Texas Ebola Patient Dies

Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas announced that Thomas Eric Duncan died Wednesday morning as the result of his infection with the Ebola virus, according to the Washington Post. The experimental treatment using the oral anti-viral drug brincidofovir obviously did not work, but that may have been because it was administered after he had fallen critically ill. We should know by next week if any of the folks with whom he came in contact before being diagnosed will fall ill from the disease.
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post comments
Brincidofovir's one hell of a drug.
It is, but its name sounds like a character in an Icelandic saga.
Brincidofovir's Saga
Yeah, you are right - that works.
If we were serious we might require a 3 week quarantine for all travelers from Ebola stricken regions. But we aren't serious.
Obama and his cronies are more concerned with winning votes and being politically correct than they are protecting our country. Banning flights is racist. Closing our borders is racist. It would also stop the endless supply of cheap labor. Sigh.
You allowed ISIS to flourish. You picked a senseless fight with Russia. You ruined health insurance. My health insurance is up to $450/month from just $200/month. My car insurance is currently only $25/month (from Insurance Panda), but who knows when Obama will try to step in and create socialized car insurance. Our country is doomed.
Ebola needs to be stopped, and for that to happen, Obama needs to go.
But what about his dog?
Sorry, wrong case. It was the Spanish nurse's dog:
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyli.....og-n220846
What, me worry?
I've seen this movie before. Didn't it star Dustin Hoffman and Renee Russo?
Didn't Matt Damon's wife spread the plague with her Vagina?
Yes and it was fucking terrible.
It's a milquetoast star vehicle by-the-numbers mid-90's film. Of course it's terrible.
Its the kind of movie Ed Wood would have made had he worked in the late 20th Century and been given a hundred million dollar budget.
No, Ed would have made a better movie.
It was way too earnest for Ed Wood.
the fact that (and I can't believe I remember this) that Dustin Hoffman could talk the United States Government out of nuking the site from space by making an impassioned speech over a helicopter radio was just retarded.
Jesus this is confusing. So should we worry about Ebola or not?!!
No. Ebola is only a problem only where the most basic hygiene is ignored. Bury/burn the bodies, autoclave the biowaste and throw bleach around liberally... end of problem.
There will be no ebola epidemic in the US.
should I tell my friends some guy on the internet said so or can I use your name for extra credibility?
Feel free to promulgate.
I wasn't just spouting off. My PhD is in microbiology/bioenergetics and have a lot of experience in molecular biology and some in vaccine development.
Nice slam-dunk, doc.
I got schooled by a "doctor" named ubik
If you want to be afraid of something then fear weaponization of anthrax spores or Yersinia pestis (plague)...very deadly unless you've had your AVA shots or one of the plague vaccines currently in development.
Also weaponization of Burkholderia...one cell could do you in quite nicely.
If you want to be afraid of something then fear weaponization of anthrax
And yet even then I'm to understand that weaponizing Anthrax is incredibly difficult, so wrapping your house in mylar is probably going a bit far.
Nope very easy if you not that worried about killing yourself in the process.
Check out the Sverdlovsk anthrax incident on Wiki for oops we had a little accident. Spoken with one of the microbiologists from that era, now in the US about how things were done there at the time.
"Just one teaspoon of super-AIDS in your butt and you're dead in three years."
A regular Little Mary Sunshine, you are, doc. I'm taking a shine to you, ubik.
His handle is a PKD reference... of course he's smart.
Thanks, Sug.
Fully paid-up member of VALIS.
Seriously, PKD was poor almost all his life and his kids make-out like bandits!
At least Ann isn't getting any of that movie moolah.
From what I know they were actually quite happily married for a while. I have a feeling being married to PKD was not easy.
I have a PhD in Pimpin'. What does that get me?
herpes?
Was it easy?
With the degree inflation we have today, it was definitely necessary.
+ 1 pimp hat
See the link I posted below, PRX.
"Ebola is only a problem only where the most basic hygiene is ignored."
So, daycare and grade schools will be the primary vector?
