Posted on 08/10/2014 12:46:23 AM PDT by Smokin' Joe
Interesting article at link.
It’s surprising how reluctant that so many in the medical community are to admit how little they really know about all the filoviruses and Ebola in particular. They’ve taken past studies and research, made it accepted wisdom and by golly they’re sticking with it sometimes despite contrary information from field laboratories in West Africa.
It strikes me that up until now there has been little actual lab research done on the various strains of Ebola, understandable given it’s lethality and paucity of viable samples and little or no profit at the end of the road. Until the scale of this epidemic became apparent.
Aside from the CDC, USAMRIID, and NIH it’s difficult to locate BSL-4 research labs here. In Europe I know the Pasteur Institute has been involved, Germany has a lab and then...?
How much of the body of published Ebola papers is from direct research? I know, it’s a rhetorical question.
<Under Pressure, Cuomo Loosens Policy for Ebola Quarantines in New York
New York mayor criticizes New Jersey's 'disrespect' of Ebola nurse
Saturday Night Live satire of Obama and Ebola czar
Patient being tested for Ebola in the Mid-South is resting comfortably
Negative result after patient at Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital tested for Ebola
Obama sends Power to west Africa on Ebola fact-finding mission ( Samantha Power)
Free Ebola: Obama Demands End to State Ebola Quarantines
'60 Minutes' Just Broke New Details On The Dallas Ebola Case. Here's What They Revealed.
According to the Post, the child was vomiting and had a 103-degree fever when he was carried from his Bronx home by EMS workers wearing hazmat suits, neighbors said. “He looked weak,” said a neighbor.
The boy returned with five family members from Guinea Saturday night.
All five were being quarantined inside their apartment.
See:
http://nypost.com/2014/10/27/5-year-old-boy-being-tested-for-ebola-in-new-york-city/
If any make a break for it after Obama faced down Cuomo over involuntary quarantine, there will be more than hell to pay.
This is the best PPE protection and supply chain analysis you are going to find regards dealing with a bio-hazard level four diease outbreak.
Short form —
There are neither enough suits of the right kind for a BH- lvl-4 outbreak, they cost too much abd deteriorate too face to stockpile, and we would run out of trained doctors and nurses before we could ramp up enough production in a really large outbreak.
Why Protective Gear Isn’t Stopping Ebola
EVEN THE BEST HAZMAT SUIT MANUFACTURERS CAN’T GUARANTEE PROTECTION AGAINST EBOLA. HERE’S WHY.
http://www.fastcodesign.com/3037465/why-protective-gear-isnt-stopping-ebola?
You will probably never contract Ebola. The average patient with Ebola only infects just two other people, even in the least developed parts of Africa, making it far less virulent than HIV, mumps, or measles, which spread to 4, 10, and 18 people respectively. But that fact is of little consolation when you consider that multiple healthcare providers are still getting sick, having contracted the disease despite wearing protective gear.
It’s easy to blame incompetence at moments like this, but the fact of the matter is, our best protective suits aren’t stopping Ebola. And even if some hypothetical Ebola-proof suit did exist, you’d have a heck of a lot of trouble producing it, distributing it, and wearing it.
HOW EBOLA SPREADS
Ebola measures less than a micron across and spreads through fluids. There can be millions of particles in a single drop of blood, and just a single viral particle entering your bloodstream can cause a fatal infection. Because it’s not an airborne virus, it can’t flow from infected lungs, through the air for miles, into your nose, and infect you via breathing. But as The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and World Health Organization (WHO) say, it can spread through membranes. If infected blood or mucus lands in someone’s eye, mouth, an open wound, or even just very dry, cracked skin, he or she can contract the disease. Ebola can also live for days or weeks in blood outside of the body (but the risk of catching the virus diminishes as blood dries).
SHIFTING STANDARDS
Officials recommendations on protective suits are vague. WHO: “When in close contact (within 1 metre) of patients with [Ebola], health-care workers should wear face protection (a face shield or a medical mask and goggles), a clean, non-sterile long-sleeved gown, and gloves (sterile gloves for some procedures).” The CDC revised its standards on October 20th, and has a much longer, but similarly vague, set of guidelines. The organization recommends double gloves (quality unspecified), “waterproof” boots or booties, an n95 mask—which is a pretty standard surgical mask that can block 95% of airborne particles—and that you not expose your skin. The CDC has also published a longer, 20-step procedure medical professionals should follow when they remove protective gear—which, most importantly, is to be sterilized before the doctor or nurse disrobes. Operators sanitize their hands afterward, too. Neither the CDC nor WHO takes a stance on the grade of suit material that should be used to protect against Ebola.
