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SECOND Dallas Hospital Worker Tests Positive for Ebola

Nigeria is now free of Ebola. From the World Health Organization:

WHO officially declares that Nigeria is now free of Ebola virus transmission.

This is a spectacular success story that shows that Ebola can be contained. The story of how Nigeria ended what many believed to be potentially the most explosive Ebola outbreak imaginable is worth telling in detail.


WHO | Nigeria is now free of Ebola virus transmission

The WHO press release explains how Nigeria was able to contain the spread of Ebola and bring about the positive outcome now being reported. The press release states:

As the United States Consul General in Nigeria, Jeffrey Hawkins, said at the time, “The last thing anyone in the world wants to hear is the 2 words, ‘Ebola’ and ‘Lagos’ in the same sentence. ” As he noted, that single juxtaposition conjured up images of an “apocalyptic urban outbreak”.

That never happened. With assistance from WHO, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and others, government health officials reached 100% of known contacts in Lagos and 99.8% at the second outbreak site, in Port Harcourt, Nigeria’s oil hub.

Federal and State governments in Nigeria provided ample financial and material resources, as well as well-trained and experienced national staff.

Isolation wards were immediately constructed, as were designated Ebola treatment facilities, though more slowly. Vehicles and mobile phones, with specially adapted programmes, were made available to aid real-time reporting as the investigations moved forward.

Unlike the situation in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, all identified contacts were physically monitored on a daily basis for 21 days. The few contacts who attempted to escape the monitoring system were all diligently tracked, using special intervention teams, and returned to medical observation to complete the requisite monitoring period of 21 days...

The use of cutting-edge technologies, developed with guidance from the WHO polio programme, put GPS systems to work as support for real-time contact tracing and daily mapping of links between identified chains of transmission.

This is a good public health story with an unusual twist at the end. As part of preparedness for an imported case, several advanced countries with good health systems are now studying technologies “made in Nigeria”, with WHO support, to improve their own contact tracing capacities.


It should be noted that the U.S. has aggressively traced the contacts related to all of its Ebola cases (the Liberian national who died in Dallas and the two infected nurses). So even as there have been gaps the early Ebola response (likely do to a lack of coordinate national strategy at the onset, which led to widely disclosed issues related to training and equipment), there is also a lot that the U.S. is doing right, especially if the Nigeria example is representative.
 
I don't see how it's invalid.

A summation of your argument is something along these lines:

Now that ebola has been brought to Texas from Liberia, and then transmitted to two nurses we should quarantine Texas and cease travel between Texas and other states. This is only fair since conservatives (which you associate with Texas even though many liberals live here and my city is very blue) have called for a cessation of travel from the African countries which are infected.

The problem with your argument is there is a tremendous lack of equivalence between the situation in Africa and the situation here. When thousands or even hundreds of cases are happening in a US state then talking about controlling travel from that state begins to make sense.

I would put forth, rather, that you are really more interested in sticking to conservatives than making a decent argument. So a suggestion: come up with something more critically accurate and supported before you waste your ammo and risk looking like a fool.
 
Typos:

The last paragraph of #402 should state:

It should be noted that the U.S. has aggressively traced the contacts related to all of its Ebola cases (the Liberian national who died in Dallas and the two infected nurses). So even as there have been gaps the early Ebola response (likely due to a lack of coordinated national strategy at the onset, which led to widely disclosed issues related to training and equipment), there is also a lot that the U.S. is doing right, especially if the Nigeria example is representative.

I regret the typos.
 
A summation of your argument is something along these lines:

Now that ebola has been brought to Texas from Liberia, and then transmitted to two nurses we should quarantine Texas and cease travel between Texas and other states. This is only fair since conservatives (which you associate with Texas even though many liberals live here and my city is very blue) have called for a cessation of travel from the African countries which are infected.

The problem with your argument is there is a tremendous lack of equivalence between the situation in Africa and the situation here. When thousands or even hundreds of cases are happening in a US state then talking about controlling travel from that state begins to make sense.

