Official Ebola update thread

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the fact that only nurses who treated Duncan while he was very ill, and not the daughter who helped get him to the hospital, are the ones that have contracted Ebola is very telling that the disease is not contagious until the disease is underway.

Hopefully the disease in the US stops with these two nurses. I'm optimistic.

Agreed.

The chances that everyone in Duncan's household was somehow immune to Ebola, seem very, very low (particularly considering that studies showing immunity were all conducted in remote villages, where bush meat is regularly consumed). They just didn't catch it and seem unlikely to at this late date. As experts have told us, a patient's viral load when they first become symptomatic is very low. Ebola just isn't that contagious in the initial stages when people are likely to be walking around (or flying) out in the community. I'll be extremely surprised if anyone is infected as a result of contact with Amber Vinson over the past two days.

Clearly, those who are at risk are the healthcare workers who deal directly with bodily fluids and care for patients as they become increasingly ill and their viral load increases. We need to be sure those workers are well-trained and practiced with PPE. Transferring patients to one of the 4 designated US treatment centers (as they did with nurse #2) seems like the best course of action, wherever possible. Ebola is not an illness that hospitals are used to dealing with, so it really isn't surprising that Dallas Presbyterian struggled. They made mistakes. The CDC has made mistakes. We are learning from those mistakes and our response will improve.

Despite the fact that this epidemic has been raging overseas for well over 6 months, we have unknowingly imported only ONE Ebola victim. We may see one or two other patients like Duncan but the next time we will be better prepared, having learned from our experiences.
Nigeria contained this epidemic and we will too.

Unfortunately, we must believe the CDC about other exposures....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Never, EVER in my life did I think I would agree with John Boehner about anything ever, but yes to this assertion:

"A temporary ban on travel to the United States from countries afflicted with the virus is something that the president should absolutely consider along with any other appropriate actions as doubts about the security of our air travel systems grow".

Obama keeps saying that a pandemic is inevitable if we don't treat people in West Africa and, yes, we absolutely need to address the illness over there. But why the HELL are we also not keeping out travelers who've been in affected areas without instituting a quarantine. What the hell is the CDC thinking ????

Same here, PP, same here.

Some people say that we didn't have Ebola outside of West Africa all year - why "panic" with just one traveler and a few transmissions?

Because the Ebola cases in West Africa are reaching a critical mass soon! -if the predictions are right, and there are 10,000 new cases A WEEK there soon, we will only be able to control it fast enough with quarantine and it will get worse before it gets better.
This quarantine has to be a GLOBAL agreement to limit travel into high risk areas.
It is temporary. If strict quarantine is not feasible for whatever reason, travel needs to be extremely limited.
Before it's too late; meaning that we will be overwhelmed with cases and contact tracing.

We can be overwhelmed quite easily, we only have 11 beds at the 4 highly specialized hospitals and it will be hard enough for regular hospitals to CARE FOR A SINGLE Ebola patient. It is critical that we do the right thing now.

I'm a healthcare professional, and I'm not happy these days with the CDC, or our response on a local and international level.
Not happy at all.

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if this week they have 10,000 cases. The lack of infrastructure to begin with coupled with continued decline of that fragile infrastructure and given that there is really no reliable way for the govt to track deaths, I think it's very unlikely that we are getting true numbers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the fact that only nurses who treated Duncan while he was very ill, and not the daughter who helped get him to the hospital, are the ones that have contracted Ebola is very telling that the disease is not contagious until the disease is underway.

Hopefully the disease in the US stops with these two nurses. I'm optimistic.

Agreed.

The chances that everyone in Duncan's household was somehow immune to Ebola, seem very, very low (particularly considering that studies showing immunity were all conducted in remote villages, where bush meat is regularly consumed). They just didn't catch it and seem unlikely to at this late date. As experts have told us, a patient's viral load when they first become symptomatic is very low. Ebola just isn't that contagious in the initial stages when people are likely to be walking around (or flying) out in the community. I'll be extremely surprised if anyone is infected as a result of contact with Amber Vinson over the past two days.

