Posted on 07/30/2014 12:20:42 PM PDT by EBH
I am a germaphobe yet recently caught an airborne virus that knocked me down for 10 days. I took a friend’s husband to the doctor and came down sick 2 and a half days later and ended up in urgent care.
Be careful out there.
I’m sure the Canadian equivalent of the CDC is ignorant.
Why don’t you email them and explain their mistakes?
The "Hot Zone" is a complete work of fiction and you would do well to understand that the author takes some enormous liberties with how the virus spreads and the effects it has on the victims.
I suggest anyone interested in these things to read "[Level 4] Virus Hunters of the CDC". It is a far more accurate account of Ebola and many other deadly virus's such as Lassa, Hanta, and so forth.
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This does not give me great confidence ..........
Went through all of this horror during the very beginning of the AIDs crisis in NYC when nobody knew what was going on. In retrospect, there was not much to worry about but who knew in the early 80s?Actually, even back then people knew what to do: For example, shut down homosexual bathhouses. But of course, that was out of the question because that would be “homophobic.”
Today, they ought to put anyone coming out of Africa on quarantine for a few weeks, but that is not going to happen, either, probably because it would be “racist.”
It also says ultra violet radiation kills it. Instantly. It would have to be a ton of live virus in liquid to live for that long. Dried is simply not proven to cause infection. Even if spores were still alive in dried form out somewhere in the public (always in the dark mind you) whoever came in contact with it would STILL need to absorb it into their blood stream. It’s infectious not contagious.
The vaccine sounds promising, but tens of thousands may die waiting for the test results and for the manufacturer to produce enough doses.
Here’s are a few ideas that don’t require drugs (or waiting). First, indefinitely suspend all air service between the affected areas and destinations in the rest of the world. Secondly, place anyone arriving from those areas in medical quarrantine until it can be determined they are not carrying the disease. Third, round up anyone who has arrived from those countries in the last month or so and put them in quarrantine, too. Then, start monitoring anyone they have come in contact with since coming to the U.S. and consider quarrantining them as well.
Such measures sound draconian, but if they don’t get ahead of it now, you’ll see scenes reminiscent of the great plague in cities around the world. Centuries ago, millions died because doctors didn’t know what to do. This time around, we know how to limit the spread of the disease, but we refuse, because of political correctness.
One last thing, which I saw on another thread (but bears repeating): wonder how many people from the hot zone have crossed our southern border in recent weeks?
It says UV kills it, doesn’t say instantly. It does say the virus can live for days outside the host at room temp.
Ebola is not a spore, its a virus. All it takes is 1 single organism to contact the right place and you can catch it. Touch a table and then your eye or lips, or a cut and you can pick it up.
This is why medical staff are catching it, IMO.
That isn't known to happen with Ebola, unless the infected individual were maybe coughing from the other side of the table. The latent ambient surface mode of transmission has not been known to occur. Some day this may change; I hope not.
Send a few patients to ride along with ISIS. Let them join MS-13
If you had to ride crowded public transportation every day, such as that in Manhattan, would you feel safe with that explanation of ‘contact’ and ‘surface’?
I dunno, I’m just basing it on what the Canadian health dept says.
One last thing, which I saw on another thread (but bears repeating): wonder how many people from the hot zone have crossed our southern border in recent weeks?
If you quarantine everyone who came in contact with anyone who came from those countries in the last month, you'd have one heck of a quarantine going on. I don't think it's feasible. Either to identify them or to quarantine them. Ain't gonna happen.
As far as the southern border goes... There are lots of suicidal terrorists who would volunteer for just such a mission.
There needs to be a scale of infectability of various pulmonary pathogens. It is a reasonable idea based on several variables.
1) Novelty of pathogen. People are constantly being infected with pathogens their immune systems are familiar with, and have defenses against. A familiar pathogen that can still infect requires much greater relative concentration, that is, more contamination all at once, than does a novel pathogen.
2) Heat and humidity. Influenza transmits by coughing and sneezing best at 40F and low humidity. Higher temperatures and humidity make its transmission far more reliant on hand contamination.
3) Proximity of the infected person to those not infected. That is, physical distance over time matters. Being in a plane with recycled air makes transmission far more likely than being in a large room with open windows.
4) General hygiene of a place. The developed world spends a lot more time and effort cleaning and sanitizing, which can tend to make immune systems weaker by reduced exposure to all pathogens. But it also eliminates a lot of contamination that could spread disease.
5) Cultural traditions. People with infectious diseases tend to be avoided in the developed world. Even family members with dangerous diseases will be shunned so as not to infect the rest of the family. And those with dangerous diseases are often quarantined by the authorities, to protect the public. Well over a hundred years experience with this.
Sorry, they absolutely shut down the bathhouses in Manhattan. Times weren’t as pc as they are today. My point was that we didn’t know whether the disease was spread through saliva.
But epidemiologically, it is not considered contagious at this time.
It is not a bad idea to stock up on N95 masks and non permeable gloves. I have them already.
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