Posted on 08/10/2014 12:46:23 AM PDT by Smokin' Joe
I have spent a little time compiling links to threads about the Ebola outbreak in the interest of having all the links in one thread for future reference.
Please add links to new threads and articles of interest as the situation develops.
Thank You all for you participation.
Some are here as students (even medical ones), some working in the oil industry to gain experience in specialized jobs. I have known them in both capacities. (Good, Christian, people, at least the ones I met.)
From your link:
Something else that’s likely to stop people is the expense, says Dan Lucey, MD. He’s an infectious disease specialist at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., who has recently treated people with Ebola in West Africa.
“In my view, one thing that could readily be removed as an obstacle altogether is paying your own way. Really, why would volunteers who are going to go and put their lives in harm’s way to help with the Ebola effort, why should they have to pay their own plane fare?”
The Guinea and Sierra Leone numbers are updated to September 13, but the Liberia numbers are only updated to September 9. These numbers are a week behind.
I cannot imagine the mess they are dealing with in Liberia. We likely won’t see real numbers until this is over— if ever.
I am not seeing or hearing anything about US Army Chemical Corps equipment for this mission.
The Ebola Fomite threat is a straight forward NBC threat that Chemical Corps decontamination equipment — medicalese would be “terminal clean” — that should see a Chemical Decontamination platoon involved.
This has the feel of the US Army's 1999 Kosovo Task Force Hawk AH-64 Attack helicopter deployment for the Clinton Administration.
The US Army slow rolled that deployment, not wanting to get involved, with both SACEUR, AKA General Wesley Clark, and the Clinton Administration had to fight with both the Department of the Army and the Joint Chiefs to make it happen.
Without that terminal clean/decontamincation capability, this medical intervention is a gesture that will get several hundred medical troopers sick with Ebola.
If anyone wants to watch the hearing about the Ebola Threat that was live on C-Span today, here is the link:
http://www.c-span.org/video/?321494-1/hearing-ebola-threat-west-africa
It is 3 hours long, but good. (OK, I muted Patty Murray.) One thing that made me “rewind” and listen again, was (during the second panel) Senator Burr said that based on their (the committee’s) information, the RO was 5-20. Yowza!! That would explain the dramatic rise of numbers in the various models. The panel confirmed that the numbers being “reported” are only the numbers that are actually making it into the clinics, the confirmed cases are only the ones that made it to the lab, so the reality is the numbers are much, much worse. (As many have been saying for a while)
At one point during the first panel, Senator Burr was asking Dr. Anthony Fauci about taxis being the latest transmission tool, and he wanted to know how long the virus remained infectious on the seat of a taxi. Dr. Fauci said they don’t know and turned it into an answer about dead bodies, which wasn’t what Senator Burr asked. Also the doctor was asked if he thought that Ebola might get out of West Africa and become a pandemic, and he flatly said, “No.” He referred to the conditions of Africa, with virtually no health care whatsoever, and poo-poohed the threat of it getting out of Africa.
“Capitol Building Shuts Down Following Sudden Death of House of Reps. Deputy Sergeant at Arms”
R nought of 5 would be bad enough but R nought of 20 would be catastrophic.
The Nigerian event was R nought of what, 8 or 10 based on the Sawyer contact?
Apropos of nothing:
“Uncertainty about “unknown disease” continues with death of 9th victim in Maracay”
Ping to 2067.
R0 of 5 to 20?
20.
Do they know what they are talking about?
An R0 of 2 is enough to shut down air travel. 4 and you are talking martial law - no kidding.
Odds of this getting out of West Africa is 100 percent. We have the evidence - Sawyer.
What did the guy do - KNOWING HE WAS INFECTED!!!
He even visited with his children.
People aren’t going to do the right thing. With AIDS, when you caught it, at least there were ways of managing it. It’s a LOT like Ebola Zaire in that you had to come in contact with the blood for it to matter. As long as people were careful, and everyone was educated and acted like responsible adults - no problem.
But it spread, didn’t it?
At least with Guinea, your symptomatic soon enough so that people are smart enough to evade you.
People with means are getting out of West Africa any way they can.
Were I Obama, I would have sent the Army to Southern France and Italy. That and AWACS, drones, FLIR, and that big golf trophy looking thing you put in the middle of the ocean to tell you what thing bigger than a grapefruit may be coming toward you by air.
I’d have assets in Egypt, and I’d be working with Sisi to ensure he’s got Egypt sealed off.
I’m going to watch the thing at the link. They are going to have to hire some adults to deal with this sooner than later.
The other thing - if the rumor is true - that the disease is already in Italy - then they are going to have to come clean on this and go to general quarters in Europe.
Someone needs to show Mr. Obama the door, and Mr. Biden is going to have to grow up and be a man for the first time ever.
IIRC, Sawyer was 8, but maybe that was before we found out about the ECOWAS official?
When Burr said those numbers, and more than once, neither Brantly nor Charles ( the head of an Org in Sierra Leone) looked surprised. I nearly fell out of my chair. Is this why the Admin. is all of a sudden “hair on fire”?
What fresh hell is this?
Another poster pointed out that at the funerals there it could easily be transmitted to 20 people (the kissing the forehead goodbye). Which would account for an upper limit of 20.
The question I have is this. What’s the transmission rate for public conveyances there. How many people can be contaminated by a cab. The seat, doorhandle, backrest, floorboards, etc.
I certainly hope that the 5-20 range is from fomite transmission to direct contact at a funeral. Because on this chart:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_reproduction_number
The only things with numbers that high are airborne or airborne droplet transmitted...
Another day of still NO stats update.
From CNN, July 29, 2014
http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/29/health/ebola-outbreak-american-dies/index.html
“Brantly’s family had been with him in Liberia, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but left for the United States before he became symptomatic; as such it is highly unlikely that they caught the virus from him. Out of an abundance of caution they are on a 21-day fever watch, the CDC said.
Nancy Writebol from Charlotte, North Carolina, has also been infected. She is employed by Serving in Mission, or SIM, and had teamed up with the staff from Samaritan’s Purse to help fight the Ebola outbreak in Monrovia when she got sick. She, too, is undergoing treatment.
It is believed one of the local staff was infected with Ebola and came to work with the virus on Monday and Tuesday, Isaacs told CNN. “We think it was in the scrub-down area where the disease was passed to both Nancy and Kent,” he said. That staff member died on Thursday.”
This “New Ebola” is leaving people well enough, while they are infectious, to both travel and work without being detected.
That and its fomite traits makes this new Ebola pandemic-capable.
I agree. They don’t crash out immediately after becoming symptomatic like previous ebola outbreaks. And fomite transmission is much more effective with smooth surfaces. Not many smooth surfaces in rural villages. But in an urban environment, particularly a hospital ER setting, there are lots of smooth surfaces (doorknobs, seats, desks, railings, elevator buttons, etc...)
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