Vanity: Ebola reality check

[dangus]

Thomas Eric Duncan was already symptomatic when he flew on a jet filled with other passengers. He went to a hopistal, filled of course, with medical staff and patients, and was sent back home. He vomited, sneezed, coughed and sweat all over an apartment packed with relatives. By the time he returned to the hospital, he was spewing vomit in every direction. He boarded an ambulance with unprotected health care workers, and waited for help.

Emergency workers waited days before cleaning out the apartment he was staying in. Unprotected street workers blasted the vomit he left in the street all over the neighborhood by using high-power sprayers.

The government and medical response couldn't be worse. And still no ebola transmission.

[Cvengr]

[GeronL]

lol

Technically the Ebola-protection qualities of the headphones have not been tested. I just want to make that clear.

But I heard they also work against zombies, vampires and werewolves.

[Theophilus]

Assuming a linear progression which never happens with anything.

[trebb]

It's understood where you are coming from - most of us who think we shouldn't pooh-pooh it, but should stress caution instead, don't think it will be an end-of-world event; we just think the potential seriousness, especially with the apparent lack of interest in our government when it comes to protecting actual citizens.

We haven't heard of any cases in mexico and I would lay odds that there have been a case or two anyway and that it has been squashed so we don't hear about it - both Mexico and our governments are intent on leaving the border wide open no matter what harm may befall our citizens.

[Born to Conserve]

“Assuming a linear progression which never happens with anything.”

First, go learn the difference between a linear progression, and geometric progression, then, come back here and try not to be a smartass.

[Age of Reason]

"People who work in close proximity to an infected person are at greater risk. That doesn’t invalidate the general rule. At the moment the hot zone is limited to a few hospitals. And we’re better equipped to contain it than in Africa. Panic is unwarranted."

But will our approach be scalable?

Our current handling of the few suspected cases seems to work fairly well.

But what happens when flu season hits?

Will there be enough containment wards to hold all the people with symptoms?

Might real cases of ebola be sent home for lack of space, thinking those cases are people with the flu?

[Age of Reason]

taking common sense precautions such as getting enough sleep, washing your hands frequently, and not shaking other people’s hands when you are sick (unless you don’t like them) are always a good ideas.

And let us not forget the duct tape.

[lonevoice]

Technically the Ebola-protection qualities of the headphones have not been tested. I just want to make that clear.

They should be delivered to Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins for field testing. I understand he's enthusiastic about being on the "bleeding" edge of any possible pandemic.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3214227/posts

[fireman15]

No, thank you... I didn’t mention other top killers that most people should actually be more concerned about than Ebola. Heart disease, and other cardiovascular diseases kill approximately 18 million people a year, of these heart disease kill approximately 8 million and strokes approximately 6 million. Diarrhea kills approximately 2.2 million people a year. Then of course, traumatic injuries such as car accidents kill approximately 5 million people a year.

None of the 10 leading causes of death worldwide have anywhere near the Hollywood appeal of Ebola... nasty puss filled boils covering your entire body, internal organs turning to mush, blood oozing from your eyeballs, blood coming out of every orifice, and vomiting blood. Ebola is simply one of the nastiest ways to die, most of us would rather have a date with “Jihadi John” than be infected with Ebola.

So it is not hard to understand why the media will continue to focus on Ebola and cause concern that is grossly out of proportion to the actual risks.

[precisionshootist]

Our borders should be shut down and no one coming from Ebola hot zones should be allowed in. ANYTHING short of this by our elected officials is criminal dereliction of duty.

People who would have led full lives are going to die because of the actions of our government officials. This is Completely unacceptable and the American people should simply not tolerate it.