Six Reasons to Panic (over Ebola)

The Weekly Standard ^ | October 27, 2014 | Jonathan V. Last

[Zakeet]

As a rule, one should not panic at whatever crisis has momentarily fixed the attention of cable news producers. But the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, which has migrated to both Europe and America, may be the exception that proves the rule. There are at least six reasons that a controlled, informed panic might be in order.

(1) Start with what we know, and don’t know, about the virus. Officials from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and other government agencies claim that contracting Ebola is relatively difficult because the virus is only transmittable by direct contact with bodily fluids from an infected person who has become symptomatic. Which means that, in theory, you can’t get Ebola by riding in the elevator with someone who is carrying the virus, because Ebola is not airborne.

This sounds reassuring. Except that it might not be true. There are four strains of the Ebola virus that have caused outbreaks in human populations. According to the New England Journal of Medicine, the current outbreak (known as Guinean EBOV, because it originated in Meliandou, Guinea, in late November 2013) is a separate clade “in a sister relationship with other known EBOV strains.” Meaning that this Ebola is related to, but genetically distinct from, previous known strains, and thus may have distinct mechanisms of transmission.

Not everyone is convinced that this Ebola isn’t airborne.

[Gritty]

Gosh, Laz. I wish you wouldn’t exaggerate stuff and make such awful things up. Oh, wait...

[arthurus]

I have been thinking about this for a while. I don't think the initial outbreak was anything but natural but I am sure the Sultan and his Minions are trying to use it to the best political advantage with no regard at all to public safety. You also have the enviros who are an important part of this administration who are salivating at the chance to reduce the population of America and the World in one fell swoop. They all, of course, believe themselves to be somehow immune. They seem to believe the virus will obey their orders and only attack their enemies and surplus population. The Sultan sees himself as finally reducing America to a Shariah Islamic country and there are the enviros who dream of living in Algore-like splendor in a country of 5 or 50 million people that has enclaves of Algores and the rest is natural wilderness park for their scenic enjoyment.

[Gator113]

Exactly....

[Buckeye McFrog]

Add the fact that our Fearless Leader thinks he can control ANY crisis by giving a speech, and you are SOOOOO right!

[cuban leaf]

We’re in very deep trouble.

---

I’ve said for a while, we’re no longer the good guys.

[cuban leaf]

Interesting. It has been speculated that the indigenous indian population of north america suffered a plague that wiped out as many as 90% of them before we got here. And they left some pretty spectacular cities behind.

[Yosemitest]

The LIBERALS were pressing that story even when I ewas in grasde school, back in the 60s.
Here, read Measles and Small Pox as an Allied Army of the Conquistadors of America
by CARLOS RUVALCABA .

Also read Spanish and Nahuatl Views on Smallpox and Demographic Catastrophe in the Conquest of Mexico: by Robert McCaa, version: March 14, 1994,

[Yosemitest]

I'm making too many typos.
So ~ it's bedtime. Goodnight.

[Billthedrill]

"When in danger or in doubt,
Run in circles, scream and shout."

Words to live by. The problem I'm having is that these are reasons for concern, not panic, and it is a false media trope that to express concern is to panic. Come on, guys, it's a communicable disease with a 70% mortality rate. That alone is a subject for concern.

I find three things of major concern because they lead to so many others: first, that there simply is no body of research that confirms the blithe announcements we're getting about how the thing can or cannot be contracted; second, that medical protocols are highly suspect given that after the usual random victims, the biggest class of victims is health care professionals; and third, that if it does become more widespread in North America the disease may find a reservoir species as the plague bacillus Yersinia pestis did. An acute problem then becomes a chronic one, as it is in Africa.

Liberal concern - good God, is everything political to these people? - that eeeevil conservatives may use this as an argument for border control, is a little superficial: it absolutely IS an argument for border control, one of the most serious, and it always has been. Now, instead of hypothetical, it's real, and all we have in reply is mockery and stubborn denial. That is the recourse of fools.

[Yosemitest]

We're still the "Good Guys".
Trouble is ~ the SADISTIC have taken over.

He's a BIBLICAL CURSE !

Remember:
Don't let anyone deceive you in any way,
for [that day will not come] until the rebellion occurs
and the man of LAWLESSNESS is revealed,
the man doomed to destruction.
He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped,
so that he sets himself up in God's temple,
proclaiming himself to be God.
Don't you remember that when I was with you
I used to tell you these things?
And now you know WHAT is holding him back,
so that he may be revealed
at the proper time.
For the secret power of LAWLESSNESS is already at work;
but the one who now holds it back
will continue to do so
till he is taken out of the way.
And then the LAWLESS ONE will be revealed,
whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth
and destroy by the splendor of his coming.
The coming of the LAWLESS ONE will be in accordance with the work of Satan
displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders,
and IN EVERY SORT OF EVIL
THAT DECEIVES those who are perishing.
They perish
because THEY REFUSED to love the truth
and so be saved.
For this reason
God sends them
a POWERFUL DELUSION
so that THEY WILL BELIEVE THE LIE
and so that ALL will be condemned
who have NOT BELIEVED the truth
but have DELIGHTED in wickedness.

[EternalVigilance]

[Pollster1]

One person with the virus - in a bed - very sick and unable to move around much is safer than a person who can get up with the virus and spend a few days walking around town infecting hundreds.

A sick person in a bed is almost where it gets scary. Imagine Ebola in San Francisco's gay community. It's quite possible that it will spread earlier in the course of the disease with larger volumes of fluids exchanged, and only about 15% of gay men with HIV tell their hook-up partners that they are infected. Even fewer would mention that they have a fever or are feeling a little sore. How many would wait 90 days after recovery before putting strangers at risk? This could get out of control quickly in certain circles, and then Obama would finally care. The sad thing is that conservatives object to that risk and want it minimized, while the far left wants borders to stay open at any cost - America's enemies in the White House value new undocumented democrats more than they value the lives of gay Americans.

[GOPJ]

How many would wait 90 days after recovery before putting strangers at risk? This could get out of control quickly in certain circles, and then Obama would finally care. The sad thing is that conservatives object to that risk and want it minimized, while the far left wants borders to stay open at any cost - America's enemies in the White House value new undocumented democrats more than they value the lives of gay Americans.

You're right - but the logic is so strange. Liberal elites and gays vote AND they give large sums of money to Democrats. Undocumented democrats just vote. It doesn't make sense. Any ideas on their strange logic?

[Pollster1]

Any ideas on their strange logic?

I think it's numbers. There are only 6 million GLBTQwhatevers in the country. We already have 12 million illegals and there is no limit to how many more could be added. I don't think the far left minds a few thousand or tens of thousands of dead gays from another disease, while conservatives find that reprehensible when it can be avoided so easily. And the media pretend that conservatives are the hateful ones.

[GOPJ]

Ebola would also disproportionally harm racial groups that tend toward promiscuity... As with AIDS that would include the black community... Again - these choices don't made sense. Some piece of information is missing - one that allows this to make sense....

""That was the curious incident." ... the dog didn't bark...