WTH??? The number is climbing higher. I am concern about how many people that guy was in contact with after he first left the hospital (with symptoms already). Yike.
It's up to 100 people now and the family tried to leave their home after being told to stay inside. Once they find those 100 people, imagine how many people were in contact with them. Not that any of them would have had symptoms at that point but it's still easy to see how this could quickly get out of control.
There's been some outcry in the media in support of suspending those visas but no action yet.No flights come directly from Liberia or any of the other African countries where ebola is active to the US. People coming from there would have to fly via Europe. The US State Department could suspend all visitor visas for people in those countries until they feel the ebola epidemic is safely under control. Which would effectively prevent them from boarding planes coming to the US as they would have no visa allowing them to visit.
Captain Shortbus strikes again!
ABC News Nightline did a story about this tonight. The big problem right now is the days he was out in the public after he was in the hospital and was dismissed. Plenty of folks were in contact with him after he has symptoms. Yike.
There's been some outcry in the media in support of suspending those visas but no action yet.
I read this afternoon that Thomas Duncan lied on his questionnaire when he left Liberia. He answered 'no' to the question asking if he'd had any contact with someone with Ebola either living or dead. We can't trust people to tell the truth. Suspend the visas. We can err on the side of caution or we can throw caution to the winds. We have a choice.
It's up to 100 people now and the family tried to leave their home after being told to stay inside.
Once they find those 100 people, imagine how many people were in contact with them.
Not that any of them would have had symptoms at that point but it's still easy to see how this could quickly get out of control.
The Jeannie is out of the bottle
There's been some outcry in the media in support of suspending those visas but no action yet.
I read this afternoon that Thomas Duncan lied on his questionnaire when he left Liberia. He answered 'no' to the question asking if he'd had any contact with someone with Ebola either living or dead. We can't trust people to tell the truth. Suspend the visas. We can err on the side of caution or we can throw caution to the winds. We have a choice.
He was discussing mutations. He said he felt it very unlikely that Ebola could mutate into an airborne virus since that family of viruses doesn't generally do that.
QFTSorry but you aren't getting a special plague due to politics. There's a chance that some will develop the disease due to contact with someone who is infectious but that's an unavoidable fact. The author is using this opportunistically. The argument comes down to a false assumption that epidemiology depends significantly on their sense of what the US vs other developed nations systems look like. Well the science says no. There have been factual pandemics and Europe doesn't look better than the US, in fact the incidence rates have been worse. If the reasoning used were valid then the 2009 pandemic would have us looking dreadful, and neat little datasets would have shown correlation between contention and reality. Reality said "no".
No system is going to make your Ebola go away. The main defence is in response and that's one thing we have going for us. We have and are using resources other nations, including Europe and anyone else you can think of, would be envious of.
That does seem a more reasonable concern, but isn't that true of any virus? Influenza might mutate to something with a 90% fatality rate which makes babies' heads explode; that doesn't mean it's reasonable to fear that influenza will so mutate in the immediate future.Saw another 'virus expert' on TV last night.
He was discussing mutations. He said he felt it very unlikely that Ebola could mutate into an airborne virus since that family of viruses doesn't generally do that.
Instead, he voiced concern about it mutating to where it could become infectious before symptoms were present. While he didn't say so specifically, I got the impression he felt this was a greater concern.
Fern
Let's hope that's everyone.
Let's hope that we're not using the power of wishful thinking to conclude that this guy didn't leave Ebloa-tainted liquid residues in public spaces, on door handles, gas pumps, checkout store keypads, 7/11 cooler door handles, various surfaces in a dank public restroom.
Haven't we already got Lassa Fever for that? :\
I had to look that up.
I won't be visiting Africa again. They have more than their fair share of nasty diseases.
Fern
Schistosomiasis?
Dengue fever?
Filarial Worm?
Its times like this I like to point out that the world is full of crap thats going to try to kill you in interesting and varied ways, its really not worth worrying about it too much.
Lets be honest, if you live in the west its more likely you'll die of an overdose of doughnuts than, say, Yellow fever.
Theres warnings about flu every year (which does kill a lot of people) but everyones all "Meh, its just flu. My super immune system will save me. I'm not getting immunised it'll just taint my essential essences!". As soon as its something no ones heard of its "Ahhhhhh! We're all going to die!!!11!!!"
Edit: I'm tempted to put a list of horrible endemic North American infectious diseases but then I know that a bunch of you would never leave the house again!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkEkDHOQTLs
OMG that's horrific. now I know where they got the idea for "the strain"
10-2-2014
NBC Cameraman has tested positive
The cynic in me says Duncan flew here with the full knowledge that he was exposed to Ebola. He must have had the visa for a while and figured that if he was going to come down with Ebola, where better than the US for the best treatment that would make him survive? and if he didn't have Ebola, well, ride it out in the US till things are settled back home (or just stay here, no one cares about illegal immigration anyway).
When they turned him away with a diagnosis of a simple viral fever, what a relief he must have felt!
I bear no ill will to him for trying to do what he did, it was a desperate situation.
The CDC has projected 1.4 million infections, and 900,000 deaths by January. Yet you're here to tell us that - with only 7100 infected in Africa so far - Nigeria has already "shut this virus down."QFT
The pure brass of saying that although Nigeria, with literally millions of desperately poor people with neither insurance nor emergency rooms living crushed together in densely populated slums, can shut this virus down but American can't because we aren't Canada is pretty impressive though.
The CDC has projected 1.4 million infections, and 900,000 deaths by January. Yet you're here to tell us that - with only 7100 infected in Africa so far - Nigeria has already "shut this virus down."