Ebola, 6 reasons to panic

How many did America have?  How many days has it gone without a new case being detected..................................?


ETA - we haven't had our first case yet so I'm not critisising America, I'm saying you shouldn't critisise them.

It's been interesting to talk with some people here in the Bible Belt. How they believe Ebola is making a giant evolutionary leap to being airborne. And how I literally feel like I need to sew my lips shut to not go around shouting, "Oh, now you believe in Evolution".

For anyone too much of an Idealogue to even consider reading the Weekly Standard (it's just like the Huffington Post or Slate) article, the 6 reasons are (condensed) as follows:

1) We don't know what we don't know.  There are at least four major strains of the Ebola virus, this current outbreak is significantly different from the other three, the origins of this strain was in Guinea.

2) Most politicians and Media types do not have an understanding about geometric verses algebraic rates of expansion. Going from R (sub) 0 to R (sub) 2 is bad, very bad. That is the rate of infection spread, but... it is NOT a uniform rate, it is NOT constant.

3) "The epidemiological protocols for containing Ebola rest on four pillars: contact tracing, case isolation, safe burial, and effective public information. And if the four pillars—contact tracing, case isolation, safe burial, and effective public information—fail, no one seems to have even a theoretical plan for what to do." (verbatim from the article)

4) The "worse case" is an outbreak similar to what has occurred in the Western African Countries of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone to  happen in the Western Hemisphere on Haiti/Dominican Republic, or in the Central American Countries of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua.  (This is more so than the countries of Belize, Costa Rica, and Panama.)

5) Outbreaks similar to what has occurred on the African Continent, would mean a massive FLOOD of both refugees trying to escape the spread of the virus, and those with the virus seeking medical attention.  If anyone thought the border "incidents" last Spring were bad, you have not seen anything yet.

and

6) There are TOO many people that have been appointed to positions based upon political connections and furthering political correctness, not skills, knowledge and ability. And too much of various agencies' budgets flittered away on 'political agendas' not scientific or medical work.  This goes back to the 1990s.  It is NOT just one administration or one political party.


The REAL EXPERTS on the treatment and prevention of infection spreading are not the ones in charge of anything here in the USA.  Most of them are in the three centers of the outbreak working to educate the population, treat those with it, and contain it.  MSF (Doctors without Borders) are the REAL experts, and they have lost almost 400 from this virus.  The medical and nursing staffs are a disportionate amount of those infected.  There are significant differences between what MSF/WHO protocols are and what the HHS/CDC protocols are. (Ebola and Marburg virus disease epidemics: preparedness, alert, control, and evaluation Interim manual version 1.2 WHO document) (CDC Ebola Web Site)


The various Media outlets are doing a great job of both politicizing and polarizing, in addition to stirring up panic.  There are things to be concerned about, but for the majority of us it is NOT part of our daily lives, and it will not be, ever.  The various strains of the flu are of more concern and impact.

I saw a meme cross FB about a week ago:

The [HASH]1 reason to panic was these countries were major producers of chocolate.

In all seriousness the entovirus scares me more.

On Tuesday I threw up in the parking lot at Albertsons, and then again picking my son up from soccer.  Even in Colorado I'm sure someone thought "Ebola!"  Odd that no one approached me to ask if I'd recently returned from Texas or Africa. 

First time ever vomiting in public like that - even all through last fall and winter when I was pregnant and couldn't live without anti-nausea medication!

That's got to be hard to resist!! 

I'm worried about both.  The affects of Ebola scare me more because I am hoping that my 13 year old DS is old enough that the enterovirus wouldn't be too bad on him.

Both are a real threat to me.  DH is a respiratory therapist and has been placed on the Ebola response team at his hospital.  While his hospital is not designated as a "go to" hospital in our state, I really feel like the healthcare workers who deal with the patients BEFORE they have been confirmed to have the virus are at the most risk.  Plus, if there were multiple cases, he does work for the health system that is the "go to" and has been told he would be reassigned there.

The enterovirus is a respiratory thing, so he would be in contact with that if a patient comes in.  I am honestly more fearful of him bringing one of the viruses home and the boys getting it than I am of him being infected.  I don't know how much of either virus is needed to infect a person and I have this fear (probably irrational) of just a little bit making it home on him and infecting my family who would not be using any precautions.

For Ebola, I told him he would not be coming home for the 21 day period.  For enterovirus, we would do it like we did H1N1.  He cleaned as much as he could at work.  Came home, clothes went directly into the washer on hot by themselves and he took a shower.

ETA;  I am not panicking about Ebola, just trying to figure out what we would do if there was a patient with it.  Enterovirus does make me a little jumpy and DS is being closely monitored when he doesn't feel good since he has asthma.

 Funny how that is.....