I'm guessing by the time you're shedding viral particles you're feeling a tad under the weather what with blood etc coming out of all available bodily orifices...
So, how much would I have to pay you for you to share a bottle of water with a guy you know has been exposed to Ebola, and who has started showing symptoms common to many viral infections (fever, sweating, diarrhea), but not the hemorrhagic symptoms?
I'm not a sharing a water bottle with anyone even if they're in the very picture of health!
What, even for a million bucks? A chance to bang a supermodel? Ascending to the throne of Earth? Everyone has their price, especially for a small risk (the standard issue water bottle, that is, not the Ebola one)
Can I run a sample of the water through RT-PCR screening with the relevant primer sets first?
Cheater.
I'm guessing by the time you're shedding viral particles you're feeling a tad under the weather what with blood etc coming out of all available bodily orifices...
My daycare only has a policy against fever and diarrhea, nothing against excessive hemorrhaging.
/I got a job to go
So, daycare and grade schools will be the primary vector?
As they so often are, Aunty. But, this could also mean shutting down schools for a year, if the parents go hysterical and stop sending their kids. That could be a golden opportunity to break the back of the government union education cartel.
In my more optimistic moments, I've thought the same thing.
Isn't there a more climate-friendly option - perhaps something from Seventh Generation?
I'm starting to worry that we're overplaying the whole "they're dirty, we're clean" defense.
Despite the assurances of Top Men, yes, you should worry. I don't think it's going to be an Earth Abides scenario, but it's going to get worse before it gets better. And now we've established the principle that any African with the price of an airline ticket can get here and get a million dollars worth of medical treatment, including experimental drugs. And your illegal alien friends and relatives with get nice new housing instead of being kicked out of the country. And just wait until Ebola hits Mexico or Central or South America! Get ready for more "refugees."
Your obsession is getting all over your shirt. You might want to wear a bib.
^This.
Careful. Ebola can be transmitted via obsession.
But only from illegal immigrants.
LonePapaya's right. They're just here to take our medicines.
Yeah, I know it's part of libertarian dogma that all immigration is a good thing, despite plenty of evidence that it's not. So mock me and go along with the Democrats who are electing a new people, and the Chamber of Commerce types who want lots of cheap labor.
Holy false dichotomy, Batman!
No, it's not. The Democrats are electing a new people by importing as many poor Hispanics and Africans and others as they can. Unfortunately, libertarian dogma insists that immigration has only positive effects, and so they somehow can't see the downside of importing millions of anti-libertarians.
The perfume? I smell a new ad campaign in the works.
He's just been reading the new David Mitchell novel and taking things a little too seriously.
Nice comeback. I'd feel better if you actually refuted any of his points.
Thank you, Drake.
Yuck, yuck. But mark my words. I took guff for pointing out all the diseases among the last wave of Central Americans, and now there's EV-68 everywhere.
I took guff for saying the Ebola might well be easier to catch than the Top Men said, and now we've got the Spanish nurse who seems to have gotten it simply from touching her face with a gloved hand, and the CDC is admitting that Ebola "may" go airborne.
Enterovirus D68
EV-68 was very rare in the US until recently.
Although it's received very little mainstream media coverage, the current outbreak of EV-D68 is common to El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua, three countries where a bulk of the illegal immigrant children come from. These unaccompanied illegal immigrant children have been allowed into the nation's school systems without medical screenings and without required vaccinations.
How weird that it sweeps the US only after a bunch of illegals are placed all over the country.
Gotta love when OPEN BOARDERZZ!! types can't actually articulate their beliefs other than berating those who don't agree with them.
"Like dude, the government can't do anything right, y'know? The borders are imaginary lines, maaaan."
So much wrong with that, PapayaSF. No, it hasn't been established that "any African with the price of an airline ticket..." [emphasis mine].
There was a patient here and we treated him. What were we supposed to do, kill him? Srsly? And while deportation sounds good in theory you can't just push him over the border into Canada or Mexico. I can't see any airline wanting to transport him so that means an expensive medevac flight (expensive because there are only a limited number of planes setup for containment, and decontamination costs money.
