It isn’t the virus, it’s the incompetence. Not to mention the venality.
[Update late morning]
Amazingly, left-blogger Atrios (aka Duncan Black) agrees:
Ultimately the point is that as of now, Ebola is a small problem in the United States overall, if a very serious problem for the people infected by it, and we have failed to deal with this small problem. The lack of clearly established systematic responses to potential deadly disease outbreaks is extremely worrying. If a genuine epidemic occurs, there’s no reason to think the response will be any better.
At least as of now, there’s no reason to be frightened of Ebola. Turn off cable news and go about your day. A small number of infected people is not an epidemic. But there is reason to be frightened of the apparent inability of our institutions to deal with an actual epidemic, or true national emergencies of any kind.
Yes. As has been pointed out ad infinitum. when the government (and particularly the federal government) tries to do too many things, it ends of doing none of them well.
“It isn’t the virus, it’s the incompetence. Not to mention the venality.”
Not to mention treating the citizenry as if they were ignorant, easily spoofed, oafs.
I have a technical-political question.
Under the Affordable Care Act, a colonoscopy is supposed to be without charge, but can they charge you a co-pay for the drink you have to take beforehand?
If they can charge for the drink, can they charge you for contraception medicines? If not, why do they allow a charge for the drink?
Ya, no one thinks they are going to get Ebola trick or treating this year. People worry that it might get here and that a small number of people might turn into a slightly larger number of people being infected due to mismanagement.
This situation illustrates the incompetence of the federal government, which may or may not have anything to do with Obama. He certainly has picked the wrong people to head organizations like the CDC but we have a government wide crisis of competency. Look at all of the nuclear incidents we have had over the past few years.
What reflects poorly on Obama is his turn to attacks of paranoia and racism to deflect criticism and his habit of lying when he doesn’t need to. Sure, the chances of getting Ebola are low but that doesn’t mean the President or his chosen people need to go out and lie or make intentional misstatements about the disease.