Ebola in The USA

http://www.wtsp.com/story/news/health/2014/10/16/belton-students-class-canceled-ebola/17344401/

The is more of that Americans live in FantasyLand stuff....."there is no reason to do it but we have closed schools to disinfect them because this is what the idiot mob wants". There is no information that an Ebola infected person has been in the school yet they do this.

This reminds me of airport security theater, and I am darn tired of our society spending large amounts of time and money trying to appease scaredy cat idiots.

Ebola is already costing the cruise industry money. You aint seen nothin yet:


http://abcnews.go.com/Health/ebola-scare-creates-utter-panic-caribbean-cruise-ship/story?id=26276019

Just what this industry did not need, yet another reminder that cruises and bugs dont mix well, and that the last place anyone wants to be when trouble hits is confined to a cruise ship with no way to get off.

Ebola cost the cruise industry nothing. This person almost certainly doesn't even have Ebola.

It is Hysteria about Ebola is costing the cruise industry money. This person posed zero risk to the other passengers and should have been left alone to enjoy her cruise with her fellow passengers.

My pharmacist is not worried about Ebola, he's worried about this:

Rapid Price Increases for Some Generic Drugs Catch Users by Surprise

Large price increases in the United States for vital medicines for the young, such as vaccines, have been mirrored by similar rises in some of the most basic treatments for older patients, like digoxin. Though there are many newer types of drugs to treat heart disease, for some patients there are no effective substitutes; digoxin is on the World Health Organization’s list of essential medicines.

In recent years, generics have curbed the rise of drug prices, saving the American health care system billions of dollars. After the patents for Lipitor, the cholesterol drug, and Ambien, the sleeping pill, expired in the last few years, for example, generics entered the market and prices plummeted.

But increasingly, experts say, the costs of some generic drugs are going the other way. The prices paid by pharmacies for some generic versions of Fiorinal with codeine (for migraines) and Synthroid (a thyroid medicine) as well as the generic steroid prednisolone have all more than doubled since last year, EvaluatePharma found. In January, the National Community Pharmacists Association called for a congressional hearing on generic drug prices, complaining that those for many essential medicines grew as much as “600, 1,000 percent or more” in recent years. The price jumps especially affected smaller pharmacies, which do not have the clout of big chains to bargain for discounts.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/09/health/some-generic-drug-prices-are-soaring.html?_r=0

An older story, but one that is still relevant.

Woman Who Sparked Pentagon Ebola Scare Doesn't Have Virus: Officials
Source: NBC

A woman who fell ill aboard a Pentagon bus Friday, sparking an Ebola scare, does not have the deadly disease, Arlington County officials said. A quarantine placed on seven Pentagon police who came in contact with the woman, as well as the 22 Marines aboard the bus, will be lifted, officials said.

The woman, a private contractor for the Pentagon, originally told first responders she had recently been in West Africa, the center of the Ebola outbreak. But investigators with the Defense Department found no evidence to support that claim and don’t believe she visited there.

The unidentified woman boarded the shuttle bus shortly before 10 a.m. to head for a change-of-command ceremony in Washington, D.C., for the Marine Corps Commandant. She suddenly fell ill, got off the bus, passed out, and then vomited in the Pentagon parking lot. She was taken by ambulance to a medical facility for treatment, including a blood test. The massive parking lot was closed and cordoned off, and the Marines aboard the bus were temporarily quarantined.
IN-DEPTH




Read more: http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/ebola-virus-outbreak/woman-who-sparked-pentagon-ebola-scare-doesnt-have-virus-officials-n228301


I thought the test took 24 hours.

The Smoking Ebola Gun: Rand Paul’s Senate Hold Is Why The Nation Has No Surgeon General

http://www.politicususa.com/2014/10/17/blame-harry-rand-paul-put-hold-surgeon-general-nomination.html

The Republican obstruction strategy of “stall and block” is coming back to haunt Republicans in many ways, not the least of which is the country’s realization that we have no Surgeon General as we face the Ebola crisis.

But of course, politicians don’t like to take responsibility for their tactics, so the Republicans’ new talking point to get around taking responsibility for their obstruction of President Obama, his entire administration and indeed, our entire federal government, is that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) could call for a vote any time to confirm the nomination for the Surgeon General....

Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) put a hold on the November 2013 nomination after the NRA objected to the nominee. Krystal Ball and Anne Thompson reported for MSNBC:

Murthy’s nomination has been held up by Republicans and a few red state Democrats due to this surprisingly controversial stance: He believes that guns can impact your health. Well, to be fair, this conservative coalition is not troubled by his stance, so much as they are fearful of the NRA, which decided to try to scuttle Murthy’s confirmation. The NRA wrote a strongly worded letter, Rand Paul put a hold on the nomination, and Red State Democrats begged Harry Reid to not force them to vote. It’s funny that the strongly worded letters of ordinary citizens don’t seem to have quite the same effect.


