Guest Post by Patrick J. Buchanan
Growing up in Washington in the 1930s and ’40s, our home was, several times, put under quarantine. A poster would be tacked on the door indicating the presence within of a contagious disease — measles, mumps, chicken pox, scarlet fever.
None of us believed we were victims of some sort of invidious discrimination against large Catholic families. It was a given that public health authorities were trying to contain the spread of a disease threatening the health of children.
Out came the Monopoly board.
Polio, or infantile paralysis, was the most fearsome of those diseases. The first two national Boy Scout jamborees, which were to be held in Washington in 1935 and 1936, were canceled by Presidential Proclamation because of an outbreak of polio in the city.
Franklin Roosevelt, who had apparently contracted polio in 1921, never to walk again, appreciated the danger. In the 1930s, ’40s and early ’50s, there were outbreaks of polio in D.C. Swimming pools were shut down.
The Greatest Generation possessed a common sense that seems lacking today.
We read that five new Ebola cases occur every hour in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, that thousands are dead and thousands more are dying, that, by December, there may be 10,000 new cases a week of this dreadful and deadly disease.
Yet calls for the cancellation of commercial airline travel from the affected nations to the United States are being decried as racist, an abandonment of America’s responsibilities to Africa, a threat to the economies of the poorest continent on earth.
How could we consider such a thing!
Where once we suffered from infantile paralysis, now we suffer from ideological paralysis. And there appears to be no Salk or Sabin vaccine to cure our condition.
Exhibit A is the befuddled response of some in public service is the case of Amber Joy Vinson.
Nurse Vinson was among 75 health care providers who treated Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian who brought Ebola into the United States. At the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital where Duncan was treated, Vinson had been among those in closest contact with the patient.
Two days after Duncan’s death, Vinson was allowed to fly to Cleveland to visit relatives. She then prepared to fly back to Dallas.
Before boarding, she called the Center for Disease Control, and said she was running a fever of 99.5.
Yet she was given clearance to fly commercial back to Dallas, where she was admitted to the hospital with symptoms of the disease. She is the second nurse at that hospital to come down with Ebola.
According to CBS Medical Correspondent Dr. John LaPook, “Nurse Vinson did in fact call the CDC several times before taking that flight and said she had a temperature, a fever of 99.5, and the person at the CDC looked at a chart and because her temperature wasn’t 100.4 or higher she didn’t officially fall into the category of high risk.”
Would not common sense have told that CDC apparatchik to tell Vinson not to fly at all, but remain in Cleveland, stay in touch with CDC, and monitor any symptoms to be sure she was not coming down with the disease that just killed her patient?
In dealing with contagious and deadly diseases, common sense says to err on the side of safety. Public safety must come before political correctness. Community and country come ahead of any obligation to the people of West Africa.
Indeed, is not the first duty of the government of the United States to protect the lives, liberty and property of the citizens of the United States?
Traveling to Africa decades ago, Americans were given a series of shots to avoid contracting indigenous diseases. Travelers to the United States were questioned about diseases to which they may have been exposed in third world countries.
Now we have a government that considers it discriminatory to put troops on our frontiers to halt the invading millions from across the Mexican border, and the mark of a cruel and cold people to send back lawbreakers who have broken into our country.
The two nurses who came down with this disease after close contact with Duncan are being cared for in quarantine, as is the NBC crew, one of whom contracted the disease. And rightly so.
As for U.S. aid workers in Africa, they are heroic. But before bringing these good and brave people home, we ought to be sure they are not bringing back with them the Ebola they have been fighting.
If that means quarantining them for 21 days, so be it. If that means no commercial flights to the United States from the three most affected countries of West Africa, and no admission to the USA of any travelers whose visas show they have been in those countries in recent days, then it ought to be done.
Else political correctness is going to end up killing a lot of us.
We Are Screwed: Obama Chooses Democratic Party Hack as Ebola Czar
Today President Barack Obama began to mitigate the damage that the arrival of the Ebola virus in the United States has done to his already dismal reputation. With the mid-term elections now only eighteen days away and the Democrats hemorrhaging worse than Thomas Eric Duncan, Barry stepped to the plate and is ready to name the nation’s first Ebola Czar. Meet Ron Klain, a Democrat party hack who formerly served as a chief of staff to Vice President Joe Biden. Mr. Klain has no medical background but can be counted upon to be a reliable water carrier for the party which is what really matters. Just when you think that the Obama operation can’t sink any lower they hit bottom and set up a drilling rig.
