Dallas parents are pulling their kids out of school rather than risk further exposure to Ebola:
Parents rushed to get their children from school Wednesday after
learning that five students may have had contact with the Ebola patient
in a Dallas hospital, as Gov. Rick Perry and other leaders reassured the
public that there is no cause for alarm. The patient, identified
by The Associated Press as Thomas Eric Duncan of Liberia, arrived in
the U.S. on Sept. 20 to visit family. Dallas County Health and Human
Services Director Zachary Thompson said county officials suspect that 12
to 18 people may have had contact with Duncan.“Right now, the
base number is 18 people, and that could increase,” he said. Thompson
said more details are expected by Thursday afternoon. The number
includes five students at four schools, Dallas school district
Superintendent Mike Miles said.“This case is serious,” Perry said
during a news conference at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas,
where Duncan is being treated. “Rest assured that our system is working
as it should. Professionals on every level on the chain of command know
what to do to minimize this potential risk to the people of Texas and of
this country.”
They’ve already permitted foreigners from a land where the virus is out of control to not only enter the state, but mingle freely with a) sick people at a hospital and b) schoolchildren, but everyone is supposed to trust that they know what to do?
I don’t think so.
Liberians could see their family members if their family members were repatriated. Wasn’t the whole idea of Liberia to send Africans back to Africa? Why is the USA reimporting Africans in the first place?
The fury of the American public if white schoolchildren start dying of Ebola is not going to be pretty. Perhaps there is no cause for alarm, one hopes there is no caue for alarm, but so far, the noises out of the politicians smack more of frightened people worried about the public’s reaction if it knew the truth of the situation than of people in control of the situation. I expect we’ll find out soon enough.
Regardless, all travel from West Africa needs to be halted now. It should have been halted six weeks ago. Air France, British Airways, and Emirates stopped all flights to Liberia and Sierra Leone back in early August. Congressman Alan Grayson called for a travel ban from Liberia and other infected countries in July! So, why is anyone from West Africa still being permitted to enter the USA?
From ZEROHEDGE: Now that Ebola is officially in the US on an
uncontrolled basis, the two questions on everyone’s lips are i) who
will get sick next and ii) how bad could it get? We don’t know the
answer to question #1 just yet, but when it comes to the second one, a
press release three weeks ago from Lakeland Industries, a manufacturer
and seller of a “comprehensive line of safety garments and accessories
for the industrial protective clothing market” may provide some insight
into just how bad the US State Department thinks it may get. Because
when the US government buys 160,000 hazmat suits specifically designed
against Ebola, just ahead of the worst Ebola epidemic in history making
US landfall, one wonders: what do they know that we don’t?
And then there is this from the CDC: “Because we still do not know exactly how people are infected with Ebola,
few primary prevention measures have been established and no vaccine
exists.”
UPDATE: The magic of diversity and geographical translocation in action.
Two days after he was sent home from a Dallas hospital, the man who is the first person to be diagnosed with Ebola in the United States was seen vomiting on the ground outside an apartment complex as he was bundled into an ambulance. “His whole family was screaming. He got outside and he was throwing up all over the place,” resident Mesud Osmanovic, 21, said on Wednesday, describing the chaotic scene before the man was admitted to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital on Sunday where he is in serious condition.
UPDATE 2: “TEXAS HEALTH OFFICIALS INCREASE NUMBER OF POSSIBLE CONTACTS OF EBOLA VICTIM TO 100″
That’s up from 12….