[Gadsden1st]

A very thoughtful, honest look at the Ebola situation followed by some interesting comments.

[Squantos]

.... he the new czar ?

[null and void]

Bring Out Your Dead

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...

[KarlInOhio]

For those who hate over excerpted articles and don't mind spoilers, the thing the author fears most is a deadly, highly contagious flu like the Spanish Flu from 1918.

[FatherofFive]

I fear progressives

[Ditto]

Bump for a very interesting read. The Doc makes some good points.

[PetroniusMaximus]

ping

[SgtHooper]

“But a real bad flu?

There is no way you can prepare for it. The goal should be to protect your hospital from it.”

A very interesting perspective not yet considered, from what I have read.

[SgtHooper]

The entire article and the reader comments are golden, and should be read. If such a pandemic hits, either be the first one to the hospital, or don’t go at all!

[Sooth2222]

"Now imagine that huge numbers of hospital staff – from doctors to housekeepers, from food services to registration, from security and parking to transportation will decide not show up. They will call in sick or simply just say: “No, I’m not coming to work today.” In just a few days, human waste, debris, soiled linens, the sick, the dying and the bodies will pile up. We will be overwhelmed and unable to offer much in the way of assistance because the labor-intensive protocols that allow us to safely care for even one patient are just too exhausting. These procedures are barely repeatable more than once or twice of day, and fraught with so many steps and potential for mistake that it becomes too physically and emotionally taxing for the staff to do … so they simply wont show up."

-->"Hospital staffers reportedly take sick day rather than treat New York’s first Ebola patient"

[vetvetdoug]

One of my research labmates studied the Avian Influenzas, I worked with Bovine respiratory viruses, and another labmate Coronaviruses. My labmate that studied the Avian orthomyxoviridae teaches at a major university and is used by the CDC quite often. My other labmate was used almost exclusively by the CDC during the SARS outbreak, he recently passed. Life is ironic in how relationships come full circle. The Avian mutations do have the game changer potential.

[ansel12]

People need to remember to show us that these are excerpts.

[9YearLurker]

“More times than Lois Lerner has hit her hard drive with a hammer.”

Sounds like a Freeper.

[Yaelle]

Great article.

[RockyTx]

I am not sure i buy any of this.

the Flu of the 1920 era.

the world was recovering from World War 1.
hundreds of thousands of sick soldiers were moved by ship.
there are food shortages during a war.
there are everything-shortages during a war.
many governments were wiped out.
other governments were bankrupt.

and on and on

[Christie at the beach]

Thank you for posting this. I read the entire article.

Very honest and interesting.

[glock rocks]

Thanks for posting this.

I admire the doctor’s straightforwardness... rare these days.

[familyop]

One answer to the problem might seem unrelated, but it’s not. We need much more distributed, community-based production of all necessities: agricultural, manufacturing, etc.

Very centralized production in a few places of the world owned by a few rulers of the world is counter to our security. It necessitates too much travel and migration that cannot be stopped without terrible consequences. We should be able to make most of what we need in each community and home, but activities to make it possible are outlawed by our corrupt system of many state and local regulations against domestic competition.

[cpdiii]

We have the ability to treat and contain a small number of Ebola patients. When and if we have more Ebola patients than suitable rooms (negative pressure isolation Rooms) we will have no place to put these patients. You can not put them on a general ward least we infect all on the ward. At that point there is no alternative but isolation at home. They will be cared for by family members whom many of which will become infected and thus compound the problem.

As a health care professional I “probably” could do this. The vast majority of people could not. I as others would not abandon a family member. This is a recipe for logarithmic spread of the disease.

We must isolate any and all travelers from an Ebola infected nation. If we do this, we will have sufficient beds and facilities to treat the few cases we will have. If we do not, we may be on the verge of a medical catastrophe.

[Tamzee]

Thank you for this post, a fascinating read from the doctor’s perspective....

[Ellendra]

Elderberry and Japanese honeysuckle have both shown promise in fighting influenza. When I’m more awake tomorrow I’ll post links to the studies.