Update: New report is that Duncan is struggling for his life. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/06/us/ebola.html?_r=0
Update 2: Thomas Eric Duncan has died.
After some initial bungling, such as Texas Presbyterian Hospital sending Duncan home when he came in for treatment Duncan did receive treatment. The City of Dallas having difficulties finding a crew to do clean up of vomit at the apartment complex has gotten a crew and they have cleaned up the mess. The state of Texas and the Federal government need to make sure their regulations regarding the transport of this waste are compatible. That is being worked out.
Thomas Eric Duncan got ebola when he forsook his own safety to rush a pregnant women to the hospital and then bring her back because the hospital was over flowing. The stories coming out of West Africa are heart breaking of people following their heart to take care of others and paying the ultimate price.
There are heroic stories of burial workers staying at their jobs even though they are forsaken by their own communities and have to sleep outside and often are paid late and have to run the risks. In the hospitals nurses have died while caring for others.
However, there are some who only see this as an opportunity to exploit for their own agenda. These are the neo-Confederates.
This League of the South blog posting decides that it is a big laugh and useful to advance their agenda on immigration.
http://www.lsrebellion.blogspot.com/2014/10/reader-comment-of-week.html
Quoting:
Who could fear anything so colorful?
"No matter what happens we must resist ebolaphobia. These viruses are simply coming here for a better life, to do jobs that American viruses refuse to do." - Southron, in response to this post.www.lewrockwell.com is claiming to know something about medical matters are and is hyping up hysteria over ebola.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/09/no_author/ebola-death-camps-coming/
http://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/10/tess-pennington/dont-trust-the-feds-for-ebola-info/
http://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/10/no_author/ebola-immigration/
http://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/10/tyler-durden/feds-ordered-160000-ebola-hazmat-suits/
The credibility of www.lewrockwell.com can be evaluated by considering their other medical articles.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/10/bill-sardi/is-a-cancer-cure-being-suppressed/
http://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/09/edward-group/6-facts-about-colloidal-silver/
http://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/09/no_author/death-by-almonds/
The Council of Conservative Citizens wants to exploit ebola also.
http://topconservativenews.com/2014/10/obama-regime-openly-admits-that-liberians-are-flooding-the-usa/
http://topconservativenews.com/2014/10/confirmed-ebola-patient-is-a-liberian-citizen/
http://topconservativenews.com/2014/09/is-obamas-2011-liberian-amnesty-responsible-for-ebola-case-in-texas/
Hysteria and misinformation is always a real danger in a health crisis. The neo-Confederate actions fanning hysteria are not of help, but since they are largely without influence they are not able to do much damage.
In their actions these neo-Confederates hope to advance their agenda. One of the neo-Confederate hopes is that there will be a crisis which discredits the establishment and they will have an opportunity to get public support.
The neo-Confederate might not admit it, but I think they will feel let down when ebola doesn't turn out to be a pandemic in the United States.
For some useful information about preventing ebola you can go to this website of the Center for Disease Control.
http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/prevention/
Note the first item is wash your hands with soap and water. Which is the first line of defense against any pathogen. You should be doing this anyways.
I did have some concerns about the initial response. Primarily the bungling and delays, but I think that this first case has helped get the USA ready for ebola. Hospitals will probably be much less likely to send ebola patients home. Cities are probably making sure that they have hazardous waste crews ready to clean up after ebola and not have crews that refuse to show up. In general institutions are making sure they are prepared.
The public is more educated as to what precautions to take.
One benefit might be that affluent nations will realize that working on tropical diseases needs to be a higher priority and there needs to an effort to develop vaccines for these diseases. If all the hospital workers and other health workers in West Africa had been vaccinated last year it would have made a huge difference in stopping Ebola.
If you see the images of the outbreak in Liberia you see the misery and horror. It isn't a matter for snarky jokes and exploitation.
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