ebola

Beaglemom3 · Oct 19, 2014

Concern and informed/quiet vigilance does not equate to panic. Panic is overstating it and presumptive.

I work/consult in MegaPharma's vaccines & diagnostics division.

The experts; virologists, epidemiologists, immunologists - the guys that are working on the actual vaccine to this virus itself, folks that I work with, have a healthy (no pun intended) respect for this virus and its spread. When they do, I take notice.

My concern, for myself and others, is not so much at being at risk for infection, but what happens to the infrastructure if a pandemic occurs.

Having been in a leadership role on a Pandemic team twice, it's about the "what ifs" and how best to anticipate them. For me, now is the time to consider the "what ifs". Watchful waiting in a way.

The CDC has not instilled a sense of comfort.

Comparing chronic/manageable illnesses to a virus with an astounding viral load is not a reasoned comparison. It's a bit of a non sequitur.

We all approach these things differently. This is mine. YMMV.

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VegasBella · Oct 19, 2014

mpumilia said:
Yeah- well I can't catch heart disease from someone else.

It doesn't pass like a virus passes but it does appear to be "socially contagious".

http://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20070725/is-obesity-contagious
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/a...oups-of-friends-obesity-is-contagious/259620/
http://www.slate.com/articles/healt...l_plague_stir_in_the_human_superorganism.html

VegasBella · Oct 19, 2014

Talent312 said:
Let's see... We have a total of 3 people diagnosed with Ebola.
So now were getting Ebola news 24-7 with a sprinkling of ISIS.

Lest we forget, the leading causes of death are:
Heart disease: 596,577
Cancer: 576,691
Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 142,943
Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 128,932
Accidents (unintentional injuries): 126,438
Alzheimer's disease: 84,974
Diabetes: 73,831
Influenza and Pneumonia: 53,826
-- (Source: CDC 2010 Data)

Agreed. We need more emphasis on the leading causes of death and the methods of preventing them. Less emphasis on scary, but unlikely events.

The take away from the stats above is that you can do more good for your health by doing things that prevent the above.

Examples:

-prevent heart disease, cancer, diabetes, stroke by eating plant-based, exercise, don't smoke, avoid some chemicals, etc

-prevent respiratory diseases, flu, pnemonia by not smoking, hand-washing, getting vaccinated, doing cardio exercise, avoid allergens and sick people, etc

-prevent accidents by wearing seatbelts and helmets, driving slowly, double-checking prescription meds, putting grips in bathtub and using bathmat, etc

MULTIZ321 · Oct 19, 2014

Ask Smithsonian:What's the Difference Between Viruses and Bacteria?

Ask Smithsonian: What's the Difference Between Viruses and Bacteria? - Ask Smithsonian/ Videos/ Smithsonian.com

The answer…and why you should care (1:18)

Richard

Passepartout · Oct 19, 2014

Ever notice that it seems that the people worrying about Ebola mutating into an airborne pathogen, seem to be the same people who don't believe in evolution?

Jim

Beaglemom3 · Oct 19, 2014

Passepartout said:
Ever notice that it seems that the people worrying about Ebola mutating into an airborne pathogen, seem to be the same people who don't believe in evolution?

Jim

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

Oh, this too, :clap:

Had my guffaw for the day. Thanks !

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ondeadlin · Oct 19, 2014

Beaglemom3 said:
Concern and informed/quiet vigilance does not equate to panic. Panic is overstating it and presumptive.

We all approach these things differently. This is mine. YMMV.

That's fine. Just realize it's coming off as complete panic and an attempt to panic others to at least one reader here. Obviously there's a lot of subjectively here, but that's how you're coming off to me.

And, as I said, not a single victim from those planes. That says a lot more than all your attempts to explain why you're posting what you're posting.

Beaglemom3 · Oct 19, 2014

ondeadlin said:
And, as I said, not a single victim from those planes. That says a lot more than all your attempts to explain why you're posting what you're posting.

Again, a non sequitur.

No need to panic. Panic others ? What was it that set off your panic ? Which post ? Information should not be a reason for you to panic so.

Best to be informed than to panic .

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ondeadlin · Oct 19, 2014

I think you need someone to explain both non sequitur and the threat posed by Ebola to you … and I'll leave it at that.

Beaglemom3 · Oct 19, 2014

rickandcindy23 said:
Rick is hazmat trained and is assigned to one of the two hazmat trucks in Denver. Don't even think the guys assigned to those two rigs are not shaking in their boots--because they are.

Don't minimize a possible pandemic that could spread throughout the country. You know math, and so how many people would be affected if a few healthcare workers end up dying from this disease? The nurses who cared for the first ebola patient took precautions and still contracted the virus. [I think the] health-care workers [should] be covered head-to-toe in protective garb and not exposed.

Even more are infected in the care of those affected people. Think of the families at risk. We are not talking about flu. We are talking about a virus that has no inoculation available.

Don't make light of this possible pandemic. Think of an infected person in an airport or at Disneyworld. Since we just got back from Disneyworld yesterday, it's definitely on my mind.

You can all make fun of the hysteria on the cruise ship, but if you were on the cruise ship with those whom you love, you would be concerned.

Just read this. Thank Rick and his crew for their service and willingness to do this.

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Beaglemom3 · Oct 19, 2014

ondeadlin said:
I think you need someone to explain both non sequitur and the threat posed by Ebola to you … and I'll leave it at that.

