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Ebola is an RNA - factor virus, meaning that it must have host protein to multiply. The size of the outbreak in Sierra Leon and Liberia suggest a slight mutation, that it is more viable, more motive, that, however, is in Africa.
If you watch the Videos you'll see a major difference in the equipment used. I was horrified to see the Samaritan's Purse people in what amounts to enhanced surgical garb. They should have been in Racal3's, an overpressure suit made with anti-rip/puncture proof Kevlar and integral climate control. Why this occurred I do not know, but without doubt it enhanced the risk by 25 - 35 percent.
Ebola, and all the Hemorrhagic fevers, while very serious, are not the threat portrayed by the braying media. Patient 0 was entered into the U.S. with the full knowledge of the best healthcare system in the world, and that system is what negates the risk by a large percentage.
The West African who travelled to the Northeast on Saturday is quarantined. So while there is a risk, it is minimal.
The healthcare that a patient receives in the US is going to be considerably better than what he would get in most parts of Africa. In a case where supportive therapy is the only tool you have, this is going to have a major influence on the outcome. _I_ would certainly prefer to be taken care of in the US if I had Ebola!
If the possibility exists for creating a vaccine, we should do so. If the FDA is inclined to be cooperative and we can leverage public opinion for the developer of the vaccine to have a lower cost of research with respect to the approval mechanism, then this is also good. (Getting the FDA to approve a new drug can cost millions of dollars - this is part of the 'surface tension' that drug companies have to consider when deciding to develop a new drug or vaccine.)
I have never had to suit up in a biohazard suit, but I have had to draw blood from isolation patients under circumstances short of that. If I had the proper biohazard equipment, I would not hesitate to work with an Ebola patient. You have to take the right precautions (SOP's!) and know what is going on (thinking).
Jan
Could you imagine any scenario in which a wild-type infectious agent, if endemic in any nation-state, constitutes casus belli against that nation-state? (That is to say, just how virulent would the agent have to be?)
For the second para - are you saying that it is not created, but merely exists? If the latter, then no, but it would be cause for strict quarantine. How virulent? Good question. For one infected and dying, that would be sufficient. That said, life is not fair, and an individual cannot expect to be free from natural hazards. The issue is that an infected person can choose to self-contain or to subject others to exposure. If they choose to subject others to exposure, that is an initiation of force and you have a right to protect yourself.
A good parallel is a person with AIDS who intentionally does not protect their partners. That is an application of deadly force and they can and should be arrested and segregated from society.
There is a responsibility on both parties, in my view. Those with susceptible immune systems should take prudent care not to put themselves in harms way. Those with potentially deadly viruses should not place themselves in situations where they might infect those most susceptible. Inadvertently cross contaminating those at risk by those who are risky is a consequence of life - so long as both parties have exercised prudent care.
Again, just my reasoned, but humble opinion.
We can hope such a center would stick to hard, objective (pun intended) science, and not manipulate results for the benefit of those trying to sell a solution for artificial acquired immunity that would carry a greater risk of harm to the persons (in the aggregate) embracing that solution than the disease itself might present. Rand did say this: one must not equate the potential with the actual, nor especially sacrifice the actual to the potential. That suggests the concept called "herd immunity" would be anathema to her and would find no place in any planning she would sanction.
In case anyone here hasn't heard: many today advocate for abandoning artificial acquired immunity and using diet and other means to strengthen the in-born special (meaning "of a species") immunity of human beings, and facilitating natural acquired immunity. That generally means risking exposure to the disease itself and strengthening one's natural constitution to help one go through a bout of the disease with significantly less morbidity or threat of mortality.
You mentioned AIDS up-thread. I presume you were speaking of Gaetan Dugas, whom the popular media generally accept as having been that Patient Zero who brought AIDS to North America. See Shilts R, "And the Band Played On," and other such chronicles. According to these, Dugas abused his position as an airline flight attendant to find persons to be intimate with, and almost cheerfully dared authorities to arrest him (and presumably dared his government-run airline employer to fire him). The airline culture (that is, flight attendants, flight officers, and anyone else connected with commercial aviation) have a phrase for such behavior: "the jet job." The usual context for that phrase "jet job" is adultery and blackmail. Here it means Dugas stands accused of using fornication to wage biological warfare on the customers of the airline for which he worked, and the public at large.