RABBLE RABBLE IMMIGRANTS RABBLE
*Ahem*
I believe is is "ROBBLE" (Too Hamburglar-y?) or maybe "ARGLE BARGLE"
HERP DERP IMMIGBERP EBOLORP DORP
Hmmmm. That seems to work.
My body is having strange convulsions and I am secreting clear liquid from eyes. Should I see a doctor or find a comedy station on Pandora?
DER TERK ER GERMS!
No....DEY TUK R MEDZ!
I'm not saying we should have killed him, but it's insane to be giving tourist visas to people from Ebola countries during an epidemic. Yes, quarantines are hard to make perfect, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't try.
And as much as libertarians generally understand how incentives work, some of them seem to be blind to the incentives we are creating here.
African with the price of an airline ticket can get here and get a million dollars worth of medical treatment,
Isn't that probably the very thing that makes an american pandemic highly unlikely?
I have it on good authority that Debbie Wasserman Shultz is fundraising to buy them plane tickets this very moment.
That's a relief. I don't think $5.27 buys even one plane ticket from Africa to USA.
That's not even a taste of the back of her hand.
How many people do you think any American city can put into biohazard-level isolation? You do know that 75,000-100,000 people die every year from hospital-acquired infections, and that's just C. diff. and MRSA and other things less scary than Ebola?
I'm not saying there's going to be a pandemic, just that there's a lot of complacency about our "advanced medical system" and a lot of "don't panic the proles" bullshit being spread about how we know everything about this strain of Ebola.
Depends on the city. The thing is to keep it from spreading before it gets to the point of overwhelming the system. The keeping it from spreading part is where we have the biggest advantage.
Keeping it from spreading is my whole point. So how about we restrict possible carriers from coming here? It makes much more sense to keep it from spreading out of Africa, than to keep it from spreading once it gets here. It may not be better for a Liberian to have Ebola in Liberia compared to having it in the US, but it's better for the US.
I think the ebola virus is quite fragile, doubt it would survive for long outside an infected individual.
It is more fragile than some viruses, but it can still survive for a while in blood, vomit, sweat, etc.
Hours to days, which is enough time to infect a ton of people.
But easily killed by 6% hypochlorite solution...household bleach.
Unfortunately, by the time I know to carry a bottle of bleach around with me in public to clean every doorknob I come across it will probably be too late
Or, like Papaya said, we could not let people in from countries with known outbreaks. Nah! Too hard.
It's too hard and "racist."
The best way to keep it from spreading is to minimize the amount that arrives in the first place. Neighboring African nations didn't have this option, but being over on another continent we can make a pretty fair go of it.
Actually they do have this option, and many have closed their borders.
Somehow I survived Swine Flu, Bird Flu, SARS, Africanized Killer Honeybees, etc so I am not exactly worried. I know, I know, it's different this time.
No, YOU DID NOT! You were stung to death by Killer Bees, admit it.
I actually died from acid rain back in 1988.
My condolences. I was killed by the glacier that formed over my house in the 70's so I can sympathize.
You sure it wasn't a mutant fire-starting cockroach?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0OnDYxdilk
The ones that eat my books and papers are bad enough - and they are real.
Africanized Killer Honeybees
Before or after all the colonies collapsed?
None of those kill 50-80% of the people infected.
It was the Alar that finally got me.
Except Duncan wasn't an illegal immigrant, was screened at the airport, and got through because he had no symptoms at the time.
Damn you and your facts, Christophe. How dare you contradict his narrative of diseased illegal immigrants causing the downfall of America?
He also lied. The screening process is a joke.
There were numerous indications that he intended to be an illegal immigrant, e.g. he got a visitor visa to visit his "sister" who turned out to be his fianc
Correct. The only thing that would have prevented Duncan from getting through would be a travel ban or an automatic quarantine imposed on passengers from countries where Ebola is currently epidemic.
