THE EBOLA CIRCUS

The American public is anxious over the spread of Ebola (EVD) within the U.S. because our officials are creating that anxiety.

As Peggy Noonan wrote in last Saturday's Wall Street Journal, "Who do they think we are?"  Are we children, idiots, simpletons, schmucks?

For example authorities should have to once and for all either logically and cogently explain how containing and treating EVD in Africa but allowing people to travel from the Hot Zone to other parts of the world makes any common sense or just shut up!

Calming public nervousness and effectively treating and containing the virus actually require doing and communicating the same things.  If new Ebola Czar Ron Klain has the power, the intelligence and the will to accomplish this, then he will be the man of the hour.  If he does not then he will be what so many now think him to be, just a political hack  with phony authority designed  to protect  the Presidents political ass by any means necessary.

So that's the first  issue to address i.e. how an adult  with an  important title who doesn't even report directly to the President (in order to give Obama plausible deniability) will be able to cut through the political White House crap and become the Patton of this war and then have the balls to seize the necessary legal powers and not to be blocked or undermined   by the incompetent, malicious and vicious hacks that dominate the beltway. 

The second issue which must be addressed swiftly and comprehensively is  to stop the influx of passengers from the three hardest hit West African countries by either/and visa denial, a 21 to 42 day quarantine  in the country of departure  before being allowed to travel here if they are virus or symptom free.  African countries are shutting their borders and best practices of diagnosis, containment and treatment can be learned from Nigeria, the Congo, Senegal and Cameroon for starters.  Isn't interesting however how the homicidal PC left aren't calling these countries racist for closing their borders and cutting off travel?

Additionally, why should anyone believe that non-medical personnel at American airports with temperature devices constitute  safe or valid  protection when travelers could be asymptomatic or have taken a fever suppressant and/ or lied on their questionnaires?  

In that regard the common belief is that Mr. Duncan lied on his entry questionnaire  about having any personal direct contact with an Ebola victim.  His relatives deny this and say he told the truth.  If he and they are right, then how did he contract Ebola? 

The third issue is to de-politicize this  epidemic so that it doesn't dissolve into the circus that actually ended by killing people during the opening years of the AIDS/HIV crisis.  Quarantines  and travel bans are not racist or discriminatory.  People who want to demonstrate their stupidity and score cheap political points at the expense of people's lives should be ignored and shunned for the jackals that they are.  

The fourth  issue is to answer basic questions about the crisis in a candid and forthright manner so that the public which is smarter than this administration, no longer knows it is being lied to or treated like morons and that it has accurate and the most up to date information.

For example...How did the two nurses get Ebola?...

Were they dressed in proper protective gear?...

Did they suit up and suit down properly?...

If their protective clothing was not optimum then what is?...

What strain is this outbreak of Ebola?  One source says it is a new strain which is 97% similar to Ebola Zaire. Today there are five sub-strains, (Zaire, Bundibugyo, Sudan, Reston and Taï Forest ). four of which are transmitted to humans by direct contact with bodily fluids and one (Reston EVD) which is primarily contacted by primates or animals by air born means.  So is this a new strain, a mutated old strain or totally new and can non air born strains mutate and become air born?  Can the Reston strain mutate and begin to infect humans?  What animals besides fruit bats are or can be carriers of or be infected by EVD.

What exactly is the incubation period?...The CDC say 21 days but the WHO says it may be as long as 42 days...

What constitutes being asymptomatic?...

What constitutes being symptomatic?...a slight fever... one bout of vomiting or diarrhea ...?

What will our military and other volunteers be doing in the Hot Zone and how will they be protected there  and we protected here when they return?  Already conspiracy theories are in play that assigning National Guard troops in country is a pretext to later using them  for crowd control and martial law domestically should the virus get out of control.  Such is the lack of trust in Barack Obama today!...

Can sputum, sneezing, sweat or phlegm carry the virus in an infectious way?  Again some say spit can't contain the virus and others say don't come into contact with it,  Another rumor flying around is that cold weather can make the virus air born.  These need to be addressed and answered. ...

Exactly what surfaces can contain and sustain the virus for infectious purposes and how long can the infectious virus live on these surfaces?...

General Kelly of the Southern Command has publicly warned of illegals with Ebola crossing the porous Southern border with Mexico.  In point of fact there have been press reports of Liberian nationals being identified in Nicaragua waiting for transportation north to the U.S.. Are we finally going to close our deadly southern border?...

How safe and effective is self quarantine?...

How is it being monitored?...

What is necessary to make it as fool proof as possible?  Typhoid fever started with a cook and AIDS started with Patient Zero.  Viruses like Ebola expand exponentially and always with the threat of mutation...

  

Lastly there is no known cure for Ebola so early identification is critical.   Will work on vaccines or use of drugs already in use abroad but not approved here be speeded  through the FDA bureaucratic  maze in order to save lives if need be?...

Political Correctness and bureaucratic inertia is in reality more deadly than Ebola itself.  Without vanquishing them, it will be the same as if there were a deliberate effort to spread Ebola in this country because doing what we have been doing to date would be the most efficient  way to accomplish this.  This would be death by Political Correctness, the inevitable result of madness over science and something many of us have been predicting would happen for many years.

POST SCRIPT:

Since the first version of this was written, we now have a Doctor who worked with EVD patients in Guinea now diagnosed and in isolation at Bellevue Hospital.  He was in NYC for at least 6 days before he presented symptoms on Thursday with a fever of either 103 or 101.3 or 100.3.  Again basic facts are not rock solid.  He also had diarrhea and isolated himself  in his apartment until FDNY staff in protective clothing could take him into quarantine.  The night before he had traveled on three subway lines, taken an UBER cab with his fiancee and two friends, gone to two bowling allies, and ate out in a restaurant.  While he did not present distinct symptoms  until Thursday, he began feeling fatigued as early as Tuesday.  The lesson learned here is that he should have been in quarantine in Guinea for 21 days before being allowed to leave to fly home.  Governors Cuomo and Christie have now superceded the Federal Government and mandated  a quarantine for any travelers from the affected countries.  In addition Mali has now reported its first case of EVD. 

News reports are that nurses at Bellevue are calling in sick at greater than normal numbers.

ERLANDSSON