It really seems people import what they see in movies about hospital care and outbreaks and assume that's how the real world works.
cml750 got a point. Until there is much stronger procedures and plan in place (such as, for example, anyone coming from that region need to be monitor until the incubation period is over), perhaps temporary public flight restriction from those regions while the outbreak is still occurring is called for soon. If the WHO estimate of up to 10k new cases per week in 2M is right, I think there is a more urgent need to consider this.
Healthcare workers need to be trained how to work around infected people without contracting the virus themselves. It seems the nurses needed better PPE than what they had.
The Economist argues that this is kind of useless, since a lot of people arriving from Africa to US actually go there via Europe, so you'll need a screening process in Europe too, which is just unfeasible from the US standpoint.
In the US right now, Ebola is statistically irrelevant. It's a good preparedness drill though. HIV/AIDs, SARS, Avian Flu etc, With the world getting smaller all local epidemics will have the potential to become pandemics, so an exercise with something so small and non-communicable is probably a good thing. The research ramp-up will be positive too, like what has happened for HIV in the passed 5 years.
Is this an appropriate thread to mock the CDC, the hospital, that 2nd nurse, and Dallas in general? The actions taken by these people are similar to the silly antics you see in a movie and laugh off as being too unrealistic - no one can be that stupid. Proven wrong! People apparently are that stupid. (I bet that nurse wouldn't tell anyone if she were bit by a zombie in the zombie apoc)
Dallas is a test case that proves your last statement false. This man slept in bed, while sick, with his girlfriend. Multiple people in that apartment shared a bathroom with him, breathed the same air, etc. None of them got sick. The two people who got sick were the two people directly tending to him when he was vomiting, bleeding, having explosive diarrhea, etc. In other words, the two people who got sick from him got sick the same way people have always gotten sick from this strain of Ebola.
I'm waiting for the Palin's and Bachman's of the world to talk about how this is some sort of sign from God.
As to the question, no I don't think we ban travel. I think it would push extra costs on people and disrupt commerce without being terribly effective. As much as I've been making fun of the CDC on this recently, I still have confidence that their plans are good and their execution will improve. I think it's much more important to move into West Africa and help clean up the problem there. If the problem continues there, other targets with lower defenses (like, say, India) will get infected at some point. And then what are you going to do? A travel ban on India?
Obama to Tap Former VP Chief of Staff Ron Klain as Ebola 'Czar' President Barack Obama will appoint Ron Klain to head up efforts to address the Ebola threat, a senior administration official tells NBC News. Klain is a former chief of staff to both Vice President Joe Biden and former Vice President Al Gore. He left the vice president's office in 2011. He is now the president of Case Holdings and serves as the general counsel for Revolution, an investment organization. Obama signaled his openness to appointing an Ebola "czar" Thursday night, telling reporters that it "may be appropriate" to elevate an additional person to coordinate the U.S. response. The White House had previously resisted the idea of a czar, saying that the administration had already established clear lines of responsibility for handling the threat. But Obama faced pressure from critics who argue that the nation's hospitals are not prepared for an outbreak of the virus. The choice of Klain did not assuage some detractors. Former Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson weighed in on Twitter.
Jeez, I know money runs things, but how about the guy in charge of the Public Health Service... Oh, that's right, we don't have a Surgeon General. OK, how about someone from an organization used to running large, complex responses to incidents, like the Coast Guard or even APHIS which has dealt with national outbreaks among farm animals? How about someone with international experience? What the hell is an investment banker doing running this? This is not the job for a political flunkie even if he is one of my political flunkies. (Let me be clear... I'm not in a panic over Ebola. I'm just amazed that given the current set of circumstances, this is the best guy out there to both manage the response nationally and internationally and also communicate effectively with everyone.)
He won't be running anything. There isn't anything setup for him to run, all of the relevant agencies are autonomous no matter what these tarded politicians think.