He was "screened"? He filled out a form and lied on it in order to get out of the country. By all accounts he shouldn't have qualified for a visa.
They say there are strangers who threaten us
Our immigrants and infidels...
any African with the price of an airline ticket
So basically hardly any Africans?
Out of 1.1 billion Africans, I suspect quite a few have $1,300.
Are those the people hanging out in Liberian slums coming down with Ebola?
How many do there need to be?
At least one.
And there has already been "one" - his name was Eric Duncan and he died this morning.
I'll take your questions now.
Yeah, go to 1:52 for a demonstration of the ultimate gov response to the "outbreak."
It is amusing to see all this happening just before an election. Foreigners entering the US with Ebola, EV-68, and a host of other diseases, reinforcing the very un-PC stereotype. ISIS advances, to which we respond half-heartedly, thus ticking off both the peaceniks and the neocons. Walmart cuts health benefits due to Obamacare. Leon Panetta and various other insiders speaking out about Obama. It feels a lot like 2010 and 1994. The post-election wailing of Democrats will be a sight to behold.
Panetta is probably angling for a spot in Hillary's administration should she run and be elected prez in 2016. Hell, maybe he's thinking about trying for the nomination himself.
Speaking of diseases, I got this little gem from my kid's school yesterday:
Date: October 7, 2014 at 2:20:43 PM PDT
Subject: FYI: Enterovirus D68
From the District Office:
Good Morning,
There has been a confirmed case of Enterovirus D68 in a student attending a nearby school district. This is the virus you may have been hearing about in the news that was originally reported in Colorado and the East Coast. It is similar to the flu with mild to severe respiratory symptoms. Severe symptoms, if left untreated, can develop with further complications.
It's also similar to polio. So you got some illegal alien kids in your area, too, eh?
It's well known that native USians don't have diseases.
EV-68 was very rare in the US, but more common in Central America, until shortly after tens of thousands of poor Central American children were dispersed all over the country. What a coincidence, huh? We also don't have drug-resistant TB, unless it comes from outside the US.
QUARANTINE THE US IMMEDIATELY!!!!!!!! SET UP A DOME OR SOMETHING QUICK!!!
How about we simply not import people with contagious diseases?
You could also impose the costs of treatment/quarantine on those doing the "importing".
CAPITAL LETTERS AND EXCLAMATION POINTS REFUTE ARGUMENTS!!!!!!
Whoa, but what if it mutated? That's also part of the script, right?
uh oh...
*wraps house in mylar*
So government incompetence, fecklessness, and intransigence is supposed to reflect somehow on a policy that is diametrically opposed to it?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jqQsDklQEM
We should know by next week if any of the folks with whom he came in contact before being diagnosed will fall ill from the disease.
Hopefully, they will, and we'll be able o use them as lab rats.
I suspect that's what the Army is doing in Liberia.
No, they are there offering genuine health/humanitarian support. Know colleagues who are there.
Of course, this is round 9,527 of "genuine health/humanitarian support" to Africa, which mysteriously never results in life on the continent actually, you know, improving.
True, there's also a payoff for the US in learning how to handle these situations so I suppose its not entirely altruistic.
Strange, considering the US clearly still has no idea how to handle these situations.
That's a terrible thing to say, Brooks. Really.
*breathes into paper bag* all is well... all is well...
Too bad for the victim--not a pleasant way to die.
I heard something this morning that made it sound like an Ebola vaccine isn't unlikely to come about in the relative near-term. I wonder how Africans will react to that if it happens? I mean, I think the truth is that the current outbreak is much scarier than previous ones and the state of the art is more advanced now, but I can see them saying, "Oh, it only mattered when the West started seeing victims."
All the African pharmaceutical companies are traitors.
Of course that will be the party line...as soon as we get the vaccine, instead of a universal sigh of relief, we will just hear prog race-baiters on MSNBC et al crying about how nobody cared about Ebola until white people started getting it.
