Patterico's Pontifications

10/3/2014

CDC Officials to Quarantined Relative of Ebola Patient: Sure, Go to the Store!

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:28 am



The lede is buried nice and deep inside this Washington Post story interviewing a relative (of the girlfriend) of Thomas Duncan, the man with Ebola. The story begins before the visit to the hospital and before the involvement of federal officials. It begins, in fact, with a traveling Ebola-contaminated blanket:

[Duncan’s daughter Youngor] Jallah took a quick trip to Wal-Mart and bought a $50 brown cotton blanket. When she returned, she draped it over Duncan’s shoulders and then gently lifted him by his back to try to get him to drink some hot tea. That’s when she looked into his eyes and knew in her heart that things were very bad.

. . . .

[T]he family continued to wait, watching people come and go through the emergency room. All the while, the neatly folded blanket that hours earlier had covered the first person in this country to be diagnosed with Ebola lay on the chair next to Jallah. The virus can be contagious on surfaces from a few hours to a couple days depending on the material and exposure to sunlight.

The patient himself apparently got the virus from touching someone who had been infected. So, knowing that touch and contaminated surfaces can spread Ebola, what did the CDC do? Told Jallah and her partner to go to the store:

Three days later, on Wednesday evening, Jallah and Yah were visited in their second-floor apartment by health officials from the state and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The officials took everyone’s temperature and told them that they should not leave the apartment.

“We don’t have any food,” Jallah said. “What do we do?”

She was told that she and [her partner Aaron] Yah, but not the kids, could go to the store.

Your federal government at work, protecting you. Whatever would we do without it??

UPDATE: Via Ace, here’s Obama scolding Bush for being unprepared on avian flu, and specifically decrying the lack of a “Pandemic Flu Preparedness Plan.” Hey, is there an Ebola Preparedness Plan? Hey, does that Plan contemplate telling quarantined folks to go ahead and toddle on down to their local neighborhood grocery?

120 Responses to “CDC Officials to Quarantined Relative of Ebola Patient: Sure, Go to the Store!”

  1. That’s 30 paragraphs in when they mention the bit about CDC telling the quarantined person to go to the store.

    Patterico (9c670f)

  2. Top men.

    gary gulrud (46ca75)

  3. How is this not the antiChrist?

    A little detail please.

    gary gulrud (46ca75)

  4. Heck of a job, Barry.

    elissa (e6ce79)

  5. OT: The yen seems bound today to break thru 110 to the dollar, and the euro fetch but a buck and a quarter.

    We are the sick man among corpses.

    gary gulrud (46ca75)

  6. I wonder if she dug through the lettuce and cilantro, then popped a few grapes. Licked her fingers to seperate the plastic bags.
    Hefted a few pieces of chicken, put them back wiped her hands on the shopping cart.
    Sneezed on the fish stick samples and snuck a taste of the pasta salad over in the deli

    steveg (794291)

  7. We are condemned to repeat the past. It’s the best way to learn things.

    If you neglect the cost.

    bobathome (5ccbd8)

  8. Not that firm ground can be found, I saw a report yesterday that the incubation period is 2 days though symptoms appear 3 to 21 days following exposure.

    IOTW, we have walking dead in Dallas.

    gary gulrud (46ca75)

  9. Why didn’t the cdc tell her to make a list and they’d do the shopping?

    Man, this Obama guy is ON. IT. Oh yeah. Smartest and best EVER!!!
    Score another for smart power on ISIS and “don’t do stupid stuff” on Ebola

    steveg (794291)

  10. 9. OT: ISIS has beheaded 3 Kurdish women combatants and is displaying them.

    This is Crack Whore’s baby with Qatar.

    gary gulrud (46ca75)

  11. Steveg, if the CDC folks were decent, thoughtful, human human beings, they would have of offered to do the shopping.

    felipe (b5e0f4)

  12. Just wait for flu season to begin and emergency rooms and doctor’s offices nationwide are beseiged by those having “flu like syptoms”. Yeah, obama’s got a plan watching millions of people in quarantine for 21 days. But hey, let’s allow unrestricted access for people from the hot zone. Maybe he can get good ol’ Dr. Emmanuel to convince all those with symptoms to voluntarily commit suicide bloodlessly for the good of the nation.

    in_awe (7c859a)

  13. Yeah, locking up people in their homes for three weeks, on the decision of a minor government functionary, without any due process whatsoever, and without food or other necessities, does stretch my “greatest good for the greatest number” philosophy a little bit.

    nk (dbc370)

  14. History will not be kind to this president. Assuming there will be someone remaining to write it.

    navyvet (ec562e)

  15. #10, Gary: I heard in a Fox News interview that muslim “warriors” who are killed by a woman go straight to hell. No chance of paradise. If so these three women probably were more feared by ISIS than the entire US air operation. I hope this nugget of wisdom is true. Col. Martha McSally with her A10 could reverse the whole course of the war. Paint the beast pink so the “warriors” would know of the threat it poses for their eternal future.

    bobathome (5ccbd8)

  16. nk – I understand the libertarian objection, and in general giving the state the power to just lock someone up for three weeks on the decision of a minor functionary is NOT something I want to do.

