Posted on 08/21/2014 3:04:41 PM PDT by Kaslin
It’s no wonder Americans don’t trust the government. Sandwiched between ideological zealots at the IRS and the EPA and massive corruption at the Veterans Administration, the public is being exposed to the consequences of bureaucracies running wild.
President Obama is adding to the public’s discontent with the government. Obama’s high profile lies about his health-care plan and his insistence that there is “not even a smidgen of corruption” regarding the IRS targeting Tea Party groups are most certainly adding to the public’s distrust of government.
According to a recent CNN poll, only 12 percent feel the government can be trusted most of the time while a whopping 75 percent trust the government only some of the time.
Distrust of government will only increase because of its handling of the Ebola virus, specifically, by allowing infected patients to be transported from Africa for treatment in the U.S.
In a shocking example of negligence and bureaucratic incompetence, the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was not prepared to deal with the implications for Americans affected by the Ebola epidemic raging in Africa.
In absence of a clear policy, it appears the Christian charities that sponsored the two Ebola infected Americans’ work in Africa made the decision to transport them to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta.
Shockingly, the CDC abdicated its infectious disease control mandate to nonprofit organizations; in doing so, it violated the main principle of addressing communicable diseases: isolation.
CDC’s lack of preparation for dealing with Ebola was exposed in a July 28 letter from Franklin Graham, President and CEO of Samaritan’s Purse, to Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, Director of the CDC.
Samaritan’s Purse is a charity that operates the medical center with Serving In Mission (SIM) in Monrovia, Liberia, where Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol got infected by treating Ebola patients.
In addition to the infected patients, SIM evacuated other staff members including Writebol’s husband and two doctors who were caring for Ebola patients. These individuals are being held in quarantine in RV vehicles on SIM’s campus in Charlotte, NC.
Graham criticizes the CDC for “significant gaps in existing CDC procedures and protocols,” especially with how to return possibly exposed workers to the U.S.
Graham also notes the lack of “existing quarantines or travel restrictions, these gaps could pose an imminent danger to our healthcare system.”
In a revealing interview with CNN Chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Frieden admitted that the decision to allow the transport of the infected doctor from Liberia did not come from the government. He also added the CDC did not exercise its authority to block the transport of the infected Americans.
Obviously, these Americans need to be treated with the best possible medical care, but that does not mean they must be treated in the U.S. The reality is there is no special treatment that can only occur in the U.S. that can’t happen elsewhere.
Knowingly allowing Ebola patients into the U.S. presents an unnecessary risk. Clearly, the safest strategy would not involve transporting patients thousands of miles through various modes of transportation and placement in a U.S. hospital.
Dr. Ben Carson also questioned the wisdom of bringing the infected patients to the U.S. On Fox News’ “Your World with Neil Cavuto,” Carson said, “Our policies should be directed against [the] worst-case scenario, not [the] best-case scenario when we're talking about the health and well-being of the population of the United States.”
The Ebola epidemic is not the only example of failures at the CDC. The bureaucracy has been plagued with accidents related to its handling of infectious agents.
That’s right, the CDC, whose business is to handle the most dangerous bacterial and viral agents has, on multiple occasions, made mistakes with pathogens including anthrax and the flu virus.
Making matters worse, CDC only discovered a serious accident after investigating another lab error. The previously unknown incident involved the shipping of a disease-producing strain of the H5N1 influenza virus that was mistakenly cross-contaminated with a less pathogenic strain of avian influenza to a United States Department of Agriculture lab.
In light of these mishaps, the CDC temporarily closed the influenza lab and stopped shipping infectious agents to other labs.
The initial incident occurred when about 60 employees were possibly exposed to inadequately inactivatedsamples of anthrax that were sent from the Bioterrorism Rapid Response and Advanced Technology Laboratory.
An internal CDC review documented a total of five incidents where infectious agents were improperly shipped to other labs.
In truth, it’s not really surprising to observe problems at the CDC when you consider Frieden’s prior post as head of NYC’s Health Department. While working for Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Frieden led Bloomberg’s war on trans-fats and promoted a soda tax to combat obesity.
The CDC is a classic case of a mismanaged agency that has lost its focus on its primary mission to combat infectious diseases.
Too bad we don’t have a vaccine to prevent the epidemic growth of government bureaucracies.
I was saying the same thing about bringing the infected back and some FReepers were adament that it was no big deal because ebola coming to the Uas was pretty much inevitable.
I was kind of shocked at that.
The CDC, the US Army and DOD have a lot of Americans involved in fighting Ebola in Africa, I would hope that they have given some thought to treating them if infected.
The special isolation clinic at Emory University Hospital was built 12 years ago to treat CDC researchers and others who got infected with Ebola or similar infections, the CDC is just down the street from Emory.
The risks associated with flying those patients all the way back to the USA were never publicly mentioned. Little items like, engine failure in flight...it does happen. Weather making it impossible to land because of winds, low visibility etc. Anything which would have made a prudent captain divert to an alternate destination thus delivering his passengers to a situation for which they had not prepared...etc...etc. Thank God all went well.
Franklin Graham has proven to be a faux “Christian”. To bring to America anyone who might be an Ebola patient is egregiously irresponsible.