In Africa now, Doctors Without Borders volunteers have been wearing suits produced by Dupont made of either Tyvek or Tychem material. Each is a woven textile, coated in patented industrial goo. (Similar suits are sold by a small handful of competitors.) These suits aren’t seamless footy-pajama-style garments. For the full-skin protection recommended by the CDC, they necessitate boots, gloves, surgical masks, and facial splash guards be added as well. And to seal the seams between a pant and boot or a glove and shirt, doctors will often use duct tape.
Tyvek is relatively cheap at $10 per suit. Tyvek can breathe a bit in the sweltering heat of West Africa, where temperatures regularly range from 80 to over 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
Both the U.S. and the European Union have their own somewhat convoluted grading systems for assessing the permeability of personal protective materials like Tyvek, in which independent labs put the materials through a series of tests and rate their performance. The EU’s tests, in particular, sound like strange, gruesome delights: soaking material in fake, red blood that’s been filled with bacteria and spraying an aerosol of viruses at a cloth then checking how many virus particles made it through.
Dupont makes no promise that Tyvek shields wearers from viruses. It’s unranked, falling below the lowest grade, which EU standards would call Class 1. (A Class 1 material, sprayed with aerosol mist, allows 10% or more of the contagion through in lab testing.) Its liquid resistance doesn’t fare much better. In just 15 minutes, blood can soak through the material, bringing dangerous pathogens along with it.
Tychem, and its peers, are Class 3 against viral aerosols—stopping all but .001% of viruses trying to make it through. They’re about as cheap as Tyvek. And they can be soaked in blood for more than 75 minutes before contaminants begin to pass.
During the initial Ebola outbreak at Texas Presbyterian, the medical staff members were consulting with Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, which had treated Ebola, and the CDC. They faced suit standards that were “constantly changing,” and as the gravitas of Ebola set in, nurses upgrade from aprons to Tyvek suits with hoods and respirators. The CDC has since said that it’s possible too much gear increased their risk of contraction, as, paradoxically, the CDC’s recommendations for protective garments are designed for the less invasive treatment of Ebola patients in Africa, rather than the riskier, potentially fluid-filled operations that might be attempted in a U.S. hospital. The New York Times has published a superb side-by-side on CDC standards compared with those of the University of Omaha—one of the few U.S. hospitals with a formalized isolation unit that would receive a patient suspected to have Ebola. University of Omaha now deploys Tychem-level suits for doctors treating such patients. They also mandate more serious splash proof gear, like an overhanging neck protector, that doesn’t just cover your skin. It adds another overlapping barrier of protection over the suit’s seams. [NYTimes side-by-side: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/10/15/us/changes-to-ebola-protection-worn-by-us-hospital-workers.html?_r=0 ]
But for doctors in the field who are treating patients with Ebola, the highest grades of personal protection aren’t as attractive as they may seem. Because in practice, the safest gear is virtually unwearable.
WHAT IT’S LIKE WEARING PROTECTIVE GEAR
Dr. John Hardham, PhD, former Medical Director at the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear and Chemical and Biological Defense Programs, led the President’s Medical Countermeasure Initiative with the Department of Defense until 2011. He’s also a Navy officer who has been deployed to detect chemical and biological agents—scenarios in which he’d wear suits made of a Tyvek or Tychem-grade material.
“They’re hot. They don’t ventilate well,” he says. “When you’re wearing a suit of Tyvek-type material, that lets nothing in and nothing out—which also means your heat and your sweat get trapped in. You will generally end up with a puddle in your shoes because you’re sweating so much.”
The heat is so bad that it becomes a real operational problem for people wearing the protective suits. Hardham says you can feasibly last about an hour in one of these suits in hotter environments before you need to get out. Doctors in West Africa who are treating Ebola patients work in 45 minute shifts in response to the heat.
But breathability isn’t the only operational hazard that comes from a high-level protective suit, Hardham says. The plastic lenses of shields and goggles you wear over your eyes can warp your vision. Sweat can blur your vision further. And bulky headgear, like ventilators or gas masks that you would use for optimal protection, limit your field of view so much that you have to purposefully look down when you walk, and up to make sure you don’t hit your head through door frames.
