Ebola threat: Our military must be on front line of US fight, not on the sidelines

Fox News ^ | Oct 17th, 2014 | By Van Hipp

[Mariner]

As Americans grow increasingly concerned about Ebola both here and around the world, I’ve been speaking with respected doctors who have spent most of their lives working for our government.

The concern they have about the Ebola threat to the American people is very real.

They have spent their lives making sure America has the right systems and technologies in place to prevent potentially catastrophic medical events, such as hemorrhagic fevers.

These doctors are not alarmists; they are patriots who have dedicated most of their lives to making sure that our nation was adequately prepared for an event such as this.

[ansel12]

What does that even mean? Should we pull all of our people from Africa entirely? All of Africa?

[xzins]

What it was was sarcasm.

How many ebola infections do you predict will happen to our troops in Liberia & etc.?

Medical experts say they can’t be ruled out, and especially because only about 20% of those infected are in facilities, but also because the mission will creep. It always does.

[ansel12]

I have no idea, but the world needs to fight it in Africa, and the American and other civilians can’t do it alone, they obviously need some facilities and supplies.

The military cannot be afraid to even set foot in West Africa on this peacetime mission.

Our military has been involved in all of the major outbreaks for since 1976, this one is bigger and we have a bigger footprint.

““We had a large footprint in Africa,” Cummings said of the Defense Department’s response to the first Ebola cases reported in 1976 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, formerly Zaire. Since that time, the Defense Department has answered numerous calls for assistance from the World Health Organization (WHO), nongovernmental organizations and ministries of heath and defense, he said.”

[xzins]

I simply cannot find any information on the US Army helping in the 1967 outbreak in the Congo. I’m not saying it doesn’t exist. I’m saying I can’t find it. Send a link if you have it.

In any case, I did find that outbreak was confined to a small area (one village), that it was solved by a combination of quarantine and no longer using hypodermic needles more than once. My failure to find a major US military deployment suggests US military involvement was limited in numbers.

[ansel12]

My failure to find a major US military deployment suggests US military involvement was limited in numbers.

That is why I post words like "this one is bigger and we have a bigger footprint."

I'm not going to research what the Army was doing in 1976, if they weren't involved as Army Colonel James Cummings, a doctor and director of the Global Emerging Infections Surveillance and Response System in the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center says they were, then you will have to find that information yourself.

=============================================

Here is some general information. All excerpts not my words.

“DoD personnel bring a level of excellence second to none, working in response to host nations and WHO in the most-affected countries of Sierra Leone and Liberia,” Army Col. James Cummings, a physician and director of the Global Emerging Infections Surveillance and Response System at the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center told AFPS.

Filoviruses like Ebola have been of interest to the Pentagon since the late 1970s, mainly because Ebola and its fellow viruses have high mortality rates — in the current outbreak, roughly 60 percent to 72 percent of those who have contracted the disease have died — and its stable nature in aerosol make it attractive as a potential biological weapon. Since the late 1970s and early 1980s, researchers at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases have sought to develop a vaccine or treatment for the disease.

Last year, USAMRIID scientists used a treatment, MB-003, on primates infected with Ebola after they became symptomatic; the treatment fully protected the animals when given one hour after exposure.

Two-thirds of infected primates were protected when treated 48 hours after exposure, according to a report published last August in Science Translational Medicine.

In March, the Food and Drug Administration granted fast-track status to the development of another Ebola treatment, TKM-Ebola, developed under a $140 million contract with DoD, although earlier this month, the FDA placed a human clinical study of TKM-Ebola on hold, requesting more information on the protocol before allowing it to proceed.

And last year, DoD awarded a $4.4 million grant to the Vanderbilt Vaccine Center at Vanderbilt University to study vaccine development and treatment for Ebola and another filovirus, Marburg.

Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs Dr. Jonathan Woodson said Friday that global health is a national security issue and the Pentagon plays a major role in preventing and responding to security threats from health catastrophes.

Woodson said DoD remains broadly engaged in international public health matters.

“One of the things I don’t think many people realize is what a huge valuable asset the military health system is to this nation,” he said Friday in a television interview on “Defense News with Vago Muradian.”

“Not only are we a key enabler so that service members, men and women who ... go in harm’s way will be taken care of, but we are a public health system, an education system, a research and development system,” Woodson said.

“The recent development with infectious disease issues in Africa — they are turning to the U.S. military to provide expertise.”

[xzins]

The explanations of the Ebola outbreak in 1976 don’t mention the US military. If you happen across some treatment of the subject that is more extensive, then please post the link on free republic. It might help those of us who have serious doubts about DoD involvement with thousands of troops.

The doc might have meant ‘involvement’ by ‘big footprint’ rather than deployed soldiers.

In any case, you are concerned that the outbreak be stopped and you see the US military having the expertise to do that. If you were president of Liberia, would you give them authority to quarantine an area and shoot violators? It would be a PR nightmare, but I would.

My bottom line, though, would be no boots on the ground. I would totally quarantine those countries as those of their neighbors not suffering an outbreak have effectively done....so far.

[ansel12]

If you happen across some treatment of the subject that is more extensive, then please post the link on free republic. It might help those of us who have serious doubts about DoD involvement with thousands of troops.

There you are with the lying again.

I thought I covered your first attempt, but here you come out with "thousands of troops" as though that was posted, no one said anything about deployed troops or thousands of troops in 1976.

Then you go into shooting people.

When you are so thoroughly dishonest, it just wastes time trying to post to you.

[xzins]

You keep accusing me of lying, and all I’ve done is cite the many reports that mention thousands of troops. I even said “those of us” and did not include you in that unless you consider yourself one of “us who have serious doubt...etc.”
I think you owe me an apology.

