No one give a f about Ebola in Dallas?

[pgardn]

The media feeds the fear-fapping. Fear and insecurity are real. Just look at the war on terror, which boiled down, is a essentially a war for the enhancement of state power, the erosion of liberty, and aggrandizement of the so-called "defense" sector.

Apparently the flu does not have symptoms that are vile enough for public consumption.

We have the college age know it alls that think they wont contract it conveniently forgetting the strains that put down and killed people in their 20's. It is a gesture of civic responsibility going in and getting that shot. There are people who cannot be vaccinated that might appreciate it. Especially when one can be a carrier and only develop only very mild symptoms spreading it rather quickly.

But by God I don't have to get one and you can't make me, it's my choice... I'll exercise my rights...I'll show you...
The epidemelogists need sociologists to help them in any campaign of reason. Maybe they need to show a cut open lung of a young patient ravaged by pneumonia.

[boutons_deux]

'We'd have a vaccine by now if it were not for budget cuts,' says head of NIH about Ebola





Dr. Francis Collins, the head of the National Ins utes of Health, said that a decade of stagnant spending has "slowed down" research on all items, including vaccinations for infectious diseases. As a result, he said, the international community has been left playing catch-up on a potentially avoidable humanitarian catastrophe.

"NIH has been working on Ebola vaccines since 2001. It's not like we suddenly woke up and thought, 'Oh my gosh, we should have something ready here,'" Collins told The Huffington Post on Friday. "Frankly, if we had not gone through our 10-year slide in research support, we probably would have had a vaccine in time for this that would've gone through clinical trials and would have been ready."

It's not just the production of a vaccine that has been hampered by money shortfalls. Collins also said that some therapeutics to fight Ebola "were on a slower track than would've been ideal, or that would have happened if we had been on a stable research support trajectory."

"We would have been a year or two ahead of where we are, which would have made all the difference," he said.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/1...a?detail=email

News Flash for you rednecks: govt is important, govt austerity degrades, kills, and for-profit orgs will NOT fill in the gaps the Repugs create with their govt-hating, sociopathic austerity.

The other angle is that BigPharma has had about 40 years to develop an Ebola vaccine, but the profit wasn't there, Ebola was only "over there" and only dead blacks.

[boutons_deux]

The right’s scary Ebola lesson: How anti-government mania is harming America

If not for serial budget cuts to the National Ins utes of Health, we would probably have an Ebola vaccine and we would certainly have better treatment, NIH director Dr. Francis Collins tells the Huffington Post’s Sam Stein. This comes on the heels of reporting thatthe Centers for Disease Control’s prevention budget has been cut by half since 2006, and new revelations about how botched protocols at the Dallas hospital that turned away Thomas Eric Duncan and then failed to treat him effectively also led to the infection of one of Duncan’s caregivers.

Yet most of the media coverage of the politics of Ebola to date has centered on whether President Obama has adequately and/or honestly dealt with the disease. “I remain concerned that we don’t see sufficient seriousness on the part of the federal government about protecting the American public,” Texas Sen. Ted Cruz told reporters. Cruz is probably the wrong guy to talk about seriousness: his government shutdown forced the NIH to delay clinical trials and made the CDC cut back on disease outbreak detection programs this time last year.

whether Texas Gov. Rick Perry shared some responsibility for the nation’s Ebola crisis with President Obama, since the outbreak occurred in his state on his watch. Now that a second person has been infected there, I think the question is even more relevant.

The GOP approach to public health was crystallized at the 2012 debate where Rep. Ron Paul – another Texas politician — said it wasn’t the government’s responsibility to take care of a hypothetical young man who showed up in the emergency room very sick after he decided not to buy insurance. “That’s what freedom is all about, taking your own risks,” Paul said, deriding “this whole idea that you have to prepare to take care of everybody …”

“Are you saying that society should just let him die?” moderator Wolf Blitzer asked. And the crowd roared “Yeah!”

But now we know what happens when hospitals fail to adequately care for uninsured people who turn up in the ER: They can die, which is awful, but they may also spread disease and death to many other people. It’s pragmatism, not socialism, that commits governments to a public health agenda.

