There is a 3rd case of Ebola in Dallas among the 70 health care workers (HCW) that treated Thomas Eric Duncan at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, AKA “Presby” as it is known here in Dallas This makes it 1 on 35 of the HCW exposed to Ebola getting it using the inadequate “any hospital in American can care for an Ebola patient” Center for Disease Control (CDC ) protective personal equipment (PPE) standards, which were not well implemented at “Presby” in any case, see article In statement, nurses at Presbyterian Dallas describe confused response to Ebola case
Short form, it was SNAFU from the word go at Presby and it is likely that Presby is currently facing huge legal liabilities because the CDC ignored the experience of Doctors Without Borders and the health care systems in West Africa which showed that Ebola must be treated by Ebola specialists in separate healthcare facilities.
The Ebola epidemic isn’t a matter of “Medical infrastructure” or “local cultural practices” — the two phrases being liberal terms of art for racism against West Africans in the Obama Administration public health community — it is a matter of treating a biohazard level four pathogen like a biohazard level four pathogen. Bio-hazard four pathogens require a separate medical system to deal with them, prolonged detention for medical screening, travel controls to support those medical detentions and further involuntary quarantine for a positive diagnosis, in other words, a positively controlled, 100% medical screening and detention, border immigration policy a ‘la Ellis Island.
Only a magical thinking “Open Borders” ideological cultist would do any different in ignoring the experience of the one medical organization that has treated the majority of Ebola cases in human history. Which the head of the CDC Dr Frieden now appears to be, in keeping with Obama Administration Central American minor immigration/Public Health Policies (See also the “Unattended Child Border Crisis” and the outbreak of Central American EVD68 in American public schools).
The Obama Administration is risking further epidemics of Ebola because it has done so already with EVD68, in order to increase the number of future Democratic Party voters.
I predict based upon the above, we will see we are going to see Frieden’s firing and/or the cut off of commercial air travel from West Africa to the USA as President Obama’s “Rumsfeld Replacement Moment,” after Republican’s take over the Senate in November 2014. Just in the way that the 2006 Congressional election results moved President George W. Bush to change Iraq War policy with the public disposal and replacement of Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld.
The proximate reason for this is that the “R0” of the Ebola virus in Dallas is 2.0, even with CDC recommended PPE. “RO” — pronounced “ARRH Awwght” in public health speak — means the rate of infection for each newly infected person getting even more people sick. An “RO of 2.0,” causes the doubling of Ebola cases every three weeks (24 Sept to 15 Oct is exactly 3-weeks). That “RO” in Dallas will be higher, and the doubling time will be shorter, as more HCW who attended Thomas Eric Duncan come down with Ebol…thus keeping Ebola and policy for dealing with it as “front page news” or “attracting a lot of eyeballs” right through the 2014 Congressional election.
Sad, but true, the Obama Administration is not as concerned with controlling the Ebola outbreak in Dallas as much as it is concerned with “Controlling the Narrative” about the Ebola epidemic.
Obscuring the reality of the Ebola in Dallas means far more to them in terms of retaining political power, this close to the November Congressional election, as the policy/people/political contradictions of Obama’s Ebola policies are being shown to the low information voters Democrats count on far better than anything Saul David Alinsky ever thought of. As the news of the CDC scrambling to contract 132 airline passengers in Ebola Case #3’s Cleveland to Dallas flight yesterday makes abundently clear.
Oh, and CNN is reporting Case #3 was symptomatic with high fever Saturday.
There actually is one organization that is coping with the Ebola epidemic competently and it is in Liberia and is the Firestone rubber plantation.
Competence is not a characteristic of Socialist organizations.
Today, Firestone Liberia is working to extend its effective methods in curbing the spread of disease throughout the country by collaborating with the Liberian Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the World Health Organization. Even more, the company is generously donating funds to others who war against the disease. In September, Bridgestone Corporation, Firestone’s parent, divided $1 million among Samaritan’s Purse and UNICEF.
The plantation has 25,500 residents and has seen 71 cases of Ebola of which 17 survived.
Comment from the Free Republic Forum:
“During the little cluster outbreak in Nigeria, they quarantined the nurses and doctors involved in taking care of the primary exposures from the Patrick Sawyer fiasco. One of the caregiver nurses escaped quarantine and went to her hometown. Nigeria sent goons to retrieve her and then put all her hometown contacts under surveillance as well.
Maybe we need some Nigerian experts to show us how to stop this.”
Certaily our experts at the CDC are not as good.
