State Department plans to bring foreign Ebola patients to U.S.

From the WashingtonTimes.com:

by Stephan Dinan

The State Department has quietly made plans to bring Ebola-infected doctors and medical aides to the U.S. for treatment, according to an internal department document that argued the only way to get other countries to send medical teams to West Africa is to promise that the U.S. will be the world’s medical backstop.

In the memo, officials say their preference is for patients go to Europe, but there are some cases in which the U.S. is “the logical treatment destination for non-citizens.”

The document has been shared with Congress, where lawmakers already are nervous about the administration’s handling of the Ebola outbreak. The memo even details the expected price per patient, with transportation costs at $200,000 and treatment at $300,000.

Perfect.  We may soon be importing Ebola victims into the US.

Further: Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has now decreed troops returning to the US from Ebola-ridden countries will undergo a 21-day quarantine.

Despite the fact that doctors and nurses returning to the US are objecting to quarantine and threatening to sue to eradicate said quarantine.

A bit odd and hypocritical, perhaps?

BZ

 

The CDC lies: Ebola is likely becoming aerosolized

Sneeze AerosolizedAn admission up front:

I am still of the opinion there is much about Ebola that isn’t being transmitted to the public, with the thought of “panic” in mind. The problem with that philosophy is that it tends to lend itself to governmental and agency UNDERreaction and, conversely, it lends itself to the public filling in the vacuum with their own theories.

Frankly, I can tell you that I have masks and gloves for my own family, as well as two MSA  closed respirators with appropriate filters. It is my duty as head of my family to be so prepared.

I also believe that Ebola is mutating because of the larger number of human targets found.

I do not trust that Ebola has not mutated and cannot be passed in some airborne fashion.

That is because the US government, the CDC and involved hospitals have already lied to the American public. It’s in their DNA, it’s in their job descriptions as bureaucracies: they can’t NOT lie.

The Washington Post already refers to Mr Obola’s “Blizzard of Lies.”  In my opinion, I cannot hear Mr Obola’s voice any more and not find it akin to nails on a chalkboard or the increased and jagged volume of Fran Drescher’s voice.  Quote:

“Think about that: 81 percent of Americans believe that Obama lies to them at least ‘now and then’ on ‘important matters.’ “

When it comes to my family and my friends and those who read me, it is not my job to trust any government given their histories, with my life and their lives.  It’s not a matter of “I may possibly become inconvenienced” — it’s now a matter of “I may and they may die.”

That said, a new article appears on the topic today, from ZeroHedge.com:

CIDRAP: “We Believe There Is Scientific Evidence Ebola Has The Potential To Be Airborne”

by Tyler Durden

When CDC Director Tim Frieden first announced, just a week ago and very erroneously, that he was “confident we will stop Ebola in its tracks here in the United States“, he hardly anticipated facing the double humiliation of not only having the first person-to-person transmission of Ebola on US soil taking place within a week, but that said transmission would impact a supposedly protected healthcare worker. He certainly did not anticipate the violent public reaction that would result when, instead of taking blame for another epic CDC blunder, one which made many wonder if last night’s Walking Dead season premier was in fact non-fiction, he blamed health workers for “not following protocol.”

And yet, while once again casting scapegoating and blame, the CDC sternly refuses to acknowledge something others, and not just tinfoil blog sites, are increasingly contemplating as a distinct possibility: namely that Ebola is, contrary to CDC “protocol”, in fact airborne. Or as, an article posted by CIDRAP defines it, “aerosolized.”

Who is CIDRAP?  “The Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP; “SID-wrap”) is a global leader in addressing public health preparedness and emerging infectious disease response. Founded in 2001, CIDRAP is part of the Academic Health Center at the University of Minnesota.”

The full punchline from the CIDRAP report:

We believe there is scientific and epidemiologic evidence that Ebola virus has the potential to be transmitted via infectious aerosol particles both near and at a distance from infected patients, which means that healthcare workers should be wearing respirators, not facemasks.

In other words, airborne. And now the search for the next LAKE, i.e., a public company maker of powered air-purifying respirator (PAPR), begins.

Allow me to access the Department of Redundancy Department for the cruxist quote: “which means that healthcare workers should be wearing respirators, not facemasks.”

Please read the article in its entirety.

Further, from the LATimes.com:

Some Ebola experts worry virus may spread more easily than assumed

by David Willman

Yet some scientists who have long studied Ebola say such assurances are premature — and they are concerned about what is not known about the strain now on the loose. It is an Ebola outbreak like none seen before, jumping from the bush to urban areas, giving the virus more opportunities to evolve as it passes through multiple human hosts.