    And yet an infectious disease quarantine is legitimately a national emergency, and it seems to me to be *essential* that the state have the power, in a medical emergency, to enforce a quarantine.

    aphrael (001863)

  17. 15. I also heard somewhere beheading cuts off access to Paradise.

    gary gulrud (46ca75)

  18. aphrael, I was more or less agreeing with felipe’s comment that the CDC should have done the shopping.

    nk (dbc370)

  19. #16, aphrael: But having such power isn’t enough. It must be used responsibly. It has not been used responsibly, for example, with the children who entered the country illegally. It is known that many have medical problems, but the government’s first priority was to get them as quickly as possible on buses and planes, public conveyances all, in order to distribute them across the nation. Even Congressmen aren’t allowed to inspect their care and medical screening while in temporary housing awaiting transportation. Responsibility is encouraged by accountability. No one who works for the government would ever consent to being held accountable. Especially the big number one, HteWon.

    One aspect of the WP story that is surprising is that the fools who suggested going to the store would be just fine were from the CDC. I rather thought this kind of misplaced “compassion” would be exercised by Dallas health officials. But then the local health agents might have been the ones cleaning up the vomit with a pressure washer and so didn’t have time to talk to family.

    Another thing to consider, is that some of the people they will put in quarantine may not have refrigerators or stoves. Internet connects, widescreen plasma displays, Barry-phones, EBT cards yes. But “middle class” appliances maybe not. They might have problems preparing their own food. The next big vector of infection will be the pizza delivery guy.

    bobathome (5ccbd8)

  20. #17

    I think I read the skull roams Islamic paradise like a hermit crab, scaring the virgins… but maybe I was reading the Yazidi version, so don’t quote me.

    There has to be a better way to take care of people who have been exposed to Ebola. Certainly someone in the CDC has collaborated with the President to formulate a planned response… weird though how a stupid President like Bush managed to do it..
    http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2014/10/obama-nixed-bush-era-quarantine-proposal.php

    steveg (794291)

  21. Planned response, steveg? Why, it would be almost impossible for Ebola to come to the US! Who needs to worry about quarantine sites or clean-up crews?

    In about a week, people will start dying of Ebola here. I believe Duncan’s family will all come down with it.

    I used to scoff at people who said, can we survive two more years of this guy. It’s no longer hyperbole.

    Patricia (5fc097)

  22. To consider a bit: Mr. Duncan’s relatives in Dallas get quarantined in that apartment with the towels, bedding, clothing, etc, that the sick man had used. They KNOW it’s infectious, they don’t want to touch that stuff, they don’t want to stay in that apartment. Have “the officials” removed his belongings and sanitized the apartment? I haven’t read anything that would make me think so. You can imagine that his relatives MUST be terrified to remain there, or to touch anything that Mr. Duncan had used. It wouldn’t surprise me if they tried to evade the quarantine and get away from that place.

    Seems to me we need to dump the damned illegals out of wherever-they’re-being-stashed and send them HOME. Use the areas formerly allocated for illegals as quarantine areas, to keep “suspected exposed” people for the 21-day incubation period. Decontaminate after each group of “quarantine-ees” gets released to go home (or sent to the isolation ward if symptomatic).

    A_Nonny_Mouse (d8ee37)

  23. Seems like they could take a bath with Hibiclens and put on clean clothes, so as not to be a risk at the store. Then again, “quarantine” should have a little more teeth, I think.

    Would the governor or someone have to declare a state of emergency or something to get quarantine enforced more strictly?

    carlitos (c24ed5)

  24. I think they are getting together a plan after the fact, with having a Hazmat crew go in and disinfect the place, and having food delivered to the apartment.
    Sine the exposure was recent and known of the secondary folk were showing symptoms, if they washed their hands I doubt they could have spread it to the store
    But I expect some of the family members to get ill and perhaps some other secondary infections of people involved. The issue from here is like in Lagos, Nigeria, and all other previously contained outbreaks, quarantine everyone exposed, keep isolated those who get sick and those in households of those who get sick, and let the outbreak run its course.
    I think there is a very good chance they can do this, but I am not sure how many will get sick and die first.
    If there are people not cooperating with the quarantine, then there is a possibility for the outbreak to escape containment, but we all know that.