All I know about non sequiturs, I learned in law school.

Then, those who are working on the vaccine for Ebola educated me on the virus.

Thanks for asking.

Yes, do leave it at that or re-read, with comprehension, my posts. No need for you to panic, just a need to be educated on this.

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VegasBella · Oct 21, 2014

Panic:

1. "A teacher at Strong Elementary School was placed on a 21-day paid leave of absence after parents told the school board they were concerned that she might have been exposed to Ebola during a trip to Dallas for an educational conference," the Portland Press Herald recently reported.

2. Two students who moved from Rwanda—where there have been zero cases of Ebola—are being kept home from school in Burlington County, New Jersey, for 21 days in response to concerns from parents. Rwanda "is about 2,600 miles away from the closest affected country in West Africa," notes Philadelphia's local Fox station. "That's about as close as Seattle, Washington, is to Philadelphia. But for some parents it really doesn't matter."

3. Officials at Navarro College in Texas cited Ebola as a basis for refusing admission to two Nigerian students. Nigeria has been extraordinarily effective in fighting its recent outbreak, which included just 20 confirmed cases—so extraordinary, in fact, that as of today, the World's Health Organization officially declared the country Ebola-free.

4. News Photographer magazine reported last week that "three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Michel du Cille of The Washington Post, who returned from covering the Ebola crisis in Liberia 21 days ago and who is symptom free, was asked by Syracuse University officials today not to come to campus, where he was scheduled to participate in a journalism program."

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2014/10/ebola-america-panic-hysteria

VegasBella · Oct 21, 2014

In 2012, more than 33,000 Americans died on the highways. In some recent years, the flu has killed tens of thousands. Alcohol is associated with some 70,000 deaths annually, weight problems with more than 300,000, and smoking with over 400,000.

Even a single one of these preventable deaths is a tragedy. But the risks they pose do not greatly trouble most people in their daily lives. What's worrying many people much more these days is the far lower risk, at least in the U.S. and Europe, of contracting Ebola.[...]

In thinking about risks, people use something behavioral scientists call the “availability heuristic”: They believe that something is more probable if they can readily think of examples -- as they can when something is in the news. [...]

The availability heuristic also helps explain why, in the three months after the Sept. 11 attacks, many people chose to drive rather than fly. And because driving is more dangerous, more than 300 Americans lost their lives as a result of that choice -- a higher number than the total passenger deaths on the four fatal flights.

Behavioral science has uncovered a related point: When a risk triggers strong emotions, people often focus on terrible outcomes, and do not much consider the (low) probability that they will occur. Terrorists try to exploit this phenomenon by making people think they cannot be safe anywhere. An infectious disease can lead to overreaction for precisely the same reason.

Research on risk perception, undertaken by psychologist Paul Slovic and his colleagues, has also found that people especially fear risks that are new, unfamiliar, involuntarily incurred, potentially catastrophic and apparently uncontrollable. That’s not so surprising, but the consequence is that people can be far more afraid of statistically small risks (those associated with pesticides, for instance) than of statistically larger ones (those associated with smoking or texting while driving). Some dangers trigger genuine dread, and people will take extreme measures to avoid them, whether or not it makes a lot of sense to do so.

[...] A few highly publicized incidents can move people to be frightened quite beyond what reality warrants.

With Ebola, every one of these fear amplifiers is in play.

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-10-20/why-ebola-is-scarier-than-it-should-be

This also explains why so many more parents fear kidnapping than auto-accidents even though their child is FAR MORE LIKELY to die from an auto accident than to even go missing due to kidnapping, much less so to die from kidnapping. And thus, this is why parents invest so little into proper carseat use. The VAST MAJORITY of car seats are installed IMPROPERLY: http://www.nbc4i.com/story/20748483/safety-officials-75-percent-of-carseats-installed-incorrectly

Talent312 · Oct 21, 2014

I heard an interesting statistic today:
Over 70,000 peep die each year from infections they got at a hospital.
We should worry more about visiting a hospital, than someone from Liberia.
... channeling Sheldon Cooper, "Big Bang."

Miss Marty · Oct 24, 2014

Still, officials are warning people not to panic!

October, 2014 - Fears are soaring after New York City got news of a doctor testing positive for Ebola on Thursday. And on top of the diagnosis, it was revealed that 33 year old doctor went bowling and rode the subway before he came down with a fever Thursday morning. As a result, three people are quarantined - one of those people being the doctor's fiancée.

ondeadlin · Oct 24, 2014

The first fatality in America, Thomas Eric Duncan, arrived here on September 20. He went to the ER on September 25, but was turned away. He then returned to the hospital September 28.

So Duncan was walking around in America, with Ebola, for eight days between September 20 and September 28.

And how many people caught Ebola from him prior to his hospitalization?

Zero, of course. The guy was walking around for eight days and no one caught Ebola from him.

That's the story the media should be telling, i.e. that Ebola is very difficult (almost impossible) to get from anything but intimate contact with bodily fluids.

That story, of course, doesn't drive ratings.

ebola

Beaglemom3

VegasBella

VegasBella

MULTIZ321

Passepartout

TUG Review Crew: Veteran

Beaglemom3

ondeadlin

Beaglemom3

ondeadlin

Beaglemom3

Beaglemom3

VegasBella

VegasBella

Talent312

TUG Review Crew: Veteran

Miss Marty

ondeadlin