That agenda, however, has been disowned by the modern GOP. Sarah Kliff got lots of attention for her Vox piece starkly depicting how the Centers for Disease Control’s prevention budget has been cut by more than half since 2006. The chart she used actually came from a piece in Scientific American last week, which I hadn’t seen before. It’s must-reading: it dispassionately explained the way we’ve underfunded and degraded our public health infrastructure. And again, it made me think about the Republican policies that have hampered our ability to fight this crisis.

Isn’t there a fair way to say that cutting 45,700 public health workers at the state and local level, largely under GOP governors, was irresponsible?

As was slashing the CDC’s prevention budget by half since 2006, or cutting the Affordable Care Act’s prevention budget by a billion?

It seems relevant to me that Texas is 33rd in public health funding. It’s clear now that not just the hospital but state and local authorities responded inadequately to Duncan’s illness.

“So the richest country on earth has no team to contain the first appearance of one of the most deadly viruses we’ve ever known.”

The GOP’s anti-government crusade has hampered our ability to face the Ebola challenge. In an election year, there’s nothing wrong with Democrats saying that clearly. Campaigns should be cutting ads right now spotlighting the way Republican budget cuts have devastated the public health infrastructure we need to fight diseases like Ebola.

http://www.salon.com/2014/10/13/the_...rming_america/

Thanks, Repugs, and all you redneck govt-hatin' rednecks, y'all up, and then blame the Dems.

[boutons_deux]

Repugs will pass this MIC corporate welfare

General says US Army faces huge equipment, training risks due to budget cuts

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/10/general-says-us-army-faces-huge-equipment-training-risks-due-to-budget-cuts/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaig n=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story%29

... and the Repugs will be paid WELL for passing it.

[boutons_deux]

‘Ebola Zombies’ Panic Spreading Like Wildfire on the Internet




News of an imminent zombie invasion in Liberia is perhaps the most audacious fake news story on the Internet right now, creating panic among thousands of gullible readers who are taking it seriously on social media, repeating the rumor among friends, and getting a bit hysterical about the spread of ebola in Dallas, TX.

The right-wing mock news site, Big American News, broke the fake story to its readers on September 30. Since then, the link to the article has been tweeted nearly 1,000 times and shared by more than 500,000 Facebook users.

The article, “Africa Confirms 3rd Ebola Victim Rises From the Dead, Releases Picture of First ‘Ebola Zombie’ Captured” is only the latest in a series of conspiracy theories on the ebola crisis spreading on the Internet.

Over the past several months, sites such as Russia Today (RT.com) and Gateway Pundit have claimed that the current ebola outbreak is an American bioweapon.

Not to be outdone, Big American News has been publishing a series of articles not only backing this claim, but stating that the U.S. modified and weaponized ebola so that its victims, after suc bing to the virus, would rise from the dead.

http://www.alternet.org/media/ebola-...er1022995&t=15

you rednecks are bunch of stupid, ignorant s.

[TheSanityAnnex]

"All right, I have to vent because the CDC are not being very proactive. My final recommendation is at the end.
First, don't even get me started on the fact that the nurse wasn't even in the 48 people reported at highest risk. She was not formally followed and self reported her fever. The head of the CDC and Health and Human Services needs to be fired for this lapse of judgement alone! Maybe not now so as to not disrupt the response to Ebola in the US but at the end.


Facts:
1. Ebola is not HIV. It is one of the most lethal viruses known to infect man
2. A person is most contagious near the end of life. So most contagious when in the hospital.
3. Regional medical centers and medical personnel, including administrators, are not prepared.


I find it curious when I was at USAMRIID I had to be qualified for Biosafety Level (BSL) 4 to work with or handle lab samples (not animals we are talking about test tubes) of EBOLA, Marburg and other similar viruses. That training was about 6 months so never had time in a 2 year fellowship. Those doctors wore positive pressure suits with chlorine decontamination when exiting in a special room & someone watched their every move.
Now we are supposed to double glove, wear goggles, facemask and a gown. No boot covers. No special suits. Not realistic. Asbestos workers get more protection.
Anyways, ridiculous. If someone has a confirmed case, they should immediately be sent to about 10 or 50 highly qualified referral centers where people have BSL-4 training. Example: everyone in Maryland/Virginia goes to either Johns Hopkins, NIH or USAMRIID. South Carolina sends to Emory or CDC in Atlanta.