    Emergency preparedness planners should probably prepare plans, if not the actual facilities, for moving people to for initial quarantine while the living quarters are immediately sealed off for sanitation.

    MD in Philly (f9371b)

  25. carlitos (c24ed5) — 10/3/2014 @ 10:10 am

    There is established precedent for forced quarantine of people with active TB who are not cooperative with treatment. I don’t know how much of this is local and varies from state to state and how narrowly such laws are written (e.g., whether they are the written as TB specific or not).

    MD in Philly (f9371b)

  26. Hey, Van Jones says we don’t have to worry because of the military [oh, we need one?], the CDC, and…wait for it…ObamaCare!!!! sick people can go to the doctor…!!!

    MD in Philly (f9371b)

  27. Thanks MD.

    carlitos (c24ed5)

  28. Here we see the Obama Doctrine at work: ignore the problem and hope it goes away. In the meantime, pivot back to the economy.

    Edoc118 (c37322)

  29. the Jallahs on balance, have more sense than the CDC, they know at least to sanitize as much as possible,

    narciso (ee1f88)

  30. We cannot contain a city like Dallas, not without possibly having to resort to killing people. Unfortunately given the nature of the disease and the effects some in the containment would be making snap decisions to do unspeakable and unthinkable things

    EPWJ (598909)

  31. That’s 30 paragraphs in when they mention the bit about CDC telling the quarantined person to go to the store.

    Sometimes you find the most interesting or important thing in a news article in the very last paragraph or two.

    Sammy Finkelman (d22d64)

  32. 22. Breaking news:

    http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/04/us/ebola-dallas-thomas-duncan.html

    Kasey Bonner, the coordinator for the Cleaning Guys, the company hired by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to do the job, said its workers were not allowed to enter the apartment on Thursday night because the company did not have permission to transport hazardous material on Texas highways.

    Sammy Finkelman (d22d64)

  33. How ebola spreads: (according to the New York Times)

    http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/03/us/understanding-the-risks-of-ebola-and-what-direct-contact-means.html

    Sammy Finkelman (d22d64)

  34. EPWJ-
    I think there is ample opportunity to contain it in Dallas if they get and stay on top of it competently, of course, seeing some things that have happened already, those might be big ifs.
    The situation is worse than Lagos as this guy had been in the community, whereas the person in Lagos collapsed at the airport, but I have to think there are more resources in Dallas than Lagos, as well.

    MD in Philly (f9371b)

  35. That seems to be a generally helpful article, Sammy, thank you.
    If in Dallas, carry gloves, hand sanitizer, and a spray bottle of bleach water with you (which is what they should have done with the vomitus on the sidewalk).

    MD in Philly (f9371b)

  36. “Duncan’s daughter Youngor] Jallah took a quick trip to Wal-Mart and bought a $50 brown cotton blanket. When she returned, she draped it over Duncan’s shoulders and then gently lifted him by his back to try to get him to drink some hot tea.”

    Well, Hell… let her buy thousands of them, do the same “Duncan shoulder draping” and hand ’em out at Democrat events.

    Bury my heart at…

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  37. MD

    You cannot contain a plague – repeat – you cannot contain a plague – repeat – you cannot contain a plague –

    The region that its in is almost impossible to transit – very difficult = now believing that Nigeria – which cannot control water quality – somehow can control something we cannot

    I think that due to our superior sanitation and overall health – we have dodged a lucky lucky bullet

    But I remember the last discussion about how we were not going to have a problem – hospital staffs know what to do

    No they don’t. They are full of infallible people – just like every other profession.

    EPWJ (598909)

  38. We are soo sooo sooooo sooooooo soooooooo lucky this hasn’t gone airborne

    EPWJ (598909)

  39. We are soo sooo sooooo sooooooo soooooooo lucky this hasn’t gone airborne

    why, because the CDC has said so?

    redc1c4 (abd49e)

  40. Here’s the problem MB – in our country bleach is not a valued item- in other words there’s no tom clancyish super bleach factory that’s going to step and volunteer to work day and night to buy bleach – Dallas could easily buy out 2 3 months of the entire country’s disinfectant supply in a few days of extreme panic – all the gloves all the bottles all the masks etc

    We are a consumer society, Walmart and all retailers sell bottled/canned/nonperishable products on consignment – if it swipes – they pay the vendor – not when the bottle hits the shelf but when it hits the trunk of the consumers car

    This is the famous just in time – and factories under siege – have little excess capacity – why have machinery and employees standing around?

