Ebola outbreak in Africa

[The Annoyed Man]

There's been another (second) health care worker in Dallas with ebola. News last night gave a scathing report regarding the "protocols" (or lack thereof) in Dallas.

I suspect that it's more of a case of which protocols to follow, rather than a lack of protocols entirely. These nurses are trained and have experience in general protocols for infectious disease. If any of them has been out of nursing school for more than a few months, it is a safe bet that they have already cared for HIV, full-blown AIDS, and hepatitis patients, as well as other patients with other communicable blood/body-fluid borne diseases. These may be fairly rare and thinly distributed diseases "out in the world", but they are found in more highly concentrated numbers in hospitals, for the simple reason of why hospitals exist in the first place.

It's not like they had NO protocols. They may have had insufficient protocols. But nosocomial infections are a big deal, nurses are educated in their existence, and they are generally VERY aware of the risks of acquiring one themselves simply because of the environment in which they work.

The problem here isn't the nurses. The problem has two sources: 1) the contagious nature of the disease itself; and 2) confusing directives coming from inefficient bureaucracies on how to manage that disease. The nurses will do what they are taught and/or told, because it is in their self-interest to do so......at least that is where they put their faith. But if they are told "do this.........no, do that", then they are at risk, and the BLAME belongs on the shoulders of whoever gave them conflicting directives, not on the shoulders of nurses who tried in good conscience to carry out those directives.

The very first time I heard that jerkwad from CDC blame the sick nurse for "breaking protocol", I wanted to slap him and tell him "YOU put on all that gear and get YOUR narrow behind into that room and treat that patient, then YOU deal with the standards that YOU impose........and may God have mercy on you."

CDC would like us to think that they are infallible, and that the blame for patient-to-nurse transmission falls on the nurse's shoulders; because that takes our eyes off of some larger truths......that CDC, being a bureaucracy more than it is a healthcare agency, is driven by other agendae which may have nothing at all to do with controlling the spread of disease, and everything to do with enabling the social engineering goals of a particular political entity. How ELSE do you explain that CDC says we should not close our airspace to inbound commercial air traffic from those nations where Ebola originates, at least until this crisis is over? They say it would be a hindrance to getting doctors and other healthcare workers to the affected nations. But in a nation where government has the power to BOTH cut off such inbound traffic AND provide chartered and/or military flights to any medical team that needs to travel back and forth, that is a FLAT OUT LIE.

Why are they lying, unless it is that they put their political mission ahead of their medical mission? Does anybody seriously think that one gets appointed as Director of CDC without being considered politically reliable by the person doing the appointing? I submit the following: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-off ... c-director

THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
_________________________________________________
For Immediate Release May, 15 2009

President Obama Appoints Dr. Thomas Frieden as CDC Director
Applauds Acting Director Besser’s leadership on H1N1 flu response; Dr. Besser will continue to lead CDC’s Coordinating Office for Terrorism Preparedness and Emergency Response
WASHINGTON – Today, President Barack Obama announced that he has appointed Dr. Thomas Frieden, currently Commissioner of the New York City Health Department, as Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
President Obama also announced that Acting CDC Director Dr. Rich Besser, who has led the CDC’s Coordinating Office for Terrorism Preparedness and Emergency Response for the past four years, will continue in this role.

President Obama said, "America relies on a strong public health system and the work at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is critical to our mission to preserve and protect the health and safety of our citizens. Dr. Frieden is an expert in preparedness and response to health emergencies, and has been at the forefront of the fight against heart disease, cancer and obesity, infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and AIDS, and in the establishment of electronic health records. Dr. Frieden has been a leader in the fight for health care reform, and his experiences confronting public health challenges in our country and abroad will be essential in this new role."

President Obama added, "Secretary Sebelius and I thank Acting CDC Director Dr. Rich Besser and the women and men throughout the CDC for their superb work, especially over the past weeks. Dr. Besser has led the CDC’s Coordinating Office for Terrorism Preparedness and Emergency Response for the past four years, and those preparations were essential during the recent H1N1 flu detection and response activities. We are very pleased he will continue in that role."

Frieden will begin his work at the CDC in early June.

Kathleen Sebelius....... now there's a recommendation for you....

Putting the blame on the nurses for "breaking protocol" is like an army general putting the blame on an individual artilleryman for failing to drop ordnance onto a critical enemy target during a fire mission when the battle hung in the balance, when that artilleryman DID hit exactly the coordinates the general gave him. What possible motivation would that soldier have to not follow orders? What possible motivation would the general have to blame the artilleryman...... unless the general knew the coordinates he gave the artilleryman were wrong? In terms of practical application, it doesn't matter whether the incorrect coordinates were deliberately wrong or a mistake, the artilleryman is not to blame for missing the target if he hit the target he was given.