The current stock mkt decline probably reflects to some extent economic uncertainty caused by widespread concern about ebola. This concern seems likely to persist for some time even if there are no more ebola cases here. Another cost of incompetent govt.
Dealing with subversives is tricky, dangerous and often deadly. While others focus themselves on the business of day-to-day life, “activists” work tirelessly to affect change by whatever means necessary. Somewhere out there are the tracks, the emails, texts, calls and witnesses to what has transpired in these past years. As thorough as they are, surely mistakes have been made. I hope something falls off the back of a truck soon. Lot’s of good folks deserve a break.
It will be interesting to see whether any government of an advanced country copes intelligently with the problem. We all knew (didn’t we?) that the US, UK, France, etc wouldn’t. How about Singapore, Japan, Israel? Switzerland? The Venetian Republic would have coped well; as part of Italy, Venice won’t.
It seems that this administration’s refusal to perform the federal government’s most fundamental task, protecting our way of life, by way of protecting our borders is having some serious fallout. As a citizen that has an open vein to the system, and has always paid for a top tier health insurance policy (thereby subsidizing the whole system in 2 ways), I now cannot count on going to my local emergency room without the possibility of exposure to known viruses. And all because of criminally bringing aliens into our country, using our tax dollars to care for them and not closing off travel into our country. And some people are making a lot of money on this…from my Aunt in Florida:
A “group” home, currently licensed for 16 beds, has gone before the Pasco County commission to double the bed capacity to 32. Using bunk beds”¦ they currently are being paid 1.5 million dollars for the 16 “children” and want to double capacity to get a 3 million grant from feds for kids here, ILLEGALY!!
Instead of “Pizza Watch” at the Pentagon for clus to a future crisis, we now have “Fundraiser watch” when the President cancels a fund raiser to indicat concern.
I think the cancellation has more to do with this poll:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/10/15/the-democratic-party-hits-a-30-year-low/
Than it does with Ebola.
It appears that rumos of inadequate health staff at Texas Health Presby have been born out.
See:
——–
New Ebola patient to be transferred to Atlanta
Rick Jervis and Doug Stanglin, USA TODAY 1:14 p.m. EDT October 15, 2014
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/10/15/texas-health-care-worker-ebola-second-case/17290575/
DALLAS ”” A 26-year-old nurse identified as the second Texas hospital worker to test positive for Ebola is “ill but clinically stable” and will be transferred late Wednesday to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
The nurse, identified by family members as Amber Vinson, was identified by Martha Schuler, the mother of Vinson’s former stepfather.
Vinson was among the workers at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas who helped care for Ebola patient Thomas Duncan, who died of the virus in October.
The CDC said the nurse flew on Frontier Airlines Flight 1143 from Cleveland to Dallas/Fort Worth on Oct. 13. She first reported to the hospital with a low-grade fever on the morning of Oct. 14 and was immediately placed into an isolation unit.
Public Health workers will begin interviewing the 132 passengers on Flight 1143 immediately.
“Individuals who are determined to be any potential risk will be actively monitored,” the CDC said in a statement.
In Washington, President Obama cancelled a campaign trip to New Jersey and Connecticut and scheduled a cabinet meeting to deal with the latest Ebola developments.
Frontier Airlines said in a statement that the passenger “exhibited no symptoms or sign of illness while on flight 1143, according to the crew.” The airlines also noted that Vinson had traveled to Cleveland on Flight 1142 on Oct. 10.
The plane “received a thorough cleaning per our normal procedures which is consistent with CDC guidelines prior to returning to service the next day,” Frontier said in a statement. “It was also cleaned again in Cleveland (Tuesday) night.”
The airlines said customers who may have traveled on either flight should contact the CDC at 1-800-CDC INFO (1-800-232-4636).
At an early morning news conference, Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said he could not rule out more cases among 75 other hospital staffers who cared for Duncan and were being monitored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“We are preparing contingencies for more and that is a real possibility,” Jenkins said.
The Texas Department of State Health Services said in a statement that a preliminary Ebola test on the latest case was conducted late Tuesday at a state public health lab in Austin. A test to confirm the result will be conducted at the CDC in Atlanta.
“Health officials have interviewed the latest patient to quickly identify any contacts or potential exposures, and those people will be monitored,” said state health department spokeswoman Carrie Williams. “The type of monitoring depends on the nature of their interactions and the potential they were exposed to the virus.”
New cases of Ebola in West Africa could reach 10,000 per week by December as the virus outbreak races out of control there, World Health Organization officials said this week.
Dallas authorities moved quickly to try to contain any spread of the disease from the latest case.
Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings, who rushed to the health worker’s apartment early Wednesday, said a contamination team has already treated common areas around the apartment and would enter the woman’s unit later Wednesday.
The mayor, who went door to door at the apartment to advise other residents of the situation, said that it was the city’s goal to provide as much information as possible and “to deal with facts not fear.”
“The only way we are going to beat this is person by person, moment by moment, detail by detail,” Rawlings said.
He also sought to ally concerns over the latest case, which he conceded had ratcheted up anxiety in the city.
“It may get worse before it gets better, but it will get better,” Rawlings said.
Dallas nurse Nina Pham, 26, who contracted the disease from Duncan before he died Oct. 9, said Tuesday she is “doing well” and thanked the medical staff at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital for her care.
Jenkins said Wednesday that her condition had been upgraded to “good.”
He also said CDC investigators were looking at what the latest hospital worker and Pham did similarly while caring for Duncan, a Liberian national who had traveled to Dallas to visit his girlfriend and her family.
He said a new 21-day incubation monitoring period begins each time there’s a new Ebola confirmation, and that the spread of the virus has been heart-wrenching for the hospital staff and their families.
“I’ve seen more grown men cry this week than I care to see,” Jenkins said.
None of the original 48 people who had contact with Duncan prior to hospitalization have shown signs of the virus, he said.
While health officials have not determined how the two nurses became infected with Ebola, a nurses’ union slammed the hospital for its handling of the Duncan case.
According to a statement released late Tuesday by the largest U.S. nurses’ union, Duncan was left in an open area of a Dallas emergency room for hours, and the nurses treating him worked for days without proper protective gear and faced constantly changing protocols,
Nurses were forced to use medical tape to secure openings in their flimsy garments, worried that their necks and heads were exposed as they cared for a patient with explosive diarrhea and projectile vomiting, said Deborah Burger of National Nurses United.
RoseAnn DeMoro, executive director of Nurses United, said the statement came from “several” and “a few” nurses, but she refused repeated inquiries to state how many. She said the organization had vetted the claims, and that the nurses cited were in a position to know what had occurred at the hospital. She refused to elaborate.
Among the nurses’ allegations was that the Ebola patient’s lab samples were allowed to travel through the hospital’s pneumatic tubes, opening the possibility of contaminating the specimen delivery system. The nurses also alleged that hazardous waste was allowed to pile up to the ceiling.
Wendell Watson, a Presbyterian spokesman, did not respond to specific claims by the nurses but said the hospital has not received similar complaints.
“Patient and employee safety is our greatest priority and we take compliance very seriously,” he said in a statement. “We have numerous measures in place to provide a safe working environment, including mandatory annual training and a 24/7 hotline and other mechanisms that allow for anonymous reporting.”
He said the hospital would “review and respond to any concerns raised by our nurses and all employees.”
Vinson, the latest hospital worker infected with Ebola, lives in a well-kept neighborhood in northeast Dallas of apartment complexes with names like the Green In the Village and the Cliffs in the Village clustered around the Village Country Club.
Police on Wednesday restricted traffic on Village Bend Drive, where the worker lived, as residents in the community came to grips with the fact that Ebola had sprouted in their otherwise tranquil neighborhood.
James Coltharp, 50, was walking his two Boston terriers Wednesday morning. He said that Duncan, the first Ebola patient, lived less than a mile away. The second, Nina Pham, lived about two miles away. Today, the virus was just 100 yards away from where he lives.
“It seems to be getting closer and closer,” he said. “We thought we had dodged a bullet and then – boom, boom – here we go again.”
Coltharp said he’s most concerned about the common areas in the community – the tennis courts, local pool and nearby stores – that the nurse may have visited.
“I just hope we’re being told correctly how it spreads,” he said. “There’s definitely concern but not panic.”
Contributing: Gregory Korte in Washington, Kim Hjelmgaard in London; Assocaited Press.
This is a transcript by Pixie, the site administrator on PFIF.
————-
Press conference:
Frieden:
One Dallas patient will be moved to Emory.
The 28th, 29th, 30th, period before patient was diagnosed, appears to be the highest risk period.
Both nurses had extensive contact with patient at that time when the patient had extensive production of body fluids because of vomiting and diarreaha.
Continuing to assess other exposures of other HCWs. How many others had that level of extensive contact. He “notes” that was before diagnosis and “before CDC team was on the ground.” {they were all following YOUR guidelines!!!}
For the second HCW we have identified 3 contacts at this point before isolation.
Going back to the care of Mr. Duncan there are approx. 50 healthcare workers who entered his room.
