Posted on 10/01/2014 11:58:18 PM PDT by xzins
The questions about Ebola keep coming as I listen to the talking heads on news site after news site saying, "It's only passed by bodily fluids." The only other time I've heard a similar statement was in regard to the transmission of HIV. If you don't do "it", then you won't get infected with HIV. Passing bodily fluids, don't you know.
So, what are bodily fluids? Something tells me the word 'wet' is involved, so I really don't want to delve into it any further. I tend to stay away from other folks' 'wet' in the first place. I must be just fine...perfectly safe...right?
So, if bodily fluids is the only issue, then why do those dealing with ebola look prepared for the next lunar landing? Dressed in decon suits from head to toe, they walk in and out of areas marked off by that yellow tape that keeps us back from places that are bad for us.
Seriously, if I went inside, I promise I'll not touch any bodily fluids. But these docs, nurses, medical workers, scientists -- whatever they are -- they look like they're entering the "Contamination Site of No Return". Why? Can't they resist the urge to touch bodily fluids? Here's a hint, doc. Don't do it.
And I have other questions.
Like...why did those missionary docs (also dressed in space suits) get Ebola? Did they have holes in their decontamination suits through which someone forced bodily fluids?
And, seriously, if this is only about bodily fluids, then why do they have these people isolated in special places? Is the public so enamored of bodily fluids that they can't control the temptation to seek out and encounter strange new worlds of wet?
Finally, this sounds so much like the spiel that we're told in HIV talks. Yet, why didn't they also wear space suits when dealing with HIV patients?
Is it possible that someones in the government and in the media think it to be wise to hold down public alarm by presenting this in a less than direct manner? Or is it they're afraid those Lunar Suits are so stylish, they're trying to avoid a run on them in the local JC Penny Lunar sections?
Because Ebola patients vomit a lot and can cough a lot.
Sure, trust the government, its not like governments have killed millions in the past
Is it possible the government and media are being absolutely above board and frank with us?
I imagine that sometimes happens.
The unit of virulancy should be the reciprocal of the amount of time Brian Williams will sit in a room with a known infected individual.
I tend to avoid folks vomiting on me.
Cough....did you say coughing can spread bodily fluids?
What about breathing?
With or without decon suit?
You really don’t know the answers to these questions ?
Or are you just using it rhetorically..as a ....I don’t know....attention getting device or something?
I almost forgot... multiplied by a constant.
Well, in the Army we didn’t go to MOPP 4 unless we really had to. My assumption is that bodily fluids is a truthful answer that hides the truth.
Same reason why mosquitoes can spread Yellow Fever and other diseases, but CANNOT spread AIDS. My government told me that!
Here is the problem in a nut shell for a Ebola, as well as a number of other viral infections that require a more stringent level of protection..
The virus is very small.
You can actually get enough viral load to infect a health person on a fluid droplet the size of a single bit of common fog.
If you are within aerosol range of a patient in the late stage, (which is generally about 3-4 feet), a event could occur that might infect you if you are not properly protected. Usually these event are rare, but they happen.
You can use your imagination to determine what these events might entail, but they are all common human issues..
BTW....it’s not proper to say direct contact with fluids.. as a infected person may not be shedding viral loads in all or even some fluids until such time as they begin to bleed into their oral cavity, stomach or intestines.
So to eliminate all the risk possible, it is assumed that they are and proper precautions taken as a protocol.
Recently, as a result of more research, some of which I mentioned in my post regarding the minimum viral load needed to infect, the protocols were raised on masks and eye protection, two of the most common entry points for infection.
Hope that helps...
And it might also help you to know that the African doctors and nurses that died were not using “space suits’. As you called them.
They were in fact, having to reuse their simple inadequate gloves, masks, and gowns..after washing them..
Because they did not have enough.
I absolutely recall the new reports on TV when speaking of those docs. Each report showed someone entering an area in a decon suit.
You will have to trust my memory on that, but I’m a reasonably bright guy who remembers a lot that he sees.
So, I hear you saying that ‘bodily fluids’ is a dodge.
I heard John Stoessel on Fox (OReilly) tonight saying “let ‘em all come in. No need to quarantine. Only spread by bodily fluids.”
What was Reagan’s line: “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’”
I was running through the radio and Medved made me stop as he was going to talk about Ebola next.
After the commercial he said only two types of people have to worry about ebola. Vampires and zombies.
What an idiot. 7,000+ cases and he's saying it can't happen.
With special emphasis on the word “terrifying” in this context.
Just the thing I was getting at. The public now thinks that 'bodily fluids' is a transaction between consenting adults. His words demonstrate exactly that understanding.
Sometimes the best place to hide something is in plain view. 'Bodily fluids' is the truth, but not 'the whole truth.'
If it were, there'd be no need for the decon suits.
My understanding is ebola causes profuse internal bleeding everywhere, including your lungs, and eventually liquefies your organs. All of stuff is ejected our of every possible orifice in every possible manner. A cough or sneeze could spray a whole room.
In the common language as it currently stands, “contact with bodily fluids” does not translate to the average Joe as “avoid breathing the very air they breathe.”
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