According to an article from Yahoo News, “Obama taps former Biden aide Ron Klain as ‘Ebola czar’”:
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President Barack Obama has picked Ron Klain, an inside-the-Beltway veteran and well-regarded manager, to oversee and fix the wobbly federal government response to West Africa’s deadly Ebola outbreak.
“The president has asked Ron Klain to take on the task of coordinating his administration’s whole of government Ebola response,” the White House said. His formal title will be “Ebola Response Coordinator.”
Klain, a former chief of staff to Vice President Joe Biden, “will report directly” to Obama Homeland Security Adviser Lisa Monaco and National Security Adviser Susan Rice.
His job will be to ensure “that efforts to protect the American people by detecting, isolating and treating Ebola patients in this country are properly integrated but don’t distract from the aggressive commitment to stopping Ebola at the source in West Africa,” the White House said.
Klain, a veteran of political knife fights like the 2000 presidential election recount in Florida, is generally well regarded in Congress by Democrats and Republicans for his managerial skills. As Biden’s chief of staff, Klain oversaw the implementation of the 2009 economic stimulus package.
Klain, a lawyer by training, currently runs Case Holdings, which oversees the business and charity interests of former AOL Chairman Steve Case. He is also general counsel at Washington-based venture capital firm Revolution LLC.
The announcement came a day after Obama acknowledged that “it might make sense to have one person” overseeing the process “just to make sure that we’re crossing all the T’s and dotting all the I’s going forward.”
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Klain literally has credentials to die for. You might recall that back in 2005 during the aftermath of the devastating Hurricane Katrina that another incompetent political stooge drew savage mockery and scorn from Democrats and liberals. Michael Brown, the hand-picked FEMA director of President George W. Bush rocketed to national infamy as New Orleans drowned. Bush ensured that he would forever become synonymous with cronyism of the worst type with his proclamation that “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job”. Brown had as much real life experience with disasters as Obama’s latest pet ass-clown has in epidemiology.
Naturally the Democrats are down with the appointment of a political apparatchik and brain dead buffoon to manage what could end up being a national catastrophe. Hell, with Klain’s appointment we are even more likely to experience a national Ebola outbreak. What on God’s green Earth is wrong with these people? Not to mention that this fixation with naming “czars” is creepy, such a title is decidedly un-American and is a better fit in one of history’s tyrannical communist regimes than a supposedly free country.
The entire Obama response to the domestic Ebola invasion – which his administration bears much responsibility for – has been underwhelming and idiotic. Days prior to his naming of a longtime party loyalist as “czar” he was promising an “Ebola SWAT Team”. This should make Americans feel really good in the era of militarized police goon squads. SWAT teams are not your friends. They are the Kevlar clad government thugs who kick down the door in the middle of the night, throw flash grenades into the cribs of toddlers and gun down the family dog. It really makes a person wonder whether some of those sordid and sleazy internet rumors about El Presidente being a closet crack-head may have just a smattering of truth mixed in.
You just can’t make shit like this up!
http://carryingaflag.blogspot.com/
Obama’s genius
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I like how they named that prick, Ron Douchebag, to be the Ebama Czar, because that’s how we’re going to defeat Ebama: With Lawyers.
FEEL THE POWER OF ATTORNEY!
Meanwhile, Ebama is preparing it’s documents for its day in court. Marburg and E. Coli are expected to file amicus briefs…
Say, with Klain coming in to shake down the health response, can we now have Klain Rallies?
I wonder how long before people start calling him the Clueless Klain?
Klain ain’t Able!
I could do this alllll day, folks! (otherwise, it’s yardwork for me.)
Reason #625 why I’m proud to be “murikan.
Giantmicrobes Inc., which makes a line of plush toys based on viruses and other microscopic organisms, has sold out its entire Ebola stock, including the small Ebola doll for $9.95, a Gigantic Ebola doll for $29.95 and an Ebola Petri Dish toy for $14.95, according to the company’s website.
With the latest Ebola outbreak, which already killed more than 4,500 people, mostly in West Africa, customers have snapped up the toy, which looks like half a pretzel.
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http://www.giantmicrobes.com/us/products/ebola.html
Yesterday, someone vomited outside where I work and terrified everyone. They shut down the whole area. It was a false alarm, but for a brief, scary moment, the Ebama pandemic was real for me. So to extrapolate from that brief scare, here’s my experience.
First thing-Uncertainty. You got no idea what’s going on. Rumors were flying and no one knew anything for sure.
Second thing-Fear. What if it’s really happening? You’re at work and nothing in your cubicle, or even the office, can possibly help deal with this.
A couple weeks ago, I started carrying a little ziploc baggie in my coat with a pair of gloves and 2 sort of advanced surgical masks and some hand sanitizer, just in case something unusual happens. I don’t have my car with me-I car pool or ride the bus, so my possessions consist of whatever I can carry on my back during the day.