Tactility, too, is a problem. You simply can’t feel if your protective, Tychem booties have ripped from the weight of your body pushing them into sharp a sharp rock. Thicker gloves mean that you can’t feel what you’re touching, and a pointed instrument could poke through a suit at any time. “Could some of the needle sticks be associated with that? It’s possible,” Hardham says. “There are [guidelines] on how you’re supposed to recap a needle, but sometimes there’s human error. Instead of one-handed, they go two-handed and stick themselves.”
In a lab setting, protective gear is just one level of defense, as Ebola can be quarantined inside a biosafety cabinet, and a researcher can follow all sorts of safety protocols at his or her own pace. But when Ebola infects a patient, be it in a hospital or medical tent, physical contact is necessary to care properly for the patient, and at that point, the suit is the last barrier of defense. “The fact of the matter is, when you need to intubate [a patient], you need to intubate them,” Hardham says. “You must have direct contact with them.”
BUILDING BETTER PROTECTIVE GEAR
So if we could build a better suit for handling Ebola patients, what would it look like? I posed that question to Todd Moncrief, vice president at Lakeland Industries, a manufacturer of the industrial-level personal protective suits being worn by some doctors in Africa.
For one, a better suit would keep the wearer cooler. He pointed out that, like the rest of the “personal protective equipment” industry, Lakeland produces a suit that has a front side made of the company’s highest grade, least breathable materials, intended to shield a doctor the most effectively from blood and liquids, but a backside made of better-breathing, lighter grade material that might make the doctor more comfortable. The implication here is that you’ll almost always be facing Ebola head-on, so you build up your forward shields at the expense of your rear. “The moment someone says they have a breathable back, and it breathes, it means an Ebola virus could potentially [make its way in],” Moncrief says. “Are you safe or not safe?”
Another option would be to introduce some sort of cooling mechanism. “If you think about getting in any material that covers your body completely, no matter where it breathes at that makes it cooler, you’re still talking about something you’d have to put cold air into,” he says. “And that takes more assets and costs a lot of money.” Cool vests, which Lakeland does produce, seem like the simplest solution, he says, but there are obvious logistical difficulties of keeping countless vests in refrigerated containers while distributing them across West Africa.
A better suit would also be easier to remove. Right now, medical staff in Africa hose down their suits with chlorinated water to denature the virus before disrobing to mitigate potential. The CDC is in talks with designers of moon suits, to see if their design, with an easily reached zipper and a large ring attached at the shoulder that can be grasped with gloves, could be incorporated into medical gear.
And a better suit would also be seamless, Moncrief says. Whereas suits today are a hodgepodge of tape-sealed boots, booties, gloves, and masks, made of different materials from a slew of different manufacturers, the ideal Ebola suit might resemble a big pair of footie pajamas with a built-in mask and gloves.
THE FINANCIAL INCENTIVES DON’T STACK UP
So why doesn’t Moncrief’s company, or any company in the industry, produce such a thing?
“It’s almost like saying, you make the cars, why don’t you make the tires?” Moncrief says. Producing gloves is different from making shirts, and producing them in one seamless piece of gear is another challenge entirely.
And then there’s the money problem. According to Moncrief, the personal protection equipment industry has little incentive to create an Ebola-proof suit because it can’t bank on an Ebola outbreak. Equipment companies generally serve factories, and other places where workers need protection from chemicals. They cater to the very specific needs of industrial hygienists, not to doctors treating the latest pandemic. “We’re all set up to service the industrialized world. We’re all set up to do that day in and day out, with tight supply chains and margins,” Moncrief says.
Tight supply chains also means that if a worldwide epidemic struck, these companies would have trouble manufacturing enough gear. Personal protective suits only have a shelf life of five to 10 years before they’re no longer reliable, so you couldn’t just stockpile a large cache. “None of us think this thing is going to spread out of control,” Moncrief says, “but the reality of it is, no matter how many manufacturers are doing it today, you can’t put enough garments on the ground for the number of people you’d need in a matter of months.”
But don’t let a lack of protective suits scare you. Even Moncrief admits, we’d probably run out of our supply of trained doctors and nurses first anyway.
So, the Obama Administration will send HWC straight from the hotzone to the USA w/o a 21 day wait, but US TROOPS get to wait 21 days in Italy?
