Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Ebola hysteria.. What happened?

I read a great quote about Tuberculosis the other day: "TB is Ebola with wings."

If you consider the growing prevalence of antibiotic-resistant TB, particularly in Russia and eastern Europe, and the kind of havoc it could wreak here in North America, that's not far from the truth.

Resistant TB in Russia is killing 80-90% of infected persons, but it doesn't do so in days like Ebola does, and it doesn't come from Darkest Africa, so we don't get hysterical about it.

Oh, well. One of these days I'll be able to say with a smug attitude, "I told you so." Unless I'm already dead, of course.

Doc,

I'm glad guys like you are on top of this. It sure beats sticking one's head in the sand, and ass in the air as Obama and Loco have shown doesn't do much to thwart the virus here.

BTW, Loco, I failed to see much panic at all. I just saw lots of coverage and people responding to the coverage by demanding why the govt. was not willing or prepared to protect it's citizens.

A consensus of Infectious Disease specialists from the CDC, WHO, and other I.D. centers selects the strains of flu for immunization, based on the prevalence of specific types of Flu A and B seen last year and strains seen in Asia in the past 6 months.

They do a pretty good job of predicting, most years.

They also rely on the probability that folks immunized against specific strains last year and the year before that are still immune to those strains, so the overall "herd" immunity is going to be pretty high against the "old" virus strains.

I got mine Monday and I figure with it and staying away from sick people the best that I can, I will be OK. I always figured Dr. office and Hospitals were the most likely place to catch the flu, so I avoid them if at all possible. miles

Bingo. Objecting to what's not being done isn't panic.

The feds are just screening at the five airports for symptoms, right?

If you're coming from Liberia, show no symptoms, you're allowed through and then you can develop symptoms later at your destination in, say, Houston or Atlanta?

Indeed. One of the other good places to get sick is at a gunshow. There's always some assclown coughing on you at one.

Agreed.

Yes. And neither is putting some low-cost preparations in place just in case, especially if those preparations are non-specific enough that they can be used anyway even if the threat doesn't develop. I guess the guys that are laughing about "panic" probably don't insure their houses.

I didn't notice any "hysteria"...I did notice a lot of people being mad about bringing in active cases into the U.S. & the one person who did come here with an undiagnosed case did make two nurses sick...I also don't think that putting travel bans or quarantines on people who have spent time in any of the "hot zones" or have been treating patients should be considered "hysterical"...it's just common sense. Ebola is some nasty schitt. Seen a report last night that it's still raging out of control over in Liberia. It can still happen here & this ebola outbreak is far from over...

I presume there's some form of public health followup on persons coming in with visas from west African countries on these flights, but who knows?

And we still have no assurances that folks who fly from Liberia to Germany and then to the USA are being screened at all.

So, yeah, it's a token effort by the Feds, I think, but at least it shows that they're recognizing that the citizens are NOT happy with their bungling of the situation so far and they're trying to show that they're doing SOMEthing. I am personally and professionally more gratified to see that more dollars, equipment, and personnel are being sent to west Africa to clean up the outbreak over there, which is where the REAL danger to the USA and the world lies.

On a brighter local note, my little local hospital out here in BFE has been notified that we will be receiving two (2) biohazard suits some time in the future for our ER staff to use in the event of an Ebola victim showing up here. Never mind that if he comes into our ER, our whole hospital will be basically shut down for 2-5 days... sheesh. We have a bunch of maroons running this country.

I'm with u rancho.

Still in panic mode here

Reason u can't hear me scream is cause I lost my voice

Expect screaming 2 resume

Particularly if my 5000 lbs of beans aren't delivered

Exactly.

If they are delivered, we can hear you for sure!

Most here in Korea where masks anyway, except this dumazz...

A few recent examples:
Ebola Is Airborne
Ebola Scare Creates "UTTER PANIC" on Caribbean Cruise Ship!
Who Claims the Real Incubation Period on Ebola is 42 Days NOT 21

^^^^This^^^^

I posted a couple of those and I can guarantee you I am not hysterical. I gave no endorsement of either article, yet felt like when they were posted in the MSM they deserved to be perused here for informational purposes and also so some of us could hear what medical pros like Doc and others had to say about them. The first article is somewhat of a misrepresentation. The third article, not so much. The second article is a discussion of the hysteria in the media, IIRC.

Discussion on an internet forum is panic?

Good grief!

Panic is rampant speculation that half the world is abut to die. Panic is rampant speculation that Ebola will magically be the first recorded virus to spontaneously go from blood borne to airborne without a single example of it ever happening, much less an example of a virus radically changing and maintaining virulence and lethality. Panic is demanding a lockdown on borders without the first example of it ever stopping any infectious disease.

The best medicine is always the right thng at the right time.

Expecting medical professionals, however good they may be, to catch the first example of something new the first time they look at it is really ridiculous. Expecting medical professionals to believe what their patients tell them instead of their own years of rigorous training to follow a very disciplined procedure is ridiculous.

That training and discipline entails a degree of risk for small problems like we have seen in Dallas, but prevents bigger doses of stupid from doing greater harm by wasting effort and resources. It has worked and worked very, very well so far. That training and discipline is bringing the West African outbreak into control and offering the prospect of serologic combat and vaccine. That progress has come from working with live vaccine, working with infected individuals and doing so outside of the affected region. It is not only their best hope, it is our best hope as well.

Ignorant panic like we have seen here is what is responsible for the dismantling of our health care system to the point where WE are now vulnerable to a much, much greater degree than we have been in perhaps a century. That's remarkable in the extreme when you consider how poorly trained our physicians and health care professional were then compared to now.

The right thing at the right time. Wasting effort and resources accepting less than that is so unbelievably short sighted as to boggle the mind. The right thing to do now, is obviously to put as much as we can into extinguishing this fire as quickly as possible. Wasting resources on feel good solutions is a direct harm.

Ignorant people who don't believe in vaccination have no place in this discussion and should be stood up for who/what they are every time they open their yap.