First, they said it would never get to the USA. Then they said it wouldn’t spread to the health care workers:
A hospital worker here who helped treat the Liberian man who died last week of the Ebola virus has tested positive for the disease, even though the worker was wearing a gown, gloves, mask and other protective gear when coming into contact with the victim, officials said Sunday.
The hospital employee, a woman whom officials did not identify, worked at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, where the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the United States, Thomas Eric Duncan, 42, died last Wednesday. The health care worker reported a low-grade fever Friday night, went to the hospital at some point after that and was immediately admitted and put in isolation, officials said.
One wonders what will be the next statement from a government official on the subject to be exposed as false. Note that a nurse in Spain also caught the virus from a Spanish man who was brought back to Spain by his government for treatment.
The World Health Organization is sending doctors to countries where the virus is most prevalent — Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Nigeria. Fusion’s Jorge Ramos spoke to one of the doctors, Dr. Aileen Marty, who recently returned home to Miami after spending 31 days in Nigeria. She says she was surprised what happened when she arrived at Miami International Airport.
“I get to the kiosk…mark the fact that I’ve been in Nigeria and nobody cares, nobody stopped me,” Marty said.
“Not a single test?” Ramos asked her, surprised.
“Nothing,” Marty answered.
Some say evil, some say incompetent. I fail to see why the Obola administration can’t be both. Let’s face it, our best hope is that the whole thing simply burns itself out without a great deal of help from the obviously overmatched medical community.
So much for that whole “science just works, bitches” meme. It’s unwise to arrogantly challenge Mother Nature.
The total number of confirmed, probable, and suspected cases (see Annex 1) in the West African epidemic of Ebola virus disease (EVD) reported up to the end of 5 October 2014 (epidemiological week 40) is 8033 with 3865 deaths. Countries affected are Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and the United States of America. A confirmed case of EVD has been reported in Spain, but because the case was confirmed during the week ending 12 October (epidemiological week 41), information on this case will be included in the next Ebola Response Roadmap update.
The past week has seen a continuation of recent trends: the situation in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone continues to deteriorate, with widespread and persistent transmission of EVD. Problems with data gathering in Liberia continue. It should be emphasized that the reported fall in the number of new cases in Liberia over the past three weeks is unlikely to be genuine. Rather, it reflects a deterioration in the ability of overwhelmed responders to record accurate epidemiological data. It is clear from field reports and first responders that EVD cases are being under-reported from several key locations, and laboratory data that have not yet been integrated into official estimates indicate an increase in the number of new cases in Liberia. There is no evidence that the EVD epidemic in West Africa is being brought under control, though there is evidence of a decline in incidence in the districts of Lofa in Liberia, and Kailahun and Kenema in Sierra Leone.
Recall that back in July, it was reported: “The current outbreak is the worst ever. So far 467 people have died and health staff have identified at least 292 other suspected or confirmed cases.” That was back in Week 25, so in the subsequent three months, we’ve seen the officially confirmed number of cases increase by 10.6, or if you prefer to put it in scary percentage terms, 958 PERCENT! According to this doubling calculator, the time in which it takes the outbreak to double is 4.39 weeks, so we’ll know that if the Week 41 report contains more than 9,862 confirmed cases, the outbreak is picking up its pace. Either way, the slope of that curve in confirmed cases from Week 25 to Week 40 looks rather problematic.
The fact that one fourth of the case-patients in our study boarded a plane after becoming ill and traveled despite having symptoms illustrates the role of travelers in disseminating infection in a highly interconnected world. It raises the question of whether exit screening should be considered. However, the effectiveness of exit screening will depend on the role of asymptomatic persons in transmission, and such screening will still miss persons who are incubating the infection. Exit screening would severely hinder international travel, and because of its questionable efficacy, it may not be justified and may be contrary to the intent of the International Health Regulations 2005.
So, wash your hands, stock up a bit, and avoid any unnecessary travel, that would be my advice. School vacation time is coming up in many countries in Europe in the next two weeks, so a lot of people have travel plans as a result. If things are going to go seriously south, we should know it in the next 4-6 weeks. To the right is a zoomed-in curve based on the actual confirmed cases reported by WHO from Weeks 34 to 40, added onto an averaged curve from the reported cases in Week 25. WHO only began releasing the reports in Week 34, but during those six weeks, the outbreak has gone from 3,000 to 8,000 officially confirmed cases.
Ms Kovack’s humanitarian efforts have been slammed by outspoken Federal MP Bob Katter. The member for Kennedy – whose electorate takes in the southern area of Cairns and the town’s airport – said her volunteering pursuits had put the nation at risk.