Don't follow idiot experts that recommend anything else."

[boutons_deux]

U.S. Readies for Ebola With Fewer Public Health Staff

State and local health departments employ 19 percent fewer people today than they did in 2008, according to estimates by the Association of State & Territorial Health Officials. That’s a decline of 51,000 jobs.

The threat of Ebola makes the problem of a more thinly staffed public health system feel more urgent. But the consequences affect Americans’ health every day outside of the spotlight. Besides prepping for rare infectious diseases, health departments routinely combat the spread of more common illnesses, from seasonal flu, to HIV, to lifestyle-influenced conditions such as diabetes or obesity.

There’s no federal standard for what a public health officer should do, according to an April report by the Trust for America’s Health.

“Federal public health programs as currently structured, do not actively promote a set of baseline, consistent capabilities that every community across the country should meet,”

http://origin-www.businessweek.com/a...re-cases#r=rss

Thanks for The Great Banksters Depression, banksters.

Thanks VRWC/1%ers/Repugs/deficit-hawks for govt austerity while in a long-lasting depression.

You can be damn sure if govts have been cutting back on public health/safety jobs, they have been cutting back on public health training.

btw, if the Feds tried to establish FEDERAL standards for public/safety health employees, the Repugs would block it, and Texas would continue to be well down the spending list on public health spending/capita.

but but but ... it's all Obama's fault.

If the states had corrupt, inefficient DoD's $700B to play with EVERY YEAR, maybe the states could equal "Biosafety Level (BSL) 4".

[DarrinS]

50,000 Americans will die of flu this year and we wring our hands over the more preventable and less likely every year.

Amazing stupidity.

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/lawrenc...b_4661442.html


Influenza is nothing close to Ebola. Ebola death rate currently at 70%, according to WHO.

[DarrinS]

Oh, and Republicans appropriated more CDC funding than Obama requested.


http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/n....html?page=all

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will see an 8.2 percent budget increase for fiscal 2014, thanks to a $1.1 trillion spending bill announced by Congress Jan. 13.

This influx of cash will raise the CDC budget to $6.9 billion, which is $567 million more than it received in 2013. This is more than the agency anticipated, because the president's fiscal year 2014 budget request for it was just $6.6 billion -- a decrease of $270 million from fiscal 2012.

[boutons_deux]

Repug austerity hits NIH funding after 2010 elections while GDP growth increases and the 1% reap all the growth in GDP.

[DarrinS]

GOP gave more money to CDC than Obama budget requested.

Regardless,

The CDC listed some of its top spending priorities in its fiscal 2014 budget request. It wants to boost spending for vaccines for children by $287 million and increase funds by $53 million for its "World Trade Center Health Program." It requested a $40 million increase for AMD, $22 million more for Health Statistics, $20 million more for its National Violent Death Reporting System, almost $17 million more for Food Safety and an additional $15 million for polio eradication.

[DarrinS]

http://thefederalist.com/2014/10/14/...-where-is-she/

[cantthinkofanything]

50,000 Americans will die of flu this year and we wring our hands over the more preventable and less likely every year.

Amazing stupidity.

Mortality rate of flu is like .5% or something. If you take out the elderly and sick, it's probably less than 1/4 of that. Ebola is probably somewhere between 50-70% for healthy people.

[CosmicCowboy]

Mortality rate of flu is like .5% or something. If you take out the elderly and sick, it's probably less than 1/4 of that. Ebola is probably somewhere between 50-70% for healthy people.

flu is airborne dummy. Ebola isn't. Might as well compare lightning strikes or deaths from bee stings.

[pgardn]

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/lawrenc...b_4661442.html


Influenza is nothing close to Ebola. Ebola death rate currently at 70%, according to WHO.

Where do you live?
My stats are for the US.

Wake me when it's over in the US.
The reason this is so publicized is that it is taking off in countries that don't have the money to spend on it to prevent the spread. And most importantly, it's the symptoms. If this virus just caused death like a flu virus attack few would care. The flu is much more contagious, much more, but USUALLY much less lethal. But Flu kills far more people.