U.S. soldiers returning from Liberia are being placed in isolation in Vicenza, Italy out of concern for the Ebola virus, CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports.
The soldiers being monitored include Maj. Gen. Darryl Williams who was the commander of the U.S. Army in Africa but turned over duties to the 101st Airborne Division over the weekend, Martin reports. There are currently 11 soldiers in isolation.
They apparently were met by Carabinieri in full hazmat suits. If the policy remains in effect, everyone returning from Liberia - several hundred - will be placed in isolation for 21 days. Thirty are expected in today, Martin reports.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3220057/posts
And
Day by day I’m left with the impression that the Obamas, jarrett and the rest spend too much time snarfing coke and smokin dope in the oval office and then make decisions without adult input. Play for the sound bite.
It’s like a Cheech and Chong horror movie.
So the logic is:
Someone will volunteer to fly to Africa, be potentially exposed to a deadly virus where hundreds of health care workers have already have become infected and about 100 have died. Put on the PPE in an excruciatingly hot environment to the point where you will almost pass out and see toddlers, babies and mothers die right before you, but you won’t volunteer for all of that if you have to spend 3 weeks with your family watching Netflix when you come home.
http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2014/10/27/americas-ebola-cure-rate-is-fantastic-but-thats-not-what-has-governors-worried/?singlepage=true
"... It’s not the prognosis of recovery that has governors and local officials concerned. It is the response that must follow each positive Ebola test, and the strain that individual cases put on hospitals.When Spencer was diagnosed with Ebola, officials in New York had to retrace every step he had taken since he returned from West Africa, where he was treating Ebola patients and contracted the virus. That is a time-consuming, tense and expensive process, potentially costing hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars per day. People who have had close contact with each Ebola patient must be found and then monitored for symptoms as well. In Spencer’s case, his fiancee and two friends have been quarantined. That’s just for one victim. An outbreak of just a handful of victims could strain resources just in tracking down others who may have been exposed and monitoring them.
If a state fails to fully track an Ebola victim’s movements and outbreak occurs, they will be rightly accused of negligence.
The honor system has not and will not work to stop Ebola. It has already failed. Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian man who was exposed to Ebola in his native country and then brought it to Dallas, lied on his Liberian exit form and then according to his Dallas nurses lied again about his Ebola exposure during his first visit to the hospital.
Medical doctors and so-called experts have denounced the state-level quarantines, but two doctors and a nurse have exposed others to Ebola after their own exposures. Both Dr. Nancy Snyderman of NBC and Dr. Spencer exposed others by violating quarantine and in Spencer’s case, using mass transit. Dallas nurse Amber Joy Vinson did as well, flying between Dallas and Cleveland, OH, on commercial aircraft despite showing symptoms.
The Centers for Disease Control is hardly in a position to complain about the state-level quarantines. It cleared Vinson to fly on those commercial aircraft.
Vinson has recovered from Ebola, but her flights exposed dozens of people, each of whom had to be tracked down, and their steps retraced. Schools in Texas and Ohio were impacted by her decision to fly commercially and possibly expose other passengers, who in turn could have exposed their family and friends.
Each person who does test positive for Ebola puts a severe strain on local hospitals. It takes about 20 full-time medical personnel to treat just one Ebola patient. It also takes vast amounts of hazmat gear. Ebola patients must be isolated from all other patients, further straining hospital facilities and resources. Expenses add up very quickly. The two Dallas nurses at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital had to be moved to other hospitals that are fully equipped to tackle Ebola. The United States only has four such hospitals, and the Dallas outbreak made it clear that even well-equipped hospitals in major cities were not ready when the first Ebola victim arrived.
Between Duncan’s alleged lies and the doctors’ and nurses’ failure to self-monitor and self-quarantine, and the federal government’s stubborn insistence that any travel ban will be counter-productive, plus the difficulty and expense of treating victims, states are left to defend themselves. So they will."
The feds can make a binding commitment to bear all state and local government costs incurred as a result of Ebola or expect state governors to use all their independent powers here. Federalism cuts both ways.
Note that in World War Two the British government decided to compensate all individuals, businesses and local governments for costs incurred as result of German bombing. This decision was made by Prime Minister Winston Churchill either during the Battle of Britain, or the Blitz. I remember reading about it in his six volume history/memoir of World War Two.
