The second post in this thread exemplifies an intelligent response to erroneous statements.
We became involved in the Ebola epidemic when we both flew in patients to prepared hospitals ant Duncan walked on his own into the Dallas hospital.
It was here .. and we had already seen the horrific devastation in West Africa .. and WHO and the International Red Cross were understandably saying that the size of the epidemic in West Africa meant that Ebola would most assuredly spread to other countries (and it did) .. and Ebola is historically 60% deadly (and that's just the reported cases), and very painfully so .. and Ebola has been the subject of movies and TV shows as a deadly disease .. .. and then, "suddenly", it had reached America.
Understandably, the majority of Americans were rightly concerned when that happened.
So we learned on the fly, "we", the American people, from all walks of life.
We learned that there are state-of-the-art, though very expensive treatments that can lower the mortality rate. All we need to do is make them available, though that can be a challenge.
We learned that the virus is fragile, easily killed on surfaces via the application of basic mild household cleaning solutions, will not stay on surfaces long when exposed to sufficient UV light, puts a small viral load into saliva and other mucous at the onset when contagion among the general public at large is most likely, and has not yet mutated to airborne as the flu did (thank God!).
We learned that our greatest vulnerability is when a person exhibiting symptoms walks into a medical facility, as the time it takes before that person is tested for Ebola and the results are positive places hospital staff at risk (as they've yet to don protective gear and isolate the patient), which is how the two healthcare workers in Dallas contracted the disease.
We learned that even people living with a symptomatic Ebola sufferer (Duncan's four family members) may end up uninfected if they stay away from that person's blood, feces, and vomit.
We learned that even in a country with all the technology such as ours, if a person suffering from Ebola doesn't get immediate care, even the best care applied thereafter may not save that person's life (Duncan), so we need to be sensitive to Ebola entering into our impoverished areas, how quickly we can get appropriate care to these people, or we'll indeed have a West African type epidemic on our hands.
The American people, at large, are learning, and are rightly intelligently concerned about Ebola and our ability for all, including the poor and uninsured, to get life-saving treatment and thus prevent a "caregiver's disease" epidemic, and our hospitals to be adequately prepared for walk-in Ebola patients, and to prevent West Africans or anyone exposed to the disease from bringing it here during their incubation periods, etc.
We are rightly intelligently concerned, in all aspects of this matter.
So we're learning .. on the fly .. even the CDC and its managers are learning .. and we now have an Ebola Czar to help hospitals focus on preparing for walk-in Ebola patients to prevent their staff from contracting the disease .. and to address keeping infected people from other epidemic-ravaged countries from flying here and roaming dangerously free, spreading the disease to Americans, especially poor Americans.
May we continue to learn, sufficient to avoid the kind of epidemic that continues to tragically ravage West Africa.