Mr Katter said it was ‘unbelievable and incomprehensive’ how a person could get into Australia from an Ebola-infected country.
‘There cannot be any compromise with this,’ Mr Katter said. ‘If you want to go to one of these countries, however laudable your motivation, I am sorry but when you return to Australia, you must be quarantined for three weeks – not home quarantined.’
Mr Katter said Australian aid workers travelling to west Africa, including Ms Kovack, were putting Australia at risk.
‘We love these people, and we honour these Australians for being self-sacrificing, but compared to the risk they create for our country, it is not remotely comparable. One person’s moral and humanitarian ambitions are being carried out at a very grave cost to Australia,’ he said.
I very much respect those people, many of whom are Christians, who are selfless and sacrificial enough to go over and help infected Africans. But part of being sacrificial is making the sacrifice. If you get sick over there, you stay over there. Period. It’s that simple.
They have the right to risk their own lives. They don’t have the right to put others at risk, nor should they ask others to do so.
A patient being treated at a Dallas hospital is the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Tuesday.
The person, whose identity was not released, left Liberia on September 19 and arrived in the United States on September 20, said Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the CDC.
At that time, the person did not have symptoms. “But four or five days later,” that person began to show symptoms, Frieden said. The person was hospitalized and isolated Sunday at a hospital in Texas.
Fabulous. One hopes this will work out better than the failure to quarantine those with AIDS did.
It never occurred to me to imagine that the federal government wouldn’t enforce its fines for failure to engage in required economic activity with its usual bag of tricks, including seizing bank accounts and placing property liens:
If true, the implementation of Obamacare is going to be a whole lot more draconian than Americans have been led to believe.
“I actually made it through this morning at 8:00 A.M. I have a preexisting condition (Type 1 Diabetes) and my income base was 45K-55K annually I chose tier 2 “Silver Plan” and my monthly premiums came out to $597.00 with $13,988 yearly deductible!!! There is NO POSSIBLE way that I can afford this so I “opt-out” and chose to continue along with no insurance.
“I received an email tonight at 5:00 P.M. informing me that my fine would be $4,037 and could be attached to my yearly income tax return. Then you make it to the “REPERCUSSIONS PORTION” for “non-payment” of yearly fine. First, your drivers license will be suspended until paid, and if you go 24 consecutive months with “Non-Payment” and you happen to be a home owner, you will have a federal tax lien placed on your home. You can agree to give your bank information so that they can easy “Automatically withdraw” your “penalties” weekly, bi-weekly or monthly! This by no means is “Free” or even “Affordable.””
The federal government has consistently denied that any fines pertaining to Obamacare non-compliance could be seized from bank accounts, despite reports last year that the IRS had hired 16,500 new agents to harass citizens who attempt to evade the new law.
The system is breaking down, and it appears to be breaking down increasingly fast. Once people stop paying their Obamacare fines, how long will it be before they stop paying other taxes? And using the banking system as an enforcement device for the sake of compliance is more likely to break the banking system than it is to allow this expansion of the tax system to function as envisioned.
The 401(k) generation is beginning to retire, and it isn’t a pretty sight. The retirement savings plans that many baby boomers thought would see them through old age are falling short in many cases. The median household headed by a person aged 60 to 62 with a 401(k) account has less than one-quarter of what is needed in that account to maintain its standard of living in retirement, according to data compiled by the Federal Reserve and analyzed by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College for The Wall Street Journal. Even counting Social Security and any pensions or other savings, most 401(k) participants appear to have insufficient savings.
I say we Logan’s Run them. Stick a disc in their hand, and when the retirement money runs out, it turns black. After what they did to our generation, sleepshops are better than they deserve.
In addition to demonstrating the superlative nature of the UK’s NHS, this tale of an intrepid immigrant surgeon should serve as a warning regarding the way in which the shortage of doctors under Obamacare will be resolved:
Dr Sulieman Al Hourani was only supposed to cut out a cyst, but removed the whole right testicle instead. … A month later it is alleged that the doctor, who qualified after studying at Jordan University of Science and Technology, stole two boxes of dihydrocodeine from a treatment room on a ward at the same hospital. An investigation was launched and the doctor was dismissed by his employer, Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, which ran the hospital.
The GMC was told of another incident in August 2006, when Dr Al Hourani had consulted a colleague and was advised to inject a patient with 10 milligrams (mg) of midazolam, a powerful sedative drug. He then gave the patient 8mg and injected himself with the other 2mg, the hearing was told.
I love the fact that he injected himself as well. Shades of Steve Martin as dentist.