I would put forth, rather, that you are really more interested in sticking to conservatives than making a decent argument. So a suggestion: come up with something more critically accurate and supported before you waste your ammo and risk looking like a fool.

No, there's no problem with my argument. You summed it up quite nicely. I was just making a point; and a good one too. I find it interesting though that none of the right-wing hacks are calling for a travel ban when it happens to US, so it's actually their arguments that are weak on the issue.
 
No, there's no problem with my argument. You summed it up quite nicely. I was just making a point; and a good one too. I find it interesting though that none of the right-wing hacks are calling for a travel ban when it happens to US, so it's actually their arguments that are weak on the issue.

We shall agree to disagree. I think I do understand your argument fairly well, and would agree with it if there was a more equivalent outbreak here in Texas as in Africa.

I could show you a pic I took from the windshield of my car 3 blocks from my house as the news truck set up caddy corner to my 8 year old daughters elementary school where we went to skateboard. Nina Pham's apartment. Ebola virus was in MY neighborhood. All the rest of us are currently well.
 
"President Ebola could not take some time off from golf, fund raising and partying to close the border from potential Ebola carriers. He still hasn't. Why not?"
No matter how mant times you repeat that it won't make it true.
Okay. Did The One take time off from golf, fund raising, and partying, to tell his state department to close our borders and to prevent possibly Ebola-infected people from Ebola country?
 
Nope I actually admit there were mistakes made by this admin. But your article is conjecture on a politically based website. As a someone with a science degree though it wouldn't pass the sniff test for me.
Oh come on, Obama is appointing a political hack to disseminate propaganda to the people, and you want to try and cloak yourself in science as though because you say you hold a degree that should end discussion?

Ever heard of 'appeal to authority'?
 
Nigeria is now free of Ebola. From the World Health Organization:

WHO officially declares that Nigeria is now free of Ebola virus transmission.

This is a spectacular success story that shows that Ebola can be contained. The story of how Nigeria ended what many believed to be potentially the most explosive Ebola outbreak imaginable is worth telling in detail.


WHO | Nigeria is now free of Ebola virus transmission

The WHO press release explains how Nigeria was able to contain the spread of Ebola and bring about the positive outcome now being reported. The press release states:

As the United States Consul General in Nigeria, Jeffrey Hawkins, said at the time, “The last thing anyone in the world wants to hear is the 2 words, ‘Ebola’ and ‘Lagos’ in the same sentence. ” As he noted, that single juxtaposition conjured up images of an “apocalyptic urban outbreak”.

That never happened. With assistance from WHO, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and others, government health officials reached 100% of known contacts in Lagos and 99.8% at the second outbreak site, in Port Harcourt, Nigeria’s oil hub.

Federal and State governments in Nigeria provided ample financial and material resources, as well as well-trained and experienced national staff.

Isolation wards were immediately constructed, as were designated Ebola treatment facilities, though more slowly. Vehicles and mobile phones, with specially adapted programmes, were made available to aid real-time reporting as the investigations moved forward.

Unlike the situation in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, all identified contacts were physically monitored on a daily basis for 21 days. The few contacts who attempted to escape the monitoring system were all diligently tracked, using special intervention teams, and returned to medical observation to complete the requisite monitoring period of 21 days...

The use of cutting-edge technologies, developed with guidance from the WHO polio programme, put GPS systems to work as support for real-time contact tracing and daily mapping of links between identified chains of transmission.

This is a good public health story with an unusual twist at the end. As part of preparedness for an imported case, several advanced countries with good health systems are now studying technologies “made in Nigeria”, with WHO support, to improve their own contact tracing capacities.