In recent years, the CDC's energies have been devoted more to issues like "proving" that private gun ownership is a health hazard, than they have been devoted to protecting this nation from the importation of diseases by future democrat voters.

[sjfcontrol]

TAM, I hope you aren't thinking I was blaming the nursing staff -- I wasn't. They were given conflicting "protocols", and then when they asked which to follow, the answer was, "That's up to you". Well, I contend that is not a protocol if the staff is determining what to do. I also read somewhere the the vast experience the CDC was claiming for this hospital is that they had annual training for the nursing staff in handling infectious diseases. And there are vast differences both in the infectiousness, and the lethality between HIV and Hepatitis, compared to ebola.

Dallas Nurses allege no protocol no system in treatment of ebola patient:

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2014/10/1 ... a-patient/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[anygunanywhere]

Anything connected to the government speaks only what the government wants you to hear.

Watch what they do and what they do NOT do. Thus will tell you more about the government than what they tell you.

Anygunanywhere

[The Annoyed Man]

TAM, I hope you aren't thinking I was blaming the nursing staff -- I wasn't.

No, I understood you. I'm ranting at the gummint.......something I almost never do.

I found this interesting tidbit just a minute ago while looking at something entirely different:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/e ... ews-740796

ABC News chief health and medical editor Dr. Richard Besser, an infectious disease specialist and the acting director of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) during the similarly sensationalized swine flu outbreak in 2009, tells THR that he understands the widespread fear. “But the big misconception about Ebola is that there's risk to people in America. And that's just not the case.”

Now, let's revisit that White House press release from my previous post:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-off ... c-director

................

President Obama also announced that Acting CDC Director Dr. Rich Besser, who has led the CDC’s Coordinating Office for Terrorism Preparedness and Emergency Response for the past four years, will continue in this role.

.................


President Obama added, "Secretary Sebelius and I thank Acting CDC Director Dr. Rich Besser and the women and men throughout the CDC for their superb work, especially over the past weeks. Dr. Besser has led the CDC’s Coordinating Office for Terrorism Preparedness and Emergency Response for the past four years, and those preparations were essential during the recent H1N1 flu detection and response activities. We are very pleased he will continue in that role."

This one man has concurrently filled THREE roles, two in government, and one in news media:

• Acting CDC Director
• Head of CDC's Coordinating Office for Terrorism Preparedness and Emergency Response
• ABC News chief health and medical editor

TWO things......

1. Is there anyone else besides me that thinks IT IS HIGHLY INAPPROPRIATE for a person to be BOTH an employee of the federal gummint AND an employee of ABC News concurrently?
2. Is there anyone out there who still doubts that the left-media is a sub-rosa arm of the federal government?

How is this possible? Try and convince me he is a doctor and not a political animal.

THAT is what is happening over at CDC....... NOT DISEASE CONTROL.

[sjfcontrol]

The second health-care worker with ebola flew Frontier Airlines the day before she was diagnosed -- 10/13/2014.

http://www.kwtx.com/home/headlines/Seco ... 66452.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[sjfcontrol]

Obama is now too afraid to travel to leave the WH.

President Barack Obama is cancelling political travel to meet with his Cabinet on the Ebola outbreak.

The White House says Obama is calling off a planned trip to New Jersey and Connecticut and instead will convene Cabinet officials coordinating the government’s Ebola response at the White House.

http://legalinsurrection.com/2014/10/an ... cts-ebola/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[The Annoyed Man]

Obama is now too afraid to travel to leave the WH.

President Barack Obama is cancelling political travel to meet with his Cabinet on the Ebola outbreak.

The White House says Obama is calling off a planned trip to New Jersey and Connecticut and instead will convene Cabinet officials coordinating the government’s Ebola response at the White House.

http://legalinsurrection.com/2014/10/an ... cts-ebola/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

....much to the relief of democrats who are running for office and don't want to be seen with him....

[sjfcontrol]

Obama is now too afraid to travel to leave the WH.

President Barack Obama is cancelling political travel to meet with his Cabinet on the Ebola outbreak.

The White House says Obama is calling off a planned trip to New Jersey and Connecticut and instead will convene Cabinet officials coordinating the government’s Ebola response at the White House.

http://legalinsurrection.com/2014/10/an ... cts-ebola/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

....much to the relief of democrats who are running for office and don't want to be seen with him....

I saw a cartoon, which unfortunately was too small to post, but it showed Obama getting off his plane. There was a person labeled "Democrat candidate" holding a person who was purple and dripping. The caption read, "Don't come any closer, I'm hugging an ebola patient!"

[Jim Beaux]

Im totally disgusted with the "powers that be". Where are they?

Where is the hole in the pocket UN? Why arent they taking the initiative in this? West Africa must be isolated. It's governments are unable to govern themselves much less control a universal threat such as ebola. In order to avoid cremation, Ive read of officials being bribed to declare that ebola victims died of other causes so they can be buried by the family. These people are ignorant and cannot be trusted with the health of the world.