I'm definitely not in favor of adding any more to government than is minimally necessary to carry out on-going tasks. And those should not expand over time. If anything, they should decrease as the society becomes competent in the situation.
This is interesting and all, but where's it going?
You know what the collectivists always say. They want to point to "services" the USA and most Western countries get from the government, and suggest such services would be non-existent, sub-standard, or restricted to "the rich" or their favorites. (As if that's not true today.) I aim to anticipate such arguments.
That, by the way, is why I am on this forum. I don't object to talking about current events, even current events outside the pending release of AS3. But, given the name of this forum, we ought to be ready when the collectivists scornfully ask us, "How would YOU handle it?"
http://www.galtsgulchonline.com/posts/ea...
I just wanted to address the epidemiology question, because Rand did not treat it. The closest she came to treating it was her essay on emergencies. In that essay, she defined "emergency" and suggested this was the one and only occasion in which one person owed another any favors.
There is a lot of money to be made by this. The fact that it could kill thousands of Americans doesn't matter. And, I must add...in my technical work I have done analysis of hospital design and construction - particularly of hvac and plumbing systems. I can tell you that there have been many lies already told to the public about how safely they are housing these patients. These people running this are either clueless (could be, I've seen plenty of that by doctors) or this is some planned disaster.
This is being run by the same people who can't stop MRSA, even though the methods for doing that are simple, yet not being carried out.
Word of advice...Hospitals are the most dangerous places you can be. If in one, get out ASAP. Feeling decent post-surgery? Get the hell out as soon as you can. Man...the stories I could share...
As a CBRN/BIDS NCO, I think I'll choose to disagree. MRSA is not a virus, it is a contact born pathogen, a vector of itself. Hospitals that have trouble with it have bad/inadequate staffing problems, and inadequate environmental health & safety protocols in place.
Ebola, with the exception of several novels and B Movies, is not weaponized, that is a micron sized aerosol, it requires infected fluid transfer, and in our temperate climate, with normal supportive care would only replicate if fluid is transferred.
Assuming an untraced carrier patient 0, a maximum infectivity of 5 to perhaps thirty might occur. and DHS would lock the country down tight, let me assure you that they can, within two or three hours of Patient 0 going missing. That would be a worse case scenario and morbidity would probably be around 10 to 15 percent of the total infected.
RNA- viruses like Ebola mutate as they replicate and they lose their ability to replicate after the second or third mutation.
However, we won't tell you of what they're making sure...
And you thought all those "zombie apocalypse" movies were fiction, eh?
The only relatively healthy European country is oddly enough, Russia; though they have their problems too...
I adore Dr. Savage's monologues... especially when he uses the words (will try to capture intonation) SENNNNNNNNNNsitive and CAAAAAARing, etc. That tickles me to no end. Self-inflicted sickness and suicide on a national level becomes humorous for a moment...
It's due to the poison "flower power" of the 1960's coming to full bloom...
Ebola hemorrhagic fever is a severe infection. It can have a mortality rate of up to 90%. The infection can occur in humans and animals.
Causes
Ebola hemorrhagic fever is caused by the Ebola virus. The virus can pass from person to person through blood or other bodily secretions. When these fluids come in contact with skin or mucus membranes the virus can pass and cause the infection. The virus can also pass through contaminated needles.
Now that is a frighting thought.
Regards - "Les Aeolides" - a servant of the God of the Winds in "classical" mythology... If you like classical music, google that phrase, written by the French composer Cesar Franck in 1876 after encountering the "mistral" while on vacation in the south of France... heard the music in 1978 and knew what it was about... Obviously impressed me greatly, hence my "handle" - "aeolides" being attendants to Aeolus, in Classical mythology... Guess I'm a pagan!