    So the wisest thing is what I said – no one freakin comes into the country from an Embola infected area, period. Buuut no the medical profession KNEW they KNEW – they just KNEW

    What the medical profession and government failed at is understanding the depths of the stupidity of common man – yes if everyone was as intelligent as you = hell there won’t even be a blog here because most problems are one’s fomented by ignorance = but MD they are not as smart as you, unfortunately therein lies the problem.

    So if this thing gets worse – we are going to have people shooting people and more lives ruined by the sheer horror of the thing

    EPWJ (598909)

  41. All because a retard of a PResident could not make a decision that a republican would he think he can negotiate with Embola

    EPWJ (598909)

  42. #41: Cliff Notes Version…

    “stock up on bleach, gloves, masks & ammo NOW!”

    😎

    redc1c4 (abd49e)

  43. Ebola sorry don’t know why I cant type – oh that’s right – I’m an idiot – got to go

    EPWJ (598909)

  44. ammo first – can’t spread if the infected dead – that’s actually from a training manual in Qatar someone showed me

    fun huh, I had a head cold at the time and I sneezed in front of some soldiers – my wife was sure one of them twitched….

    I’ve been in a quarantine – the first thing that happens is the guns and tanks roll – france – England – when we came off the plane at Frankfort 300 soldiers with masks were waiting – ARMED TO THE FREAKIN TEETH

    And that was for the pig flu

    EPWJ (598909)

  45. As a side note – to my German Friends – having the old style officer SS caps for their paramilitary police – was there no other choices

    EPWJ (598909)

  46. I gotta go chop and saw some wood – cause some doctor said extreme timbering is dangerous

    EPWJ (598909)

  47. Of course, you can contain it, but you need the will, and a clear eyed understanding of the problem,
    the times reporter, fresh off the gosnel gal’s campaign, obfuscates the point that the CDC did not provide guidance, on simple things like gloves for handling,

    narciso (ee1f88)

  48. THE ONE-for full border closure and quarantine before he was against it.

    Bugg (3a2abd)

  49. Petition to stop flights in to US from Ebola- stricken countries at White House Petitions

    Dana (121626)

  50. Kasey Bonner, the coordinator for the Cleaning Guys, the company hired by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to do the job, said its workers were not allowed to enter the apartment on Thursday night because the company did not have permission to transport hazardous material on Texas highways.
    Sammy Finkelman (d22d64) — 10/3/2014 @ 10:48 am

    Reminds me of the scene in “Ben Hur” where the Roman prescription for leprosy was to burn everything in the infecteds’ dwellings to try to kill the virus in their belongings.

    Bugg (3a2abd)

  51. What happens when 50 more people are put into quarantine in their apartments? Will we have armed guards there too, or will that be deemed too discriminatory?

    I see riots in our future, and the rioters will be their own weapons.

    Patricia (5fc097)

  52. Democrats Push to Restart CDC Funding for Gun Violence Research

    fuzzy wuzzy mopsy flopsy america you so effing cute i could eat you face lol

    happyfeet (a785d5)

  53. Bobby Jindal is calling on the president to halt flights … Response from officials:

    CDC Director Tom Frieden appeared on the morning talk shows to argue that a travel ban would likely “backfire” and make it harder for health officials to fully root out the virus. “Even if we tried to close the border, it wouldn’t work,” the director said on MSNBC. “People have a right to return. People transiting through could come in. And it would backfire, because by isolating these countries, it’ll make it harder to help them, it will spread more there and we’d be more likely to be exposed here.” Frieden added that the only way to completely eliminate Americans’ risk to Ebola is to stop the virus “at the source” — meaning West Africa.

    Dana (121626)

  54. I always keep a gallon of bleach at home because it’s useful to have around. Seriously.

    Plus when we air dry cooking and eating gear outdoors we teach teh brown shirted paramilitary utes to use bleach water as a final rinse to disinfect.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  55. I’m not putting my name on any petition that is going to the White House.

    elissa (dfa721)

  56. that sort of forgets the whole point of disease control, lord love a waterfowl

    narciso (ee1f88)

  57. U.S. Patient Aided Ebola Victim in Liberia

    Mr. Duncan — a[n unemployed single] Liberian national in his mid-40s who had come to America to visit relatives in Dallas (on a via that should have never been issued) — had direct contact with a woman stricken by Ebola in Monrovia, the Liberian capital, on Sept. 15, days before he left Liberia for the United States, the woman’s parents and Mr. Duncan’s neighbors said.

