among other things...

I assure you its not extremely difficult to transmit Ebola from person to person.
I'm a medical doctor living in Nigeria where we just succeeded in kicking it out.
Just touching the bedding of a sick Ebola carrier and touching your nostril or scratching your eyes or picking your teeth etc may be enough...

 

[LightHouse]

If you want to make some money and have an FBA account. Go buy boxes of M and L nitrile gloves, n95 masks etc from costco/sams/ whereever. Expedite to FBA and start selling them.... they are all out of stock on amazon right now.....

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[MJ DeMarco]

I'm a medical doctor living in Nigeria where we just succeeded in kicking it out.

Wow. Welcome to the forum @Trill2b -- we're all very happy to have you here. Definitely will be great to hear your insight and first-person perspective which is surely based on experience, and not conjecture and/or speculation.

 

[Trill2b]

Wow. Welcome to the forum @Trill2b -- we're all very happy to have you here. Definitely will be great to hear your insight and first-person perspective which is surely based on experience, and not conjecture and/or speculation.

Thanks sir. Happy to be here and to be of service.

 

[throttleforward]

I also suggest that Americans in Texas or anywhere else that is affected do what Nigerians did... have every medical center and office set up to have hand wash systems in place outside the buildings including use of non contact thermometers on everyone entering such buildings to detect fevers promptly. Also everyone should stop or reduce shaking hands or touching strangers or even friends, use hand sanitizers every 3 hours.
It became a national habit here...

(what follows is my personal opinion and not the view of any government agency)

With great respect - our federal government can't compel hospitals or states to do anything like this. Our hodge-podge of 50 states, 2500 health jurisdictions and 5,000 individual hospitals are essentially independent and can do what they'd like with regard to treatment and sanitation protocols. The federal government has no jurisdiction or authority to force any of these hospitals, doctors or nurses to do anything, including the CDC.

In fact, right now we have 57, full-time National Guard CBRN response teams (known as CSTs), able to respond, treat and decontaminate people using appropriate HAZMAT techniques and materials on only 3 hours notice (including in Texas). We have thousands of National Guard troops on 6 and 24 hour standbys to provide even greater response and treatment capabilities. We have tens of thousands of doctors and nurses in the Army Reserve who can be mobilized to respond.

But just like with the Hurricane Katrina response, If the governor does not request these forces, they can't do diddly squat. Short of the president invoking the Insurrection Act, those forces have to sit and watch as hospitals scramble to do the best they can with the equipment they have off the shelves.

I believe the solution to this problem is new legislation giving the president the authority to operationalize these forces if an infectious disease with national security concerns is detected within the US.

 

[throttleforward]

Oh good lord. Give those incompetent boobs MORE power? They can't even do the things they're SUPPOSED to be doing right.

Sorry to be snarky. Really. It's an interesting debate. There's just something about this idea that utterly horrifies me.

Our military CBRN responders are not incompetent boobs. Trust me, I understand and have experience with government incompetence, but despite perception it's often much more complicated (and government agencies are much more hamstrung) than the news would let on.

 

[theag]

Say what you will about pharmaceutical companies being evil, it sounds like they know how to get shit done when motivated by 8.2 million.

 

[theag]

It's easy to throw stones at basic research - the titles seem rediculous and wasteful.

But what would Thomas Edison's basic research title have been for the invention of the light bulb? Studies On Glowing String?

The fact is that 1) the federal government has an apporpriate role to play in funding research. 2) The approval for getting grant money is rigourous (my wife used to work in the NSF OIG office.) 3) Important scientific discoveries, including treatments for diseases, often come serendipitously through basic research that, on the surface, sounds stupid.

There is waste in federal government, without a doubt, but I'd rather 10xs the budget of NSF, NIH, NIST, NASA, CDC, etc. than buy a couple more F35's.

So from the 5 examples she listed you pick out the 4 cheap research studies, not the $106 million visitor center?

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Iwokeup]

Especially hospitals except when really necessary...

Not an option for me, unfortunately.

 

[throttleforward]

Finally an American who appreciates an honest good advice from Nigeria, after throttleforward just shrugged it off and instead boasted about the big and greatly prepared brave forces that do.... nothing (and if they do, they F*ck sth up).

You're not understanding what I'm saying - I'd love it if we could force hospitals to do commonsense stuff like that, but we can't. We just have to hope that corporate-driven hospitals see it in their generous hearts to supply the extra hand sanitizers out of their profit margin.