We are planning for other eventualities in case we get additional cases in the coming days.
?: Kate Snow, NBC News: Clarify what these two women were doing, their roles in the hospital?
Frieden: The first patient is a nurse, the second patient as well as the first had extensive contact with the patient when they were having substantial amounts of vomiting and diarreaha.
In those first days a variety of PPE were used.
FoxNews: How this nurse was able to get on an aircraft and not monitored?
Frieden: The patient traveled to Ohio before it was known that the first HCW was ill. At that point, that patient as well as the rest of the healthcare team were undergoing self-monitoring. As did the first HCW resulting in her rapid isolation. The second HCW reported no symptoms and no fever. Because at that point she was in a group of individuals known to have exposure to an individual with Ebola she should have not traveled on a commercial airliner. CDC guidance in this setting outlines the need for controlled movement. That can include a charter, a car, but it does not include public transport. We will from this point forward ensure that no other individual who is being monitored for exposure undergoes travel in any way other than controlled movement.
?: HuffPo: National Nurses United said they don’t think any protocols are in place and being followed there or really anywhere.
Frieden: We are working closely with the hospital. Intensive efforts underway to train and retrain staff. Get consistency with site manager. Will now monitor.
Skinner: We have two nurses from Emory who have gone to Dallas who are doing peer-to-peer training. We are doing a lot of communications with clinicians.
?: Julie Steenhausen Reuters: Sound alike the PPE”¦what were they actually wearing? Reports that their necks were exposed? Were they wearing full body suits? Gowns and gloves? Single or double gloves. It’s important because these questions are being looked at by a lot of other hospitals. {YAY Julie!!}
Frieden: Um”¦when we reviewed the records for the first several days of the patient’s stay we see a lot of variability in what was used as PPE. When our team arrived we noted that some HCWs were putting on three or four layers of equipment in the belief that this would be more protective. Some others were doing things like taping the protective gear again in the belief that this would be more protective. {they wanted moonsuits, you idiot} The risk of contamination during the process of taking these gloves off gets much higher.
More broadly the issue of PPE has gotten a lot of focus. There are several right ways to do it. We have always emphasized that HCWs who are using familiar PPE in familiar ways are more likely to do it right.
{This is Frieden’s personal elitist view showing itself, the belief that run of the mill HCWs are incapable of learning how to use BSL-4 PPE so just give them what they are familiar with}
We’re looking at this. We’re working with the hospital. Provide support and allow them to do their jobs while minimizing contamination.
?: Bloomberg: Which patient is going to be transferred to Emory? Any other HCWs currently being tested or isolated at the hospital with Ebola symptoms?
Frieden: The second HCW is the individual who is being transferred from Dallas to Emory. We have not currently identified anyone who merits a blood test to see if they have Ebola. This can change from minute to minute.
?: Betsy MacKay, WSJ: The first patient will be transferred? Detail? And on the movement of the HCWs you said you’d be able to ensure they will not travel. What are the rules, the legal authority, to prevent them from leaving home?
Frieden: First patient is in improved condition today. Will assess whether that’s the best place for her or some other place. In relation to movement that’s something we work out with local public health authorities.
?: unsure of question
Frieden: Second patient’s temperature was 99. 5 while on plane.
Unless our medical system has regressed to the days of the Black Death, we have to conclude that the Federal response is guided and determined by malevolent motives. We live in a period, and country, where the basics of how infectious diseases spread are known and to one extent or another, understood by pretty anybody who is part of the mainstream culture. Particulars of which technique to apply may differ; but the basic understanding is there.
The CDC keeps saying that they know how to contain Ebola. Yet their every action impedes such containment. Either they are lying about their knowledge [public knowledge, mind you] of how to deal with Ebola, or they are lying about their intent to contain Ebola.
If they are lying; by this time the political Nomenklatura [I refuse to say “leadership] has to know that the CDC is f’-ing up by the numbers at every turn. Even a Nomenklatura that never gets briefings and finds out things by “reading it in the papers” has to know. And yet, they are not demanding any change. So it is effective proof that the malevolent actions are what the Nomenklatura are ordering. This is what our government wants. This is the result that they are after.
Our medical system, as subservient to the Federal government and lawyers in all things as it has become; looks to the CDC for guidance and guidelines of what to do. No one is allowed, for liability reasons, to do anything independently. Tell them what to do. Tell them that it is Level 4 officially, and give them the resources, and we are back into the fight to do something to try to protect Americans [not something that is at all on the priority list of the US government].