Why has the US not suspended all inbound flights from W Africa or countries that allow such? The UN can certainly supply W African medical needs and should consider equipping air craft carriers as critical care isolation facilities.

Im in favor of assisting these poor people, but only while minimizing our exposure. As a tax paying citizen I expect obama to prioritize the health needs of Americans over foreign citizens. I didnt sign my family up for this type of unnecessary risk.

It is criminally negligent not to place troops on the southern border & threaten Mexico with sanctions if they dont work with us. It's impossible to control the influx of this disease with an open border.

Rant off

[sjfcontrol]

Im totally disgusted with the "powers that be". Where are they?

Where is the hole in the pocket UN? Why arent they taking the initiative in this? West Africa must be isolated. It's governments are unable to govern themselves much less control a universal threat such as ebola. In order to avoid cremation, Ive read of officials being bribed to declare that ebola victims died of other causes so they can be buried by the family. These people are ignorant and cannot be trusted with the health of the world.

Why has the US not suspended all inbound flights from W Africa or countries that allow such? The UN can certainly supply W African medical needs and should consider equipping air craft carriers as critical care isolation facilities.

Im in favor of assisting these poor people, but only while minimizing our exposure. As a tax paying citizen I expect obama to prioritize the health needs of Americans over foreign citizens. I didnt sign my family up for this type of unnecessary risk.

It is criminally negligent not to place troops on the southern border & threaten Mexico with sanctions if they dont work with us. It's impossible to control the influx of this disease with an open border.

Rant off

The UN has aircraft carriers????

[The Annoyed Man]

Here is an instructive article on the spread of pathogens from sub-saharan Africa to the U.S. Did you know that the public health record of HIV goes back to the 1920s in Africa? I sure didn't: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morn ... -pandemic/.

If AIDS goes back 90 years, what will Ebola look like in the future?

I think we can beat this in terms of it being a health crisis, but.....

....I also think that it's here, and it isn't going away. The only way to avoid a mass die-off is to stop bureaucratic denial, and to start putting the health and safety of American citizens at home ahead of the health and safety of foreign citizens abroad. I am NOT say that we shouldn't help other nations with medical personnel, infrastructure, and materiel. But I AM saying that we have to go back to some older practices we used to take for granted. Ellis Island existed for a reason. Processing immigrants wasn't restricted to just stamping their passports and saying "welcome to the United States". Ellis Island also held quarantine barracks to which immigrants were sent for detention, who were either sick or who came from countries that were known to be having then-current public health issues, until their health status could be determined and it was safe to release them into the American population. I will grant that the facilities were probably unpleasant, and we could do better today, but the principle is the same, and I see no reason why we cannot do the same thing today........other than the curse of political correctness and the activism of such pimples on the heinie of progress as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.

Unfortunately, wholesale quarantine of Africans from affected countries would be sold as "racism", and more people will have to die before enough people tell the whiners to go get bent and we start handling this in the right way.

[sjfcontrol]

There you go again, TAM! Everyone knows HIV was invented by the CIA in the 1980's to wipe out the black race.

What good would re-instituting Ellis Island (or a modern equivalent) when anybody who wants to can just walk across the border unrestrained?

Silly TAM...

[rotor]

With a disease like ebola the true power of the government and public health institutions is quarantine. People need to be aware that without the power of quarantine we may not be able to contain this virus. Voluntary "please don't leave" your apartment is not good enough. People exposed or possibly exposed need to be placed in full quarantine for the minimum 21 days until it can be shown they are not infective. This may involve gated quarantine areas. We do this with certain TB patients, etc. There will be a loss of civil liberty during this time but without quarantine you may not be able to stop this disease.

[sjfcontrol]

If you quarantine people in common areas, what's to keep someone who's clean, but quarantined, from picking up the disease from an infected person in quarantine? If someone came to me and told me that I may have been exposed, so they were going to put me in with a bunch of other people that had also been exposed, I would NOT be a happy camper.

[KD5NRH]

If you quarantine people in common areas, what's to keep someone who's clean, but quarantined, from picking up the disease from an infected person in quarantine? If someone came to me and told me that I may have been exposed, so they were going to put me in with a bunch of other people that had also been exposed, I would NOT be a happy camper.

This, and quarantining people away from their homes (and the contents thereof) is more likely to result in serious civil unrest. Better to find a reasonable way to enforce "don't leave your yard" and prevent visitors. (Honestly, under the circumstances, if someone was willing to take care of my bills and other out-of-the-house chores and deliver food and other supplies, I'd sit out a three week quarantine as long as I'm allowed to use my yard too. Then again, I know I can sit and read for a solid week, which not everybody can do as easily.)