I don't remember the movie ending like this...
It's interesting that the Feds (with or without Obama's "leadership") finally put some air travel restrictions in effect yesterday. Restrictions that probably should have been put in place 4-6 months ago at least.
Just because the media isn't peeing their pants over this issue doesn't mean it's gone away. The efforts to control the outbreak in west Africa are still ongoing, and from what I can glean out of the press (mostly international outlets, US press is virtually useless for anything outside of Kardashian-class "news") the inflow of dollars and personnel from various outside nations, including the USA, is making some positive headway in that regard.
Domestically, we are still waaaaaaaay behind the curve. Control of infected persons trying to come into the USA is still a joke. There WILL be more infected people coming into the USA yet.
And hospital preparedness is still woefully inadequate. Yesterday my hospital's DON came back from a regional Ebola-preparedness meeting and told me that when she raised the idea of setting up triage units outside of hospital ER's, the group was stunned and amazed at this idea... and these are supposedly some of the leading lights in Infection Control in Texas!! She said that when she pointed out to them that having Ebola patients come into our ER's would paralyze the hospital for several days, some of the attendees looked like they were gonna pee their pants.
The plain fact is that even though there have been position papers and expert forums since the fall of 2001 discussing the FACT that America would and could be paralyzed by determined attacks on our Emergency Medicine infrastructure, NO ONE has taken even the first rudimentary steps toward securing our nation's ER's. The Charlie Foxtrot that happened at Dallas Parkside will inevitably be repeated, and I predict MANY times, before the Powers That Be get their heads out of their collective ass and mandate (and fund) a true emergency preparedness program for our nation's hospitals.
