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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMob Destroys Ebola Center In Liberia Two Days After It Opens
"A mob descended on the center at around 5:30 p.m., chanting, No Ebola in West Point! No Ebola in West Point! They stormed the front gate and pushed into the holding center. They stole the few gloves someone had donated this morning, and the chlorine sprayers used to disinfect the bodies of those who die here, all the while hollering that Ebola is a hoax.
They ransacked the protective suits, the goggles, the masks. They destroyed part of Tarplahs car as he was fleeing the crowd.
Jemimah Kargbo, a health care worker at a clinic next door, said they took mattresses and bedding, utensils and plastic chairs.
Everybody left with their own thing, she said. What are they carrying to their homes? They are carrying their deaths.
She said the police showed up but the crowd intimidated them.
The police were there but they couldnt contain them. They started threatening the police, so the police just looked at them, she said.
And then mob left with all of the patients.
They said, The president says you have Ebola, but you dont have Ebola, you have malaria. Get up and go out! Kargbo said.
Whats going to happen when they come to our clinic? In two to five days? Kargbo asked, referencing the early period when newly infected patients begin to show their first symptoms. Were going to turn them around and send them to a different hospital, she said.
Kargbo said the staff at the clinic have no protective gear. They were already afraid about treating possible Ebola patients, and the riot means more infections as escaped sick patients infect their families, and as looters sleep on mattresses where the Ebola-infected have died."
More in the article.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/jinamoore/two-days-after-it-opens-mob-destroys-ebola-center-in-liberia#1ykcsjk
The government currently plans to quarantine the entire area. No one goes in and no one goes out.
Horrific.
Is there any containing this anymore? How? The mix of distrust in the medical system, a nearly broken medical system and social/health conditions that were critical before the outbreak is turning this into a tragedy.
Adsos Letter
(19,459 posts)tclambert
(11,084 posts)valerief
(53,235 posts)napi21
(45,806 posts)They don't blieve anything our govt tells them, and apparently some of the people there are following their lead.
Amonester
(11,541 posts)Baitball Blogger
(46,684 posts)it's too ridiculous to believe.
We.Are.Doomed.
tavalon
(27,985 posts)but that sucks anyway. It's highly unlikely to move off of the continent at this point - people are too scared to let someone with the sniffles on an international flight. But this is quickly turning into something horrific locally. Awful.
AuntPatsy
(9,904 posts)Kurska
(5,739 posts)Probably domestically produced though.
Katashi_itto
(10,175 posts)Rwanda started that way.
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)ReRe
(10,597 posts)... a Rush Limpball type of radio instigator.
Warpy
(111,141 posts)who see a path to money and power if they're the only game in town and prayer is what they're selling to people as a way to be saved by gawd rather than be treated by medicine.
Putting whole regions under quarantine is all they can possibly try to do, although people will tend to go cross country to run away from the virus rather than stick to the roads.
At least that will slow them down enough that the infected ones will die on the way, as heartless as that sounds, it's the only way to stop contagion from spreading as quickly as it has.
The behavior of the human race during historical plagues is the key to behavior now and it's not pretty. Ebola-Zaire shows up in your area, you pretty much have to shut down and stay on house arrest. When people must go out daily for food because there is no refrigeration and only communal water, this becomes unrealistic. Eliminating travel beyond hard hit regions is the only way to stop this thing and even then, it is likely to keep popping up here and there for some time.
Religious people are not helping. One thing the Black Death in Europe did was loosen the Vatican's stranglehold enough for the Reformation to happen, mostly because religion had been utterly ineffective for the sick and priests had run from praying over them.
tavalon
(27,985 posts)We know how to contain this but it's unreasonable,unconscionable. We could probably airlift emergency supplies to quarantined areas but if you are in that area, you have a very strong likelihood of getting Ebola and the death rate is the usual 80-90 percent.
The "cure" for Ebola, since it is so fast acting is to get it away from populous areas through quarantine and as awful as it sounds, death watches. Burn out the virus. It sounds so reasonable until you realize what that really means.
No one paid much attention when it was little villages being decimated and that's been going on a long time (decades at least). Nothing has changed about Ebola except it got lucky and found a populated area. Now, it's big news. But the cure is still the same as before.
Horrific, but it's all we have.
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)You not not only hit the nail on the head, you smacked it all the way through the 2 x 4.
valerief
(53,235 posts)Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)internet (and that's saying something)
google "ebola hoax"
...
LisaL
(44,972 posts)Considering they took belongings of ebola patients, it will be quick.
toddwv
(2,830 posts)their children are likely to suffer from their actions as well.
These people are highly religious, superstitious, scared, and generally ignorant (thanks to a school system that is seriously lacking). They are also extremely distrusting of the west, sometimes for good reasons, sometimes "just because."
It's a difficult and deadly situation that doesn't have an easy answer and unfortunately many many people will experience horrific deaths as a result of the poor public infrastructure that is prolific in that part of the world.
LisaL
(44,972 posts)A large number of them will most likely get infected if they are going to use belongings of Ebola patients. I saw other stories where people generally were avoiding houses and bodies of Ebola patients, so I am not sure why this group wouldn't do the same.
toddwv
(2,830 posts)Sorry if my post sounded a bit accusatory. I just truly feel for these people, even if some of them are digging their own graves. Many if not most can barely sustain themselves without something like ebola tossed into the mix.
My Pet Goat
(413 posts)My first reaction looking at these pictures was shock and sadness. These pictures clearly show close-knit families trying to look out for each other.
tblue37
(65,227 posts)hoax, so why take such precautions?
