Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can get it from shaking hands, touching something that person has touched.

We all have tiny breaks--cracks in our skin--especially during winter.

The long incubation time makes this a real fucker to contain.

Signed, a former Hazleton (Reston lab from Hot Zone) immunologist

If it was that difficult to contain we would have all been dead a long time ago. The disease is actually pretty self containing because symptoms are so awful - symptomatic people aren't going out to dinner parties/the office.school and the disease is very lethal to the host.

Wrong. This is the first time it's been on a plane to the US. It hit lab animals in Reston-not people.

This is major. This is different. It is exponential because the incubation is 21 days. People will show up in the ER, urgent care thinking its flu and bam--wildfire.

People are merely mimicking the sound bites put out by CDC. False assurances. The CDC is shitting its pants right now.

Except the guy who landed in Nigeria, barfing on the plane the entire time, proves you completely wrong. Nigeria is contained. No one on the plane got Ebola. He did spread it to others who touched him and came into actual contact with him.

Not saying the CDC isn't shitting its pants but if Lagos can contain it the US can too. Stop freaking out.

This.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:On a related topic, I heard on NPR yesterday about thousand children left orphans because of Ebola and that no one wants to take them in.

My heart breaks for those children. I asked DH if maybe we could adopt one (we can afford to) and he said "no". Now I'm just sad.

You are a good person.

+1. Best thing we can do, other than prayers, is donate $$ to help with equipment and suppliesand some comfort measures for the sick.

Anonymous wrote:On a related topic, I heard on NPR yesterday about thousand children left orphans because of Ebola and that no one wants to take them in.

My heart breaks for those children. I asked DH if maybe we could adopt one (we can afford to) and he said "no". Now I'm just sad.

You are a good person.

Anonymous wrote:On a related topic, I heard on NPR yesterday about thousand children left orphans because of Ebola and that no one wants to take them in.

My heart breaks for those children. I asked DH if maybe we could adopt one (we can afford to) and he said "no". Now I'm just sad.

Don't worry, they tend to have extended families over there. I know a few people from west Africa who were raised by their aunt/uncle or grandparents.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:On a related topic, I heard on NPR yesterday about thousand children left orphans because of Ebola and that no one wants to take them in.

My heart breaks for those children. I asked DH if maybe we could adopt one (we can afford to) and he said "no". Now I'm just sad.

Why don't you go over there and help?

I have a small child and can't leave it or take the risk of him becoming an orphan.

"Ripe for a pandemic" PP, pandemics don't work that way. There isn't some clock that times outbreaks of mass death, using different infections each time. HIV is unrelated to flu which is unrelated to Ebola. Flu does seem to go in cycles, and there are bound to be big flu outbreaks that are more fatal than others. Good news is we are better at treating flu than we used to be. But flu is still deadly and awful. If you must worry, worry about flu and go get your flu shot. While Ebola is awful and scary, it is important to remember that of the millions and millions of people in the countries impacted by Ebola in West Africa, only a few thousand have been infected. That isn't a terribly infectious spread. Not that the US should be complacent, but that we should keep some perspective.

Anonymous wrote:On a related topic, I heard on NPR yesterday about thousand children left orphans because of Ebola and that no one wants to take them in.

My heart breaks for those children. I asked DH if maybe we could adopt one (we can afford to) and he said "no". Now I'm just sad.

Why don't you go over there and help?

Unfortunately the time may be now for a pandemic. The last one was the 1918 flu.
The 1918 flu pandemic (January 1918 – December 1920) was an unusually deadly influenza pandemic, the first of the two pandemics involving H1N1 influenza virus.[1] It infected 500 million[2] people across the world, including remote Pacific islands and the Arctic, and killed 50 to 100 million of them—three to five percent of the world's population[3]—making it one of the deadliest natural disasters in human history

Then we have Aids -- 35 million low estimate 70 million high estimate. Ebola is a lot easier to get than AIDS.
We have mega cities of very poor people all over the globe -- all connected by air travel. It could be very bad. We do not have cures for virus right now.

Anonymous wrote:Awake, staring at the ceiling, freaking out about my kids in school with this paralysis virus and Ebola going around.

Don't forget the ISIS crazies all over the place staring at their computers being inspired to run outside and cut people's heads off.

On a related topic, I heard on NPR yesterday about thousand children left orphans because of Ebola and that no one wants to take them in.

My heart breaks for those children. I asked DH if maybe we could adopt one (we can afford to) and he said "no". Now I'm just sad.