"Senate hold"? Is that another word for "godawful rug"?

What overhyped nonsense! The Surgeon General post is itself an anachronism, and the Head of the Center for Disease control and the agency he leads are the key government group charged with readiness for issues such as the Cupola epidemic in West Africa and its potential effects here. The Surgeon General is not an issue here.

Republicans had nothing to do with the inept and over politicized "leadership" of the agencies of government provided by our President for the past six years. We have seen a sad and sorry series of agencies involved in corruption, stupidity, illegal behavior, and repeated failures. This has included the DEA, ATF, Border Patrol, GSA, VA, IRS, HHS, NSA and most recently the Secret Service. The thoughtless platitudes offered by the President in response to questions about travel restrictions and other fears expressed about our lack of border controls did little to encourage public trust in the current Eubola flap, and the evident confusion and unpreparedness of the CDC and its manager in dealing with the details of issues surrounding the Eubola cases in Texas made matters much worse. We have seen a series of vague reassurances each in turn overcome by the occurrence of precisely what we were assured would not occur. This is the chief source of public anxiety right now. The lack of a Surgeon General is not the cause of that,

In addition the President has been unusually ambitious in stretching the limits of his executive power to act without the constitutionally prescribed consent of the Legislature, and he has repeatedly used his executive appointments to bend agencies to his political views. Examples include the NLRB and the new enforcement powers of the Treasury Department, and, of course our now highly politicized Justice department.. In such a situation it is hardly remarkable that Senators would make use of their lawful power to withhold or delay their lawful consent to such appointments.

It is increasingly a sad but obvious fact that our President is not the fresh and brilliant new force for needed change and wisdom he was made up to be by his worshipful supporters. We seen now the inept, untested and inexperienced community organizer from the cesspools of Chicago politics, who, sadly for us all, is in far over his head.

It's past time to face some facts.

From an opinion @ DW

It shocks because it kills 90% of the people who get it and we are looking at an exponential growth in the number of people catching this ************. Getting shocked is the reasonable rational thing to do.

You liberals will go to any length to turn every single ******* part of life into your hobby horse of victimization. Racism too.

Of particular interest here is The Professor demanding that our health agencies divert a huge portion of their funding and attention to anti tobacco manipulation programs, the promotion of the Wifey's clean living diet and even domestic violence. Worrying about bad bugs was so your dads government health agency, we moved on.

And now the man is all put out that the government has for months completely failed at Ebola! His inept leadership and inability to manage the bureaucracy of course has nothing to do with it. It must be the R's fault, everything has to be the R's fault in The Professors FantasyLand brain.

I would explain that we are not looking at anything close to exponential growth outside of West Africa, but I doubt you know what exponential growth even means... so I won't bother.

I hate to read the news. I am seeing massive over reaction sans basis and probable gatherers of insurance statements, multiplied.

What does that odd statement mean? Are you speaking for us all?

Central and West Africa have seen many Eubola epidemics, over the last several decades, but so far have managed to contain each outbreak. Each grew exponentially until the local population was isolated, and ravaged by the disease. Ultimately it was isolation of the affected population and particularly those infected that contained each outbreak, though the death toll was locally high. The current epidemic in West Africa is more widespread than previous ones and involves larger, more mobile population centers. That's why it is so dangerous, and hasn't yet been contained. The more mobile the infected population, the more rapidly the disease will spread and the harder it will be to contain the exponential growth.

The Western world involves highly mobile populations with virtually zero prior exposure to the disease and therefore no acquired immunity to it. We also have better medical facilities that somewhat compensate for the added vulnerability.

The world has seen numerous epidemics that took nations and regions by surprise and killed many. The native American populations were decimated by European diseases like smallpox and measles to which they had no prior exposure or immunity. It could happen again.

Again George, you are choosing Mass Hysteria over Science.

The medical doctors and researchers, the people who have an expertise in medical science as well as experience studying this specific disease keep telling us that...

There is no significant risk of an epidemic in the US.

The medical researchers explain the science behind this fact. Ebola is not easily transmitted in a modern society, People aren't contagious until they are symptomatic, and even then the disease is not transmitted very easily. This is unlike smallpox and unlike what is happening in West Africa.

This is why with three patients who were out in public with disease, with hundreds of public contacts including airplane trips, the only time the disease was transmitted was to medical personnel caring for an end of life patient.

You are confusing the Ebola epidemic with a zombie movie.

The best response to this disease (or any infectious disease) is a careful response based on scientific fact. Hysteria is not helpful.

if our immmune system wasn't compromised by vaccines, shite in food, radiation etc we would be strong enough! we don't need an 'acquired immunity'
That is just a fairy tales for grown ups.

Like American Indians when first exposed to smallpox?

Type it again because I've read what you've already written and so far it has nothing to do with medicine.