LisaL
(44,972 posts)Which is why a number of them is going to get Ebola and die.
tblue37
(65,227 posts)that densely packed population of about 20,000 people will be almost entirely doomed. We recoil now to think that Ebola has killed over 1,000 people. How will we react when the number reaches 20,000?
Avalux
(35,015 posts)The people have no idea...and they're terrified....not listening to anyone.
tblue37
(65,227 posts)listening to is selling them a pile of bull caca.
Ex Lurker
(3,811 posts)iamthebandfanman
(8,127 posts)with some Americans.. and yes, about the very subject of ebola.
peoples egos are so massive , some will never 'believe' science. how dare anyone prove them wrong.. as Stephen Colbert said at the white house press dinner .. (and im paraphrasing) your gut has more nerve endings in it than anywhere else in your body.. but don't go lookin for that in a book
JI7
(89,240 posts)Lydia Leftcoast
(48,217 posts)Some tribal, some Christian, some Muslim.
JI7
(89,240 posts)Lydia Leftcoast
(48,217 posts)All I know is that I've met Liberians (there are a lot in the Twin Cities, and they tend to work in nursing homes) who are any one of the three.
Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)So the vast ruling majority are Christians, the majority of those are Protestants...
valerief
(53,235 posts)RKP5637
(67,086 posts)Religion, the choice of the ignorant.
Sunlei
(22,651 posts)stevenleser
(32,886 posts)Ignorance and superstition can kill.
And before anyone asks/accuses, no, I don't wish an Ebola death on them for their actions. What I wish is of no consequence anyway. Their own ignorance has sealed their fates.
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)deserve exactly what they will get. The problem is that the innocent will suffer as well.
passiveporcupine
(8,175 posts)http://allafrica.com/stories/201408151535.html
They are a slum town, which most likely means, mostly uneducated.
No one deserves to die for being ignorant and fearful.
Unknown Beatle
(2,672 posts)entrenched in people worldwide. Here in the US, people go against their own self-interest when they vote republican. And when things start going bad because of republican policies, they blame democrats.
Even when people try to educate ignorance, the ignorant get pissed.
I really feel for the people of Monrovia as obviously someone brainwashed them onto believing that there was no Ebola. I really hope the children are spared from this horrific disease.
WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)It is why too many kids hate teachers.
ReRe
(10,597 posts)Ignorance kills. This is a true living nightmare, or day-of-the-living-dead. Does this mean the workers will have to stay there and die too? If so, then the workers should quarantine themselves up as best they can and start praying.
lonestarnot
(77,097 posts)tavalon
(27,985 posts)This has been containable, could still be containable but if these are the circumstances, it's not so likely to be containable.
I'm not particularly worried about it making it here. I want as few Africans as possible to die. This is not the way to make that happen.
Shit.
Liberal_in_LA
(44,397 posts)littlemissmartypants
(22,572 posts)In case you are too young to remember you can watch this...
http://vimeo.com/m/90722188
Or here...
http://m.
Love, Peace and Shelter.
~ Lmsp
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)For one, people can and could walk around with HIV for years, passing it on, before actually getting sick.
As it stands, now, anyone who catches ebola is either going to die quickly, or get better. While it may be possible to transmit the virus for some time after recovery, the sheer lethality of the fucker actually makes it spreading geographically a more difficult proposition.
Fortunately, for us.
Still, the game right now is to contain it. This sort of shit does NOT help, of course.
littlemissmartypants
(22,572 posts)But in the very beginning of the crisis no one knew that and panic with pandemonium was the order of the day. That's why I brought it up. Your point is valuable and valid. Thank you.
~ Lmsp
Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)any sort or who has an interest in the early days of the AIDS crisis, to watch the HBO film version of Larry Kramer's 'The Normal Heart'. It is very excellent, brutally truthful and this version is acted beautifully. The original play ran during the time it portrays, I call this the play that probably saved my life.
It's going to win a truck load of Emmy Awards. Mark Ruffalo, Jim Parsons, Julia Roberts, Alfred Molina,Joe Mantello and Matt Bomer all have acting nominations for this film. They each deserve the nomination.
It is the best film about political activism in the US in many years.
http://www.hbo.com/movies/the-normal-heart#/
littlemissmartypants
(22,572 posts)WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)littlemissmartypants
(22,572 posts)The panic? Remember the lies? Remember the ignorance? Watching people die isolated and afraid?
defacto7
(13,485 posts)but their actions may begin to change the tide among many in Liberia and surrounding areas when the realization that the outcome of such actions is death. It's inevitable that there will be many killed by this action but it may be the only thing that will teach the tribal communities and the superstitious that Ebola is real and utterly ruthless. It's sad that this is the only way many will be able to understand.
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)JNelson6563
(28,151 posts)teh stupid.
I guess we can expect to hear stories very soon of many deaths, many unnecessary deaths.
Hello 14th century!
Julie
MoonRiver
(36,926 posts)AngryAmish
(25,704 posts)kelliekat44
(7,759 posts)Panic, fear, and stupidity...a quick way to spread a deadly disease. People like Rep King help feed the crazies.
magical thyme
(14,881 posts)and 3 who left with relatives the night before also tested positive.
So they will find out soon enough that there is an ebola outbreak and that they're going next.
http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/ebola-outbreak-fears-after-monrovia-clinic-is-raided-by-armed-gang/story-fneuz9ev-1227027524589