 

[Bananas]

Y'all got to me.
It's really amazing how unprepared my family and I would be in the event of a natural disaster, or power loss, or anything really. If we had a storm come through and knock out power + dirty the water, we'd literally have nothing to drink.

Good going.

Last year, due to unexpected levels of ice and the fact we need to cross a bridge to leave our block, we were stuck in our home for a total of six days. We had power, luckily. We also had several conversations about how great it was we had extra supplies like food, medicine, and toilet paper on hand. Some people dine out for every single meal and are 'just in time' shoppers who only visit the store for TP when they're on their last roll.

Those six days sucked for families like that.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[throttleforward]

Excellent link from a nurse calling BS on our Fearless Leadership.

http://shepherdofthegurneys.blogspot.com/2014/10/do-math.html?m=1

What I find more concerning about this is that you'll see increased infection and mortality rates if substantial resources are devoted to ebola. The airborne, deadly viruses killing people right now in the US (like enterovirus d68) won't get the negative pressure rooms and special attention that they otherwise would if a hospital was freaking out because they might have an ebola patient.

Which is why I brought up the National Guard - set up a field hospital on a remote part of a military base, fly in ebola patients on private charter like they are doing today, and put those guys to work, so that the already strained health system can serve as sentinels/diagnostic enablers, but not a place for final treatment.

 

[Bananas]

Ah, the Ebola Cruise!
http://belizean.com/belize-confirms-patient-with-ebola-symptoms-on-cruise-ship-off-its-coast-1814/

Belize Confirms Patient With Ebola Symptoms On Cruise Ship Off Its Coast
Reports tonight are that two individuals possibly infected with the Ebola virus are in Belizean waters. Local TV station Channel 7 monitored in the capital City Of Belmopan tonight, reported having credible reports that a couple from a Texas-based cruise ship presently anchored off Belize City, is on a ship tender, unable to return to the cruise ship, while being refused entry to Belize City to catch an air ambulance awaiting at the International Airport to take them to the their country of origin, the U.S.A....The patient exhibiting Ebola symptoms has been confirmed to be a nurse at a Dallas hospital traveling with her husband....The ship is reportedly carrying 3652 passengers and a total population of 4633 persons.

Soon, we will no doubt hear that this story is mistaken. Like Nurse #1 and Nurse #2, she's probably just a "low risk individual" and was not, in fact, exhibiting symptoms. No need to worry. Move along...

Similar to what @Bananas pointed out so eloquently earlier in this thread, the ramifications of this whole thing can be strange and long-reaching. Can you imagine if you were on that cruse? I love cruises. But man, the humanity is PACKED on those things. You share lawnchairs, serving utinsils, restrooms...

And here's a thought-provoking note. Within the last week, it's become painfully obvious that Ebola-treating nurses shouldn't be travelling. They shouldn't be seeing family. They shouldn't be spending time with their friends. Heck, they shouldn't even have pets. So, what happens when it becomes standard operating procedure to keep Ebola nurses quarantined from the rest of society? Aside from working with a life-threatening disease, who in the heck is going to sign on for that job if it means they'll spend the next three weeks in solitary confinement? And, if the nurses are quarantined, who's going to deal with their community's non-Ebola health needs?

And I repeat a point from earlier -- all from ONE dude who lied to get here.

(EDIT: An additional thought. Even if this particular nurse doesn't have Ebola, think of the disruption and stress for those thousands of people. And think of the potential damage to the cruise industry if people start to worry about such things. Who wants to hop in a communal hot tub under these circumstances?)

3,000+ people potentially exposed on this cruise ship, all because a healthcare worker who treated Duncan did not self quarantine, nor was she directed to quarantine by any authority...instead she decided it was appropriate to go on a cruise!

@ChickenHawk, you were correct about the second nurse and I withdraw my comments and negativity towards her made yesterday. It turns out she reported by phone her condition to the CDC and was directed to get on the plane anyway. So she did not, as it first appeared, disregard everyone else.

In other news it appears someone finally got a brain and decided all the workers exposed to Ebola shouldn't expose the rest of us.

Texas officials moved for the first time Thursday to force health care workers who had contact with a dying Ebola patient to stay home, reversing course after a nurse later diagnosed with the disease flew across the Midwest and deepened anxiety about whether the virus would spread in the U.S.