The US government will eventually do the same with Ebola. It's only a matter of time. As an example, the commercial airline, insurance and travel/resort industries will collapse if Ebola gets going in the US. Medical and life insurers haven't factored in the premiums to cover the claims payments for Ebola treatment and death. Etc. Big industries like that will get their way, either with taxpayer-paid subsidies, exemptions, or federalization of all the risks. My money is on the latter.
Which would even be the right thing to do. It's the insane federal "admit everyone" immigration policy which drives the short-term threat, so the federal government should pay for all the expenses it imposes on the nation by that policy.
Churchill explained in his second volume that it was only fair that all the British taxpayers should bear the costs incurred by the nation as a whole from the war, as opposed to each individual resident, business and local government bearing their own costs of death, injury and destruction/loss of income from enemy bombing.
It's not surprising. Policymakers demand certainty. They also sign the checks.
CDC made two bad mistakes in July, they got behind the curve, and they're having trouble catching up.
The two mistakes were the assertion that any hospital in the US with private rooms could safely care for Ebola patients, and the assertion that advanced PPE was needed in Africa because, well, just because - TIA.
The second mistake was really bad, because to led to two infections in American nurses.
I'm convinced they made these two mistakes because if they said otherwise, Obama's expedited visas and open borders would look bad.
Here’s another good one, narrative rather than science paper but still quite informative.
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/10/27/ebola-wars
An excellent interview with a virologist/Ebola specialist/other degrees. It’s long but worth the time.
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/10/21-days/381901/?single_page=true
"Thus the burden would fall not alone on those whose homes or businesses were hit, but would be borne evenly on the shoulders of the nation."
Ebola can survive on surfaces for almost TWO MONTHS: (shortened)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3220289/posts
BREAKING: Ebola Nurse’s Ties to CDC Scrubbed From Website –Is Far Left Progressive & Obama Supporter
CDC guidelines: If you jabbed yourself with a needle okay to go jogging
CDC Suggests Quarantine-Lite for Some Ebola Clinicians m(Go jog in the park)
Random Thoughts on Ebola, Islam and Hillary
Australia bans entry to visitors from Ebola-affected west African nations
Boy faces more Ebola tests after initial results return negative
Political Ebola Czar Working Exactly As Obama Intended
Let's Face It: The honor system isn’t going to stop Ebola
Ebola In Japan? Authorities Test First Potential Case Of Infected Traveler In Tokyo
Ebola quarantine policies spread, despite science
Bellevue Hospital ICU patients head to NYU Langone to free up staff for Ebola cases
Ex-DHS Head Michael Chertoff: The case for suspending U.S. visas in Ebola-affected countries
5 Year Old Under Ebola Evaluation at a New York Hospital
Cuban doctors proud to risk lives in mission to halt Ebola (held for 21 days when they return)
Standing near hand sanitizer makes Americans more conservative. So what will Ebola do?
Mali confirms its first case of Ebola, Health Ministry says
Ebola victim Thomas Eric Duncan LIED to Dallas hospital staff about his exposure to virus..
CDC Finally Admits that Ebola Can Float through the Air … 3 Feet
defense threat reduction agencybroad agency announcementhdtra1-15-ebola-baa (ebola aerostable)
Obama Health Official: Ebola Can Spread Through Bus Sweat
Ebola can survive on surfaces for almost TWO MONTHS: (title shortened)
How some exposure to Ebola could lead to immunity
Daily Beast Column: New York & New Jersey’s Ebola Quarantines Are an Insane Overreaction
White House Pushes Back on State Ebola Quarantines
Cuomo, Perry play politics on Ebola
Ebola sparks worry for some Dallas poll workers
U.S. soldiers returning from Liberia monitored for Ebola in Italy
Blackmailers threaten Czechs with Ebola outbreak
JCS Recommended Mandatory 21-day Ebola Quarantine For Military returning from Africa
Moderator Calls Out Franken For Not Answering Ebola Question
Treating Ebola: Inside the first U.S. diagnosis
New Jersey Releases Nurse Quarantined for Suspected Ebola [Christie Reverses Course]
Ebola In New York City: NYC Boy Being Tested For Virus After Returning From Guinea with symptoms
Boy observed in NYC hospital for Ebola; states firm on quarantines
New York Screening Protocols, Scenarios For Ebola
Hot News Keeps Rolling In [research-vanity]
How freepers see elections/ebola/deflation/terror affecting investments&economy --Weekly Thread
Thought I’d ‘channel’ Mark Steyn today. With this morning’s headlines, it seems proper. News and satire coming up ...