Now that we’ve had a scare at work, I’m upgrading to a tyvek bunny suit and n100 respirator and whatnot, but even then, it’s still scary. It doesn’t seem like enough.
Based on yesterday, I started wondering what if we had more than one person already sick in the building and they’re just hacking their way, coughing and sneezing, through the day, laying down their germs on everything? Even if you’re ready when the first clown drops with bloody eyes and projectile diarrhea, it’s already too late. And whose going to be pleased to see you sitting at work in a bunny suit and mask and gloves all day when nothing’s actually happening?
Third thing-Getting Home. So I got home, took off my mask and got to my door. My wife was home. I realized on the way, I shouldn’t just go inside. I might be exposed to germs, too, so I rang the bell and waited for her to ask me why the heck I was ringing the bell and not entering. I asked her to grab me a bathrobe, towel, and trashbag-didn’t matter if they were used or dirty. I explained what happened. She brought them and I undressed on the porch and bagged my stuff.
Oh-new concern-you just drove home from the potentially contaminated place. Now your clothes AND your car are potentially messed-up. Are you prepared to spray down your car interior with bleach, or something? That carpeting you’ve been vacuuming every week is going to look funny with bleached spots all over…
And what do you do with your wallet, keys, and other stuff at the doorstep? You’ll probably need to think ahead and get some kind of tray or pan to put them in and spray them off, if need be. Unprepared on that front, my shit stayed on the front porch.
Anyway, I stripped, robed, put a towel over my head, and took a shower. By the time I was dressed again, I found out the whole thing at work had been a false alarm. Turned out, the vomiting person was just some idiot, so I was clear. But it sure was scary and it really made me re-think what I’ve got prep-wise for this. I had stuff pre-positioned in the front hall closet, but nothing actually ready to go. And I’m going to have to re-pack my daily work bag and pre-load the car, too.
And I think I’m going to have to stock up on more germicide stuff.
Just my thoughts from yesterday’s little scare.
Obama tapped Klain. Oh I’ll bet he’s tapped him, multiple times and real good.
Aaaaand the clusterfuckery continues unabated…
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The appt of Klain to be the Ebola Czar is just one more Fuck You America from Preezy Obola to the American people.
Klain has ONE job and ONE job only – to protect AT ANY COST the tattered legacy of Preezy Obola. That will mean dropping any news about new patients, West African immigration rates, the economic havoc that is already starting, etc. right down the memory hole. Start screen saving every article cuz I’ll bet there is gonna be a whole lot of internet scrubbing going on…
You see, it is all about protecting Preezy Obola and want remains of this tattered legacy, the health and safety of the American people be damned.
Our fed.gov has its Top Men on the job and I feel safe already.
I have been saying again and again that this unrestricted travel from those countries where Ebola is raging out of control is an insane policy. Originally the rationale was that any travel ban would prevent aid workers and supplies from getting into those countries and would only make things worse. Well that was shown to be nonsense simply by the fact that you could restrict travel by the general public and still have either military or charter flights bring in all the aid workers and supplies anyone could ever wish for.
Then they switched to this other rationale where they claim that if there was any kind travel ban people would simply find ways around it. And then we would lose track of who enters the country. OH REALLY, and just how would that work? Neighboring countries have locked down there borders, so one is not going to walk or drive to another country.
They might get on a flight and go to some other country let’s say France, Spain, or Germany. OK fine. Has anyone told the president that to travel internationally one has to have a passport and that passports are stamped to note the countries where you’ve been? All a country has to do is announce that anyone who has traveled through countries X,Y, or Z will not be allowed into the United States. Then notify the airlines we do not accept anyone that has been to X, Y, or Z countries and if the airlines flies anyone into the US from those restricted countries it is on them to fly them back out of the country. Trust me when an airlines is at risk of transporting a passenger back on their dime they won’t let those passengers on the plane in the first place.
When this policy is put into effect then any of the intermediate countries will also not allow those from restricted countries in their country either.
So could someone take a boat or hike across the desert and bypass the passport tracking?? I mean SERIOUSLY?? Do I need to spell out how IDIOTIC that argument is?
This was a rumor this AM that a third health care worker has Ebola symptons, and that person is on a cruise ship in the Caribean. Has anyone heard anymore about this?
Good to hear from you Dr. Hope.
@ Hope…
Top. Men.
Heh…
It seems to me that this level of idiocy is exactly the reason why we *need* diseases like ebola but something with no known cure would be far better. People have become too stupid for their own good and then stupid breeds with stupid and amplifies the stupid.
