Posted on 10/03/2014 12:42:32 PM PDT by markomalley
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said he fears the rapidly escalating Ebola crisis could become a “worldwide pandemic” and criticized President Obama for failing to forcefully confront it.
“They’re downplaying and underplaying the risk of this,” Paul said in an interview with Breitbart News backstage at an event where he endorsed Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC) for re-election.
“They keep emphasizing that it’s so hard to transmit. Well if it’s so hard to transmit why are doctors getting it with masks, gloves, boots and hats—the whole works?” he asked.
“Could we have a worldwide pandemic? The Spanish flu in 1918 killed 21 million people, the plague in the 14th century killed 25 million people; I’m not saying that’s going to happen, I don’t know what’s going to happen. But I think we should have travel restrictions at this point in time coming from Africa,” Paul added.
Wednesday evening, the first Ebola patient in the U.S. was identified as Thomas Eric Duncan. Since then, questions have arisen about how Duncan got into the United States—and why President Obama’s administration has not, pursuant to sections of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) and other federal law, taken additional steps to protect Americans from this virus.
“The head of the CDC a month ago was saying it’s no big deal and that we needed to still have this conference that they were having in New York, but it’s like well gosh can we have a conference delayed for a couple months? If this thing takes off in a big city or God forbid our marines get it on a ship, all you got to do is if you’ve ever been on a Carnival cruise line and seen a virus spread on a Carnival cruise line, imagine what it’d be like on our military ships,” Paul said.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
More recent estimates are 50M to 100M.
And you are an alarmist horses ass, Rand....
True dat.
My friend, who passed at 101 years and 5 months was quarantined with the Spanish Flu.
Guess it finally got her...
Just damn...
Ms Clinton, what should US policy be concerning Africa air travel and quarantine?
Righto, imo.
This most recent outbreak started in December last year, 10 months ago, and has managed to infect <10,000 people, despite appallingly good conditions for spread in third world toilet slums. And even worse medical facilities.
Just to compare, the “Spanish flu” was discovered in KS in March 1918. By the end of October it had infected 5M to 8M American, killing 195,000 just in the month of October alone. And the great majority of the spread of the disease occurred just during September and October.
IOW, Ebola appears to be several orders of magnitude less contagious than the Spanish flu. Or it would have affected probably at least 10M Africans by now, not <10,000.
Because the Flu is airborne spread and Ebola is not....
Rand Paul is rapidly turning into a smaller...and younger version of his "whack-job" dad. The more he spouts off about just about everything, the more insignificant and less relevant he becomes on the national scene.
Paul is desperately seeking to hook a constituency of some sort.
You see 21 million dead. The president sees it as a good start.
My dad, who is now deceased, was born in 1912.
He used to tell the story of how he remembers as a small boy standing in the street in a small KS town and watching his father and uncles carry six bodies out of a neighbor’s home. All six in the family dead of the flu.
Whether or not you like Rand Paul is not applicable to the danger posed by Ebola. Disease has changed the course of history in the past and frankly, as a medical person, I would think that being Cavalier about the huge Ebola threat is foolhardy.This thing could reel out of control very quickly.
No he isn’t. HE’s an MD and he makes perfect sense on this.
Imagine a critical mass, a tipping point, given the way it spreads, and Paul is right. This is predicted to have 1.5 million by January.
Paul isn’t everyone’s favorite politician, but he’s right about this one.
It is spread by air....no one can prove it isn’t, and plenty are saying it is.
You are a horses ass for saying that. He’s a MD and you or no one else should take Ebola lightly.
I don’t have a problem compartmentalizing or conflating.
We made it through H1N1.
18,000+ people die each year in the USA.
This is a very ugly disease and will eat your flesh and bone.
My friend got it at 96, went through 3 rounds of treatment and had the nerve to live another 5 years.
And no, I’m not treating this cavalerly.
Have you closed yourself in a bunker, hoping to survive?
Of course you haven’t and you’ll go out this weekend doing all kinds things, picking up germs everywhere you go.
I do have a plan though.
If (not one bit likely) this turns into a true pandemic, I shall gather 50 honeys and with Laz as my wingman, retire to an uninhabited island south of Mexico.
We will repopulate the world, invent a new religion and cry for lost loved ones but, we will persevere and prosper. ...
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