Drastic action needed on Ebola

Some level-headed thinking from the skeptical libertarian:

The Ebola saga is ridiculous. Two cases and one death is not an “outbreak.” And even if the numbers were a hundred times as high, it would still be less of a threat than common diseases and conditions. Stop pretending your life is a horror story, and stop demanding that the president be your superhero.
 
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At McMom's hostpital (medium sized rural facility) they are in Ebola panic mode. A juvenile pt was getting xrays and tweeted her ID band with a caption "they think I have Ebola". What a special little snow flake. Anyway, the staff and administration are putting protocols in place attempting to identify pts with risk factors as early as possible. She has probably had 3-4 hours of meetings about it this week. More are expected.


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OK, but it's not useful to use the term unless you want to unnecessarily scare people.

Is this what you mean by unnecessarily scare?

Everyone knows that ebola kills, but what exactly does it do? This worm-like virus has a devious way of working. Once it gets in the body, the virus attaches itself to the surface of the cells. Then it invades them, replicates, and causes the cells to explode, sending infectious particles flying. From there, Ebola overpowers the immune system. It uses the very cells that are meant to fight infection to travel to other parts of the body, including the liver, spleen, kidneys, and brain. It attacks almost every organ and tissue. The particle explosion also sets off an overwhelming inflammatory reaction. That’s what causes the sudden flu-like symptoms that are the first signs of ebola. Inside the blood vessels, the virus causes abnormal clotting and bleeding at the same time. Bleeding into the skin causes a red rash that appears all over. With the ability to clot normally destroyed, bleeding occurs internally as well as from the eyes, ears, and nose. This whole cascade of events causes the organs to fail. The loss of blood, along with organ failure, is what makes ebola so deadly. But if doctors can keep the organs working with intravenous fluids, blood transfusions, a ventilator, and other treatments, there’s a much better chance they can save lives. The infection moves fast and it can kill in 1 to 2 weeks. In the current outbreak, 60% of the people who caught the virus have died. Many more could likely be saved with better access to medical care. The risk of catching ebola is extremely low in the U.S., and officials are working round the clock to make sure it is contained. For WebMD, I’m Dr. Michael Smith.
 
You can understand why people are in a panic with a 70% mortality rate.

Is it scary? Yes, am I concerned? No.

There are 318,968,000 (2014 estimate) and there 3 cases so I'm not sure why people are freaking out just yet. I'll be concerned when we start having body burnings and mass graves while marking houses with red Xs.
 
Is it scary? Yes, am I concerned? No.

There are 318,968,000 (2014 estimate) and there 3 cases so I'm not sure why people are freaking out just yet. I'll be concerned when we start having body burnings and mass graves while marking houses with red Xs.


Be too late to worry then. Pick a different line to draw.
 
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Is it scary? Yes, am I concerned? No.

There are 318,968,000 (2014 estimate) and there 3 cases so I'm not sure why people are freaking out just yet. I'll be concerned when we start having body burnings and mass graves while marking houses with red Xs.

We don't want to even get there. In Asia people panicked about the SARs virus which was much less deadly than ebola but I'm convinced that panic is what helped the virus to be damped down. To me our biggest potential weakness is complacency.
 
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