We here at TBP have bb and Chen as evidence of this kind of stupidity. Nationally we have the stupid like Obama and CDC head Tom Frieden jerkin’ off the whole country and locally we have bb/chen & company verbally masturbating all over the site.
So, even if I become a victim and die, bring on the virulent deadly disease! At this point we need it to act like chlorine in the pool.
In about 24 months west africa might be the best place on the earth to live, warm climate, low population density, plenty of natural resources, diamonds, oil, gold, coco, etc. The population left standing is Ebola resistant.
yes, top men… hahaha
How Did Nigeria Quash Its Ebola Outbreak So Quickly?
Why was it not possible that other countrys to have done this including the US.
What we can learn from the boot leather, organization and quick response times that stopped Ebola from spreading in this African nation
October 18, 2014 |By Katherine Harmon Courage
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Empty ebola ward in Nigeria.
On July 20 a man who was ill flew on commercial planes from the heart of the Ebola epidemic in Liberia to Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city. That man became Nigeria’s first Ebola case—the index patient. In a matter of weeks some 19 people across two states were diagnosed with the disease (with one additional person presumed to have contracted it before dying).
But rather than descending into epidemic, there has not been a new case of the virus since September 5. And since September 24 the country’s Ebola isolation and treatment wards have sat empty. If by Monday, October 20 there are still no new cases, Nigeria, unlike the U.S., will be declared Ebola free by the World Health Organization (WHO).
What can we learn from this African country’s success quashing an Ebola outbreak?
Authors of a paper published October 9 in Eurosurveillance attribute Nigeria’s success in “avoiding a far worse scenario” to its “quick and forceful” response. The authors point to three key elements in the country’s attack:
* Fast and thorough tracing of all potential contacts
* Ongoing monitoring of all of these contacts
* Rapid isolation of potentially infectious contacts
The swift battle was won not only with vigilant disinfecting, port-of-entry screening and rapid isolation but also with boot leather and lots and lots of in-person follow-up visits, completing 18,500 of them to find any new cases of Ebola among a total of 989 identified contacts.
Continued: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-did-nigeria-quash-its-ebola-outbreak-so-quickly
Here ya go!
The person on the cruise ship handled lab specimens from the patient. The Carnival Magic sailed before the 1st nurse was found to be ill, if I am not mistaken. Mexico/Belize refused to let it dock!!! The ship is coming back to Galveston. Oh Joy.
Having been on a Carnival cruise once (& never again) you are packed in there like fookin sardines. There has been outbreaks on cruise ships before, mainly of rotavirus.
As to the $$ implications, Texas Presby Hospital is a virtual ghost town. Their ER wait time is zero, meaning NO ONE is in there.
And the physicians that have office space leased from the hospital on the campus are reporting 40-60% cancellations. That is a financial catastrophe as must physician’s office are operating on a very thin margins these days. A lot of docs aren’t even taking home a paycheck.
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/ebola-scare-turns-dallas-hospital-ghost-town/story?id=26276610
The 21 day incubation for the Duncan family ends tomorrow. If they remain clear, that might indicate that it is only when viral loads are really high, and the patient is very symptomatic, that transmission occurs with casual contact.
Alternatively, it might mean that Liberians have some kind of innate immunity that protects them from infection at the level of virus present in mildly symptomatic patients. That is, they only become infected when viral loads are very high, as with the dead, and they get infected due to the washing/handling of the bodies for burial.
Other racial groups may not have this protection and may become infected at much lower level of virus, ie, that present in the mildly symptomatic patients. If so, that will be very bad.
But here’s a thought: If the R0, the transmissibility factor is really 2, then there should only be 4000 cases in Liberia, not the 8,726 (at least) that we know about.
Stay frosty my friends!
How Liberian burial customs have contributed to the spread of Ebola:
“Relatives personally wash the corpses of loved ones from head to toe. Often, several family members participate in this posthumous bathing ritual, known as Ghusl.
Before scrubbing the skin with soap and water, family members press down on the abdomen to excrete fluids still in the body. A mixture of camphor and water is used for a final washing. Then, family members dry off the body and shroud it in white linens.”
and
“Before the body is buried, Muslims attending the funeral typically pass a common bowl for use in ablution or washing of the face, feet and hands, compounding the risk of infection.”
http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials-perspective/101614-722174-islamic-burial-rituals-blamed-for-spread-of-ebola.htm
This applies to the Muslim Liberians, I have no information on nonMuslims.