The key is creating a government that wants CDC to do their job. The problem is that elections are of dubious integrity, AND the current occupants have no compunctions about going outside the law and Constitution to get their way.
Interesting Times.
Subotai Bahadur
“The plane “received a thorough cleaning per our normal procedures which is consistent with CDC guidelines prior to returning to service the next day,” Frontier said in a statement. “It was also cleaned again in Cleveland (Tuesday) night.”
That just might have a little to do with the airplane cleaners’ strike.
The cleaning crews are employed by AirServ, a contractor that provides cleaning services for Delta Airlines planes between flights and overnight at the airport.
“This strike is not just about Ebola. This has been a year of dealing with these issues, even before we were talking about Ebola,” said Rob Hill, vice president of 32BJ Service Employees International Union. The heart of the issue, Hill says, is the lack of proper equipment and training for workers; for example, workers attended an Ebola training this week organized by 32BJ, because they felt AirServ was not addressing the issue.>/i>
I don’t blame them.
I have relatives in Akron and Cleveland. Amber Vinson visited relatives in this area while in the incubation period. My aunt reports that on the local TV stations it is 24/7 newscasts pleading for anyone on the planes and/or who was in contact with her to get in to see someone to get tested. Not sure where all of these people are supposed to go, but it is full on panic time in the media.
Most of these claims are PR BS.
“nurses treating him worked for days without proper protective gear “
“Nurses were forced to use medical tape to secure openings in their flimsy garments”
Forced, eh? The nurses should have put him a wheel chair, then left him on sidewalk outside. No, then the hospital would still be liable. Push him into traffic, that’s it.
Here’s the real life choice: completely neglect a dying man who came to you for aid, or work unprepared. There is no third choice.
“hazardous waste to the ceiling” Where exactly does the nurses’ union want the waste kept? Realistic and practical answers only, please. We’ve seen what happened with Duncan’s apartment.
* * *
A transfer to Emory while sick with Ebola. Awful for the patient, the pilot or drive, the plane or van or ambulance, and everyone involved. I guess she isn’t too sick right now.
“The Presbyterian nurses are not represented by Nurses United or any other union”
The whole article is press release by a private agency begging for more power and authority, similar to the way government agencies beg for more power and authority in a crisis. Disgusting politicking.
“She said the organization had vetted the claims”
Given the organization’s self-interest, why should I believe it anymore than I believe teachers’ union claims about improving student outcomes? It’s narcissistic attention-gathering.
I looked at the TV a few minutes ago and there was Obama pontificating on Ebola. I was kidding when I wrote that he knows more about infectious disease than the CDC but he really think so.
Another bit of news about the second nurse. She was symptomatic before she flew back to Dallas from Cleveland. She called the CDC before she flew, told them here situation [being one of the one’s who worked directly on Duncan before he died.
CDC told her to go ahead and fly. I say again, CDC told her to go ahead and fly. They are now trying to trace all the passengers …. and everyone who they have been in contact with for the last few days.
https://twitter.com/CBSDFW/status/522518184461873152
I reference my earlier post on this thread. This level of consistent incompetence surpasses credibility. It has to be deliberate on the part of the Federales.
We have been governed by an administrative autocracy for several decades, populated, as we are repeatedly assured, by the very best and brightest the country has to offer.
And, as government at all levels has grown in resources consumed and responsibilities claimed, the list of failures, both in planning and execution, has grown longer and more seriously damaging to our society.
As I have stated many times, the simplest argument against the explosive growth of the state is the rapidly growing number of tasks at which the “experts” have shown themselves to utterly incompetent.
They don’t know what they’re doing, and they never have.
I just love it…dropped the word “be” in the sentence about incompetence. The copybook gods are playful today.
“This level of consistent incompetence surpasses credibility”
Perhaps. It does mean little has changed since “A Journal of the Plague Year.”
Obama’s tolerance of incompetence in favor of Leftist ideology is amazing.
If Obama doesn’t fire that fool Frieden, We will see a Tea-Party type Republican election arguments that Obama fired the Secret Service Director because her screwups threatened his family, but he doesn’t give a rip about our lives.
Our borders must remain open at all costs even if it means we have to hide our Ebola exposed children from the public schools — like is happening right now in Belton Texas — and Frieden gets to stay.
Obama firing Frieden for incompetence and maintaining flights from Africa might send the wrong “narrative message” to the Federal Bureaucracy about both the need to be competent and the constitutional need to control the passage of people through our borders.
So much for Obama caring more for Americans that McCain, Romney or “Extremist Republicans” like Sarah Palin, come to that.
