FYI
Hopefully this analogy only goes so far...
Yes, it’s communicable like the flu and not like AIDS which was behavior-based.
But we have to sure as heck hope it is not like the 1918 flu in terms of epidemic.
If the military isn’t prepared yet to defend itself from bio terrorism and operate in infected regions after all these decades, then we need to get ready, because at some point Islam is going to attack us in a true biological attack, and the military will have to show up.
Limbaugh quoted a poll where 59% of US black people agreed with the statement that there would already be a cure for ebola if it was occurring in the US.
My response would be what is keeping Africans from developing the cure? What makes it our problem?
Well yeah the flu pandemic killed mainly those under 65 since the average life expectancy in 1918 was early 50s.
From the start it was known as the Gay Plague.
Unfortunately, the authorities didn't have the brains or courage to isolate the vector.
What I been saying all along .... when Ebola hits in the millions then perhaps it’ll be scary. AIDS is/was preventable. Ebola transfers easy with just cursory touching.
Ebola runs 20+ times that.
Was the 1918 Flu the Spanish Flu? That’s what I thought, maybe I’m wrong.
Where the hell is The World Health Organization? I’m sure we must be giving them megabucks every year. They’re the ones who are supposed to be handling this, NOT Uncle Sugar, and certainly not our military. I suspect 0bama sent the military just to speed up the start of the pandemic in the US.
Plus. ..why are we sending Marines instead of a medical unit?
The 1918 flu turned hemorragic by the same mechanism ebola uses: cytokine storm. The virus triggers a feedback loop within the immune system until it goes haywire and rejects the body itself. Glucocorticoids could halt that feedback loop.
Maybe somewhere in between.
I find it interesting that no one in that apartment with Duncan has fallen ill. Either they knew he could have ebola and were careful, or it is not so easy to catch. I think that is a fair use of either/or.
The clean-up people threw out many things in that apartment, but I did notice they saved the computer hard-drive. If a lawsuit is filed, the defendants deserve access to that hard drive to find out, 1) if they knew he likely had ebola, and 2) if the marriage was genuine or just a shortcut to citizenship. I mean, his 19 year old son last saw him when the son was 2. In fact, during the time he (Duncan) got Troh pregnant, he got another woman pregnant, too. There are so many kids between them from multiple partners that it just all seems suspicious to me.
The 1918 flu was spread globally through ‘unnatural means’, e.g. from the millions of returning soldiers from the trenches of Europe. Similarly, ebola is being ‘helped’ by the ease of modern air travel. Otherwise it would just wipe out an African village and we’d never hear about it.
There is hardly an analogy. Like AIDS, Ebola is a blood-borne pathogen and is spread through behavior. Compared to Ebola, the viral load of AIDS is very low, and it requires a higher dose of virus to actually get AIDS, which is why AIDS is far less infectious than Ebola. But neither disease is very contagious, since they require close contact.
Influenza, however, is highly contagious, since it is transmitted through aerosols as well as through contact. If Ebola spread through the air, we'd already have millions of cases.
Ebola is not the 1918 Spanish Flu. In ten months since the first detected case of this outbreak, there have been 8,000 reported cases of Ebola and 4,000 deaths, with a CDC estimate of 20,000 actual cases and a WHO estimate of 16,000 to 32,000 actual cases. The Spanish Flu killed 50,000,000 to 75,000,000 people across the globe in the same amount of time, spreading in waves that affected 20% to 40% of the world’s population. Ebola spreads nowhere near as fast as the Flu. That’s the good news.
The bad news is that the Spanish Flu of 1918 had a death rate of 10% to 20%. This strain of Ebola is around 70% (not 4,000 over 8,000 because many who are currently infected will die rather than recover). If Ebola spreads effectively in the West (undetermined so far), this disease will be far more lethal than the Flu unless we can vaccinate the entire world within the next year. The really bad news is that we live in the country that will be Obama’s lowest priority when it comes to vaccinations. America’s most dangerous enemy in history will give the vaccine away to Africans, Arabs, and South America before he permits us to buy it at any price.
And lord Obola did say he would Fundamentally Change America.
What better way than to have 3000 return to spread Ebola through out
America?
A reason for martial law? May not effect the elections in November, but does present a great reason just after the elections but before the House and Senate are sworn in.
“My fellow Americans, the current crisis requires I take extraordinary measures. Given the current crisis it is only right that I freeze government for a prudent time.”
“So, I have created a panel of top minds to investigate all the options available to our country”
“Given the latest troubles that face us I have also signed an executive order to bring the United States in full compliance with all the other nations of the world to enact the provisions of current treaties and agreements concerning our responsibilities that effect our carbon foot print on the world.”
“To assure implementation I have appointed Al Gore to the cabinet as the immediate czar of the environmental affairs and compliance.”
“As such he will have sweeping powers and all other presidential cabinets will report to him to solve our current issues.”
“God bless America and God bless the United Nations.”
Ebola Surveillance Thread
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3191066/posts
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.