[ansel12]

You have lied consistently through this thread, starting with the avenue you took at first and stayed on for a while, pretending that I had posted that the military had engaged in bio warfare, then you moved onto others, on this one I will give you the benefit of the doubt if you are saying that you just may have combined the “thousands of troops” a little too close to the mention of the 1976 outbreak.

It still skipped past the most important part of post 43 “”The military cannot be afraid to even set foot in West Africa on this peacetime mission.””

[xzins]

Well, I think you’ve been wrong with your accusations all along. I don’t think you can find a post anyplace at any time in which I pretended that you said the military had engaged in bio warfare. You can find a post in which I said our military had not been involved in any bio warfare scenario ever. I asked you to cite even one time in which it had. I think I added at the time that it had been involved in chem attacks back in WWI.

Here’s a link to LTG Boykin saying we should NOT risk troops on this ebola mission. http://www.wnd.com/2014/09/boykin-sending-military-to-fight-ebola-misuse-of-soldiers/

So, in my opinion we should AVOID going into an ebola contamination zone, but should instead quarantine those countries.

[ansel12]

No you have lied and posted dishonestly and misleadingly through the thread, while ignoring any attempt to inform you.

I sure disagree with the message that you would send our enemies though, if you got your way and the military fled Africa because of disease, and that weird sidetrack into your thing about shooting people.

Our troops can build those facilities and handle the logistics and aviation, and training classes, it is what they do and the headquarters element from the 1101sr will probably run a jim dandy headquarters.

[cva66snipe]

You at it again huh? How many threads have you Trolled today ansel12? Two? Three? More? Having fun? Debate is one thing but you take it as you always do to the point of attacks on posters.

The man is a retired Army Chaplian perhaps you owe him an apology? Maybe Admin Moderator needs to look closer at your little games played just today alone?

It is not a sin, or a lie, or evil, to say these type of missions should not fall under the jurisdiction or duties of our armed forces. It's called a difference of opinion. The fact other administrations have done so doesn't make it right in the eyes of many either including myself.

Air drop them supplies, allow volunteer doctors & nurses who understand the risk and accept it like Samaritans Purse. But we should not be using troops for purposes like this.

[ansel12]

That was sure a troll enough post, do you have anything related to the thread topic?

[cva66snipe]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3216512/posts?q=1&;page=51 another thread today where you did the exact same stunt.

[ansel12]

Samaritan’s Purse doesn’t build hospitals and treatment centers and handle aviation and large logistic operations.

By now there is no reason for you not to know what the mission is for those troops.

[cva66snipe]

Yes they can yes they do. They also have a good air logistics system. http://www.samaritanspurse.org/what-we-do/world-medical-mission-2/ as well as this http://www.samaritanspurse.org/medical/mission-hospitals/ & So can others. These are the groups who should be handling this and our government should help with funding. They’ve been there done that and already are established.

[ansel12]

The reason we are getting involved is because the civilians are overwhelmed and breaking down and dying from lack of supplies and equipment and the exact kind of help that we are delivering to them.

You got mixed up, the civilians weren’t handling it.

We are filling the gaps that they needed filled.

[cva66snipe]

Everyone is wrong but you huh? LOL. A soldier and any member of the armed forces job is war. It is to maim, kill, destroy, destruct. That is the mission. It is not missionary work.

Missionary work is preaching, teaching, healing, building, nurturing. We do not ask missionaries nor Peace Corp workers etc to kill or police areas and in the same divide we should not ask out troops to do missionary jobs nor nation build. There has to be a very necessary mental and physical separation between these two for both to succeed in their missions. One is for killing the other for healing. To do otherwise can bring significant mental health harm to those involve which I'm sure the Chaplian has seen way too much of.

This isn't telling a suffering nation you're on your own. There are world wide relief agencies both government and others which are private that are non military and should handle this. In the mean time POTUS tells nationals from these nations to come on to the United States for treatment and spread it around while our troops deployed there may never see their home again. There is no inoculation for this.

[ansel12]

Everyone is wrong but you huh? LOL

You really don't know what's been going on in regards to Ebola and Samaritan's Purse and DWB? The very reason that we are going in is because they were no match and were overwhelmed.

Don't you get it, they are already there and have been doing their best for all this time and losing and almost totally used up, they are not the cavalry, they are the Alamo.

We are sending the units over that will be doing EXACTLY what they do, Seabees and engineers will do construction, and logistics and supply people will do supply and logistics, and headquarters people will run a headquarters, and instructors will teach classes, and laboratory people will do laboratory work.

We are building 17 treatment centers with 100 beds each, we are building a 25 bed hospital just for the medial people, and we will be trying to train 500 medical helpers a week, and bringing in mountains of supplies and gear to those poor burnt out saps that you thought should be bailing us out.

[cva66snipe]

Our armed forces should not be used for doing this. Again the private sector should be used. The armed forces are not missionaries, nor public health workers, nor building contractors. This is more LIBERAL IDEALS EXPANSION {abuses} of our troops and nothing more. If we are now supposed to be a world heath crisis responder then form an agency outside of the military to accomplish it. Better yet don't form another federal agency and instead contract out to the private sector instead. Or funding Volunteer agencies is even better.

Our military is over extended as well. It's been almost constantly running war time missions on peace time End Troop Strengths since the early 1990's. Doing so in a very deep downturn in manpower and equipment.

I don't see Obama or congress bending over backwards to help the troops. What will be the death of troops or seriously ill numbers of our troops? Do you realize many will have to put off having families for up to a year upon return? We don't know Jack about this disease is the reality. Our troops will be Liberals Guinea Pigs.

Remember also that in Gulf War One our government denied medical care and compensation to troops hit with either bio or chemical attacks while in Iraq and got sick upon returning home. In some cases so did their loved ones. Oh that's right Powell said that didn't happen./sarcasm