Inaction on Frieden turns Obama into the “Velcro President.” Where everything that goes wrong related to Ebola is his fault.
The question now is whether the “Velcro President” turns the Democrats into the “Velcro Party” for 2016 for Hillary.
I am thinking “Yes.”
The local government in Dallas is invoking disaster powers in order to restrict the movement of Ebola exposed healthcare workers.
See:
http://www.boston.com/health/2014/10/15/ebola-today-second-health-
”¢ 8:34 p.m. EST: Dallas to declare citywide disaster. Dallas County Commissioners plan to declare a disaster Thursday over “the potential for widespread or severe damage, injury, loss or threat of life resulting from the Ebola virus,” Dallas’s local NBC affiliate reported. As part of the declaration, the city may restrict travel for health care workers who may have cared for the first Ebola patient.
It is a very small step from restricting the movement of HCW to restricting everyone’s movement in Dallas.
I suspect that is coming in the next 21 days.
It seems Right Wing Talk Radio has decided that the time of the Velcro President has arrived.
These were on Drudge’s news site headlines:
COULTER: We’ll Tell You How Dangerous Ebola Is ”” After Election!
SAVAGE: ‘If you like your Ebola, you can keep your Ebola’…
LEVIN: CDC ‘trying to cover its ass’…
LIMBAUGH: Obama’s Deadly Failure…
And the Velcro has already spread from Obama to Congressional Democrats:
Congressional Democrats Fight The Idea Of An Ebola Travel Ban
http://dailycaller.com/2014/10/15/congressional-democrats-fight-the-idea-of-an-ebola-travel-ban/
Dallas area healthcare rumors ””
—————–
”Long day. Presby Dallas employees have been banned from texting at work. The admin team enacted that. They are trying to lock down on the info leaks. They have the right to check employees texts whenever they want now.
5 or 6 nurses of various rank and a doctor are being monitored. I’m told they have fever and they all treated Duncan. I expect a positive diagnosis for ebola soon if the hospital doesn’t try to hide it (which they are trying to do now). I believed my source before, but upon learning more details about the source, I am almost 100% convinced now.
Rumors that Parkland hospital has a patient that may have ebola.“
Another Dallas area healthcare rumor —
There is to be a strike by Presby nurses tomorrow(Thursday) in response to the runaround they were getting on how to handle Ebola. The California Nurse’s Union always wanted a foothold in Texas”
So this is a public relations crisis and seems unquestionably to be likely to increase. WWSD? [What would Saul do?] Not let it go to waste, of course!
Could we are looking at more Fed funding and power to monitor, control and regulate health care regarding infectious diseases, more use of government emergency powers to control public relations issues (personal communications), more emergency controls over personal movement, more government funding (so the CDC can monitor more personal chooses about our behaviors NOT related to infectious diseases), more resources provided on temporary and permanent basis internationally to “fight” overseas infectious diseases?
I’m betting it won’t include addressing border security, international travel restrictions (beyond remote temperature monitoring) or accountability for stupid decisions regarding protecting our citizens from foreign sourced infectious diseases.
“If only those nasty sequester spending cuts signed by Barry had been averted and the measly 200% increase in CDC spending since the early 2000’s had been quadrupled (or more), all our worries would have been averted.” Really?
I’m joining up to wear my hasmat suit for Halloween and to vote this year in solidarity with those who have been exposed and those who will be infected with Ebola, etc. under the “we are the world” ideology that has caused this and will feed on the results.
Mike
hide our Ebola exposed children from the public schools ”” like is happening right now in Belton Texas ”” and Frieden gets to stay.
I got an email from a friend who lives in Belton….
Belton is my neck of the woods, and I will tell you what has been announced and published
1) 2 Kids were on the Flight with the nurse on Monday
2) The kids went to school Tuesday and Wednesday
3) They 2 kids went to school at North Belton Middle school and Sparta Elementary. There is also and Exchange through Sparta for Beltons Early Childhood School.
3) While considered Low risk, the kids were not forced to stay home for 21 days, however the parents decided it was best. I’m sure they worked something out to avoid truancy issues.
4) Before 9:00pm Wednesday, Belton along with the Helth department and CDC said it was safe to go to school the next day.
5) Sometime after 9 pm they decided that maybe that wasn’t a good Idea and changed things.
6) All 3 Schools were closed today for Disinfecting.
7) At 2 pm Belton was having a council meeting to discuss the current status of the 3 schools.
8) Temple ISD meet today to discuss training for early identification of the virus and some other stuff.
9) At 6:30 tonight a rep from Baylor Scott and White will be hosting a town hall meeting to discuss the virus thats in our area.