The implicit racism in assuming that Africans could never develop a vaccine on their own will of course be left unexamined by the enlightened scholars of the left.
If their arguments and heated proclamations came from the portion of their brains that processed logic, they wouldn't be progressives in the first place, so that goes without saying.
Unfortunately, vaccine development from research to licensing is HUGELY expensive and there's just not that much money to be made what with the main beneficiaries being dirt poor.
Most of those costs are regulatory in nature. Louis Pasteur's vaccines were developed for fractions of the penny on the dollar compared to modern ones.
Of course, there is a reason why so many Africans are dirt poor. It has a lot to do with replacing their "imperial/colonial" economies (aka capitalism, albeit not free market per se) with "native/authentic" economies (aka racial socialism nurtured at and imported from Western universities).
The constant dependence on (and consequent loathing of) the West is largely a problem of their own making.
+1 Patrice Lumumba University
Correct and I'm not denying the FDA is hugely risk averse and that kills but also most of the vaccines now in existence were the low hanging fruit. Developing vaccines for other pathogens has proved to be extremely difficult, some bugs/viruses have many, many tricks up their "sleeve".
Twitter is already filled with comments that the white people treated for Ebola survived, but Duncan died, thus proving racism.
Public Health Agency of Canada's Pathenogen Safety Data for Ebolavirus
Now with link:
http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/lab.....la-eng.php
Canada has its own health agency? That's adorable!
Obligatory:
http://www.theonion.com/articl.....aws,19927/
My subconscious probably totally ripped that off. Nice going, brain.
Well, there go my plans for the weekend.
On my facebook feed already: "So why did the white doctor get the experimental drug that worked and the black guy got a drug that didn't?"
My reply is that if you can hear the dog whistle then you might be the dog.
I'm totally using that from now on.
Or a better question, why did the doctor who contracted the disease treating ebola patients get the experimental drug and a random patient not get the drug?
Kind of like how if you donate a kidney to somebody you automatically move to the top of the transplant list should your remaining kidney fail and you need a replacement.
You do?!
I'll have to remember that!
Yes, you do. I know people...
Also, while you can't sell a kidney you can work a deal. Let's say you need a kidney, and I'm willing to donate my kidney to you but we're not a good tissue match. UNOS (United Network for Organ Sharing) finds someone who needs and is compatible with my kidney and offers that person a deal if he can get one of his peeps to donate a kidney compatible with you...
I am not in need...but one my close friends has poly-cystic kidney disease - we are both the same blood type, and size. Might be doing the "here, use this" this winter.
That is an admirable and selfless act, Swiss Servator. Respect.
Greater love hath no man, etc, etc.
If I can do it, it just means no more ibuprofen or rugby 🙁
What about beer? Because your friend would owe you a lifetime supply...
Mighty white of you.
My dad has that; a few years ago my mom gave him one of her kidneys. We joke that's why he really married her (back in 1981).
Dang, that is cool, Riven.
Kind of like how if you donate a kidney to somebody you automatically move to the top of the transplant list should your remaining kidney fail and you need a replacement.
Does that work with hearts, too?
"Or a better question, why did the doctor who contracted the disease treating ebola patients get the experimental drug and a random patient not get the drug?"
That might not evoke any sympathy from liberals considering they think doctors owe us their livelihood.
Looks like that cunt Ashleigh Banfield at CNN beat you to this. Race card played.
Because there wasn't anymore of the drug given to the white doctor.
A drug made in Kentucky from a genetically modified tobacco plant, by the way. Cue the progs screaming in terror.
My FB community has already addressed the claim that there is no more of the drug given to the white doctor with "LIES!!!! LIES!!!".
I'm not kidding and I need a new circle of friends.
Yes you do. Because the remaining small supply was sent to Africa to be given to patients and none of them recovered.
In other news, the clitoris holds the key:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/hea.....laims.html
So that's why I've always thought Chyna would be fun in the sack.
*turns slightly green, leaves room*
http://s1.postimg.org/zdhgaxgkf/cyanide_shock.jpg
They have an opposable thumb!