Seventy-five Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas employees who had contact with Thomas Eric Duncan were asked to sign legal documents in which they agreed not go to public places or use mass transit, according to Judge Clay Jenkins, top administrator for Dallas County.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/storie...ME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-10-16-20-17-15

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[MJ DeMarco]

Interesting that the nurse Nina Pham has been downgraded from Good to Fair and that it's reporting can't be disclosed due to privacy laws. Me not believe.

 

[twdavis]

Well now things are starting to get real where I live.

I live 2 counties away from the whole massacre in Akron/Kent Ohio that CNN is covering, I live right on the Ohio/PA border and people are starting to panic because now it was just recently stated that 3 people who were on the flight with the Vinsan lady are currently in Texas but are from my neck of the woods, like literally within a half hour of me and are being monitored for symptoms but, they are being allowed to come back home.

Their exact hometowns are not being disclosed but it is being said locally that they are from our local communities.

Local hospitals 10 minutes away from me have been notified that these people may arrive with Ebola and to be prepared.

These hospitals are currently communicating with the CDC on what's best to do.

This is not being reported on the news. I found out because my aunt is employed at one of the hospitals and is panicking.




:sour:

 

[CashFlowDepot]

Want to know how well prepared nurses and hospitals are for Ebola?
Read this statement from nurses at Texas Presbyterian Hospital

http://www.nationalnursesunited.org...at-texas-health-presbyterian-hospital-in-dal/

The CDC and Obama dropped the ball on this whole situation.. BIG TIME. There should have been a ban of travelers with a passport stamp from West Africa in the last 6-12 months and a quarantine of everyone who has been in contact in any way with an Ebola patient or the body fluids. (but no... they get to fly and take cruises)

They may be able to treat 2 or 3 patients at Emory. But if it becomes 10 or 20 or 100, the whole system will be completely overwhelmed.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[ChickenHawk]

Zero spread of the disease from their imported case, and quick and efficient monitoring of anyone and everyone that may have been in contact with the individual. Better system in place than Texas apparently

Ah yes. But unlike Texas, Senegal is allowed to control its own borders. IMO, Texas isn't the problem here.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[DeletedUser394]

Also, if this and other potential diseases concern anyone here, in addition to storing supplies you can donate to organizations like Doctors Without Borders http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/ These people are doing amazing stuff and are some of the most effective defenses in the spread and management of these types of things. (note, that's the american site... if you're canadian go to the canadian site and you'll get your tax receipts. win-win)

I'm not just saying it, I became a monthly sponsor after learning about all the good they do in the world.

Let's keep the positive vibe going.

In all crisis, yes many people become even more selfish than they were previously.. but true selfless heroes emerge as well.

http://www.reddit.com/r/ebola/comments/2jjk3u/today_i_met_alphonso_a_20yearold_hygienist_who/

 

[Vigilante]

I highly doubt we'll even be talking about this by Thanksgiving.

I bet by Thanksgiving it's a full blown epidemic.

I would prefer that you are right.

 

[DeletedUser394]

In all likelihood it's just going to have to run its course in those 3 countries until it burns out. Don't be surprised if those numbers quadruple or more. In fact they double every 20 days or so. They are corrupt impoverished hellholes with a population that at many times were actively fighting against the medical establishment.. or what little there is of it anyway.

USA/Spain/Senegal/Nigeria have proven that imported/domestic cases can be stopped in their tracks. Regardless of how many mistakes were made along the way, the systems are adequate to fight back.

Bed occupancy (as reported by Doctors Without Borders) has been declining steadily in Liberia.

Welllll, time for me to donate again. This is a tragic and beautiful story: http://www.msf.org.uk/article/my-son-is-msf-s-1-000th-ebola-survivor

Regarding accuracy/inaccuracy of modern 'breaking news' journalism... lol, not even going to go there.

I don't know or care who this guy is, but he's right.

There is no conspiracy. However, if anyone here really believes that information is being withheld or that people are lying, donate to wikileaks (legal to do so) or any other organizations that do similar work.

 

[KLaw]

Nope. they recommend it every year.

Funny coincidence that Fox News recommends to get a flu shot, right?

 

[loop101]

It would seem like not too much to ask any doctors who go to Africa and treat Ebola patients, to voluntarily quarantine themselves for 21 days. The doctor in NY went bowling after he got back home. Now he has Ebola. It would probably be cost effective for the government to pay their bills for 30 days while they stayed home. They could chill out and read a few books, like TMF .

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2014/10...ng-into-possible-ebola-case-in-new-york-city/