DOD Admission: Only One Plane Available to Transport Infected Soldiers Out of Africa, One at

TeaParty.org ^ | 10/24/14

[Nachum]

“The idea that you’re coming before us and giving this type of testimony raises great concerns”

(Infowars) – The US Defense Department will only have the capability to fly four service members out of Africa per week should they contract the deadly Ebola virus, a Major General said at a meeting today regarding the military’s response to the epidemic.

Speaking at a House Oversight & Government Reform Committee hearing earlier today, Maj. Gen. James Lariviere told North Carolina Congressman Patrick McHenry that the US plans to have “in the vicinity of 3,000” troops in Africa by the end of the year. - See more at: http://www.teaparty.org/dod-admission-one-plane-available-transport-infected-soldiers-africa-one-time-four-per-week-63718/#sthash.drysaJMC.dpuf

[Nachum]

DOD Admission: Only One Plane Available to Transport Infected Soldiers Out of Africa, One at a Time, Four Per Week

[Nachum]

ping

[ansel12]

I thought the government had a single plane to transport patients, but that it wasn’t equal to the one (or two) privately owned planes that we have been seeing so far that have brought in the missionaries and the others, those are supposed to be cutting edge.

The good news is that more are being put together as this problem has finally seemed to reach attention level, Germany will have some ready soon.

[tumblindice]

The Ebola virus debuted in 1976, so we’ve had, what—forty years to prepare for this? And they have one plane.

[LongWayHome]

We ceased being a serious nation years ago....the public is finally figuring it out.

[Black Agnes]

Ping.

[ansel12]

Germany http://www.dw.de/media-germany-working-to-build-ebola-transport-plane/a-18006454

The American company that we have all seen transporting patients individually. http://www.northwestgeorgianews.com/rome/news/local/cartersville-air-crews-trained-for-ebola-transport/article_d43524d6-1ebf-11e4-9a79-001a4bcf6878.html

This article says that the private company only has one plane, although I have seen them described as having two. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/oct/1/cdc-spends-5-million-to-use-ebola-jet-it-helped-de/?page=all

Here is an article describing them having two, and the French also having a plane so equipped. oops, not quite——”The French company, however, has only one plane equipped for Ebola victims and will carry only so-called dry patients — people who have contracted Ebola and have a fever but have not yet developed more serious symptoms like bleeding, vomiting and diarrhea.” http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/15/world/europe/ebola-fight-in-africa-is-hurt-by-limits-on-ways-to-get-out.html

[TigersEye]

How many DoD planes are at the ready to service M0 and Bo and Nanzi Pelozi and ..........?

[moviefan8]

This is sad. Pathetic.

I thought we were better than this.

[pepsionice]

What Germany hints....is that they will simply rent some aircraft because none of the Bundeswehr planes have this capability. They’ve promised the German military guys who deploy into Africa....if they get the disease....they will be brought back to Hamburg. As long as it’s only one or two per week....I can see this working. But if you suddenly jump to twelve in a week....there’s going to be a problem.

[cynwoody]

DOD Admission: Only One Plane Available to Transport Infected Soldiers Out of Africa, One at a Time, Four Per Week

N173PA. And, nope, it's not military.

http://www.wired.com/2014/08/inside-the-flying-quarantine-used-to-transport-ebola-patients/

[ansel12]

What really struck me a couple of months ago, was an article that said that the world had a single plane that could transport Dr Brantly, or the nurse, but not both at the same time at the highest level of isolation.

The plane(s) can carry multiple patients and are normally configured for that, but not at that highest level.

[pepsionice]

It would seem like that a guy with some capital, ought to go out and buy a couple of medium-sized jets...refit them...and then prepare to rent them out to transport all these folks around. Throw some Brazilian pilots into them, go cheap, and makes tons of profit off Gov’t contracts.

[ansel12]

A couple of months ago the cry was to leave the soldiers and missionaries in Africa to the medical care available at the time there, because Ebola patients at Emory or one of the four super centers,was going to kill us all.

Africa treatment at the time.

[ansel12]

The CDC for years had that plane under contract but the cost of never used “standby” became too high, so they abandoned it.

I don’t the right and wrong of the budget issues, but here are some of the details.

“And it turns out there’s only one jet in the world — operated by a small private plane charter company in Georgia — with a special transport tube that allows medical personnel to treat Ebola patients while in flight.

The Atlanta-based Centers for Disease and Prevention helped develop the “air transport bio-containment unit” under a multiyear project with the Phoenix Air Group in Georgia in 2006, but the agency later decided that it couldn’t afford to maintain “stand-by” capability, and so the equipment was warehoused, contract records show.”

“While it was once at the beck and call of the CDC under a previous contract, the company recently had to be hired back by the State Department this year at a cost of nearly $5 million for a six-month sole-source contract.

“Had the department not moved very quickly to establish its own exclusive contract, our negotiating position would have shifted, placing [U.S. government] personnel and private citizens at risk,” State Department officials wrote in the contract justification last month.”

The link http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/oct/1/cdc-spends-5-million-to-use-ebola-jet-it-helped-de/?page=all

[RichInOC]

What could possibly go wrong?

[PghBaldy]

Considering the rate that American doctors and nurses have gotten infected in Africa, I shudder to think what could happen to our troops.

[cynwoody]

I read that they gave a dose of ZMapp to Dr. Brantly while he was still in Liberia and in a steep dive, medically. It pulled him out in the space of an hour. By the next morning he was well enough to take a shower by himself and board N173PA to Atlanta. He was ambulatory (and wearing a space suit) when he entered the hospital at Emory.

IOW, the expensive and dramatic plane ride was probably not necessary.

The focus should be on making enough ZMapp, developing a vaccine, perfecting quick tests, and helping the West Africans to get their public health act in order.

[ansel12]

His Christian missionary employer paid for the flight to the world’s best place to have his life saved, I’m happy he lived, and don’t see bringing him home for medical treatment as “dramatic” and “probably not necessary”.

You may want to look at some of those old, incredibly nasty threads, I hope those are over.

[cynwoody]

His Christian missionary employer paid for the flight to the world’s best place to have his life saved, I’m happy he lived, and don’t see bringing him home for medical treatment as “dramatic” and “probably not necessary”.

Well, his life was probably already saved before the flight. That was my point.

But at the time, I did not know that, and I was fully in favor of bringing him back to Emory, the risks be damned. And the more drama, the better.

You may want to look at some of those old, incredibly nasty threads, I hope those are over.

I definitely remember those threads.

The obvious comeback to the naysayers was always that, as long as Ebola festers, it's only a matter of time until it enters the US on its own (i.e., not via a missionary being medevaced). And that's indeed what happened.