— Ebola can survive on surfaces for almost TWO MONTHS —
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3220107/posts
“Tests reveal certain strains survive for weeks when stored at low temperatures ...”
[Wonderful, wonderful — ebola can now ‘hang out’ with us this winter.]
o o o o
— CDC gives ebola permission to be airborne —
[headline... ]
CDC Finally Admits that Ebola Can Float through the Air … 3 Feet
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3220069/posts
[To be clear, NOT three feet above the ground. Three feet above the nose, and that is if there’s no air current.]
“All fluids are capable of becoming airborne.” — GilesB
[Yes, the CDC now permits ebola to obey the laws of physics.]
o o o o
Obama Health Official: Ebola Can Spread Through Bus Sweat
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3220049/posts
“Department of Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary Dr. Nicole Lurie said in sworn testimony that Ebola can spread through perspiration left on a bus seat.”
[No wait: you can infect others on a bus, but you can’t catch it on a bus. But you can infect others, and you can go insane trying to ... whatever.]
o o o o
— [NJ] Christie Caves, bows and scrapes before ‘the One’ —
NYT: Nurse in Newark to Be Allowed to Finish Ebola Quarantine at Home, Christie Says
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3220006/posts
o o o o
Cuban doctors proud to risk lives in mission to halt Ebola (held for 21 days when they return)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3220142/posts
[They should go visit New Jersey and hang out at the casinos during those 21 days while keeping Cubans safe.]
o o o o
5 Year Old Under Ebola Evaluation at a New York Hospital
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3220143/posts
[A new, improved, and superior kind of ebola examination is now being attempted in New York ...]
... The boy is undergoing an evaluation, which includes taking a thorough history of the child’s recent travel with his family to West Africa and finding out if he’s come into contact with people who have Ebola, said Raju, the president of New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, which oversees Bellevue. CNN’s Chris Cuomo asked why the child wasn’t simply tested... [gentle snip]
[As I understand it, we must be sentitive to the ebol-i. They have feelings too after all.]
o o o o
Bellevue Hospital ICU patients head to NYU Langone to free up staff for Ebola cases
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3220155/posts
[Yes, spread the love around.]
o o o o
U.S. soldiers returning from Liberia monitored for Ebola in Italy
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3220057/posts
... and ...
JCS Recommended Mandatory 21-day Ebola Quarantine For Military returning from Africa
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3220045/posts
[So it’s okay to inconvenience our fighting forces because they’re just ‘nobodies’. But the healthcare workers must be allowed to search their own consciences and be trusted and even sue anyone who dares put them in an isolation tent when they return here with a fever.]
o o o o
CNN: Cuomo, Perry play politics on Ebola
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3220087/posts
[CNN normally only bashes the good guys for doing the right thing. But in this case the network is spanking a beloved member of the D.isease Party next to an ‘evil’ republican.]
o o o o
Wasserman Schultz: Republicans Are Scarier Than Ebola, ISIS (video)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3220091/posts
[Maybe today she might say that republicans are scarier than the devil himself?]
o o o o
[... move heavy objects away from you first ...]
Rednecks have no escape: Ebola should bring home to US conservatives that they are part of humanity
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3220066/posts
[Well guess what? Bigger cities are higher risk. The perverse leftist is clueless — we’re actually fighting more for the lives of leftists in dense populations than we are for ourselves. Basic math is a new concept to this guy. And as usual, fools resent being scolded for their foolishness — better to get between a mother bear and her cub than to save a fool from suicidal foolishness.]
“People with conventional views must repress a gag reflex when considering the mayor-elect of New York – a white man married to a black woman and with two biracial children. (Should I mention that Bill de Blasio’s wife, Chirlane McCray, used to be a lesbian?) This family represents the cultural changes that have enveloped parts – but not all – of America.” If the thought of New York’s first family’s interracial marriage makes many Republicans (and apparently Cohen) gag,... “ [snip]
[Gary Younge doesn’t know a ‘conventional view’ in our nation any more than he understands math.]
o o o o
Political Ebola Czar Working Exactly As Obama Intended
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3220185/posts
‘The New York Times let slip the Ebola Czar’s true purpose through an anonymous Democrat operative: “He’ll control the message better than most people would, which is really important from an economic standpoint, from a health standpoint, but it’s also important from a political perspective. If anybody can get the way this is being reported and discussed under control in a short period of time, he’s the one.” Just so. Klein started his new job on Wednesday of last week. We saw the results of his politics-first, policy-second strategy over the weekend...’