TOP MEN will tell you how you orgasm!
Guess all the dildo companies will shutter their doors.
Funny, I work in clinical research, and my co-worker and I were talking about the fact that this patient probably didnt receive the experimental treatment at all, this dude probably got the placebo. There would be no way a US pharma company would encourage foreigners to come here for such an expensive treatment, and the government was in on it too, to teach a lesson to other sick people- dont come to US for help.
Do you now.
wait, he's going to tell us about his girlfriend in Canada
Did you also discuss how AIDS was deliberately given to Africans as polio vaccines with Mr. Farrakhan?
What nonsense. The US would never medically experiment on Africans, nor would they misuse a program for treating polio in foreign countries to pursue an ulterior agenda.
Well-played, Aunty.
But you fuck one goat...
Riiiiiight ...., as a rent seeking big pharma bastard there's no way I would want all those damn foreigners coming to the US where they would have to pay first world prices for their drugs with the hospitals and taxpayers eating the bill when they don't pay up. My risk is near zero, where is the sport in that? I would far rather they use generics and counterfeit drugs to keep their money out of my pocket because they are brown or something like that.
It's possible that Duncan would've recovered even without the experimental treatment. Did Greedy Pharma Inc. have a contingency plan involving a locked door and a pillow?
That's a terrible thing to say, Brooks. Really.
You're welcome.
Yep, we hate the FDA and we hate pharma cos, suffice it so say were both looking for new jobs
So to recap, first the Top Men were all "it's virtually impossible for Ebola to make its way into America." Then, it became "it's virtually impossible for anyone to die from Ebola in America." Now, we've progressed to "it's virtually impossible for Ebola to spread in America".
The way this is going, it'll probably only be a week or two until that latest declaration from the Top Men gets disproven.
and now a second patient in Dallas. it's all laughs and jokes down here.
http://dfw.cbslocal.com/?lead=.....a-symptoms
Ugh.
"The facility is in contact with the Centers for Disease Control and is holding everyone in the facility until receiving clearance from the CDC."
While this is troubling, it does highlight a difference between how we do things here, and how they do them in WA.
Hah! Suck it, Seattle, you backwards fucks.
Curse you! NEEDZ MOAR REFRESH!
Does that say they're holding EVERYONE who was at the facility when the guy made this report?
So now if you happen to be in the doctor's office to get your prostate exam the day somebody comes in with ebola, you get to get thrown in the quarantine pit with all the ebola people?
See, there's no way Ebola is anything to worry about. Our advanced medical system is totally prepared.
You'd prefer to go home?
Seattle has different protocols?
*ducks and runs from room*
So I was off by a week or two, give or take five minutes. Damn.
I always take pronouncements like that with a grain of salt, MM, since public health policy statements are as much about preventing panic as anything else. However, I don't think it will go pandemic or epidemic here due to major differences between here and West Africa.
Remember that the biggest mechanism of infection in WA is the washing of infected corpses by relatives who use no protection (gloves, masks, etc). We have a robust public-health infrastructure with many layers of reserves who can be activated as needed. We have facilities where the infected can be quarantined. We don't have a large population of medically ignorant and outright deniers.
Now witness the firepower of this fully ARMED and OPERATIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE
We have a robust public-health infrastructure with many layers of reserves who can be activated as needed.
Having done some pandemic drills with the National Guard, ILDPH, FEMA, et al.... "robust" might be a tad too strong a word. A lot depends on where you are starting out - I think this one will play out OK, because TX seems to have had its slap in the face and woken up. I can only thank God this did not happen in Cook County/Chicago...
Is that a fact, or another rationalization to prevent panic? Both Duncan and the nurse in Spain seem to have gotten infected through assisting the ill, not venerating the dead.
Now, we libertarians are probably safe, but as a general rule the less enlightened members of our society would not simply leave someone in medical distress to die on the sidewalk (though if Ebola becomes more common, who knows).
Mike M.: Yup.
