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2014-07-29 Science & Technology
Maybe we need to talk about Ebola
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Posted by g(r)omgoru 2014-07-29 04:00|| || Front Page|| [3 views ]  Top

#1 Its the guy that died from the plane that changed everything.

He vomited and had diarrhoea, died 3 days later. Highly infectious.

So it could be anywhere now and we wont know until 3 weeks from last Tuesday.

My thought is the baggage handlers and the air hostesses... Who are they spreading it to? Someone who migt be flying to Paris or New York or Sydney?
Posted by Anon1 2014-07-29 06:52||   2014-07-29 06:52|| Front Page Top

#2 From the comments chain in that Instapundit was a link to the WHO summaries. It is fascinating to click through and see the epidemic unfold from the first alert in March
Posted by Anon1 2014-07-29 07:38||   2014-07-29 07:38|| Front Page Top

#3 Good time to avoid air travel, stay home, thump my Bible and gently hug my F-150.
Posted by Besoeker 2014-07-29 07:44||   2014-07-29 07:44|| Front Page Top

#4 From the WHO summaries:

May 8 - no cases in Sierra Leone. WHO does not recommend travel or trade restrictions

May 30 - 50 ebola victims, 6 deaths in Sierra Leone
WHO still does not recommend travel or trade restrictions

July 27 - Nigeria has reported its first case but still...
"WHO does not recommend any travel or trade restrictions be applied to Guinea, Liberia, or Sierra Leone based on the current information available for this event."



Posted by Anon1 2014-07-29 07:54||   2014-07-29 07:54|| Front Page Top

#5 Medicins sans frontiers said on july 17...

“We are running behind Ebola. We came too late when villages already had dozen of cases and right now we don’t know where all chains of transmission are taking place” says Anja Wolz, emergency coordinator with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) running the Ebola treatment centre in Kailahun. “Since we set up the centre 4 weeks ago, we had over 90 confirmed cases but I think it is the tip of the iceberg.”

Now i would like to know where the WHO were, given how much money the US gives the UN and WHO each year

And given it is ebola which had been spreading since February
Posted by Anon1 2014-07-29 08:04||   2014-07-29 08:04|| Front Page Top

#6 Anon1, money to the UN and WHO from the US goes for lunches in Paris.
Posted by AlanC 2014-07-29 08:25||   2014-07-29 08:25|| Front Page Top

#7 Of course, my mistake AlanC :) to think... That mopping up an ebola outbreak immediately could be something they would do - what a crazy thought :)

I will go thump bibles with besoeker. Get out the mint leaves, brown sugar lime and vodka!
Posted by Anon1 2014-07-29 08:32||   2014-07-29 08:32|| Front Page Top

#8 Stock up to avoid human contact for at least two weeks.

Prepared to hear the same stupid arguments, as in 80s, that diseases have rights that invalidate historically proven if draconian methods of containment.
Posted by Procopius2k 2014-07-29 08:36||   2014-07-29 08:36|| Front Page Top

#9 A good book, a cup of joe, dogs, cats, birds at the feeder, a couple hours on the John Deere. "Avoiding human contact;" the older I get, the more appealing the concept. I must at last, be doing something right. No one is complaining.
Posted by Besoeker 2014-07-29 09:02||   2014-07-29 09:02|| Front Page Top

#10 Agreed Besoeker...

The Daily Mail reports here that Patrick Sawyer the plane victim who died in Nigeria where he went for a conference

Was an American citizen, and was due to return to Minnesota in August.

Meanwhile ZeroHedge here is reporting a twitter rumour that the wife and kids of US doctor Kent Brantly of Samaritan's Purse flew back home to Fort Worth, Texas, just days before he was diagnosed with ebola - meaning they should be quarantined.

I asked the Calvary Church they belong to on FB if the rumour was true. No answer.
Posted by anon1 2014-07-29 11:26||   2014-07-29 11:26|| Front Page Top

#11 Unfortunately, She Who Must be OBEYED is returning from a visit to her son who is statione at Geilenkirchen with NATO, he's an E-3 wonk of some sort, he speaks in algorithims and C++, rarely in English...