You will find most of the at kwtx.com or the temple daily telegram.
“Contagion on a Cruise Ship” sounds like a title for a bad z-grade movie.
It is now a reality. Thanks to the incompetence of the CDC.
One of the medical workers at Texas Health Presby, who was not on the CDC watch list because she wore PPE 2 per CDC guidelines in dealing with a PPE level four pathogen, has come down with “ebola like” symptoms along with her husband, on a cruise ship that left the port of Galveston to the Caribbean.
Things of note here.
1. This makes the Duncan outbreak an RO of 4, if these folks indeed have Ebola,
2. This will mark the first secondary case of Ebola from the Duncan outbreak,
3. This will likely be the first documented case of sexual transmission of the disease, and
4. As one of my cubical neighbors is the sister of one of those Presby lab-techs, who was there the day the Ebola blood sample was processed, this is of extreme concern.
See article and link below:
http://belizean.com/belize-confirms-patient-with-ebola-symptoms-on-cruise-ship-off-its-coast-1814/
Reports tonight are that two individuals possibly infected with the Ebola virus are in Belizean waters. Local TV station Channel 7 monitored in the capital City Of Belmopan tonight, reported having credible reports that a couple from a Texas-based cruise ship presently anchored off Belize City, is on a ship tender, unable to return to the cruise ship, while being refused entry to Belize City to catch an air ambulance awaiting at the International Airport to take them to the their country of origin, the U.S.A. The television station in its broadcast tonight said Belize health authorities contacted tonight have so far refused to deny or confirm the report. The patient exhibiting Ebola symptoms has been confirmed to be a nurse at a Dallas hospital traveling with her husband.
Later tonight in breaking news, Channel 5 Belize reported that it has:
“Confirmed with representatives of the Ministry of Health that they have indeed received a report that there is at least one passenger on board the cruise ship, Carnival Magic, showing symptoms similar to that of the Ebola virus. According to the report made to MOH, the person exhibiting the symptoms did not come ashore today. The ship is reportedly carrying 3652 passengers and a total population of 4633 persons.
“The Carnival Magic departed from Galveston Texas on Sunday, October 12 arrived in Mahogany Bay, Honduras on Wednesday October 15 and arrived in Belize this morning, Thursday October 16.
“The ship was scheduled to leave Belize en route to Cozumel this evening at 5pm. However, it is still anchored in Belizean waters near State Bank Caye.”
“We have also have confirmed that the Belize Coast Guard has been deployed to prevent anyone from leaving the ship; including the Belizean pilot on board.”
In a press conference held last weak, Belize’s Ministry of Health stated that in the event of an outbreak of Ebola in Belize, no patient would be allowed into the commercial capital Belize City, where most of the Belize government cabinet officials reside. The MOH stated that the government hospital, the Karl Heuesner Memorial Hospital has but one Intensive Care Unit and they would not allow this to be overrun with Ebola patients. Belize is a a very poor country on the Yucatan Peninsula that depends to a large extent on tourism and grants from Venezuela for its foreign exchange income. Belize City is currently the main port of call for cruise ships.
Update: Channel 7 news anchor Indira Craig has posted on her Facebook page that Belize Prime Minister Dean Barrow in a callous move in view of very close Belize-U.S. relations, has denied entry into Belize for the stricken U.S. nationals to be air lifted to the U.S.A. for treatment:
“Talks have concluded with the PM and The US State Department officials. Belize WILL NOT BE GRANTING ACCESS to the suspected passengers to have entry onto our shores. An official release will be sent out shortly by government followed by a press conference to be held tomorrow.Passports have been returned so this scare has ended.”
In a late night official press release issued by the Belize Press Office, the Belize government offered its version of the Belize Ebola Incident.It stresses that while the patient did not disembark in Belize, it does not address the question that thousands of cruise ship passengers that may have had contact with the patient(s) did in fact disembark and tour Belize City today:
Belmopan. October 16, 2014. The Government of Belize was contacted today by officers of the U.S. Government and made aware of a cruise ship passenger considered of very low risk for Ebola. The passenger had voluntarily entered quarantine on board the ship and remains free of any fever or other symptoms of illness. The Ebola virus may only be spread by patients who are experiencing fever and symptoms of illness and so the US Government had emphasized the very low risk category in this case. Nonetheless, out of an abundance of caution, the Government of Belize decided not to facilitate a U.S. request for assistance in evacuating the passenger through the Phillip Goldson International Airport.