    The family of the woman, Marthalene Williams, 19, took her by taxi to a hospital with Mr. Duncan’s help after failing to get an ambulance. Ms. Williams was turned away for lack of space in the hospital’s Ebola treatment ward, the family said, and they took her back home in the evening, hours before she died. Mr. Duncan helped carry her because she was no longer able to walk. In the taxi, Ms. Williams, who was seven months pregnant, had been convulsing.

    Wonder why an a8hole, who would lie on a visa, and on an airline questionare, would go out of his way to take a pregnant teenager to hospital before his big trip?
    Think that was from the goodness in his heart?

    Who bought his plane ticket?

    papertiger (c2d6da)

  58. I’d pitch Duncan’s corpse into the hospital incinerator. With a pitch fork. And I’d burn the fork too.

    papertiger (c2d6da)

  59. Rick Perry let Governor Jindal get out in front of him on calling for a flight ban?

    Precious monkey is so not ready for prime time.

    Again.

    happyfeet (a785d5)

  60. I’d pitch Duncan’s corpse into the hospital incinerator. With a pitch fork. And I’d burn the fork too.

    [backs slowly away]

    Art Deco (ee8de5)

  61. daleyrocks, Wow. it looks like the president made some news in Evanston yesterday after all.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/10/03/and-just-like-that-obamas-policies-are-on-the-ballot-comment-is-campaign-ad-fodder/

    elissa (dfa721)

  62. Art Deco (ee8de5) — 10/3/2014 @ 1:37 pm

    This is no time to go squeamish.

    Sorry if the details offend your delicate demeanor, but with the Obama crew in charge you have to spell it out in small idiot proof words.

    Those guys couldn’t find their asses with both hands, and a guide aiding the search with a paddle.

    papertiger (c2d6da)

  63. Aaaand from Bloomberg:

    With those few words, the president turned an election that many Democrats wanted to make about local issues into one that will be decided on his national policies. Vulnerable Senate incumbents such as Mark Pryor, Mark Begich and Mary Landrieu can no longer talk about all they have done for Arkansas, Alaska and Louisiana. They now have to answer for Obamacare, the uneven recovery, and instability in the Middle East and elsewhere in the world.

    http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-10-03/obama-s-blow-to-endangered-democrats

    Heck of a job there putting your policies—“every single one of them”–on the ballot, Barry.

    elissa (dfa721)

  64. the narrative, relayed to the Daily Beast says he was getting married, and hence moving here:

    http://hotair.com/headlines/archives/2014/10/03/in-secret-service-some-blacks-see-a-flawed-shield-for-obama/

    it’s not incompetence, it has to be malevolent,

    narciso (ee1f88)

  65. My daughters Best Friend and West Point Classmate is from California, her mom died at Christmas her senior year she took the spring semester off, and did not graduate with all her classmates and chose a December graduation. We attended so did all the ranking class officers in her missed graduation. When you graduate from West Point you get 45 to 60 days leave (varies depending on branch and training) She instead of enjoying some well earned time off – she went to Africa and did mission work.

    She is a 1st in the MP unit that is being sent to Liberia – just found out yesterday my daughter called from Afghanistan to let me know and go see if she needs any help (she is stationed nearby)

    I hope our President realizes the back story of these special people that decide a life of defending the constitution and the people and remembers what can await them.

    EPWJ (29d77c)

  66. elissa – He did tell a lot of lies about the economy apart from putting his policies on the ballot, which I am sure Democrats who have been trying to distance themselves from him very much appreciated.

    Heckuva job Barky!

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  67. SPQR (1c89a2) — 10/3/2014 @ 12:03 pm

    Somebody better get it through their thick skulls that not doing this correctly is a life and death matter. Don’t tell your uneducated minimum wage workers do “go clean” without some proper instruction.
    Put Dr. Brantley in charge of the operation, fer cryin’ out loud.

    Yes, in PA you can put armed police outside of a hospital room to keep a person with active TB where he/she belongs.

    Which is why the “if’s” include cooperation.
    Yes, things could get very ugly. Civilization is a thin veneer over debased, fallen, human nature.