Clearly, those who are at risk are the healthcare workers who deal directly with bodily fluids and care for patients as they become increasingly ill and their viral load increases. We need to be sure those workers are well-trained and practiced with PPE. Transferring patients to one of the 4 designated US treatment centers (as they did with nurse #2) seems like the best course of action, wherever possible. Ebola is not an illness that hospitals are used to dealing with, so it really isn't surprising that Dallas Presbyterian struggled. They made mistakes. The CDC has made mistakes. We are learning from those mistakes and our response will improve.

Despite the fact that this epidemic has been raging overseas for well over 6 months, we have unknowingly imported only ONE Ebola victim. We may see one or two other patients like Duncan but the next time we will be better prepared, having learned from our experiences.
Nigeria contained this epidemic and we will too.

Unfortunately, we must believe the CDC about other exposures....

Are you the same one who keeps saying that Obama wants a pandemic? You come across like a total whack job and, quite frankly, it doesn't do your cause any favors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the fact that only nurses who treated Duncan while he was very ill, and not the daughter who helped get him to the hospital, are the ones that have contracted Ebola is very telling that the disease is not contagious until the disease is underway.

Hopefully the disease in the US stops with these two nurses. I'm optimistic.

Agreed.

The chances that everyone in Duncan's household was somehow immune to Ebola, seem very, very low (particularly considering that studies showing immunity were all conducted in remote villages, where bush meat is regularly consumed). They just didn't catch it and seem unlikely to at this late date. As experts have told us, a patient's viral load when they first become symptomatic is very low. Ebola just isn't that contagious in the initial stages when people are likely to be walking around (or flying) out in the community. I'll be extremely surprised if anyone is infected as a result of contact with Amber Vinson over the past two days.

Clearly, those who are at risk are the healthcare workers who deal directly with bodily fluids and care for patients as they become increasingly ill and their viral load increases. We need to be sure those workers are well-trained and practiced with PPE. Transferring patients to one of the 4 designated US treatment centers (as they did with nurse #2) seems like the best course of action, wherever possible. Ebola is not an illness that hospitals are used to dealing with, so it really isn't surprising that Dallas Presbyterian struggled. They made mistakes. The CDC has made mistakes. We are learning from those mistakes and our response will improve.

Despite the fact that this epidemic has been raging overseas for well over 6 months, we have unknowingly imported only ONE Ebola victim. We may see one or two other patients like Duncan but the next time we will be better prepared, having learned from our experiences.
Nigeria contained this epidemic and we will too.

Unfortunately, we must believe the CDC about other exposures....

Are you the same one who keeps saying that Obama wants a pandemic? You come across like a total whack job and, quite frankly, it doesn't do your cause any favors.

As I said, I wish I was wrong, that I've been wrong. Unfortunately, I have not been. He is mentally ill.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: I hope she'll recover and that the transfer to Emory isn't a sign of a downward spiral.

Have they said why she is being transferred to Emory? Beyond just "They've treated other patients"?

I have to think she is much sicker than Nina Pham if she is being transferred this quickly and Nina isn't. Which just leads me back to... she was sicker than they'll admit on her Monday flight. And possibly over the weekend.

I bet they were infected right around the same time. Nina went in Friday, Amber not until overnight Monday/Tuesday at the earliest.

Here's the thing---you don't go from being contagious exactly at point A. There is a lead up to when the fever first spikes when you are contagious...as there is with every single other virus with fever as a symptom. Once it hits with Ebola--it hits full on which means if you aren't quarantined--you are out running your daily errands, hopping flights, etc. WTF???!!!! I have a graduate Degree in Virology. I have worked with doctors that worked in the Congo with Ebola. I am baffled by how the US is letting this take ground here. We are already so many steps behind.

PEOPLE CANNOT BE TRUSTED TO SELF-MONITOR. TO NOT GET ON FLIGHTS. TO NOT GO OUT IN PUBLIC. EVEN THE BROADCASTER BROKE HER QUARATINE. People can't even be trusted to take their temp twice a day. WTF? Are we really going to be able to monitor all of the potential victims. No- of course not. Non-essential flights from W.Africa should have been banned months ago. A Huge presence shoudl have been down there fighting it on its turf in the Hot Zone and contained it DOWN there. THe hospital staff that had intimitate contact with DUNCAN SHOULD HAVE BEEN ON QUARATINE AND NOT ALLOWED OUT IN PUBLIC. WTF???

Wow I elect y oi to run the CDC! I'm serious why the fuck can't our leaders think of this simple shit to protect its citizens. Baffling!

