Some Ebola experts worry virus may spread more easily than assumed

[brentspeak]

I don't know, what do you think? Shouldn't these scientists instead defer to internet posters who say otherwise?

Some Ebola experts worry virus may spread more easily than assumed

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-ebola-questions-20141007-story.html#page=1

U.S. officials leading the fight against history's worst outbreak of Ebola have said they know the ways the virus is spread and how to stop it. They say that unless an air traveler from disease-ravaged West Africa has a fever of at least 101.5 degrees or other symptoms, co-passengers are not at risk.

snip

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.

Dr. Philip K. Russell, a virologist who oversaw Ebola research while heading the U.S. Army's Medical Research and Development Command, and who later led the government's massive stockpiling of smallpox vaccine after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, also said much was still to be learned. "Being dogmatic is, I think, ill-advised, because there are too many unknowns here."

"I see the reasons to dampen down public fears," 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."

[get the red out]

1. We need to limit air travel

We need to stop air travel from areas where Ebola is spreading to the US now (with the exception of delivering medical assistance). Political correctness is not more important that lives.

And the reason I said "to the US" is because that is the only country our government should really should have a say in, not because I don't "like" other countries.

[HockeyMom]

4. Do they still stamp your Passport with places you have been to?

I know they did years ago, but when I went on a Caribbean cruise a few years ago, they didn't stamp it. Anyone with an US Passport was just waved through. Now let's say that a European businessman travels to Africa. He then goes back to his home county for a few days. He then travels to the US on business. He would not have a connecting flight since it was not continuous. The only way anyone would know where he had been to would be if his Passport was stamped with the countries he had visited.

[get the red out]

5. 6 years ago they did

Mine was stamped when I traveled internationally 6 years ago.

Surely if they are not checking now, that could be put back into the travel process.

[tammywammy]

7. No, not everyone gets stamped.

I was in Australia in May. When we arrived you slid your passport into this machine and some people were pulled to go to the desk and some weren't. I got a stamp since I went to the line, but my friend was waved through, so she didn't get a stamp.

[adigal]

2. I agree. We have to safeguard our country until we get a handle on this

Our govts first obligation is supposedly to protect us - and not just from beheadings.

[get the red out]

6. I agree

Can't "catch" a beheading from sitting next to someone on the shuttle from the airport to the hotel.

[scarystuffyo]

3. scary stuff