‘It doesn’t make sense’: Concerns over enlisting DOD in Ebola response

FoxNews.com ^ | September 12, 2014 | Lucas Tomlinson

[UCANSEE2]

A part of the United States Army’s capability in breaking things and killing people, is an expertise and deep involvement in biological warfare.

Are you sure about that?

[kingu]

Why is our Coast Guard patrolling around Antarctica, or in the Indian Ocean (or in the Persian Gulf?)

Why did we help Japan during their earthquake with an aircraft carrier and ships? Why were we engaging in over 280 helicopter lifts after the great Christmas Day tsunami?

Our young men and women are deployed to natural and man made disasters around the planet, because we learn from them. Sure, reality says that best ‘test’ for a mobile hospital would be deploying to an area of the US which has distant or low quality medical care (almost any inner city area), and setting up shop for a few days.

But ebola is more of an actual threat that our military may face some day in the event that this, or another epidemic spreads to the US. Learning over there, where critical errors likely won't get US civilians killed, is far better than learning in the middle of a disaster right here.

Of course, that's not why the White House is doing it. The White House would consider such a deployment as there's been precious little ‘good’ news from Africa for a long time, the agenda there is effectively dead, and it will help silence Obama’s critics so he can get in another round of golf.

[Kartographer]

Does it help with the ladies as well?? ;-)

[ansel12]

Yes I’m sure.

Biological research is an area of expertise for the US Army.

“The United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases is the U.S Army’s main institution and facility for defensive research into countermeasures against biological warfare. It is located on Fort Detrick, Maryland and is a subordinate lab of the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (USAMRMC), headquartered on the same installation.
USAMRIID is the only U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) laboratory equipped to study highly hazardous viruses at Biosafety Level 4 within positive pressure personnel suits.
USAMRIID employs both military and civilian scientists as well as highly specialized support personnel, in all about 800 people. In the 1950s and ‘60s, USAMRIID and its predecessor unit pioneered unique, state-of-the-art biocontainment facilities which it continues to maintain and upgrade.”

[Lazamataz]

Does it help with the ladies as well?? ;-)

YES! I tested the theory. I wore a T-Shirt that said: I SURVIVED EBOLA!

I was swarmed with wimmins. :)

[Kartographer]

"I was swarmed with wimmins. :)"

But that could have just been your manly charms. ;-)

[null and void]

The game of Ebola Roulette continues...

*click* spin *click* spin *click* spin…

Eeeee-bolllll-aaaaaa ping!

Bring Out Your Dead

We’re gonna need

a bigger cart!

Post to me or FReep mail to be on/off the Bring Out Your Dead ping list.

The purpose of the “Bring Out Your Dead” ping list (formerly the “Ebola” ping list) is very early warning of emerging pandemics, as such it has a high false positive rate.

So far the false positive rate is 100%.

At some point we may well have a high mortality pandemic, and likely as not the “Bring Out Your Dead” threads will miss the beginning entirely.

*sigh* Such is life, and death...

[cripplecreek]

My biggest concern is how are our troops supposed to react to desperate rioting ebola infected Africans with machetes, rocks, bottles, spears, clubs etc. You know if they fire on them there will be criminal charges.

Putting American troops into a horrible position while the idiots who want to send them sit here in the safety of their own homes.

[lilypad]

Right now all they have are “experimental” drugs. What kind of coverage does your insurance company provide for these type of drugs? It’s a death sentence for us. Just one more thing we are unprepared for. So please stop bringing the infected people into our hospitals! They tell us it’s safe but I think they are crossing their fingers behind their backs. I am primarily concerned for the folks that work in the hospitals and even more for the patients whom have compromised immune systems.

[silverleaf]

are you suggesting the US army is capable of deploying a field hospital (or even a lot of field hospitals) to treat or quarantine 22 million at risk Africans in 5-6 different countries, most of whom live in (or in the case of urban dwellers are exposed to others who live in) primal conditions?

oh no wait

that would be obama who is suggesting that ...

is it their job to treat ebola - or to prevent with lethal force if necessary the migration of infected or terrified people out of some defined death zone? How many desperate or dying african civilians is our army prepared to kill, and how many africans are prepared to let them do it?

and btw, the “hazmat suits” for ebola are biohazard level 4, pressurized (requiring power supply), and ineffective if there is tiniest failure allowing outside air to enter. and reportedly impossible to bear if worn for longer that 15 minutes outside of a lab. some military issue for the job of armed security of facilities and personnel in an equatorial zone, eh?

This was written before the more open discussions began about airborne ebola
http://www.livescience.com/47620-ebola-protective-gear.html

[silverleaf]

shoot them and avoid the blood spray- before they get their level 4 pressurized biohazard suits nicked

[spokeshave]

I have stated here before, this administration has openly declared biological war on us, the people.

Ayres has stated 25,000,000 of us need to be eradicated to bring us under control.

Ha....Ebola will fizzle out.....so how do they accomplish 25,000,000 eradications.....?

Simple...Obama lies about everything...so he also lies about global warming.

The fact of the matter is that the Sun's magnetic field is in decline....so it produces less sunspots.

Last time this happened there was a 400 year long mini ice age.

Obama already shut down numerous coal powered electricity generating stations.....

Good luck surviving without electricity.

[UCANSEE2]

My biggest concern is how are our troops supposed to react to desperate rioting ebola infected Africans with machetes, rocks, bottles, spears, clubs etc. You know if they fire on them there will be criminal charges.

Yes, it's odd how the most dangerous thing for our troops is not ebola, or crazy natives, but coming home.

[Gadsden1st]

Not to be a word police, but did you mean:
“or crazy natives, after coming home.”?

[poobear]

True, but their shortsightedness shows. If they kill us all AND take out assets it will only fund their whims for about a week or maybe a day.

[Citizen Tom Paine]

Set up MASH units to examine incoming airline passengers from countries that have Ebolo patients.

[DannyTN]

Ebola is a much bigger threat to the U.S. than ISIS is.

Ebola has alreaady killed one American and infected three. But the virus is spreading exponentially.

[UCANSEE2]

Both ways work.