Posted on 10/08/2014 4:09:57 PM PDT by tips up
As the number of Ebola cases continues to grow, many of us are asking whether we are safe. How easily is it transmitted? The answer will determine whether this is a small outbreak in a few isolated areas or a pandemic worthy of a science fiction movie.
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2014/10/airborne_ebola_more_settled_science.html#ixzz3Fb8MbcJt Follow us: @AmericanThinker on Twitter | AmericanThinker on Facebook
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Fear monger. FR’s own ‘Obola’ experts have declared the science settled and that’s good enough for me.
The CDR’s (Center for Disease Relocation) assurance was good enough for me. Besides, I might be covered under Obolacare.
/sarc
Did the tests confirm that?
Think it was suspected Ebola. The time frame is right on the money though.
With this happening, it is really starting to bother me about Duncan’s family whereabouts and their condition. It is like they moved them to the moon and nobody cares.
My tagline.
Duncan has so many relatives crawling out of the woodwork, it is possible he’s the last of the tribe to come to the US.
Of course it’s airborne. That’s how it got to Nigeria and Texas - and I’m ignoring the deliberate importations to the US, Norway and Spain (and it’s now on the loose in Spain).
Oh, not that kind of airborne?
Well, sorry, but both kinds need to be addressed.
Even the increasingly non-credible CDC has defined “close contact” as “within 3 feet” for this outbreak. This virus books flights, ambushes from surfaces, and hitches rides on any bodily fluids that can move person to person by whatever means. Actual touching of an infected person is not required.
As we have repetitively learned with this administration, definitions vary depending upon the spin sought. While not currently considered to be transmitted through the air, I fail to see how vectors, notably the mosquito and its cousins, cannot constitute the means for virus transmission. The mosquito deposits its saliva on the skin of the host initially, and upon selecting a suitable location, inserts its seven mouth parts. Malaria is so transmitted, is it not? So, please tell me, what precludes transmission of a virus to the host, be that Ebola or any number of the filovrii?
The virus is not airborne because it can’t survive naked. That being said, most people would be surprised to see how far a cough or sneeze can carry micro-droplets. Even saying “platypus” produces a big spray from some people.
For most of us, it’s a difference without distinction.
Mike Rowe has to be thinking “Holy Cow!...I finally get another show and all anybody wants to talk about is this Ebola stuff.”
More like the Medical Arts than Science.
IMO the problem is not a couple people here and there, it is the 100's coming in each week from Liberia potentially infected, uneducated, willing to go spread it anywhere. I don't like playing ebola roulette down in Arlington VA with all the State Dept stuff where they bring Liberians and others over to help them rip off the American taxpayers.
It is important to be realistic so when we are personally confronted with a potential threat we can deal with it optimally. Second, we have to be credible about the threat to inform the politicians that it is not acceptable.
I think it is more the author does not understand the nuances of what the "experts" are telling him-- both perspectives are true. First, it is mathematically possible for ebolavirus to mutate and become effectively transmitted by air-- if this remote event did in fact happen somehow, it is even more unlikely that it would retain its virulence. At the same time the seemingly opposing "expert" view is true--yes, it is very unlikely that ebolavirus will mutate and become capable of airborne transmission, and irresponsible for scientists to state that to the general public. There is no inconsistency here. What is required for Ebola to go airborne? What is airborne?
"Airborne" infectious agents, from the perspective of a medical research scientist or epidemiologist, generally have the following properties: (i)infectious agent that is capable of infecting cells of the human respiratory tract (ii) and can be expelled in aerosolized droplets (iii) which can attach to and initiate infection of cells of the respiratory tract of a human target leading to a systemic infection. Moreover, this generally must be the dominant means of transmission and infection. Ebolavirus is not airborne; yet an Ebola sneeze or cough can produce droplets that will infect you if it gets in your eyes, nose, or mouth, or even if you inhale the smaller droplets as they fall through the air, because the cloud of droplets will contain some saliva, and also possibly blood (especially late stage) which is absorbed directly through mucous membranes or even broken skin. Note that these droplets would be pretty large, and not produce stable floating clouds that would contaminate the air for extended periods.
Why so unlikely that ebolavirus could become airborne? First, it is optimized to infect by a very different strategy, that allows it to evade the immune system and infect particular types of target tissue. It can't infect human (or even non-human primate) respiratory cells as part of a systemic infection now because it is designed to infect other types of cells; interestingly Zaire ebolavirus can infect both upper and lower respiratory cells in pigs (Yes, Zaire ebolavirus, not Reston.paper here). It also cannot attach to and successfully infect respiratory cells when it enters through the airway. Finally, it is a relatively large and heavy virus, making it unlikely that it could be encapsulated by aerosol droplets. Dramatic changes in size/molecular weight mean it would almost certainly no longer be virulent, probably not even viable. The chances of random mutations accomplishing these daunting tasks leading to this human pathogen to shift its primary mode of transmission and retain its virulence are astronomical. It has never happened in the many decades that we have been studying infectious micro-organisms, not once. But it is possible, in theory.
Malaria is a plasmodium. I have no idea if mosquito saliva transmits the virus. I know that human saliva contains virus from the studies I read, but we are very different from mosquitoes.
Understood. So what, if anything, precludes a virus from being transmitted in a like manner?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.