The GOB reassures the public that the passenger never set foot in Belize and while we remain in close contact with US officials we have maintained the position that when even the smallest doubt remains, we will ensure the health and safety of the Belizean people. The Prime Minister has called a press conference tomorrow morning to further address any concerns that may arise from this event.
Update:
Texas worker who may have handled Ebola samples quarantined in Belize
By Jason Hanna and Faith Karimi, CNN
updated 8:08 AM EDT, Fri October 17, 2014
http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/17/health/us-ebola/index.html
(CNN) — A Texas hospital health worker who may have handled Thomas Eric Duncan’s fluid samples has been quarantined on a cruise ship in Belize — another reminder of the widespread fears of the deadly virus.
Though the employee did not have direct contact with Duncan, he or she “may have had contact with his specimen,” the U.S. State Department said Friday.
A doctor at the cruise ship has declared the worker symptom-free and in good health, but the worker will remain under isolation as a precaution, it said.
It’s been 19 days since the worker handled Duncan’s fluid samples — two days shy of the 21-day incubation period for Ebola.
The Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital worker boarded the commercial cruise ship Sunday from Galveston, Texas.
At the time, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had not updated its monitoring requirements, and required only self-monitoring, said Jen Psaki, a spokeswoman for the State Department.
“The hospital employee and traveling partner have voluntarily remained isolated in a cabin,” Psaki said. “We are working with the cruise line to safely bring them back to the United States out of an abundance of caution.”
The Belize government turned down a request by the United States to evacuate the worker through the international airport in Belize City.
“We remain in close contact with U.S. officials … we have maintained the position that when even the smallest doubt remains, we will ensure the health and safety of the Belizean people,” the government said in a statement.
Duncan, the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the United States, died last week.
[snip]
So some people are breathing, and it gives a good idea who the low information voters are.
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Poll: CDC approval drops since Ebola crisis
http://www.politico.com/story/2014/10/poll-cdc-ebola-approval-111976.html
KENDALL BREITMAN | 10/17/14
Americans’ approval of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has seen a dramatic drop since Ebola emerged in the United States, according to a new poll.
A CBS News poll found that only 37 percent of those polled said that they think the CDC is doing an “excellent or good job.”
Democrats were more likely to have positive views of the CDC, with 49 percent saying that it was doing an “excellent or good job,” while only 35 percent of Republicans held that view.
In May, a Gallup poll found that 60 percent of Americans thought that the CDC was doing an “excellent/good” job ”” making it the highest-rated agency ”” above the FBI, NASA and the CIA. According to CBS News, new polling results show that only the FBI receives an approval rate above 50 percent.
Criticism of the CDC has been mounting since Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person in the U.S. to be diagnosed with Ebola, died on Oct. 8. Since then, two health care workers have been diagnosed with the virus. CDC director Tom Frieden appeared on Capitol Hill on Thursday to answer questions from Congress.
The poll was conducted from Oct. 15 to Oct. 16, surveyed 1,008 adults and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
i was forwarded the following via e-mail —
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Shock W.H.O. report: Ebola has 42-day incubation period, not 21 days!
http://www.naturalnews.com/047267_Ebola_outbreak_incubation_period_viral_transmission.html
(NaturalNews) A jaw-dropping report released by the World Health Organization on October 14, 2014 reveals that 1 in 20 Ebola infections has an incubation period longer than the 21 days which has been repeatedly claimed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.
This may be the single most important ”” and blatantly honest ”” research report released by any official body since the beginning of the Ebola outbreak. The WHO’s “Ebola situation assessment” report, found here, explains that only 95% of Ebola infections experience incubation within the widely-reported 21-day period. Here’s the actual language from the report:
95% of confirmed cases have an incubation period in the range of 1 to 21 days; 98% have an incubation period that falls within the 1 to 42 day interval. [1]
Unless the sentence structure is somehow misleading, this passage appears to indicate the following:
Ӣ 95% of Ebola incubations occur from 1 Р21 days
Ӣ 3% of Ebola incubations occur from 21 Р42 days
Ӣ 2% of Ebola incubations are not explained (why?)
If this interpretation of the WHO’s statistics are correct, it would mean that:
Ӣ 1 in 20 Ebola infections may result in incubations lasting significantly longer than 21 days
Ӣ The 21-day quarantine currently being enforced by the CDC is entirely insufficient to halt an outbreak
”¢ People who are released from observation or self-quarantine after 21 days may still become full-blown Ebola patients in the subsequent three weeks, even if they have shown no symptoms of infection during the first 21 days. (Yes, read that again…)
Any declaration that an outbreak is over requires 42 days with no new infections.