So I have to engage in some human contact soon. I'd rather be in Kerrville right now with about 200 acres and a couple of dozen goats, some chickens, a big dog or two and my 1911.
Posted by Bill Clinton 2014-07-29 11:29||   2014-07-29 11:29|| Front Page Top

#12 The black plague led to an improvement in the wages of peasants since labour became scarce

inflation rose as there was more gold and silver to go round

and... Black Death profoundly altered settlement in the countryside. Catastrophic loss of population led to abandonment of less attractive fields, contraction of existing settlements, and even wholesale desertion of villages...
Posted by anon1 2014-07-29 12:20||   2014-07-29 12:20|| Front Page Top

#13 The important change was the fall in rents which forced land-holders to have to pay people to work the land rather than swap it for some of the produce.
Posted by Bright Pebbles 2014-07-29 12:33||   2014-07-29 12:33|| Front Page Top

#14 Ebola is self-limiting for the same reasons it is so scary. There is much more to fear from a reappearance of smallpox or the continued slow growth of multiple drug resistant TB.
Posted by Iblis 2014-07-29 13:12||   2014-07-29 13:12|| Front Page Top

#15 hello bp, i am wondering what affect it will have on markets if it gets airborne

iblis: i think your logic is faulty. Ebola is not self-limiting because of it's lethality. The three-week incubation period is long enough to effectively spread it. And anyone who tells you "it's not that contagious, only the late stages, and only body fluid" is ignoring the fact that half the people who get infected are health workers who take extreme precautions.

Have you not seen them suited up in their space suits?

It is extremely contagious and extremely lethal

And the fact that Patrick Sawyer was on his way to the USA, via Nigeria for a quick conference should tell you something

Had he been infected just a couple of weeks later, he would have died in LAX or on the plane on the way there instead of in Nigeria.

That will be a whole different ball game. That nearly happened.
Posted by anon1 2014-07-29 18:52||   2014-07-29 18:52|| Front Page Top

#16 Also you should all be aware CNN are reporting here that Samaritan's Purse are evacuating from Liberia.

So those people may be coming on home to the USA

which is exactly how these things spread. People become afraid and flee taking the virus with them.

--
"Due to the upsurge in cases of Ebola in the region, SIM and Samaritan's Purse have taken the precautionary step of mandating the evacuation of all nonessential personnel from Liberia," the statement said. "Timing, means, and place of evacuation are being decided now."
Posted by anon1 2014-07-29 18:56||   2014-07-29 18:56|| Front Page Top

#17 CBC Canada are reporting here that another Samaritan's Purse doctor from Victoria was volunteering in Liberia treating ebola in the same team as the US victims - but has fled back to Canada and is in "self-imposed" quarantine. From this we learn the authorities are not quarantining people they are only doing it themselves. Official response: so far not very adequate to the threat
Posted by anon1 2014-07-29 20:17||   2014-07-29 20:17|| Front Page Top

#18 Samaritans purse silences dr who returned to british columbia.

Banned him from talking to media as cbc canada found here

It is now managing its media message through headquarters.

""I regret to inform you that I am declining all requests for media interviews," the email reads. "The situation in Liberia is changing rapidly, and I don't have the most up-to-date information. Therefore, to avoid giving out any information that might not be accurate, I am referring all interview requests to our international headquarters, because staff there are closest to the situation in Liberia."

After he initially told reporters he was under self-imposed quarantine Samaritans Purse has come out denying it here
Posted by Anon1 2014-07-29 21:24||   2014-07-29 21:24|| Front Page Top

#19 Samaritans purse backpeddalling and trying to muzzle staff is a most worrying development.

They are saying they are monitoring all their evacuating staff for symptoms

That means nothing. They need to be in quarantine for 21 days.

Clearly Samaritans Purse is trying to avoid this.

You should all be concerned as these are the people who will bring ebola to the states. 2 of them have tested positive already.

When a journalist asked Samaritans Purse about when Kent Brantly's wife and child returned and if they were under quarantine, Samaritans Purse evaded the question.

That is a big concern

Posted by Anon1 2014-07-29 21:30||   2014-07-29 21:30|| Front Page Top

#20 iblis: i think your logic is faulty. Ebola is not self-limiting because of it's lethality.

Historically, "hot" diseases like Ebola were self-limiting because you died before you could travel far enough to spread the disease. Nowadays, you can fly around the world before you have time to die from it.

It's Tom Barnett's Gape/Core thesis revisted , this time with plague rather terrorism
Posted by SteveS 2014-07-29 22:49||   2014-07-29 22:49|| Front Page Top

22:58 SteveS
22:49 SteveS
22:39 SteveS
22:22 Rambler in Virginia
22:13 Rambler in Virginia
21:30 Anon1
21:25 James
21:24 Anon1
21:22 Old Patriot
21:13 DarthVader
21:09 bbrewer126
21:08 gorb
21:01 bbrewer126
20:55 bbrewer126
20:28 Bill Clinton
20:26 49 Pan
20:24 Bill Clinton
20:23 Frank G
20:17 anon1
19:57 trailing wife
19:51 trailing wife
19:47 Procopius2k
19:46 trailing wife
19:45 Procopius2k









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