It should be noted that the U.S. has aggressively traced the contacts related to all of its Ebola cases (the Liberian national who died in Dallas and the two infected nurses). So even as there have been gaps the early Ebola response (likely do to a lack of coordinate national strategy at the onset, which led to widely disclosed issues related to training and equipment), there is also a lot that the U.S. is doing right, especially if the Nigeria example is representative.
And they immediately closed their borders
 
And they immediately closed their borders

Actually, the World Health Organization made no mention of closed borders and Time posted a story stating that Nigeria did not close its borders. From Time:

Nigeria has not closed its borders to travelers from Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, saying the move would be counterproductive. “Closing borders tends to reinforce panic and the notion of helplessness,” Shuaib said. “When you close the legal points of entry, then you potentially drive people to use illegal passages, thus compounding the problem.” Shuaib said that if public health strategies are implemented, outbreaks can be controlled, and that closing borders would only stifle commercial activities in the countries whose economies are already struggling due to Ebola.

Ebola: WHO Declares Nigeria Free of Ebola
 
Actually, the World Health Organization made no mention of closed borders and Time posted a story stating that Nigeria did not close its borders. From Time:

Nigeria has not closed its borders to travelers from Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, saying the move would be counterproductive. “Closing borders tends to reinforce panic and the notion of helplessness,” Shuaib said. “When you close the legal points of entry, then you potentially drive people to use illegal passages, thus compounding the problem.” Shuaib said that if public health strategies are implemented, outbreaks can be controlled, and that closing borders would only stifle commercial activities in the countries whose economies are already struggling due to Ebola.

Ebola: WHO Declares Nigeria Free of Ebola

No doubt don, that Nigeria did a lot of things right that this administration did wrong...But border controls is absolutely one of them:

"Officials credit tighter border controls, good patient-tracking and other medical practices, and just plain luck with keeping Ebola confined mostly to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea since the outbreak was first identified nearly seven months ago."

snip

"Border closings may also be helping halt the spread of Ebola.

Ivory Coast, Guinea-Bissau and Senegal, all of which share borders with at least one of the three most affected countries, have closed those borders."

Africa Stems Ebola Via Border Closings, Luck - ABC News

So, the question in your mind don as one of the smarter guys on these boards, is why would Time leave this part out of its story? Could it be a kneejerk desire to back the WH play and not rock the boat even at the cost of their own credibility?

Or just bad reporting...?
 
No doubt don, that Nigeria did a lot of things right that this administration did wrong...But border controls is absolutely one of them:

"Officials credit tighter border controls, good patient-tracking and other medical practices, and just plain luck with keeping Ebola confined mostly to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea since the outbreak was first identified nearly seven months ago."

snip

"Border closings may also be helping halt the spread of Ebola.

Ivory Coast, Guinea-Bissau and Senegal, all of which share borders with at least one of the three most affected countries, have closed those borders."

Africa Stems Ebola Via Border Closings, Luck - ABC News

So, the question in your mind don as one of the smarter guys on these boards, is why would Time leave this part out of its story? Could it be a kneejerk desire to back the WH play and not rock the boat even at the cost of their own credibility?

Or just bad reporting...?

The Time story was based on the WHO press release and interviews with Chukwu and Dr. Faisal Shuaib of the Nigeria's Ebola Emergency Operation Center. Tighter border controls are not necessarily the same thing as closed borders. Moreover, the story dealt only with Nigeria (Senegal also succeeded in eliminating Ebola).

In any case, Time quoted Dr. Shuaib to the effect that Nigeria didn't close its borders. Obviously, at least IMO, more stringent border controls e.g., screening of travelers to name one example, can be helpful. Robust detection/screening at border entry points is very important. If a country lacks an adequate screening or detection capability, among other capacities required to deal with Ebola, border closures could well be among the possible options for consideration.
 
The Time story was based on the WHO press release and interviews with Chukwu and Dr. Faisal Shuaib of the Nigeria's Ebola Emergency Operation Center. Tighter border controls are not necessarily the same thing as closed borders. Moreover, the story dealt only with Nigeria (Senegal also succeeded in eliminating Ebola).

In any case, Time quoted Dr. Shuaib to the effect that Nigeria didn't close its borders. Obviously, at least IMO, more stringent border controls e.g., screening of travelers to name one example, can be helpful. Robust detection/screening at border entry points is very important. If a country lacks an adequate screening or detection capability, among other capacities required to deal with Ebola, border closures could well be among the possible options for consideration.

