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We all agree that Ebola is a horrific way to die. It's a pretty sure thing that it is going to come here (meaning be actually spread in the a non-African country) eventually. It will kill fewer people in the US than the flu, than
3,000 a day die from Malaria. Perspective is everything I think.
I find the faith in the supposed inability of the virus to transmit by air kind of disturbing. It shows a lack of understanding of the mechanisms. The virus does not know whether the droplet it is in is in the air, or on a surface, or on the person it came from.
Would you guys honestly let an infected person sneeze in your eye?
You know, there's another virus that isn't very contagious and has a very low risk of being transferred. Yet 20% of gay men in America has HIV.
Looks like it's time for you to cozy up in your bunker, the world is ending.
With a four year old who has no qualms about grabbing all possible surfaces in a public restroom, yea if this gets anywhere this side of the continent, you'll bet I'll be locking down. And I'm not a doomsday prepper or anything near. But this is one thing that terrifies the freak out of me.
With a four year old who has no qualms about grabbing all possible surfaces in a public restroom, yea if this gets anywhere this side of the continent, you'll bet I'll be locking down. And I'm not a doomsday prepper or anything near. But this is one thing that terrifies the freak out of me.
Than it looks like the media has done their job of terrifying the easily terrified.
Than it looks like the media has done their job of terrifying the easily terrified.
I don't care about the media, if anything to me it sounds like the media is underplaying the risks to not cause panic. All I see everywhere is "don't worry, risks are very low, it's not very contagious', yadda yadda. Yet the facts such as health care workers falling ill in spite of all precautions show otherwise. Notice how nowhere does it say "the risks to Americans are non-existent' or 'there is zero risk'. Because that's simply not true. And believe me, if that were the case, that is what they would be saying. Instead, they're being vague as to not encourage panic. It would be zero risk if there were no flights coming in from affected regions to anywhere in the world. Since this is unfortunately (and stupidly) not the case, the risk is definitely not zero at this point, and at any moment could become higher, needing only one infected person on one flight.
I don't care what they write in news stories, I care about facts. Right now, yes the risk is low. But a confirmed case, even a single one, in the same state as me would be enough for me to start treating every commonly handled public surface, particularly bathrooms, doctors offices, etc, as potentially contaminated. And that would be enough to keep me home as much as possible. I don't think that's unreasonable, I think it's prudent.
Here is a novel idea: stop flights out of the affected regions, worldwide!! Voila - instant containment without wasting resources on airport scanners, testing units, and isolation rooms in other countries. Let people fly there if they want - but with making it known they're not coming back out for a while. Done.
But no, of course that won't happen, everyone's too bloody greedy and politically correct
You know, there's another virus that isn't very contagious and has a very low risk of being transferred. Yet 20% of gay men in America has HIV.
People can be contagious with HIV and not know it. They can be contagious and show zero symptoms for decades and their partners would not know without being told.
Ebola is not contagious until symptoms start. After symptoms start, within 2-4 weeks you are either dead or not contagious anymore. Plus once your symptoms really start, with Ebola you aren't going to be walking around because you are too sick; your main interaction is going to be with your caregivers, either family members or medical staff. That provides some inherent limits in the amount of people you can infect.
Thanks in part to the HIV epidemic, in this country, we are pretty good at tracking those at risk of infectious diseasse. Much of the money/assistance that is being promised to Africa now is in this realm; we're sending people there to help them identify Ebola patients and track down who they've come into contact with so we can monitor those people.
This is also what is being done in Nigeria now, after they learned that Sawyer had Ebola. It is very unfortunate that some of his medical staff has contracted the disease, but I think it is unlikely that any of them passed it on, because they've been monitored. We'll know more in a few weeks.
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