There was no medical necessity sufficient to risk bringing Ebola to America. Just because someone willingly went to an Ebola plagued region, supposedly “called” by religion, is no reason to risk bringing Ebola to America. In America, freedom of religion is individual and stops where it impacts another Americans rights.
Witness away, Mr Graham, as that is your right as an American. Should Ebola have been introduced, may you and yours be the victims as you made a positive decision to risk such importation of Ebola. The rest of America did not so decide.
I’d like to hear a rebuttal from Mr. Graham, including whether he thinks Americans would have voted to “take the Ebola Challenge”.
Franklin Graham has proven to be a faux “Christian”. To bring to America anyone who might be an Ebola patient is egregiously irresponsible.
There was no medical necessity sufficient to risk bringing Ebola to America. Just because someone willingly went to an Ebola plagued region, supposedly “called” by religion, is no reason to risk bringing Ebola to America. In America, freedom of religion is individual and stops where it impacts another Americans rights.
Witness away, Mr Graham, as that is your right as an American. Should Ebola have been introduced, may you and yours be the victims as you made a positive decision to risk such importation of Ebola. The rest of America did not so decide.
I’d like to hear a rebuttal from Mr. Graham, including whether he thinks Americans would have voted to “take the Ebola Challenge”.
Sorry for the double post.
Correction: the CDC is located in the MIDDLE of Emory’s campus, which is in a heavily populated neghborhood and, from the western parking lot, you can see all of downtown Atlanta with the naked eye.
Add to this that the CDC is a leading affirmative action hire and is stocked with liberals who will only hire liberals and you have one of the most dangerous situations one can imagine.
It may not be ebola, but eventually our next national catastrophe will start right there.
Mark. My. Words.
So it is actually on the campus?
About how far from the special clinic are they?
Wow, anti-Christian missionary wasn’t enough, now Franklin Graham is not even a Christian?
“Add to this that the CDC is a leading affirmative action hire and is stocked with liberals who will only hire liberals and you have one of the most dangerous situations one can imagine.
It may not be ebola, but eventually our next national catastrophe will start right there.
Mark. My. Words.”
I was thinking the sam thing. And not just at the CDC. I’m seeing signs of collapsing core competency across the board, and figured affirmative action and government education were two of the primary culprits.
Also, my gut says Obama WANTS Ebola to come to this nation so our people will suffer like the ones in Africa.
About 400 meters?
Emory univ. Hospital is at 1364 Clifton Rd. Atlanta, GA. The Cdc is, literally, on the same road. There are just some railroad tracks and a couple of buildings dividing the building complexes.
There is also an Emory Univ. hospital in midtown Atlanta, but i don’t believe that is where they went. Population-speaking, that would be even worse.
No, they were taken to the special Infectious Disease Unit created for Ebola and other such infectious diseases for CDC workers and others who might get infected.
There are four such units. “The four Patient Biocontainment Units in the United States have a combination of factors to control the spread of infectious pathogens that are not found together in any other units around the country.”
Hardly, but I was amazed he made the decision knowing the risks to others whom he could not have asked before placing them at risk.
Arguably, his decision was less than a Christian would wish to have made, had all the issues been considered.
It isn’t Christian to leave our Ebola researchers and doctors, soldiers and CDC personnel to die in Africa.
We aren’t superstitious satanists, we bring them to the facility that was especially built to treat them.
Um, nope. They were taken to Emory Univ. hospital.
It’s possible that you have a fancy name for the rooms they put them in, but it was still just good ‘ol EUH with a little extra plastic sheeting and Gorilla tape. Yep. Everyone was talking about it.
Read for yourself: http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/21/health/ebola-patient-release/index.html
I hope you felt safe thinking it was some place special because we sure did not. They put us at risk because they want an award.
And more grant money. Don’t overlook that aspect.
In other words down the street from the clinic.
No, they were taken to the special unit described in post 13.
Your own link uses the head of that unit. “”Emory’s staff is confident that the American patients’ discharges pose “no public health threat,” said Dr. Bruce Ribner, director of Emory’s Infectious Disease Unit.””
From CNN——”The isolation unit was created 12 years ago in conjunction with experts from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is based down the street. It features “special air handling,” strict protocols on everything and everyone who goes in and out of a patient’s room, and other measures to ensure that any potential dangers are contained.
Tracking Ebola patient’s journey to U.S. Son of American battling Ebola speaks out
Everything is thought out, right down to how visitors can interact with patients. They can be within 1 to 2 inches of each other, looking through a plate-glass window and talking through an intercom.
It’s a unique facility that’s rarely used.
Ribner said it was last activated a couple of years ago, when someone came from Angola amid a Marburg virus outbreak.
“It’s kind of like an insurance policy,” the Emory physician said. “You can complain about the fact that you didn’t collect on your ... policy or you can say — as in this case — ‘Boy, we’re lucky we’ve been supporting you all these years because now we really need you.’ And it would be really challenging to develop this on the fly.”
There is nothing “Christian” going on at CDC/Emory, believe me. In any aspect. What-so-ever. Nuh-uh.
How much experience do you have in the community?
Your posts are just bizarre, Franklin Graham’s Evangelical Christian organization and the two Christian missionaries have nothing to do with CDC or Emory, except that the two missionaries are/were being treated at the special unit that you didn’t even know about.
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