Dr. C.J. Peters, who battled a 1989 outbreak of the virus among research monkeys housed in Virginia and who later led the CDC’s most far-reaching study of Ebola’s transmissibility in humans, said he would not rule out the possibility that it spreads through the air in tight quarters.

“We just don’t have the data to exclude it,” said Peters, who continues to research viral diseases at the University of Texas in Galveston.

Yes.  To exclude data indicating Ebola is not airborne.

“I see the reasons to dampen down public fears,” (virologist Dr Phillip K) Russell said. “But scientifically, we’re in the middle of the first experiment of multiple, serial passages of Ebola virus in man…. God knows what this virus is going to look like. I don’t.”

Note in the story:

Peters, Russell and Bailey, who in 1989 was deputy commander for research of the Army’s Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, in Frederick, Md., said the primates in Reston had appeared to spread Ebola to other monkeys through their breath.

“Those monkeys were dying in a pattern that was certainly suggestive of coughing and sneezing — some sort of aerosol movement,” Bailey said. “They were dying and spreading it so quickly from cage to cage. We finally came to the conclusion that the best action was to euthanize them all.”

Today:

BZ HH Ebola TweetMr Obola cannot acknowledge the Ebola problem.  It would be bad for him.  As Hugh Hewitt Tweeted, “It is increasingly apparent that we don’t have wider screening or an outright travel ban because it will embarrass POTUS before an election.”

I certainly could not have said it better myself.

If you wish to trust the Obola government, go ahead.  Blessings be upon you.  Salaam alaikum.

Me?

I’m a non-trusting sonofabitch.

Look, people, let me be blunt.  I read Preston’s The Hot Zone back in 1994 when it was first published.  The book documented the origins of both Ebola and Marburg viruses, and Preston.  I’m not stupid.  I recognized the hazards back then and, of course, now.  I am nothing if not well-read.

This isn’t some 1918 influenza virus — which between 1918 and 1920 ended up killing 3% to 5% of the then-world’s population, or between 50 and 100 million persons.

It had a 10% to 20% mortality rate.

Ebola has, at minimum, a 90% mortality rate and, as yet, there is no cure. Period.

In 1918, the world didn’t have to deal with transit between continents in five hours via air flights.

It’s Ebola, people.  It is a Biosafety Level 4 (BSL-4) pathogen, the highest possible rating for a virus.

Having read The Hot Zone, that’s all I needed to know.

I repeat at risk of being repetitive: I’m not stupid.

BZ

 

Ebola and our southern border:

Marine Gen John F KellyHas anyone thought of this?

Do we conduct federal war games and table-tops on the most potential societal likelihoods regarding current events?  Do we even remotely attempt to apply NIMS-SEMS?

These days, I fear we no longer do so.  I fear the federal government can’t even spell NIMS-SEMS.

From the US Naval Institute, at USNI.org:

SOUTHCOM Commander: Ebola Outbreak in Central America Could Cause Mass Migration to U.S.

by Sam LeGrone

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The head of U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) warned an Ebola outbreak in Central America or the Caribbean could trigger a mass migration to the U.S. of people fleeing the disease and implied established Central American illegal trafficking networks could introduce the infected into the U.S., during remarks at a Tuesday panel on security issues in the Western Hemisphere at the National Defense University.

“If it comes to the Western Hemisphere, the countries that we’re talking about have almost no ability to deal with it — particularly in Haiti and Central America,” SOUTHCOM Commander, Marine Gen. John F. Kelly, said in response to a question of his near term concerns in the region.

“It will make the 68,000 unaccompanied minors look like a small problem.”

The short answer is: NO.  Our federal government seems to have little interest in protecting itself or its people from external invaders.  Our USSS seems to be curiously negligent in protecting POTUS, on just one angle.

An Ebola outbreak could encourage the poor and increasingly desperate populations in Central American countries — like Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador — to leave in droves.

“I think you’ve seen this so many times in the past, when in doubt, take off,” he said.

This current regime doesn’t conduct war games, it doesn’t conduct serious NIMS-SEMS exercises or strategies nor can it even spell NIMS-SEMS.

Clearly, a partisan political attack:

Though an ocean away from Ebola hotspots in Africa, a growing numbers of West Africans are using the illicit trafficking routes through Central America to enter the U.S. illegally and could introduce the disease in the U.S. 

Bimbos behind keyboards.

The realities of a potential outbreak caused Kelly to ask his staff to start thinking about the affects to the SOUTHCOM area of operations (AO) and pay attention to the response of U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM).

The U.S. has sent 4,000 troops to West Africa to assist countries in dealing with the Ebola outbreaks in the region.

And there you go.  Forecasting.  War gaming.  Even logic.

Where has that gone?

BZ

P.S.

Interesting article here.

Obama Got Your Back