Ok, so now we have to play semantics games eh....Pitty, I expected better.
 
No semantic games. From a story that covers both countries, it now appears that Nigeria and Senegal took different approaches on the issue as to whether to close their borders.

Ebola-free: How did Nigeria and Senegal do it? - LA Times

So when you stated:

"Tighter border controls are not necessarily the same thing as closed borders."

You weren't playing semantics? Ok man, what ever....Look, I am saying that it doesn't make sense that we are allowing possible infected people into the US that could get by considering the screening we have presently...I applaud the speed that our professionals are attacking this thing, but we are not getting leadership from our government, and now instead of someone that can be relied on to tell the truth to the people, we are getting a political hack to give us more propaganda, and level snark at those that don't buy into the Obama line....Ain't it wonderful?
 
So when you stated:

"Tighter border controls are not necessarily the same thing as closed borders."

You weren't playing semantics?

I wasn't. Envision a line. At one end, there is a completely open border policy (no restrictions, checks, etc. of any kind). On the other end, the border is completely closed. As controls become tighter, one moves farther away from the open border point and closer to the closed border one. That's the point of my making the distinction. I hope this is clearer.
 
I wasn't. Envision a line. At one end, there is a completely open border policy (no restrictions, checks, etc. of any kind). On the other end, the border is completely closed. As controls become tighter, one moves farther away from the open border point and closer to the closed border one. That's the point of my making the distinction. I hope this is clearer.


*Sigh* Fine...I just get tired of having to weigh every damned word so that some one, or another can say, "Oh, I didn't say that...." Is it not clear that I believe that tighter controls of our own borders in face of this is the way to go?
 
*Sigh* Fine...I just get tired of having to weigh every damned word so that some one, or another can say, "Oh, I didn't say that...." Is it not clear that I believe that tighter controls of our own borders in face of this is the way to go?
Well, several days later and with incubation periods being mostly over, we have no closed borders and no new cases either. It does seem by now that the hysteria that took the country by storm was grossly exaggerated. I'm guilty of the same; I was for at least cancelling visas for travelers from the affected countries, and mandatory quarantine for US citizens coming from them. It seems like the government was right after all, and the risk is much smaller than what all the Obama haters were claiming. I mean, not even the girlfriend and family members of the Liberian guy who died in Dallas contracted the disease. It looks like the nurses who did, failed protocol when removing the protective gear. This thing seems to only spread when people are *highly* symptomatic, vomiting and pooping and bleeding all over the place. That is, it only spreads in places with no medical care and no protective gear for health care workers, where people deal with the diseased at home and handle the dead bodies without protection (that is, only in third world messes). People talking about an American ebola "outbreak" should be ashamed by now. 1 foreigner dead. Two nurses who failed protocol got the disease. They are both being treated and doing fairly well. 330 million Americans remain ebola-free. Outbreak, indeed! Meanwhile the flu kills 30,000 Americans per year and there is no outcry about it.
 
Well, several days later and with incubation periods being mostly over, we have no closed borders and no new cases either. It does seem by now that the hysteria that took the country by storm was grossly exaggerated. I'm guilty of the same; I was for at least cancelling visas for travelers from the affected countries, and mandatory quarantine for US citizens coming from them. It seems like the government was right after all, and the risk is much smaller than what all the Obama haters were claiming. I mean, not even the girlfriend and family members of the Liberian guy who died in Dallas contracted the disease. It looks like the nurses who did, failed protocol when removing the protective gear. This thing seems to only spread when people are *highly* symptomatic, vomiting and pooping and bleeding all over the place. That is, it only spreads in places with no medical care and no protective gear for health care workers, where people deal with the diseased at home and handle the dead bodies without protection (that is, only in third world messes). People talking about an American ebola "outbreak" should be ashamed by now. 1 foreigner dead. Two nurses who failed protocol got the disease. They are both being treated and doing fairly well. 330 million Americans remain ebola-free. Outbreak, indeed! Meanwhile the flu kills 30,000 Americans per year and there is no outcry about it.

