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-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Lessons of the Ebola Crisis
2014-10-19
by Yuval Levin

[NationalReview] The very nature of the debate we are now having, including the debate over the travel ban, is evidence of the fact that we probably have not yet learned not to underestimate this outbreak. We are still thinking about it in terms of a crisis in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone that could reach our shores by the various means that connect us to them. But the real danger, to us and to others, is probably far greater than that. Our greatest worry should not be that the disease could get to the United States from those West African nations but that it will get to Nigeria's larger population centers or to, say, India or other places with massive population density and weak public-health systems, and from there will become an epidemic throughout the third world. The scale that this outbreak is now likely to reach in West Africa will make it rather difficult to prevent that, raising the risk of a far more colossal human catastrophe than the nightmare we are already witnessing and of a greater threat to the U.S. population.
Posted by:trailing wife

#7  Well said, rammer. Here's a first person account from an American doctor now in Monrovia, about the situation there. It's actually quite heartening, it seems to me:

Doctor details life in Ebola-torn Liberia
Posted by: trailing wife   2014-10-19 21:56  

#6  People, become calm. Panic will not suffice.

Liberia as it was is no more. Liberia will be reborn through the grace of God and ebola survivors who have become immune. This will take six months to a year. During this time, occasional patients will end up in other countries. They will have to be managed well to minimize further infection.

Unlike the Fukishimia exponential disaster, in this disaster the dangerous particles cannot be callously dumped into the sea. These dangerous particles will be neighbors and relatives; sick and miserable and loved.

If right now, you do not have hand sanitizer, bleach, gloves, and a months supply of medicine, food, and water, then get them not just for yourself, but also to enable you to comfort the ill.

Posted by: rammer   2014-10-19 20:35  

#5  At what point do they hammer in to every african that they should immediately report any animal bite from one of the potential EBOLA species?
Posted by: rjschwarz   2014-10-19 16:06  

#4  Transnational politics breeds transnational plagues?
Posted by: Procopius2k   2014-10-19 08:56  

#3  The greatest threat to the U.S. seems to be the bumbling/incompetence of the current administration. They don't seem to be able successfully organize a one person parade. On the other hand, it might be a scarier thought if they were competent.
Posted by: JohnQC   2014-10-19 08:28  

#2  What's with that yellow (non-infected) chunk (province?) in the middle of Liberia? They just lucky or is that a reporting black hole?
Posted by: AlanC   2014-10-19 08:17  

#1  Affirmative action kills?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2014-10-19 04:01  

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