I work for another government agency. I'm have worked both with FDA and NIH in the past. That is why I GET this shit show. I also know CDC is told what they can say to the press. They have to hide shit. They can't say how bad it is if Admin doesn't want that word out. They don't want to lose their jobs...the good people eventually can't take the Bureaucracy. It takes way too long to get approval to do what needs to be done!!!!!

You are correct.

+1,000,000,000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the fact that only nurses who treated Duncan while he was very ill, and not the daughter who helped get him to the hospital, are the ones that have contracted Ebola is very telling that the disease is not contagious until the disease is underway.

Hopefully the disease in the US stops with these two nurses. I'm optimistic.

Agreed.

The chances that everyone in Duncan's household was somehow immune to Ebola, seem very, very low (particularly considering that studies showing immunity were all conducted in remote villages, where bush meat is regularly consumed). They just didn't catch it and seem unlikely to at this late date. As experts have told us, a patient's viral load when they first become symptomatic is very low. Ebola just isn't that contagious in the initial stages when people are likely to be walking around (or flying) out in the community. I'll be extremely surprised if anyone is infected as a result of contact with Amber Vinson over the past two days.

Clearly, those who are at risk are the healthcare workers who deal directly with bodily fluids and care for patients as they become increasingly ill and their viral load increases. We need to be sure those workers are well-trained and practiced with PPE. Transferring patients to one of the 4 designated US treatment centers (as they did with nurse #2) seems like the best course of action, wherever possible. Ebola is not an illness that hospitals are used to dealing with, so it really isn't surprising that Dallas Presbyterian struggled. They made mistakes. The CDC has made mistakes. We are learning from those mistakes and our response will improve.

Despite the fact that this epidemic has been raging overseas for well over 6 months, we have unknowingly imported only ONE Ebola victim. We may see one or two other patients like Duncan but the next time we will be better prepared, having learned from our experiences.
Nigeria contained this epidemic and we will too.

Unfortunately, we must believe the CDC about other exposures....

Are you the same one who keeps saying that Obama wants a pandemic? You come across like a total whack job and, quite frankly, it doesn't do your cause any favors.

As I said, I wish I was wrong, that I've been wrong. Unfortunately, I have not been. He is mentally ill.

Why do you say that? I don't believe it (I don;t agree with his political views) but wouldn't say he was mentally ill.

[Anonymous]

I don't get the trashing of Obama over this, including by Dems. I didn't vote for him either time. I cheered his decision to send the military to Liberia (why aren't we hearing more about this?).

The CDC has made missteps; it is a bureaucracy and anyone who thinks a president has much power over entrenched government bureaucracies is seriously misguided. One might hope Obama had come up with the perfect formula for making everyone believe everything will be okay; he hasn't, but what president could?.

It is also unrealistic to think a president should be an expert in public health who could have the confidence to overrule experts from the CDC, particularly at the outset of all this. (I wouldn't be surprised, however, to see the head of the CDC resign over the second nurse debacle.)

[Anonymous]

From the nurses: http://www.nationalnursesunited.org/blog/entry/statement-by-registered-nurses-at-texas-health-presbyterian-hospital-in-dal/

This is really upsetting.

[Anonymous]

Maybe this is why the hospital sent him home in the first place, they knew they weren't prepared.

[Anonymous]

Looking ahead, I'm hoping this can be resolved before flu season starts up. I realize that is unlikely. Many of the symptoms are very similar (fever, muscle pain, vomiting, diarrhea, headache) so it's very likely the local hospitals will be inundated with panicked people who are afraid they have ebola when it's really just the flu. With the high mortality rate of ebola, nobody is going to wait out those symptoms at home anymore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:From the nurses: http://www.nationalnursesunited.org/blog/entry/statement-by-registered-nurses-at-texas-health-presbyterian-hospital-in-dal/

This is really upsetting.

Holy crap.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From the nurses: http://www.nationalnursesunited.org/blog/entry/statement-by-registered-nurses-at-texas-health-presbyterian-hospital-in-dal/

This is really upsetting.

Holy crap.

We.are.SCREWED!

