Does ebola still worry you, or have you forgot about it by now?

[Electric Monk]

[Live and Learn]

1. Never did. I have a whole lot of compassion for victims and think the doctors,

nurses and aid workers that tend to them are quite heroic but I have never been truly frightened of it. i was a bit frightened at our response to the victims that came here though. And no, I haven't forgotten it. I also hope the medical establishment hasn't forgotten it and continues tp work on finding cures. I wish we would spend more on research of all ailments and less on killing each other.

[Turbineguy]

2. You have to admit though

Last edited Tue Sep 15, 2015, 06:43 AM - Edit history (1)

it was a successful test of the conservative propaganda system in the U.S.

"Ebola is scary and so are Democrats!"

One wonders what pathogen will be used during the next election to put republicans into power. Apparently gerrymandering and fraud isn't good enough

[Warren DeMontague]

3. any incurable communicable pathogen with a 70% lethality rate should "worry" human animals.

It was pretty clear that the 2014 outbreak would have been a lot less severe if it had been taken more seriously, early on.

While there was certainly overblown hyperbole around it, it also threw into stark relief the need for assistance to improve medical infrastructure in countries like Sierra Leone, Liberia, etc. and quickly impressed upon the developed world how the dilapidated living conditions and levels of health care 'over there' could become our problem 'over here', in addition to being a humanitarian imperative.

filoviruses like ebola are nothing to fuck around with. Just because it didn't get worse, doesn't mean it couldn't have- the experience in Nigeria; a series of errors leading to an initial outbreak followed by a concerted effort to stop it which was fortunately successful- could have been a lot worse.

No one can possibly tell me that ebola really getting loose in one of the densely packed poor urban centers in the world- Lagos, Bombay, Mexico City- couldn't very easily turn into a major disaster. And until 2014, drug companies were like "meh" on developing vaccines because there was no profit motive.

Hopefully now the global health authorities are holding the drug developers' feet to the fire, because the virus is still out there and it will kill people again if it is given the chance.

[zappaman]

5. Those arent the only reasons for the outbreak.

A friend of mine headed the effort in Liberia. Their culture hugs, kisses, and basically holds on tight to the dead. That's the main reason it spread.
So, educating the people made a huge difference.
He showed me some cell pix of the posters that were plastered everywhere to make people aware. Unfortunately I can't find any on the internet.
And it IS over, which is good news. And the vaccine is working.

Apparently, it all started when a boy ate a raw bat.
No, his name was not Ozzy.

[Warren DeMontague]

6. It is good. Yeah, I think patient zero was a little 2 yo guy. Very sad.

Hopefully part of the fallout will be better medical care for the people down there, so at least some positive stuff may come out of it long-term, along with- as you say- finally getting some traction on an effective vaccine.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/31/health/guinea-ebola-vaccine/

With any luck by the time the next outbreak rolls around they will be able to ring it with vaccinated people, caregivers, etc and stop it much quicker.

[zappaman]

11. I think they are okay when it comes to Ebola.

What worries me is what is going to come as the permafrost melts.
Some virus that hasn't been on Earth for millions of years maybe?

[Whiskeytide]

17. Bingo. I fear there's a super...

... bug there with our name on it. Although, you can make the argument that it's a "cure" Mother Nature is using to rid itself of the worst virus ever known - man.

[WestCoastLib]

12. Ok. But it doesnt have a 70% lethality rate

Out of the 3 cases of people actually getting it in the US, 2 were cured and the one that died waited until it was too late to go the hospital.

It's the conditions in 3rd world countries that make it so deadly

[Warren DeMontague]

13. True. Of course, the 2 cases treated in the US that survived didn't just get the benefit of

standard levels of western care, they had the laser-like focus of the entire apparatus of American health care at their disposal.

The rest of what I said stands, though. I do think it's possible to acknowledge that Fox News played up ebola panic for ratings AND still recognize that it's a dangerous virus and not some giant overblown joke.

[Kennah]

4. Benghazi!!! n/t

[Hoppy]

7. Lucky for us in New Jersey, we have Dr. Christie. When that nurse came back from Sierra Leone,

he immediately sized up the situation and put her in quarantine. He didn't even have to examine her to know that she might be a problem. As a result, nobody in N.J. got ebola.

Thank you Dr. Christie for being there when we needed you instead of being in New Hampshire.

[raccoon]

8. No. I think most Americans' chances of being shot by a crazed gunperson on a spree are

greater than the chance of dying of, or even contracting, ebola.

[SheilaT]

9. Never scared me.

I already knew enough about it to know that I was pretty much at zero risk of getting it. There was an incredible amount of ignorance around exactly how it was spread. I had already read The Coming Plague by Laurie Garrett, which came out in 1994, and includes information about Ebola.

Since epidemiology is one of the many topics that utterly fascinates me, I've read quite a few books on it, and while I'm not an actual expert, I do have a pretty good grasp on various diseases, how they come about, how they're spread, and so on. Which meant I knew that the general public in this country had zero chance of getting the disease, and all that bullshit about quarantining people because they'd flown on an airplane that someone who was exposed to the virus had also flown on, was complete idiocy.

A more recent and equally fascinating book (and I've recommended it to people here dozens of times, especially back during the Ebola Hysteria) is Spillover by David Quammen, which is about how diseases leap from animals to humans. That came out in 2012.

[Avalux]

10. Ebola doesn't scare me. Inadequate infection control in our private hospitals does.

We were given a glimpse into how things may go in the face of a pandemic. It was clear to me that our hospitals are not equipped to handle such things. If it ever happens, we're all on our own.

[Marrah_G]

14. Ebola doesn't scare me

If I lived in an African country with poor healthcare available then Ebola would worry me, along with a host of other virus and bacteria.

If we want to combat contagious illness then we need to tackle poverty.

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. Knowing a tad it scsared me in the least

if I had been in the locus countries, that would have been different.

[kairos12]

16. FEMA camps and the invasion of Texas. Oh Mi.

[dembotoz]

18. ebola seems to have some design defects that limit the threat in this county

should it learn to pass thru the air???
watch out

we are overdue for a nice pandemic
i am older
overweight
with asthma

figure the kids will get my condo....