What do you think my position is that is anti-science?

My position is, if anything, anti-government, and the response of our government (including the CDC) to this outbreak is buttressing my position.

You just keep repeating the same thing: The best response to an infectious disease is to let the medical experts make the decisions. I don't know how many times I can say that in the main I agree with this before you'll stop repeating it.

What we have with this situation is a group of medical experts who understand the disease very well, but are not making all of the decisions.

Do you think that the Ebola experts in the US really thought that leaving Mr. Duncan in the Dallas hospital for his treatment was the best course of action? If so, how to explain that both nurses have been moved to other facilities better equipped to provide treatment? President Obama overrode them?

We are not hearing from the medical experts, we have been hearing from Tom Frieden who while being a physician with expertise on TB has spent his career in government and was right alongside Michael Bloomberg helping to create the Nanny City. He's a classic progressive technocrat. We have also been hearing from Barrack Obama whose pronouncements and assurances have, in my opinion, led to medical experts being overruled for political purposes. And, of course, we have been hearing from that insipid mouthpiece, Josh Earnest who thought it was appropriate to attack Republicans while commenting on what the President and his cabinet decided their new plan should be about this deadly disease. Soon we will be hearing from political hack Ron Klain who has no medical or healthcare policy background but who was a chief of staff for VP's Biden and Gore. Now that's a great way to keep political considerations out of the picture.

I have listened to all of them discuss the travel ban and I have not heard one of them give a coherent answer that actually explains the medical reasons for why it is not a good idea. Concerns for the economic, political and social infrastructures of West African nations are hyperbolic and certainly not medical.

The closest thing to a straight forward response has been the assertion that infected people will find another way to get on a plane to the US. They are already doing this because unless I'm mistaken, there are no direct flights between the US and these nations. I have never taken a strong position in favor of the ban. It is of interest to me only for the lack of a cohesive medical reason for opposing it, but without same I can see how it would help calm fears in the US even if it only plays a minor role in protecting us from the disease. In any case, if another one or two Americans come down with the disease watch how quickly Frieden and the "experts" with public faces change their minds and support the ban that Obama will order.

Last night I heard an interview with a doctor who works with Samaritan Purse and just returned from Liberia. He reported that the screening in Liberia was inadequate and in Belgium, through which his route took him, it was non-existent. He also said in Atlanta, where he landed, there was a thorough screening process (of which I was pleasantly surprised), but obviously the passengers that flew from Liberia to Belgium to Atlanta could have been exposed to the virus if anyone on the plane was in the contagious phase, and if any of them were asymptomatic, but infected, and willing to lie to the screeners (as Duncan did) they are now in the US waiting for the symptoms to appear.

Frankly, I don't know how the ban would operate and believe it would be more effective to simply ban citizens of these countries from travelling to the US on any commercial flight. If WHO is correct and the epidemic in these nations is growing exponentially and that by December there will be 10,000 new cases reported per week, the odds are growing greater every day that people flying in from these countries are infected. Keeping them from our shores is (once again) not the single solution to outbreaks in the US, but it would not make the current outbreak worse and it won't increase the odds of additional outbreaks.

Yes, I get that the disease needs to be controlled and stopped in these countries and I am not suggesting that we don't do all that we can to help that happen, but flying medical staff and now US service men and women to and from these nations can be done in a much more controlled fashion using specialized chartered flight.

If the only example of the so-called bullshit reactionary alternative plan you can come up with is this ban, it just reinforces my position that you are more panicked about a panicked reaction that the American people are about the disease.

You go on and on about panic and irrational fear and all you can come up with as examples are people calling for this ban and a few families in affected cities keeping their kids home from school. My God, the whole society is collapsing in fear!

You are also making a consistent and transparent effort to categorize my comments in regards to this topic as "anti-science," which suggests that you've studied the Democratic Playbook quite diligently. Criticizing the government, and, if applicable the scientists that work for it, is not attacking science. As usual you are sitting atop what you believe to be your lofty progressive perch and attempting to establish yourself as the only intelligent, sane and moral person in the room.

If the CDC had made the same mistakes they made thus far with a more virulent, air-borne virus, we would be looking at a lot more infected Americans than the two we have now. That's a jab at the CDC and any other smug believer in the infallibility of the government, not at science.

BY the way you've repeatedly ridiculed other poster's understanding of math and science and went so far as to suggest george was a math illiterate. What's your vaulted status in math, science and medicine? I though I read once that your are a HS teacher (presumably of math or science). Am I wrong?

The only direct flights are done by Brussels Air (a Lufthansa company, to Brussels) and Royal Air Maroc.
Besides the UK, so far no other European countries are doing a screening.

What should be done with friends of friends of medical aids (some thousands of Europeans are helping in Africa) who returned to their homes, while these friends later go on holiday in the USA?

Specilised charter flights with what airplanes? How many are there worldwide?