Posted on 08/07/2014 2:05:46 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Renowned neurosurgeon and possible 2016 presidential hopeful, Dr. Benjamin Carson criticized the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Monday for bringing two Ebola infected missionaries to the U.S. for treatment, citing the highly contagious and deadly nature of the disease.
"Why would we bring that into our country? Why would we expose ourselves when we already know that there are problems that can occur and have occurred," said Carson, who is a former director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins University and Hospital, in an interview with Newsmax TV.
"Ebola is a terrifying disease. If you don't treat it, close to 90 percent of the people will die," said Carson.
Two missionaries, Dr. Ken Brantly, 33, who works with Samaritan's Purse and Nancy Writebol, 59, an aid worker with SIM, are both being treated at a special unit set up at Emory University Hospital in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, after being infected with the deadly virus while working in Liberia. They were both flown to the U.S. in the last few days after receiving doses of a trial serum call ZMapp and are now reportedly improving.
Dr. Carson, however, does not believe it was a wise move to treat them stateside.
"I'm a little concerned that we're bringing it back here. I think we have the ability to treat it in other places," said Carson.
"The reason I would be concerned about bringing it back here is because it is transmitted primarily through bodily fluids. And it can actually survive outside of the host, outside of the body for several days at least. Which means that, let's say a container or urine or vomit or whatever for whatever reason, gets disseminated into the public, you got a big problem," he noted.
"Why do we even risk such a thing when we can send experts elsewhere? We can send a plane equipped to handle this somewhere to land. We can create parts of a hospital somewhere. We have lots of options," explained Carson.
When asked if he thought it was a mistake for the CDC and Emory University Hospital to bring the missionaries back to the U.S. for treatment, Carson said: "I certainly would treat it where it is and then once we have cured the individuals, bring them back with open arms."
"It is a highly contagious disease and all it requires is infractions in some procedures and all of a sudden you got more spread, and that's what I am afraid of," said Carson.
I’m not angry.
I AM wondering why you refuse to answer the question.
What does Ben Carson have to do with the state of our medical system several months into an ebola outbreak?
If 100 people with Ebola showed up to Emory ER (coughing, vomiting and worse during their wait in the ER) what would Emory look like 2 or 3 months later?
Why don’t you start a thread on hypothetical scenarios for the future, and I may post on it, or not, since that kind of thing doesn’t interest me at the moment.
I will do that if you admit you think Africans deserve Ebola because they’re backward and poor.
Since I don’t, why would I say such a thing?
You are really spinning out of control this morning with this wild flurry of bizarre and angry posts and attacks.
You still haven’t answered my question.
What do you think our healthcare system would look like 2 or 3 months after an ebola outbreak? What do you think Emory hospital would look like of 10 ebola patients per day, having arrived recently from West Africa, presented in the ER with ebola over the next week?
Yup. My whole point exactly.
The implication from the pictures that were posted was ‘they’re primitive, of course they got ebola what did they expect’.
It wouldn’t look very much different here after a couple month outbreak once all the disposable PPE gear ran out.
Why is that the implication? Should the pictures be disallowed here?
Of course they should be allowed here.
They’re a great demonstration of what happens to any medical system that’s overwhelmed over a many month period with an infectious disease.
Our major medical centers would look no different under the circumstances once all the disposable PPE gear had been used.
The person posting them however implied that medical care there always looked like that. It’s not the Mayo, but it certainly doesn’t look like that under normal circumstances.
Unit , not until
“The person posting them however implied that medical care there always looked like that. It’s not the Mayo, but it certainly doesn’t look like that under normal circumstances.”
***************************
That’s not my impression at all. Here are some articles that may be of interest to those who are reading this thread:
http://www.acdi-cida.gc.ca/acdi-cida/acdi-cida.nsf/en/JUD-824143542-PTE
https://www.aamc.org/newsroom/reporter/april11/184294/pepfar.html
And I honestly couldn’t blame them for quitting under the circumstances. You’re told there’s no treatment, no cure and an 80% mortality. We’re ‘pretty sure’ our decon techniques work so suit up and go clean up that vomit over there.
...this after you’ve seen similarly decon’d colleages of yours get sick and die.
I know that’s not your impression. Or mine.
If this virus got a toehold in a major metro hospital in the middle of flu season it would get primitive there. Quickly.
That’s possible, but it’s clear that our medical care in this country is far superior to that in Africa.
Initially yes.
An outbreak of this in a major metro area would have a leveling effect however.
How many ER docs are wearing full PPE to do an assessment of patients with suspected stomach virus? I suspect none. They’d be the first casualties, like the medical personnel in Nigeria.
Thanks for the comments, quotes, and links. I appreciate it.
Imho, the biggest problem we have is our federal government.
I have to go: sorry.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.