And hospitals... like there are not already the absolute worse bacteria already that are immune to ALL antibiotics thriving in them? My wife works in a lab. She has had two coworkers die from Hep C caught from patients. None from anything else. What do you think she worries about? Hospitals are places sick people go carrying God knows what. A retired coworker of hers is headed to Sierra Leone as I type. To help. A whole bunch of American health care workers have volunteered. They are not asking to die, they know how not to get infected, and they want to help.

Again, the virus is a concern, but on a real level here? Not even close. And if you live elsewhere, worry about malaria. I am again astounded by how much people love to panic. And how the press feeds on it.

[DarrinS]

Where do you live?
My stats are for the US.

Wake me when it's over in the US.
The reason this is so publicized is that it is taking off in countries that don't have the money to spend on it to prevent the spread. And most importantly, it's the symptoms. If this virus just caused death like a flu virus attack few would care. The flu is much more contagious, much more, but USUALLY much less lethal. But Flu kills far more people.

And hospitals... like there are not already the absolute worse bacteria already that are immune to ALL antibiotics thriving in them? My wife works in a lab. She has had two coworkers die from Hep C caught from patients. None from anything else. What do you think she worries about? Hospitals are places sick people go carrying God knows what. A retired coworker of hers is headed to Sierra Leone as I type. To help. A whole bunch of American health care workers have volunteered. They are not asking to die, they know how not to get infected, and they want to help.

Again, the virus is a concern, but on a real level here? Not even close. And if you live elsewhere, worry about malaria. I am again astounded by how much people love to panic. And how the press feeds on it.

Health care workers treating someone with the flu don't need biohazard suits and bleach showers.

Ebola is pretty serious

[DarrinS]

If you get the flu, the CDC won't swoop in and quarantine your family.

[pgardn]

Health care workers treating someone with the flu don't need biohazard suits and bleach showers.

Ebola is pretty serious

No one said it was not serious.

But when you get down to numbers in the US what's more likely to kill you?

The flu.

So you are vaccinated with the quadravalent this year?

[pgardn]

If you get the flu, the CDC won't swoop in and quarantine your family.

Ebola is a problem for the CDC mainly because of hysteria. And possible f-ups. It's very containable with our know how and resources. So you are worried about being quarantined? Same thing will happen if your family comes down with any number of other diseases.

People not flying to Dallas because they are petrified... Pretty damn silly.
I thought Republicans were supposed to be pragmatic? What happened?

Just talked to a State Epidmelogist. She might have to go to Dallas. In the middle of making sure the flu vaccines orders are all filled and who needs more. What will she be doing? Answering phone calls and taken numbers about how to calm people down. So now we have Epidemelogists working on Public relation statistics.

What a wonderful use of state resources, fielding phone calls from lunatics sent into orbit by the press.

[boutons_deux]

"People not flying to Dallas because they are petrified..."

the owners of the apartment complexes are probably "concerned"


Georgia county threatened to cut off hospital sewer lines over Ebola

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/10/georgia-county-threatened-to-cut-off-hospital-sewer-lines-over-ebola-doctor-says/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaig n=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story%29

[boutons_deux]

As usual, as always reliable, you Repugs, Fox have nothing but fear, anger, xenophobia, etc

Scott Brown: Ebola-Infected Terrorists Can Easily Enter The U.S. Through The Mexican Border

http://thinkprogress.org/election/20...immigration-2/

Now you know his government policies, vote for Scott Brown

[pgardn]

Mortality rate of flu is like .5% or something. If you take out the elderly and sick, it's probably less than 1/4 of that. Ebola is probably somewhere between 50-70% for healthy people.

So multiply 0.005 by a really big number.
And then multiply 0.6 by a really small number.

Can you think to do that?

Read about the flu viruses that crop up now and again and kill perfectly healthy 20 year old males. This is what the CDC really worries about. This and nosocomial outbreaks. But they won't tell you that right now. They are duty bound to react to the press fapping.

[SupremeGuy]

The media doesn't want to press the Ebola issue because it will just highlight more of Hussein Obama's failings, tbh.

[boutons_deux]

RickyBobby's TX sucks, can't even handle a virus at a 5-star, gold-plated hospital. Everything's bigger in Texas, above all, the bull .

[CosmicCowboy]

Everything is political with Boobear.

I'm surprised you haven't claimed (yet) that it must be Bush's fault for not eradicating Ebola when he was President.