Does anyone actually pay attention to this shit? Why is this an issue? Apparently the only way that Ebola can be spread is by a man exploding into a fine mist of blood and tendons and then every single person around him takes a deep breath. What the fuck? Does anyone even question the party line on this? Does anyone think that a different strain of this virus could exist? Has anyone actually looked at the spread map in Africa and Europe? Is there much afterbirth pouring into the mouths of nurses?
But then I think about the nurse in Spain. She had full protection yet still got the virus. It is believed she may have got it after she took the protective suit off by simply touching the glove. This thing may be more easily to spread then originally believed.
You have to come into contact with it directly....So touching an infected glove would do it...It's always been like that... Easily spread...lol. Has any moron yet linked ISIS carrying Ebola over our border yet???
Ebola is extraordinarily easy to spread if you have actual physical contact with the victims. It's really hard to spread in any other circumstances, which is why this guy can get off a plane and die 6 days later and nobody else on the plane is likely to wind up with Ebola. With the flu if you get on a plane sick a quarter of the people on the plane are going to be exposed before you get off the plane and only those who have already had that strain won't come down with it. Yeah, the nurse in Spain could have gotten Ebola if she had skin contact with the external surfaces of a glove that had contact with the bodily fluids of an Ebola patient. The protocol for dealing with decontamination wasn't rigorous enough or maybe she just got very unlucky. Lots of health care professionals got AIDS in the 80's and 90's when they accidentally stuck themselves with a needle exposed to the virus that causes AIDS. Doesn't happen very much now because the protocols for dealing with a known or suspected HIV case are very strong.
Dude, fuck that. There's a flyer being passed around that says you have a better chance of getting AIDS than Ebola, and it's the total truth. You actually have to have a plane full of Ebola victims explode above you while you are getting an enema, and at the exact moment that your enema tube is removed, the vaporized cells of every dead person from that plane must immediately fly up your butt before you can get this disease. It's a total money grab. This Ebola. Too many Africans are vomiting into vaginas and causing hysteria, that's all.
Some mighty fine straw men up in here. Yes, Ebola is a deadly virus, but compared to other viruses, it is very difficult to spread. Not impossible, clearly, but very difficult. Coming into direct contact with someone who is symptomatic (or who has died from it) is pretty much the only way to get it. It is not a particularly hardy virus. (I've worked with it... truncated versions for our experiments, so nothing dangerous... and then sent results off to a BSL4 lab on an army base that would test findings on the real thing. Yes, there are scientists who work with it. On American soil! My God, it's been here all along! I wouldn't want that job, but BSL4 labs have layer upon layer of precautions in place.) Is it possible that a strain has mutated to make it more contagious? Sure. But this isn't Hollywood. You don't just get any old SNP and then -- BAM -- it's a new strain that's pneumonic, and then the patsies of the movie realize that crazy old bastard with the dire warnings at the beginning was right after all! Why didn't we listen to him?! Sorry, Bub, it doesn't work that way. Anything that makes Ebola more hardy would also (very likely) decrease its severity, because the shape of the Ebola virus (it's shaped like one of those crazy straws) is part of what makes both so virulent inside the body or in bodily fluids, but so fragile outside of it. I'm a micro/molecular biologist. I currently work with pathogenic bacteria and spent the previous six years in mammalian immunity and virology. So when I tell you that it is a difficult virus to spread, and that the average American has very little to worry about, is that just "the man" is trying to keep the "real" story from you? Or is that just someone with a relevant background trying to stop the fear-mongering and conspiracy-theorizing? If you are really worried about it, I suggest donating money to the doctors and health care workers who are fighting this. Those are the people most at risk, and they don't have the resources they need. Ignorance will do us in before Ebola.
If you are really just dying for something to worry about, byz, I'd suggest worrying about something that's a real threat... CRE infections. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria. If you wanted to design a system that would almost guarantee the generation of a superbug, our use of antibiotics would be it. Feed it to people when they don't need it. Continuously feed it to numerous species of animals that don't need it. Make sure there is overflow into the water system. You'll have drug-resistant bugs in short order. Know where MRSA came from? Cattle. That's not a conspiracy theory. That's something dangerous that is actually happening.
Wow, I merited two straight unsolicited responses from the mighty Cappy! I am actually far more worried about antibiotic resistant bacteria than this Ebola breakout, I was mainly making antagonistic posts to annoy people that want to pretend that this Africa breakout is ho-hum news. Chances are the Ebola thing will be stemmed in this country because of heightened medical screenings at transportation ports, but the worse things get in Africa, the better the chances of those screenings missing signs of infection. And since flu season is right around the corner, it's not like they can quarantine every plane that has a passenger with a fever.
There was actually a guy interviewed on NPR this morning who basically said this was the reason why we had to send people in to get in front of this in Africa right now. I was half asleep, but I believe he said something like that for every thousand Africans infected, its a statistical certainty that one will migrate to the west. So the idea that you can simply isolate the contagion without treating it and prevent it from spreading here is folly.
I think we have 3000-4000 troops setting up centers over there with $750 million funding behind it... Let's hope it works.