Ebola didn't kill Thomas Duncan. It was...
RACISM!!! o/~ DUN-DUN-DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUH o/~
"Save the missionaries and let the brother die."
So missionaries are never black? Speaking of racist...
"I'm not surprised the the one black man with #ebola died but all of the white patients survived."
Oh, because black people are the weaker race? Terribly racist.
Racist viruses? I'm rather dubious about claims that viruses possess the cognitive ability to prefer one race to another.
They're engineered that way by evil white people.
Ubik sounds pretty confident, above, but if it's so darn hard to catch, how did a Spanish nurse wearing astronaut gear catch it by walking through a room twice?
Basically the Spanish case leads me to conclude that if some guy with ebola starts puking in the rest room in my office building, and then says, "Oh shit I'm sympomatic, I better get to an ER!" and leaves, everybody who walks through the men's room for the rest of the day can potentially get ebola.
Puke on floor - shoe - hand - face - congratulations, you have ebola!
Someone explain to me how this is wrong.
What I just read is that she touched her face with a gloved hand. So, contrary to Heroic Mulatto (I believe it was) a few days ago, it looks like you can get Ebola from simply a few virus particles on your skin. It doesn't need to hit a mucus membrane, an open wound, etc.
I just dont see it spreading. My understanding is that its spread by contact with infected biological material and viral particles on your mucous membranes will certainly do it. Sloshing bleach on vomit, waste products etc stops it in its tracks.
It just comes down to tolerance for human error. If trained medical personnel who know the stakes and the hygiene protocols and have the equipment can still fuck up and infect themselves occasionally, then ordinary people with ordinary levels of hygiene and no prophylactic gear will fuck up more, and sub-ordinary people with low levels of hygiene (e.g. small children) will fuck up disastrously.
Once it gets into the wild, people aren't going to just be dealing with this in special biohazard hospitals, they're going to be dealing with it in less specialized medical settings, or in non-medical settings.
We're also getting into flu season, so if it does get out, you're probably going see an increase both in false alarms (stressing resources needed to discover and treat patients) and people who ignore symptoms until it's too late because they seem to point to a less deadly illness -- especially if they think going to the doctor risks exposure to actual Ebola carriers.
We'll see, I doubt whether there will more than a few cases, also doubt any resevoirs of infection will be established. Your point of a flu outbreak being mistaken for ebola infection and the posibility of some panic is noted though. The influenza virus here in the US is a much greater risk. Only had the flu once when I was 14 and do not want a repeat. From feeling a slightly icky sore throat during double french one Friday afternoon and going home early from a buddies house that evening because I wasnt feeling great to not being able to get out of bed the following day and hallucinating that the patterns on my wallpaper were coming to life.
I think we are right to treat viruses with the utmost respect, the fight between humans and viruses is one of the species' oldest battles and some viruses are truly finely engineered particles of evil.
Except for a horrifying (at least to me)trend I have noticed in hospital ER waiting rooms. When I go to an ER waiting room, I want to see tile, hard plastic seats, glass and steel if I don't see that unless I'm bleeding or blue I turn around and leave. The last three ERs I have visited have been carpeted, the chairs fabric upholstered, and fucking wood counter tops and furnishings,IOW an environment that can't be easily and repeatedly sterilized.
Indeed. And I became somewhat concerned decades ago when I saw hospital workers commuting to work on the bus, wearing scrubs. It's as if they thought scrubs were magical garments that repelled germs, no matter wear they were worn.
I'm curious, where do you think your nose, eyes and mouth are located?
Yuck, yuck. There are other things on your face as well, like your cheek, forehead, chin, etc. Did she pick her nose or get an eyelash out of her eye or a piece of popcorn from between her teeth with her gloved hand? Maybe, if she's a total idiot, but "touching her face" could also mean simply touching an area without mucous membranes.
My point is that all the "it's really hard to catch" blather is PR meant to calm the proles, and not some firmly established scientific fact.
No, he was thinking of your mom.
Drake is a sexually ambiguous rapper