[Anonymous]

Here is a new "non-alarmist" news source for everyone

http://www.eboladeeply.org

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't get the trashing of Obama over this, including by Dems. I didn't vote for him either time. I cheered his decision to send the military to Liberia (why aren't we hearing more about this?). The CDC has made missteps; it is a bureaucracy and anyone who thinks a president has much power over entrenched government bureaucracies is seriously misguided. One might hope Obama had come up with the perfect formula for making everyone believe everything will be okay; he hasn't, but what president could?.

It is also unrealistic to think a president should be an expert in public health who could have the confidence to overrule experts from the CDC, particularly at the outset of all this. (I wouldn't be surprised, however, to see the head of the CDC resign over the second nurse debacle.)

I did vote for Obama both times and continue to consider myself a supporter. I cheered his decision to send aid and military support to Liberia and think it was absolutely the right decsion. But fighting the disease in West Africa doesn't preclude taking additional measures here in the US. These are not mutually exclusive and it's frustrating that the President and others in the administration present it as an either / or - it's not.

At a minimum, people coming to the US from affected areas in West Africa where infection rates are high, should be kept in quarantine and not permitted into the general population until they are shown to be disease free. Or, if the quarantine is too logistically complex, then ban travellers who have visited affected areas in West Africa within the last 21 days. After 21 days since their travel, they are welcome in.

I don't expect that the President has to be a public health expert. But the officials at HHS, including Dr. Frieden, serve at the President's pleasure and it is now abundantly clear that Frieden and his team are insufficiently prepared to address Ebola. Even other public health officials are publically stating their concerns about the CDC's handling of this issue. From misinformation to the insistence that Ebola would never come to the US to the poor monitoring of the second nurse infected (why was she not being monitored by the CDC team in Dallas as the public was repeatedly assured anyone who had contact with Mr. Duncan would be????). Obama needs a different team in place. NOW.

Moreover, Obama seems t be completely tone deaf to the concerns of the public. People are afraid for their lives and the lives of their children and are responding to the absurdly poor response from the CDC and other officials. Obama is conducting fundraisers and photo ops. Where is his leadership? Where is his command?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the fact that only nurses who treated Duncan while he was very ill, and not the daughter who helped get him to the hospital, are the ones that have contracted Ebola is very telling that the disease is not contagious until the disease is underway.

Hopefully the disease in the US stops with these two nurses. I'm optimistic.

Agreed.

The chances that everyone in Duncan's household was somehow immune to Ebola, seem very, very low (particularly considering that studies showing immunity were all conducted in remote villages, where bush meat is regularly consumed). They just didn't catch it and seem unlikely to at this late date. As experts have told us, a patient's viral load when they first become symptomatic is very low. Ebola just isn't that contagious in the initial stages when people are likely to be walking around (or flying) out in the community. I'll be extremely surprised if anyone is infected as a result of contact with Amber Vinson over the past two days.

Clearly, those who are at risk are the healthcare workers who deal directly with bodily fluids and care for patients as they become increasingly ill and their viral load increases. We need to be sure those workers are well-trained and practiced with PPE. Transferring patients to one of the 4 designated US treatment centers (as they did with nurse #2) seems like the best course of action, wherever possible. Ebola is not an illness that hospitals are used to dealing with, so it really isn't surprising that Dallas Presbyterian struggled. They made mistakes. The CDC has made mistakes. We are learning from those mistakes and our response will improve.

Despite the fact that this epidemic has been raging overseas for well over 6 months, we have unknowingly imported only ONE Ebola victim. We may see one or two other patients like Duncan but the next time we will be better prepared, having learned from our experiences.
Nigeria contained this epidemic and we will too.

Unfortunately, we must believe the CDC about other exposures....

Are you the same one who keeps saying that Obama wants a pandemic? You come across like a total whack job and, quite frankly, it doesn't do your cause any favors.

As I said, I wish I was wrong, that I've been wrong. Unfortunately, I have not been. He is mentally ill.

Why do you say that? I don't believe it (I don;t agree with his political views) but wouldn't say he was mentally ill.

Malignant narcissism. Very dangerous. Watch his actions vs what he says. The blame he places on everyone else. The taking credit without also giving credit - until called on it. The number of folks and agencies coming forward saying they received threatening calls. The calling out of those who dare to criticize him. The way he carries himself. The way he speaks. Ignore media, both positive and negative, and just observe him. Read his own words. It's pretty darn clear