    MD in Philly (f9371b)

  68. elissa (dfa721) — 10/3/2014 @ 1:38 pm
    daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 10/3/2014 @ 1:57 pm

    I saw a comment from a staunch liberal who said, “If the Repubs let the 2014 election slip away, it will be their own fault…”
    The comment was specifically in reference to the fiasco in Kansas,
    but I think the person is correct in another sense,
    there is nothing the Dems have done or are doing that give voters a reason to vote for them,
    such as president Obama chipping in,
    so it us up to the Repubs to sink their own ship.

    MD in Philly (f9371b)

  69. I think we’re finally justified in deriding our Dud-In-Chief as “President Obola” now.

    A_Nonny_Mouse (d5e009)

  70. MD in Philly (f9371b) — 10/3/2014 @ 2:07 pm

    Don’t tell your uneducated minimum wage workers do “go clean” without some proper instruction. They’re begging for the jobs in Liberia. And they don’t even have enough people to train them.

    The whole U.S. effort to build a few facilities (so below the need that they wuld only be used for health care workers) is not getting anywhere.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/03/us/us-effort-in-liberia-barely-gets-on-the-ground.html

    They are slowly taking up one good idea:

    http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/04/health/use-of-ebola-survivors-blood-as-possible-treatment-gains-support.html

    And why not have immunized people take care of others?

    Sammy Finkelman (efc0ed)

  71. 66. narciso (ee1f88) — 10/3/2014 @ 1:47 pm

    the narrative, relayed to the Daily Beast says he was getting married, and hence moving here:

    Yes, his girlfriend was one of the people quarantined – and she doesn’t live there! So that makes sense.

    Sammy Finkelman (efc0ed)

  72. MD

    Kansas has a changing demographics – Kansas city is growing both in size and ethnicity – and the rural areas are seeing more and more young people going to college and then moving out of Kansas – its because of changes in population – not republican policy

    EPWJ (8f5c4e)

  73. 59. You think he is the one who got her pregnant? Who got her pregnant is missing from the news.

    Sammy Finkelman (efc0ed)

  74. OT, but while we are talking about government and health care issues…

    I’m starting to be in favor of all of these campus policies about explicit informed consent before any physical interaction, especially if they get the lawyers involved.
    I mean, really, some college guy comes to you with a copy of one of these protocols, and knowing there is no due process in the university setting,
    what is a good lawyer going to do?
    Tell the guy to never touch a girl while she is still in college.
    Sounds good to me, and I bet you agree, nk.

    MD in Philly (f9371b)

  75. 59. You think he is the one who got her pregnant? Who got her pregnant is missing from the news.

    Sammy Finkelman (efc0ed) — 10/3/2014 @ 2:24 pm

    It solves the why and how questions. Why would he help a convulsive pregnant girl, with family to take care of her, in the middle of a plague that is so widespread that the hospital doesn’t have room.
    Why would he not fear her contagion, unless he was well past that point?
    Dipping your wick comes under the category of body fluid exchange.

    Hell. That’s good news. At the very least it backs up the no airborne transmission story line.

    papertiger (c2d6da)

  76. If his only help was to help carry her, maybe there could be some other reasons, since he was also a tenant.

    I would suspect, of he was involved wth her, he did some other help.

    Sammy Finkelman (efc0ed)

  77. for all those Susanna Hoff fans out there, wasn’t her one big hit with teh Bangles called “Walk Like You Got Ebola”?… er somethin’ like it?

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  78. Are we sure that Dr. Thomas Frieden is not Julia Pierson in drag?

    askeptic (efcf22)

  79. Does Obamacare cover Ebola?
    The insurance companies behind the curtains must be pissed off at Obama. An Ebola outbreak could bankrupt them.
    So maybe this will be Dr. Emmanuels first chance to do death panels

    steveg (794291)

  80. Too answer Frieden:

    “People have a right to return.”

    Not in an emergency they don’t.

    “People transiting through could come in.”

    You don’t let anyone with certain passports into the country. You keep airports disinfected to catch the germs transitioning through.

    “And it would backfire, because by isolating these countries, it’ll make it harder to help them, it will spread more there and we’d be more likely to be exposed here.”

    No, we are not isolating, we will still help them in their own country, and they will know there is no escape route to the USA so maybe they will cooperate. And it will make infection control of Americans easier.

    Patricia (5fc097)

  81. Oh, I agree with elissa. No way am I signing a WH petition. We would be the first ones sent to the quarantine camps!

    Patricia (5fc097)

  82. Isolation: If all else fails, there is always the Great Multi-Megaton Disinfectant.

    askeptic (efcf22)

  83. #72, Sammy: The nyt article is devastating. The closing paragraph says it all:

    “The complexity of managing and running” an Ebola treatment center, he said, “was not apparent to me until I saw it firsthand.”

