outbreak! (ebola, sars, coronavirus, etc)

yikes x1000. can they flush out that tube system with bleach?

btw they killed the nurse's dog in Madrid. :(

the way this is effecting my thinking is alarming in itself. I was about to go to lunch at an Indian buffet. now the very idea of eating at a buffet seems inadvisable. I'm being paranoid right? I should just go eat the Indian food?

affecting

are you in dallas?

no, i am very far from dallas--wisconsin to be exact. but, you know, someone who was on the plane with that nurse could be eating at that indian restaurant right now.

i should probably just lock myself in my apartment until further notice i suppose.

u probably take your life in your hands when you eat at a buffet at any time tbh

Yeah, that and salad bars. Spray that sneeze guard down with bleach and turn the heat lamps up to 11.

remember when obama ducked that sneezeguard, that's the obola vector right there

yeah I know that about buffets but someone it's not until i've been reading headlines about Ebola for months that i think, "hmmm, maybe that's not the best idea."

xpost

someone = somehow

I get the impression the CDC assumed a certain minimal level of competency/care at the average US hospital that was unwarranted in retrospect. federalism in action tbh

Yeah, that and salad bars. Spray that sneeze guard down with bleach and turn the heat lamps up to 11.

― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, October 15, 2014 2:27 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

standard salad bar recipe iirc

maybe if I get to the Indian restaurant early....

Salad Bars

cdc is an advisory / research body

they can't swoop in with helicopters and commandos and take over the hospital like something out of the movies

i feel like they should be treating patients as though the ebola is already airborne transmittable

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/16/us/ebola-infected-dallas-health-worker-was-on-flight.html

Frontier said in a statement that the aircraft “received a thorough cleaning per our normal procedures,”

why do i doubt the effectiveness of these "normal procedures"?

xpost But apparently after the infection spreads, they admit they could have sent "a more robust hospital infection control team" and say they could have "been more hands on at the hospital on day one about exactly how this (case) should be managed." And that "we will do that from now on any time we have a confirmed case."

So helicopters and ET spacemen? Of course not. Yet clearly they could have done more because they have said next time they will do more.

why do i doubt the effectiveness of these "normal procedures"?

Crop dusting: To covertly release intestinal gas while walking. Coined in 1985 on a Northwest Airlines flight from Boston to Frankfurt by Sol Squire, on-board translator, who had just walked the length of the DC-10 aircraft and noted he had "crop dusted" the passenger load.

xpost

i think they overestimated the hospital's ability to handle it themselves.

btw this whole thing provides me with reason #4,226 not to fly.

i think i'm just gonna get a hot dog. fuck a buffet.

make sure to buy it off a street stand

think i'm just gonna get a hot dog.

You, my friend, have just opened a whole 'nother can of worms.

i know, i was joking.

i'll just go eat at the chinese place down the street, surely nothing to worry about there.

or maybe i'll just get a vacuum-sealed bag of dried fruit.

why not just try that new liberian cuisine place that just opened up?

All the food is poison.

That's why I have been slowly exposing myself to all known toxins for my entire life. By the time I'm dead, I will be unkillable.

why not just try that new liberian cuisine place that just opened up?

― Mordy, Wednesday, October 15, 2014 12:42 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i actually almost ate liberian food a few months ago (in tenessee), but the restaurant wasn't open at a convenient time. i'm sure it would have been tasty. i worry about their business now. :(

saw those lie-beral media stories about how hep c and ebola are equally contagious, but man i don't fear getting hep c from just getting on a plane.

Last night a guy on the train got up, put his umbrella on an empty seat, went out between the train cars, and proceeded to loudly vomit for about three stops. I guess that was preferable to throwing up in the train but I wonder about the people walking below.

― Immediate Follower (NA), Wednesday, October 15, 2014 2:43 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Was this guy wearing a Dave Matthews Band shirt?

I'm glad people are finally listening to me i.e. building a wall around Texas.

saw a tweet yesterday noting that some politicians are hollering for an "ebola czar" and the guy's response, which was "that's called 'the surgeon general' and the gop won't confirm one, because nra."

yeah http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/10/14/after-smearing-surgeon-general-nominee-fox-wond/201147

This might be easily googlable, but what are the US/Europe/China etc. doing to help stop the spread in Africa? In addition to having humanitarian merit in its own right, doing so would obviously lessen the likelihood of spread to the US/Europe/China.

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/ebola-virus-outbreak/another-100-u-s-troops-arrive-liberia-fight-ebola-n225581

though the short answer is surely "not enough"

everyone itt needs to take a deep breath

and inhale ebola germs? hell no.

omg is shortness of breath a symptom of ebola

a reporter that was in Liberia is coming to give a lecture/town hall at my house on Friday...... :x

what are the US/Europe/China etc. doing to help stop the spread in Africa?

friend of mine works for the public health service. his normal beat is tracking/dealing with pertussis in washington state due to anti-vaxxers

he spent seven weeks in guinea from july-sept and is going back for (at least) a month starting next week. so it's not like the us/europe/china is doing nothing, but rather that the conditions are overwhelming

a health care infrastructure can't be built up instantly

im pretty much just staying inside and eating thoroughly boiled vegetables until this whole mess blows over.

a health care infrastructure can't be built up instantly

― Aimless, Wednesday, October 15, 2014 2:44 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

A thought that actually crossed my mind recently was whether any of these Bush/Cheney-connected "logistics" companies that we were so dependent on in Iraq (KBR etc.) are capable of rapidly setting up health infrastructure as well.

probably not (cruel irony eh)

just repurpose the for-profit prison industry and keep ebola locked up in a fully staffed facility!

i imagine you'd have to pay contractors an incredible amount of money to risk exposure to dangers they can't shoot

stockholders in those companies aren't going to have anyone to serve them at their summer homes when we're all dead from ebola
not a longterm strategy