[Good to know. Yes, we don’t want silly facts getting in the way of our wonderful ebola policies.]
o o o o
Ebola In Japan? Authorities Test First Potential Case Of Infected Traveler In Tokyo
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3220174/posts
[Don’t expect Japan to get ‘hip’ with our superior ebola policy. I fully expect Japan to crack down and be boringly conventional.]
o o o o
NYT: AIDS Activists Oppose Cuomo on Ebola Quarantines
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3220072/posts
Moderator Calls Out Franken For Not Answering Ebola Question
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3220051/posts
o o o o
Daily Beast Column: New York & New Jersey’s Ebola Quarantines Are an Insane Overreaction
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3220100/posts
[I can understand ‘bus-sweat’ remarks to be confusing, but what about after they learn that the CDC gave the virus permission to be airborne?]
o o o o
Minn. African restaurant owner forced to change sign over Ebola fears
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3220099/posts
[If the African restaurant owner really wants to tick people off, offer a discount to all meat-eaters.]
o o o o
African Boys Attacked at Texas School, Called “Ebola”: Advocacy Group
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3220194/posts
A group that advocates for Africans in Texas is calling for action after it says two brothers who had recently immigrated to the borough from Senegal were beaten and badly injured by several people who called them “Ebola” in school. The 11- and 13-year-old boys, in sixth and eighth grade, respectively, were attacked Friday afternoon at I.S. 318 in Tremont, according to the African Advisory Council. Their father, Ousame Drame, said they were pummeled by other students in the schoolyard during lunch after enduring weeks of taunts. The boys, who have been in the U.S. for about a month,...
[NBC New York is very excited to learn about this amazing revelation — Texas children CAN be cruel. Why, it should be front page news across the land — ‘President Ebola Failed to Even Improve Racial Harmony in Texas’. Perhaps he can hold a beer summit with the lads and let them romp and frolick among his styrofoam columns. I did hope we could at least solve this one problem under the One. But alas, silly me. It seems to be getting worse, especially in the Bronx — NOT Texas by the bye. A little trickery on my part. The outraged organization is ‘Africans in the Bronx’. Nor should we be surprised if the entire matter is a leftist hoax. Monte Carlo rates it at 50/50 odds.]
o o o o
How some exposure to Ebola “could” lead to immunity
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3220105/posts
[You too can join in the ‘ebola-lotto’ sweepstakes! Winners survive, and losers die.]
o o o o
CDC guidelines: If you jabbed yourself with a needle okay to go jogging
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3220240/posts
[By all means, if you have been treating ebola patients and return to the good old US of A, by all means jab yourself with a needle and go for a jog. Just do not infect others with your ‘bus-sweat’. Oh, and keep three feet away from others, but never mind the complexities of air currents. Oh yes, unless you are a member of the armed forces. Then go vacation in Italy for 21 days while jabbing yourself with needles all you like.]
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Video: SNL mocks entire Obama tenure in Ebola skit
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3220020/posts
Blackmailers threaten Czechs with Ebola outbreak
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3220055/posts
o o o o
Ebola Commander Quarantined by Pentagon...
http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/27/politics/soldiers-monitored-ebola/index.html?hpt=hp_t1
[It is not clear to me if he is jabbing himself with needles before a jog, but he is apparently forbidden from giving others ‘bus-sweat’. But if you ask me, when it comes to someone’s honor I would pick military officers over civilians any day of the week.]
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Australia issues blanket visa ban on Ebola-hit countries
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3220308/posts
[Now that’s hardly interesting. Only African nations bother with that boring and successful policy. It’s far more interesting to ponder the routes of sweaty joggers, to shut down clinics and bowling alleys, to watch nurses get hospitalized, and all the rest of it. Seriously though, God bless those brave healthcare workers!]
Ping to read later
Flashback to Oct 22:
WH: States to Decide What to Do If West African Travelers Don’t Self-Report Ebola Symptoms
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3218918/posts
And just a week before: Oct 16, 2014
Ebola in the Big Apple? CDC tells NYC to get ready
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/ebola-in-the-big-apple-cdc-tells-nyc-to-get-ready/article/2554882
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