    The “he” being a Mr. Michael Lumpkin who is identified as an assistant secretary of defense.

    There is also the claim that C-17’s are going to be bringing in “hundreds of thousands of tons of equipment to set up the Ebola treatment units, as promised by Mr. Obama.” These grandiose plans have been hampered so far by the lack of suitable equipment, like graders and rock crushers, which were not brought in by air. No doubt the impossibility of bringing in “hundreds of thousands of tons” by aircraft in a timely fashion will become more and more apparent as time passes. Absent the needed heavy equipment, their idea was to rent the gear and operators from Liberians, but the story mentions a number of delays caused by said equipment failing. In WWII the SeaBees were happy to use Japanese equipment when they could, as at Guadalcanal, but they came prepared to do the job period. No longer apparently.

    And our troops seem to be working side by side with Liberian construction crews. This might not work out so well.

    As I mentioned above, we appear to be condemned to repeat the past. Just what are the qualifications of an assistant secretary of defense in this administration?

    bobathome (5ccbd8)

  84. Tell the guy to never touch a girl while she is still in college.
    Sounds good to me, and I bet you agree, nk.
    MD in Philly (f9371b) — 10/3/2014 @ 2:26 pm

    Not a girl in his college, anyway. It would be an interesting experiment if all boys in college established a policy of not dating girls from their campus. My bet is that the consent policy would not be lifted but, instead, the girls would get the college to enact a rule making intramural dating mandatory. Oh, wait … http://www.businessinsider.com/wesleyan-university-residential-fraternities-coed-2014-9

    nk (dbc370)

  85. Reading the nyt article reminds me of the Haiti overreaction and the waste of good intentions. Of course that’s a meme, so maybe we are going to do some good there, but it will take a while.

    And sounds like our military are very, very much in danger from such a chaotic situation.

    Patricia (5fc097)

  86. Heavy Equipment is a sea-lift item in the qty’s needed for major work.

    askeptic (efcf22)

  87. nk, that article reads like a treatment for a satire on Greek Life on the new campus.
    It cries out for the touch that only the original crew of Animal House could give it.

    askeptic (efcf22)

  88. I’m thinking that perhaps Wesleyan has no residential sororities, hence equality of opportunity means the frats take in women.
    Um, what part of making a place known as “the Rape factory” admit women makes sense??

    MD in Philly (f9371b)

  89. CASE UNDER INVESTIGATION IN ATLANTA. DUI ARRESTEE THAT WAS RECENTLY IN AFRICA SHOWING SYMPTOMS.

    http://atlanta.cbslocal.com/2014/10/03/report-inmate-at-cobb-county-jail-being-tested-for-ebola/

    Yoda (cffabe)

  90. maybe I’m, simple minded,
    get people from Doctor’s Without Boarders, disaster relief agencies, logistics people from the military, people from on the ground in Liberia, put them all together and put a special ops colonel in charge of it all and nobody leaves until they figure out what needs to be done.
    but they’ve all got to be people who are where they are because they know what they’re doing, not because they fit the diversity qualifications for an agency

    MD in Philly (f9371b)

  91. askeptic (efcf22) — 10/3/2014 @ 4:08 pm

    You read my mind.

    MD in Philly (f9371b) — 10/3/2014 @ 5:12 pm

    It is all part of the “double secret probation”, doc!

    felipe (40f0f0)

  92. “but they’ve all got to be people who are where they are because they know what they’re doing, not because they fit the diversity qualifications for an agency”.

    Therein lies the rub.

    felipe (40f0f0)

  93. •Boil all bodily fluids before consumption.

    Hahahahaahahah!

    felipe (40f0f0)

  94. “•Try being born one of the 15 percent of rural Gabonese citizens with natural immunity to the virus”.

    That one is for Sammy!

    felipe (40f0f0)

  95. “•If you see a suspicious-looking filamentous virus particle roughly one micron in length, stay away”

    For Happyfeet!.

    felipe (40f0f0)

  96. “•Continue following lifelong plan of avoiding Dallas, TX at all costs”.

