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What We're Afraid to Say About Ebola
New York Times ^ | 9/11/2014 | MICHAEL T. OSTERHOLM

Posted on 09/11/2014 11:23:51 PM PDT by DouglasKC

THE Ebola epidemic in West Africa has the potential to alter history as much as any plague has ever done.

There have been more than 4,300 cases and 2,300 deaths over the past six months. Last week, the World Health Organization warned that, by early October, there may be thousands of new cases per week in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Nigeria. What is not getting said publicly, despite briefings and discussions in the inner circles of the world’s public health agencies, is that we are in totally uncharted waters and that Mother Nature is the only force in charge of the crisis at this time.

There are two possible future chapters to this story that should keep us up at night.

The first possibility is that the Ebola virus spreads from West Africa to megacities in other regions of the developing world. This outbreak is very different from the 19 that have occurred in Africa over the past 40 years. It is much easier to control Ebola infections in isolated villages. But there has been a 300 percent increase in Africa’s population over the last four decades, much of it in large city slums. What happens when an infected person yet to become ill travels by plane to Lagos, Nairobi, Kinshasa or Mogadishu — or even Karachi, Jakarta, Mexico City or Dhaka?

The second possibility is one that virologists are loath to discuss openly but are definitely considering in private: that an Ebola virus could mutate to become transmissible through the air. You can now get Ebola only through direct contact with bodily fluids. But viruses like Ebola are notoriously sloppy in replicating, meaning the virus entering one person may be genetically different from the virus entering the next. The current Ebola virus’s hyper-evolution is unprecedented...

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: airbourneebola; ebola; ebolaoutbreak; ladyalqaeda; pandemic
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To: Lazamataz
OOPS. Here's the first map (I hope).


181 posted on 09/13/2014 6:57:48 PM PDT by UCANSEE2 (Lost my tagline on Flight MH370. Sorry for the inconvenience.)
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To: UCANSEE2

Very interesting indeed. Consider my proposal seriously.


182 posted on 09/13/2014 6:58:52 PM PDT by Lazamataz (First we beat the Soviet Union. Then we became them.)
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To: Lazamataz

“Garvey says they sent samples from Iowa patients to the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta to see if they were the same virus type known as E-V-D-68 that has hit other states.”

(source: http://kiwaradio.com/local-news/iowa-department-of-public-health-says-evd-68-causing-illness-in-iowa/ )

That would make me believe that CDC knows exactly what virus has occurred where. In each case, they seem to be major cities. The one above was Des Moines, Iowa.

Des Moines is the next major hub on the Superhighway system going North from Kansas City.

How much proof do you need ?


183 posted on 09/13/2014 7:16:47 PM PDT by UCANSEE2 (Lost my tagline on Flight MH370. Sorry for the inconvenience.)
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To: UCANSEE2
Here is the CDC's list of infected areas.

States along I-35 North/South and I-70 East/West. KC in the middle, the crossroads of America.

184 posted on 09/13/2014 7:27:33 PM PDT by UCANSEE2 (Lost my tagline on Flight MH370. Sorry for the inconvenience.)
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To: UCANSEE2

I have gone into Missouri DHSS to try and track the cases there first, and I hit a brick wall. The data is only current up to May 17.


185 posted on 09/13/2014 7:38:36 PM PDT by UCANSEE2 (Lost my tagline on Flight MH370. Sorry for the inconvenience.)
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To: Lazamataz

I went through CDC’s website to get the graphs for this outbreak, and they show no increase in the rate of influenza in Missouri. I didn’t check the other states. Perhaps this virus is not considered ‘influenza’.


186 posted on 09/13/2014 9:26:11 PM PDT by UCANSEE2 (Lost my tagline on Flight MH370. Sorry for the inconvenience.)
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To: Lazamataz

Maybe. Could be that even though there are standard definitions of various protocols and there are standard operational protocols by disease, but also that one agency goes one added step further, or uses a product from a different manufacturer that they consider a superior design.


187 posted on 09/13/2014 9:55:22 PM PDT by greeneyes (Moderation in defense of your country is NO virtue. Let Freedom Ring.)
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To: Lazamataz
No I don't want stuff to worry about, and I was already worried about this crud, since Missouri is one of the states that has had clusters of cases already.

According to some of the interviews I have read, virologists who have been studying and tracking the Ebola virus have expressed sentiments about it that are along the lines of “ Ebola scares the s##t out of me.

To that I will say - me too. It scares the crap out of me. And there's really not that much a person can do to prep. Sure you can buy suits, and masks, and gloves, etc, but with people getting it who supposedly know all the correct protocols, what chance does a mere amateur have of not making a mistake that could result in infection.

If authorities were making a true effort and/or were effective containing it, that would be much less worrisome. They are not even giving the appearance of trying to contain it, else our borders would be shut down tight.

No, they just say it's not that easy to catch and let any person infected with who knows what into the country. Ebola, EV-D68, just a few of a long list of diseases that could kill our kids and grand kids. It's not just worrisome, it maddening, and treasonous.

188 posted on 09/13/2014 10:15:45 PM PDT by greeneyes (Moderation in defense of your country is NO virtue. Let Freedom Ring.)
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To: UCANSEE2

Wow. If I didn’t know any better I could almost believe they’re trying to decimate flyover country.

But that would be a silly conspiracy theory wouldn’t it?


189 posted on 09/13/2014 11:00:28 PM PDT by Califreak (Hope and Che'nge is killing U.S.)
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To: Califreak

Actually, I don’t believe that it is being done on purpose.

Immigrants from Mexico have been coming to the US for a long time. If one were to track various flu outbreaks, they likely follow the path of the NAFTA SUPERHIGHWAY.

EVD-68 is just the latest to be brought in this way.

We know that ‘this time’ the immigrants were not (mostly) from Mexico, but were from Central America (Honduras, for instance).

Perhaps that is why this strain showed up in Kansas City, and Colorado, and Des Moines, and Oklahoma.

The same is true of the AIRLINE routes. Although I doubt that (prior to the recent wave of ‘child’ immigrants) any of the illegals flew on airliners.

When ‘new’ infectious diseases enter this country, their ‘spread’ is simply a matter of following transportation corridors.


190 posted on 09/14/2014 7:33:16 PM PDT by UCANSEE2 (Lost my tagline on Flight MH370. Sorry for the inconvenience.)
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