Ebola and other Epidemics, Inadequate Healthcare Threatens Millions

[alfred russel]

Our society has an irrational fear of Ebola that is hyped up by the news media and entertainment industry.

Also Tim.

[derspiess]

Which one dissented?

The Russian one that puts 'preved' in thread titles.

[The Brain]

Our society has an irrational fear of Ebola that is hyped up by the news media and entertainment industry.

Also Tim.

Is that one really irrational?

[Jacob]

Lassa fever has been killing 5000-10000 West Africans every year since the 1960s yet most of you probably haven't heard of it or heard about the imported US cases of it that show up in our emergency rooms.

So what you're saying is that Lassa fever is the hipster ebola?

Yeah I've got Lassa fever. It's big in West Africa. You've probably never heard of it.

[Berkut]

I am not afriad of ebola, but I do think this is a tragedy of epic scale going on in the world, and regardless of the threat it poses to me (negligble) this is a huge story and we should be "panicked" that we apparently are nearly helpless to save what looks to be tens, if not hundreds, of thousands who are likely to die.

[alfred russel]

Our society has an irrational fear of Ebola that is hyped up by the news media and entertainment industry.

Also Tim.

Is that one really irrational?

[crazy canuck]

I am not afriad of ebola, but I do think this is a tragedy of epic scale going on in the world, and regardless of the threat it poses to me (negligble) this is a huge story and we should be "panicked" that we apparently are nearly helpless to save what looks to be tens, if not hundreds, of thousands who are likely to die.

[garbon]

http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/219585-republicans-call-for-ebola-czar

Republicans call for Ebola czar

Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) said Thursday that the lack of a central U.S. authority on Ebola has hindered lawmakers' ability to confront the crisis's major funding challenges.

Moran, ranking member on the Appropriations Committee's health subcommittee, said he doesn't know what resources are needed to control the outbreak because President Obama has not appointed one person to direct the response.

"There is no person to go to, to tell us how all this is going to be funded," Moran told Buzzfeed News. "And I don't think there is a plan internationally to bring the folks together to combat this."

Moran, who is also the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, is the latest Republican to criticize President Obama's leadership on the deadly disease that reached the U.S. this week.

His comments also amplify GOP calls for an "Ebola czar."

Republicans first called for the White House to appoint an official to oversee Ebola efforts, led by Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio).

"We are now more than six months into an Ebola epidemic and it remains unclear who is coordinating and leading the U.S. response," Portman wrote in a statement on Sept. 16. He said the lack of a U.S. coordinator has "led to a delay in an effective U.S. government response and an absence of financial and operational accountability."

The U.S. has committed more than $1 billion in an attempt to contain the outbreak, spread across a half-dozen executive agencies ranging from the Department of Homeland Security to the U.S. Agency for International Development.

[Eddie Teach]

Should fall under HHS.

[derspiess]

Moran.  There are enough czars already. 

In other news, Minister Farrakhan says the virus was created by white people to kill blacks (shock) and an anti-gun group is blaming the NRA for the outbreak.

[Admiral Yi]

Moran.  There are enough czars already. 

In other news, Minister Farrakhan says the virus was created by white people to kill blacks (shock) and an anti-gun group is blaming the NRA for the outbreak.

Sweet Louie I can see, the anti gun group not so much.  Link?

[Fate]

I am not afriad of ebola, but I do think this is a tragedy of epic scale going on in the world, and regardless of the threat it poses to me (negligble) this is a huge story and we should be "panicked" that we apparently are nearly helpless to save what looks to be tens, if not hundreds, of thousands who are likely to die.

We aren't helpless. Ebola patients treated in the United States have a 0% mortality rate to date. If you get Ebola in West Africa you're fucked because you can't get IV fluids, pressors, blood products, and hemodialysis. And if you're a health care worker in West Africa you're fucked because not everyone has gloves/goggles/impermeable gowns to protect against nosocomial transmission. We can fix those two things in West Africa, but it's going to take lots of American funding and manpower.

[derspiess]

Moran.  There are enough czars already. 

In other news, Minister Farrakhan says the virus was created by white people to kill blacks (shock) and an anti-gun group is blaming the NRA for the outbreak.

Sweet Louie I can see, the anti gun group not so much.  Link?

Twitter.  Can't provide the link at work but here is the text:

Ebola now in the US. Surgeon General should be leading the way on public health education but NRA stalled nomination. No outrage?

— States United (@CeasefireUSA) October 2, 2014

[Admiral Yi]

OK.  Not really what you said.

[Eddie Teach]

OK.  Not really what you said.

But the Surgeon General has magical disease-killing powers.