And, the few countries that had direct non stop airline flights (Belgium, Morocco, Mauritania) have not had any ebola cases either.

But....everyone loved to push that fear...fear...FEAR
 
Well, several days later and with incubation periods being mostly over, we have no closed borders and no new cases either. It does seem by now that the hysteria that took the country by storm was grossly exaggerated. I'm guilty of the same; I was for at least cancelling visas for travelers from the affected countries, and mandatory quarantine for US citizens coming from them. It seems like the government was right after all, and the risk is much smaller than what all the Obama haters were claiming. I mean, not even the girlfriend and family members of the Liberian guy who died in Dallas contracted the disease. It looks like the nurses who did, failed protocol when removing the protective gear. This thing seems to only spread when people are *highly* symptomatic, vomiting and pooping and bleeding all over the place. That is, it only spreads in places with no medical care and no protective gear for health care workers, where people deal with the diseased at home and handle the dead bodies without protection (that is, only in third world messes). People talking about an American ebola "outbreak" should be ashamed by now. 1 foreigner dead. Two nurses who failed protocol got the disease. They are both being treated and doing fairly well. 330 million Americans remain ebola-free. Outbreak, indeed! Meanwhile the flu kills 30,000 Americans per year and there is no outcry about it.

That's great....And truly I hope that we don't see anymore, and I also hope for those liberals out there that are now starting to crow about success are right? See, I don't want to see people come down with this horrible disease and die because our administration were caught with their pants down, and refused to do the common sense things to protect this nation, you know, like they took an oath to do?

Oh, and if you are that worried about the flu, which is an under the wire horrible disease, then you should put your efforts toward that, start a thread and post some facts, do what you can. Comparing Ebola to the Flu is absurd. But I understand that is what you libs do....
 
That's great....And truly I hope that we don't see anymore, and I also hope for those liberals out there that are now starting to crow about success are right? See, I don't want to see people come down with this horrible disease and die because our administration were caught with their pants down, and refused to do the common sense things to protect this nation, you know, like they took an oath to do? Oh, and if you are that worried about the flu, which is an under the wire horrible disease, then you should put your efforts toward that, start a thread and post some facts, do what you can. Comparing Ebola to the Flu is absurd. But I understand that is what you libs do....
Why is it absurd to compare Ebola to the flu? They are both viral infectious diseases, if you haven't noticed. It's a valid point to make, that such a killer like the flu that decimates 30,000 Americans per year doesn't seem to scare anybody and there are many who refuse the flu shot thanks to completely ignorant views (such as thinking that it causes autism), while they cry out loud about Ebola, a disease that has killed one foreigner so far in America, and infected some four or five careless health workers (including the NYC doctor who came back from Guinea and tested positive today). Now, another huge fear-mongering will happen in New York, and all the conservatives will come hard on the president, and then as it happens in these cases, the doctor is perfectly isolated at an Ebola-designated facility (Bellevue Hospital), just as isolated is his girlfriend, and after 21 days you'll all realize that the fear-mongering was for nothing and nobody else got the virus from this doctor.
 
Why is it absurd to compare Ebola to the flu? They are both viral infectious diseases, if you haven't noticed. It's a valid point to make, that such a killer like the flu that decimates 30,000 Americans per year doesn't seem to scare anybody and there are many who refuse the flu shot thanks to completely ignorant views (such as thinking that it causes autism), while they cry out loud about Ebola, a disease that has killed one foreigner so far in America, and infected some four or five careless health workers (including the NYC doctor who came back from Guinea and tested positive today). Now, another huge fear-mongering will happen in New York, and all the conservatives will come hard on the president, and then as it happens in these cases, the doctor is perfectly isolated at an Ebola-designated facility (Bellevue Hospital), just as isolated is his girlfriend, and after 21 days you'll all realize that the fear-mongering was for nothing and nobody else got the virus from this doctor.

There are several liberal dems, including Cuomo who have been calling for a flight restriction, are they fear mongering?
 
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