This burial ritual is considered so sacred to Muslims (that live under Sharia Law), that. “.Last month, Red Cross workers in Guinea were attacked by family members while trying to bury Ebola dead safely. In Sierra Leone, moreover, a family took Ebola-ridden bodies secured in body bags from the Red Cross, opened them up and exposed all members of the family to Ebola. They all contracted the disease.”
Sooooo….Between the poverty, corruption, lack of education and anything approaching a public health system in West Africa – now we can add the insanity of Sharia Law to the mix.
We. Are. Doomed.
@MIA
African countries have closed their borders and banned flights that would allow travel in and out of the Ebola infected countries. None of those countries has an IDIOT president that insist on unrestricted travel in and out of the countries where Ebola is raging our of control.
Well, if you want to stop the spread of the disease, there’s another method. I understand it is considered to be somewhat archaic and irregular, but we could always give it a try:
Let’s call it Chinese Infection Protocol!
If you contract Ebama, we are going to put a 9mm in the back of your head.
If you knowingly conceal someone with Ebama, we are going to put a 9mm in the back of their head and your head and anyone else’s head we can find on the scene.
If you assist a person with Ebama, we are going to put a 9mm in the back of your head. This includes airlines flying infected into or out of the US.
It would behoove you to stay away from anyone who appears to be suffering from Ebama or anything remotely resembling Ebama, if you want to avoid a 9mm to the back of the head.
It would behoove you to report anyone with so much as a sniffle, if you want to avoid having a 9mm to the back of the head.
That is how you stop an outbreak of Ebama, my friends. Hospital waits should be very brief as a result. Calls into work for illness might increase. Cold medicine will be very, very popular.
GilbertS
According to the Chinese Infection Protocol:
What is the proper solution for an Idiot that insist on a policy of unrestricted travel in and out of Ebama infected countries?
Curious minds want to know.
ASIG – This strain of ebola virus was discovered in late Dec 2013 or early Jan 2014 and could have been stopped dead in it’s tracks not too long thereafter. Numerous isolated cases of ebola have sprung up in scattered locations throughout Africa since first discovered in 1973. Vaccines were developed & tested locally, the infected isolated, and the virus was quickly eradicated with minimal loss of life.
Why were there there no attempts made to eradicate or even control this virus since discovered and allow it to spread to other nearby nations and internationally by the WHO CDC & other health organizations? They also had since Jan 2014 come up with a suitable vaccination and have it locally evaluated on those contraction the disease. Why not utilize the vaccine developed for previous ebola outbreaks and evaluate the results?. Why are they only now making an attempt to manufacture a vaccine that will only be ready late in 2016 which will also require extensive testing and evaluation before release. By then many thousands and possibly millions will have suffered or died world wide.
None of this do nothing, open boarder, wait and see approach to possible world wide catastrophic epidemic doesn’t make whole lot of medical sense.
@MIA
There are two forces/directions in play
The majority are fighting to stop this disaster in every way, and as quickly as possible. Their goal is clear.
And then there are those that insist, absolutely refuse to budge, on actions that are certain, without any doubt to help spread the disease.
I don’t know how much more obvious it has to be for people to see what is happening?
OH and by the way Donald Trump says Obama has to be insane.
ASIG – OH and by the way Donald Trump says Obama has to be insane. – Obola is either insane or he has lost all his marbles or maybe he never had any marbled and only lots of golf balls. One or the other. His ebola response is only outclassed by the ridiculous almost insane Obama Care program he initated. Will Oboma Care pay for the millions who end contracting ebola virus over the next several years due to lack of appropriate medical intervention? Time will tell and that will be too late.
Not gonna do it, Asig. Not gonna do it.
Wouldn’t be prudent. Not at this juncture.
If you assume The Pretender, the Resident of the United States, hates this country, then all of his decisions make much more sense. Only when you cling to the notion that he’s a leader who cares about this nation and its people do his decisions not make sense. If you assume he hates us and all we stand for, then BarryCare, trading terrorists for traitors, leaving the borders open, flooding criminal illegals carrying deadly diseases into our schools, killing business, killing jobs, shutting down power plants, “leading from behind,” pissing off close, historic allies, ratcheting up racial tensions, taxing us and killing business in the name of un-proven “settled” pseudo-science, turning NASA into a muslim outreach center, making gays OK in the military, propping up terrorists in the middle east, etc all make sense. He’s a tiny man, but he’s going to leave his own smelly, sloppy, uniquely awful skidmark on history. They might as well knock down the blight house and build a new one, just to get his stink out of it.
Yes, guess the rumor was correct about the cruise ship. Also read about the African Fuirt Bat have a population in the millions and are killed by hunters and sold to people for food. Called Bush Meat, and handling these large bats that are infected would seem to help spread the disease.