Posted on 10/10/2014 6:21:47 PM PDT by PJ-Comix
Thomas Frieden, the director of the Centers for Disease Control, likened the rapid spread of Ebola to the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s. While the spread of AIDS scared society—largely because so much about it at the time was unknown—a better analogy to the spread of Ebola may be the infamous influenza epidemic of 1918.
The scariest thing about the 1918 flu was that it killed not simply children, the old, and the infirm, but also those who were healthy and at the peak of physical fitness. In the United States, 99 percent of the flu’s victims were under 65 years old, and half the victims were between 20 and 40.
To be in the prime of life and health is no defense against Ebola, and being in the military may actually increase risk: Anyone who has ever spent time around American soldiers—and those from many other Western nations—knows the commitment each has to physical fitness and working out. On Army bases and on Navy ships, there are often lines for equipment or exercise stations at the gym. This may sound silly, and of course the Pentagon theoretically will put restrictions and regulations in place, but sweat is sweat.
That’s one of the reasons why it seems unnecessarily risky to insert U.S. forces into the heart of the Ebola hot zone. If Ebola is caused by exposure to bodily fluids, including sweat, then troops who sweat a lot in close proximity to each other will be at special risk, even if only a handful of U.S. troops encounter an Ebola victim.
Perhaps a much better strategy would be to use those forces to better protect America’s borders, as well as ports of entry. Security officials screen passengers before they board any flight departing the United States, but perhaps a better plan would be to couple a secure border with Mexico and Canada with mandatory (even if cursory) health screening for anyone boarding a flight to the United States. At this point, febrile individuals or those showing signs of deception when questioned about their previous whereabouts and contacts pose a greater threat to American national security than old ladies and toddlers with bottles of water.
When AIDS exploded, there were specific categories of people at risk: homosexuals who engaged in unsafe sex (and, indeed, anyone who engaged in unsafe sex); those who had blood transfusions with infected blood; and those from Haiti, where the disease was already epidemic. The young and healthy who did not engage in risky behaviors or who were fortunate enough not to need transfusions were largely out of danger. This was not the case with the 1918 flu, and it is not the case with Ebola, which is much easier to spread. It’s important to show support for Africa, but the U.S. military shouldn’t always be on the vanguard of public relations when they could contribute much more to American defense elsewhere and when the risks of so doing far outweigh the costs.
I will also add that there is a reason subsaharan Africa was largely unexplored prior to the 19’th century. Crazy filthy place full of homicidal cutthroats and diseases that make you bleed from every orifice. Not exactly a popular travel destination.
The reason the young and healthy died from the Spanish flu, was that their immune systems overreacted, with what is today called a “cytokine storm”, destroying their lungs, their battleground against the virus.
The cytokine storm theory was confirmed in some of the victims of the H5N1 Avian flu, but then *really* confirmed by the terrible H1N1 flu in Ukraine. Many doctors who had performed autopsies on the dead were convinced it *couldn’t* be the flu, because their lungs looked burned.
Comparatively speaking, Ebola doesn’t hold a candle to Influenza. For it to be a serious threat, by now, fatalities should be from 100,000 to 1 million people a day, perhaps increasing by 10-20% every week.
Post to me or FReep mail to be on/off the Bring Out Your Dead ping list.
The purpose of the “Bring Out Your Dead” ping list (formerly the “Ebola” ping list) is very early warning of emerging pandemics, as such it has a high false positive rate.
So far the false positive rate is 100%.
At some point we may well have a high mortality pandemic, and likely as not the “Bring Out Your Dead” threads will miss the beginning entirely.
*sigh* Such is life, and death...
Strange that Africa has such horrendous illnesses.
Seman stays infected with E for four to eight weeks following recovery. Ya think the folks likely to get E will abstain from sex for three months or so following recovery? I think not. This stuff will spread through the promiscuous pretty quick I think.
I tend to disagree in that it is good training for chem/bio warfare
I’m sure the adminstration will be right on this.
/
Some say the Ebola Virus is already mutating...others not so...still other s say the longer this virus goes on the risk increases it will go air born.
But I do agree with you...Ebola’s mortality rate surpasses the flu 20 times that...and further Aids cannot even be compared. It's primarily a sexual transmitted disease and use of drug use.
Can you name and cite a virus that has mutated in this way?
Steve Milloy, the Junk Science guy, has a lot of information about the Spanish Flu on his website. It is my understanding that the 1918 flu killed more people than The Plague of the Middle Ages did.
Thankfully, my grandfather got the 1918 flu and survived and all 4 of his children were born after his recovery.
Thomas Friedan (D.Idiot) was Bloomie’s former smoking Czar… like tobacco was more “hateful” than this worldwide epidemic.
Political Correctness is going to kill us all!
My husbands Grandmother was immune. She lost her husband and two children. She was an angel that in KY helped others.
MOgirl
Elmer Keith, “Hell I was there” the legendary gun writer got this as a young man and barely survived in remote Idaho.
So much from wondering what’s going to happen to us old patriots.
You’re not alone. While I believe the threat is fabricated, the reckless abandon of our government puts us at risk in different ways.
The virus is bound to mutate, but it cannot mutate in the human hosts. It will mutate in Africa. We should be able to control this rather simple problem.
I had a conversation with a normally-intelligent guy this afternoon. We discussed the Ebola-thing for a bit. He compared restricting travel from Africa to the 9/11 ground-stop. I said “That’s funny, ‘cause the Nigerians seem to have figured it out.”
Apparently liberal propaganda hasn’t yet revealed that Nigeria doesn’t have an Ebola problem.
We also discussed the BS crap from the nurses union about hospitals being ‘unprepared’. I alluded to prior experiences of SARS and H1N1 and questioned the state of US medicine if hospitals can’t deal with a non-airborne infectious threat. He responded that “they aren’t ready; they only have Level 2 protection”.
Pathetic. I don’t believe for a second that hospitals can’t deal with Ebola patients right now. It’s lack of protocols and adherence to procedures that’s putting people at risk. Ironically, just like what happened at the CDC labs...
It’s the scare-tactics of this ‘manufactured crisis’ that’s going to do the most damage...
Yes and with help from the UN manufactured / fabricated a heterosexual AIDs epidemic that never existed - never appeared ...for the sole purpose of keeping gays from being the focus of the disease as seen by society...
Heterosexual men and women of the 80’s and 90’s were monogamous or serially monogamous - changing partners at a very slow pace on the average ... and did not become involved in or contribute to an AIDs epidemic
Heterosexuals who got AIDs such as straight white or black women got AIDS from a partner who was either ‘bisexual’ and had sexual contact with men or the partner was a drug addict who got it from shared dirty needles and give it to the woman... Inner city black female prostitutes got it from the same sort of contacts just described and from the fact that their promiscuous behavior meant there were many contacts often unprotected - plus drug use of their own with dirty needles...
AIDs is a disease where the transmission of the disease is a numbers game - the more promiscuous one is - with a high frequency of sex with different partners the more likely of catching HIV... As Dennis Miller said back in the late 1980’s “Who would have thought that having sex with 30 guys a month that you don’t know would turn out to be bad for you” ...
I came very close to dying from the 1968-69 “Hong Kong” flu.
I endured some of the most agonizing pain I have ever known, became totally delirious and had all kinds of strange hallucinations with a fever of 105. I never want to go through anything remotely resembling that again.
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