Yes, conveniently on purpose. Obama typically has the anti-Midas effect. I didn't want anywhere near him. BTW, I now have a handwritten sign on my lab's door with Galt's oath on it. My lab is in an unwanted stepchild of a building that is trafficked by a lot of students, but only one other professor - who agrees with us.

Wow, Marathon Man is a movie I had forgotten about.

They concealed that animals (including dogs and pigs) are known to be secondary reservoirs of ebola. They are still concealing that the Reston strain of ebola (which is not pathogenic to humans...and may indeed serve as a foundation for a vaccine) is suspected of having an airborne mode of transmission. They have advised against quarantine measures on arrival from W Africa, and then reluctantly initiated a pretty pathetic self-monitored self-quarantine period (which does not seem to be being well heeded). They apparently did not provide any direction to hospitals with ebola patients on the kind of quarantine precautions that were necessary. They specifically released a nurse (who should have been in quarantine) to travel...until she came down with symptoms.

These guys are supposed to be the top in the world and instead of speaking accurately about ebola they have been making vague reassuring statements (that have been subsequently shown to be false or inaccurate). (eg the assurance that any US hospital had SOP's that would allow it to handle ebola patients safely.)

I feel that they are subscribing to the "do not tell the little people anything that will scare them" philosophy. The result of this is that their own reputation is being trashed. Ebola is not a 'bad' disease insofar as transmission is concerned, but their behavior increases the danger as the public looses confidence in the medical system. Plagues are a numbers game and they must be handled correctly. We know how to do this; it is no secret. What we are now doing is a great job of botching this.

Jan

It was only about a year ago that the Auditor-General came down like a ton of bricks on CDC for their employees being stupid & careless. They were walking around in normal lab coats carrying petri dishes containing live pandemic virus and bacteria samples, leaving them out on tables in plain view and unsecured/unguarded and not behind locked areas, etc. Until this ebola thing erupted, Congress was ready to start firing all of them, starting from the top.

Fort Detrick should be the only place that stuff is handled, as they have adequate security and a military posture & practice. The CDC needs to stick to making handout cards that look like the dumb safety-belt how-to's on an airplane and showing people how to put on protective garb.

The problem with federal employees doesn't matter what agency, etc. They self-proclaim this wizardry level of work ethic, etc., but are really just lazy, make mountains out of mole hills of problems, and the over-arching problem is the self-protectionist actions of their own jobs out of fear they may have to work in the private sector instead and "produce" something every day. The "secret sauce" is that huge percentages of the workforce are contracted out to the private sector to work alongside their federal counter parts and do the "all others" because a federal employee will not usually do anything not specifically enumerated in their written job description.

freedomforall -

We are not sheep. I have spent the 39 years between 1975 and now in the medical industry - the first 17 of those years working at the bench in laboratories. The CDC was god to us. Now I am going around shouting, "Feet of clay! Feet of CLAY!"

The CDC has some of the top brains in clinical pathology in the world. Now they are acting like brainless adolescent politicians (maybe a redundant phrase). What I am seeing from my seat is the philosophy, "The little people are too dumb to handle the real facts. We will tell them just what they 'need' to know so that they will react in the manner we think they should." and then "Woops. The 'little people' are literate and the internet is ubiquitous. Hey - they keep turning up with inconvenient facts that we had intended to conceal!"

Big Loss of Veracity time for the CDC! They are going to have to work very hard to salvage their reputations after this. Or not.

Jan

I actually think its more of a problem of incompetence than malicious intent in most cases. There are 3 million federal employees, its like calling all Republicans the "vast right-wing conspiracy" that somehow involves 90 million people or so. The IRS thing is probably malicious... but the CDC bumbling just seems like incompetence. These people don't "treat patients". They go to meetings where they whine about their benefits and travel allowances.

I don't trust the gov't either. I just don't think there's a conspiracy here, just a lot of people who are unhappy and looking for a disaster to blame it on. It's unlikely Ebola will give them their disaster, but sooner or later bad things in some form happen to everyone; I'm okay with it not being Ebola.

True, in every case, the odds of survival are pretty much "reset". If you have 6 people that are sick, and the first 4 survive, that doesn't automatically mean that #5 has a 75 or 80% chance of dying to reset the statistic. It just means that over a very large population study, you would expect to see the statistic as it is.

For all of the bumbling, there is a certain level of truth to better care levels in the US with isolation, bed rest, fluid levels retained, etc., compared to being treated outside in a mud hut behind a fence in 100 degree humid heat.

With an administration as politically motivated as this one (and 6 of the previous 7) anyone speaking out against them could be the next terminal patient.

JB, thanks for taking this thread onto a more rational, non-conspiracy-theory-bent direction.

Dying from Ebola virus depends on prior health conditions, whether you came or come in contact with someone expelling liquids rife with the virus, whether you can get fluid replenishment and nutrition, and probably a raft of other reasons!

To use any ONE 'survival' or 'fatality rate' is just plain nonsense without accounting for the total environment of the 'next victim.'

People are starting to get that clue and even health officials and some mainscream media folks are admitting that the panic reactions in the media were 'maybe a little bit overblown.'

As Usual.

My "two coin tosses" was shorthand for 25%.
The rate of survival I heard in the 90s was 50% with advanced treatment 10% with no treatment.

The price increase announcements are being held until AFTER the election

Control.

Keeps him in fear that he needs to vote democrat so he still has his health insurance if he gets ebola.