    Now they’ve done it! They’ve gone an taken the name of TEXAS in vain!

    felipe (40f0f0)

  97. Well, I wonder how many “isolated cases” it will take before the nonchalance of no travel restrictions gets reexamined…

    That said, there is the point about the phenomenon of unintended consequences. I have read where years ago when people with TB were forced to leave their families for an asylum people would often stay in hiding, defeating the purpose of mandating quarantine.
    If there was some sort of ban, it would need to be around the involved countries, not letting anyone out without some elaborate screening mechanism, much more than a form one fills out themselves.
    Unless there is some way to track everyone who first goes to Europe or another African country, etc., before ending up in the US.
    In some ways it is a good reason for the world to organize a massive quarantine and treatment effort for the region.

    I still think it is possible for the US and other developed countries to contain and control local Ebola cases, but it will not take too many to make everyone jittery, and it will need expertise to do the containment, expertise which we have demonstrated is lacking in case #1.

    MD in Philly (f9371b)

  98. It’s all fun and games until someone insults TX.

    felipe (40f0f0)

  99. “when people with TB were forced to leave their families for an asylum people would often stay in hiding, defeating the purpose of mandating quarantine”.

    I’m wondering if they were quarantining themselves on their own terms?

    felipe (40f0f0)

  100. redc14-
    I could waste a lot of time there…

    Pfizer Releases Vintage Cask-Aged Robitussin
    Archaeologists Discover Cave Where Ancient Humans First Had To Pretend To Like Friend’s Art

    I better pretend to have not seen it.

    MD in Philly (f9371b)

  101. “but it will not take too many to make everyone jittery”

    In Tx, it is the trigger finger of Texans that gets jittery.

    Oh, did I mention that I’m from TX? Born and raised (mostly) here.

    Full disclosure: I am enjoying a lovely whisky called Maker’s Mark.

    Who knows the words to “My old Kentucky home”?

    felipe (40f0f0)

  102. I have got to get me some of that Robitussin! After I get the Amontillado, of course.

    Thump, thump!

    felipe (40f0f0)

  103. “Therein lies the rub.”

    felipe (40f0f0) — 10/3/2014 @ 5:22 pm

    I thought for a minute you were describing that wanker Gil’s place of abode…

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  104. They sang Ole KEntucky Home before the start of Ironman. It was good for settling your nerves.

    Going to MM distillery is even better.

    JD (82d513)

  105. Obama through presidential order has brought out the giant 4 massive super trucks that once were employed at B-52 bases with nuclear storage – these are the largest self contained fire trucks in the world – independent engines operate each of the worlds largest wheels – it can hold a small operating theater and has a liquid capacity of over 2,500 gallons with a 300GPM pump on both sides of the Vehicle. Equipped with laser communications and seats 15 comfortable –

    If the city of Dallas completely erupts with Ebola they will rush to the scene

    EPWJ (8b746f)

  106. Dallas ebola update.

    Duncan’s family has been moved out of their infected apartment to another location where they remain in quarantine and under observation.

    Then the hazmat crew cleaned their old place. The bill for that came to $65K.

    I have a feeling this ebola thingy is going to get ugly and very, very expensive.

    Steve57 (b50fab)

  107. Out: Hope and Change

    In: Disinfectant Soap and Disposable Nose Masks

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  108. Screw the disinfectant soap, Coronello. I’m thinking of killing the ebola virus with this:

    http://www.theliquorbarn.com/everclear-grain-alcohol-190-proof-1-75l/

    Steve57 (b50fab)

  109. Lol

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  110. why waste good ethanol?

    redc1c4 (abd49e)

  111. 115-
    Well, it is 5% H2O.

    askeptic (efcf22)

  112. Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins not only violated the quarantine order by going into the apartment without any protective gear, he took two female aides with him. Then the next day drove the quarantined family to another location while the apartment is being cleaned, again without protective gear, then wore the same shirt and tie to a press conference trumpeting that fact. Why is this moron not quarantined by court order himself for violating the quarantine?
    http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-Texas/2014/10/3/Naive-Liberal-Texas-Judge-Enter-Ebola-Apartment-Without-Protection
    http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-Texas/2014/10/05/EXCLUSIVE-CPS-Complaint-Filed-Against-Texas-Judge-For-Possible-Exposure-of-Daughter-to-Ebola
    http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-Texas/2014/10/04/Liberal-Judge-Drives-Ebola-Exposed-Family-Attends-Presser-Wearing-Same-Shirt

    Rorschach (61bf43)

  113. A Texas County Judge is not analogous to a judge-judge, not even Judge Wapner. He is analogous to a County Board President. Just for the record. So … a dumb, posturing politico.

    nk (dbc370)

  114. I am aware of that nk. I’m in Houston. We have county judges here too, but the fact is, his position is Dallas County Judge.

    Rorschach (61bf43)


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