28 thoughts on “The Case For Panic”

  1. I was worried, but the White House says they have it under control. Whew!

    The first case of Ebola in the United States was revealed this week. Fifty people who came in contact with Thomas Duncan, who traveled to the United States from Liberia, are under observation, including 10 who are considered at high risk of getting the disease.

    Duncan’s entry to the United States has led to calls to cut off travel to the country from the African nations where Ebola has spread. The White House has rejected those calls, calling them counter-productive.

    [snip]

    Monaco stressed that the air screenings have been almost entirely effective in preventing the spread of Ebola onto U.S. soil.

    “Dozens and dozens of people have been stopped from getting onto planes,” she said. “We have now seen tens of thousands of people [arrive in the U.S.] since March to the current day, and we now have this one isolated case.”

    They are stuck on stupid. Back in March there were only a hundred or so people with Ebola in all of Africa, so of course it was unlikely that one of them would fly over during the incubation period, when victims aren’t symptomatic. But by the WHO and CDC’s own estimates, in two months there will be about 3,408 new cases per day (scienceMag link). As the number of African cases grows – exponentially, we’ll have to start talking about the average percentage of seats on an airliner from Africa that are carrying an asymptomatic Ebola victim, because it’s not going to be just one here or one there.

    They aren’t going to rethink their policy because it hasn’t failed disastrously yet, even though their own numbers indicate that such a failure is inevitable, and we’re starting to see that even now. Meanwhile Ace linked a New York Times piece urging travel restrictions, and its comment section was filled with idiot liberals screaming that travel restrictions were racist. If that takes further hold on the left, the Administration will be even more likely to continue their epic failure, and countless Americans will possibly die.

    So to prevent that, I think we should point out that the people flying in are mostly flying into poor and minority communities filled with blacks and Hispanics, who will soon be wiped out, leaving this a much whiter nation. Perhaps even claim that the officials and departments that are opposed to travel restrictions are under the sway of the same CIA officers who invented crack cocaine and AIDS and spread them in the ghettos and gay bars.

      1. Ed,

        Well I basically agree with you but I state it in a slightly different way:

        All things the government does is done inefficiently and with large opportunities for graft and power abuse.

        But there are some things that the government does less inefficiently than other ways and you just have to live with the graft and power abuse.

        Example: If the country is at war it’s better to have one agency controlling one military than 50 agencies controlling 50 militaries.

  2. It’s what happens when you elect empty suits, arrogant insufferable cretins, and neo-Marxists.

    Everyone was warned back in 2008.

  3. Stock up on bottled water, K rations, silver and gold coins, ammo, and surgical masks. It’s gonna get ugly.

  4. The pale horse brings death by plague. (Rev. 6:8) The Spanish flu killed about 50 million people. Smallpox, malaria, and tuberculosis caused hundreds of millions of deaths during the 20th century.

    Now on this 100th anniversary of WW1 we get Ebola. Will it be as bad? Our govt. is working hard to make it so. Perhaps inept govt. is the real disease?

  5. From the Washington Post:

    “Since July, hospitals around the country have reported more than 100 cases involving Ebola-like symptoms to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, officials there said. Only one patient so far — Thomas Duncan in Dallas — has been diagnosed with Ebola.

    But in addition to lapses at the Dallas hospital where Duncan is being treated, officials say they are fielding inquiries from hospitals and health workers that make it clear that serious questions remain about how to properly and safely care for potential Ebola patients.”

    Ineptitude has infected the government starting at th etop and working it’s way down.

    A serious man…a SERIOUS man….would have closed the border and stopped the flights immediately. At least until we get a handle on this.

    And let’s not forget the Entero virus which now infects people in most, if not all, 50 states. By the way, I’ve read that another name for the Entero virus is Polio. It’ s just that the government doesn’t want to call it that – same way they don’t want to call Al Qaeda, Al Qaeda so they made up a new name – Khorosan.

    Where do those knuckleheads think this came from? I’ll tell them:

    Illegal immigrants.

    We have a whole raft of new diseases popping up which we eradicated years ago. What’s the ONE thing that’s changed over the last year or two?

    Mass illegal immigration. Accepting the illegal immigrants into the country without a medical check first. Then spreading them around the nation.

    If you were a third world hellhole leader and you wanted to offload problems onto someone else, one set of problems you can offload is to get rid of the sick. This is a twofer:

    1) Majorly reduces a problem you have to deal with

    2) Keeps the rabble quiet…nothing like rampant disease and death to arouse the rabble.

    Think: Mariel Boat Lift as an example.

      1. The too-long didn’t-read what’s-your-point version:

        Different enteroviruses cause different illnesses. For example, quoting from the article, “Hand, foot and mouth disease is a childhood illness most commonly caused by infection by Coxsackie A virus or EV71.”

        1. “The too-long didn’t-read what’s-your-point version”

          Not only did you not read your own source, it’s clear you didn’t read my post. Otherwise you’d know what the point was, and the point has very little to do with entero vs polio.

          But not reading is one of your long-recognized trademarks.

      2. If YOU had read your OWN link, you would have read this:

        “On the basis of their pathogenesis in humans and animals, the enteroviruses were originally classified into four groups, polioviruses, Coxsackie A viruses (CA), Coxsackie B viruses (CB), and echoviruses, but it was quickly realized that there were significant overlaps in the biological properties of viruses in the different groups. “

          1. Gregg was quite clear that he read that some are calling it Polio, and then you provide a link telling him to educate himself, in which the link says there is little significance between the various strains of enteroviruses including polio. Is there some point you are trying to make, bob? Because Gregg’s point is about the governments disinterest in stopping the spread of these viruses, and you seem to want to argue about a point that even your link claims is trivially insignificant.

            You did read the link you provided, right? Because Gregg pulled out the quote that shows your argument is trivial in case you missed it. And your point, whatever it is, seems certainly off topic to his original discussion about border security.

          2. We’re all reading the same words, but we disagree about what they mean. I think it is irresponsible to pass on the idea that EV-D68 is polio, just as it is irresponsible to pass on the idea that the rather similar virus which causes Hand Foot Mouth disease is polio. Both EV-D68 and the virus which causes Hand Foot Mouth are caused by what the CDC calls non-Polio enteroviruses. I’m neglecting the political context of Gregg’s post because I think it is far more important to get the medical facts right. This blog is great when it comes to political commentary, but I think everyone should avoid when passing on rumors as medical facts.

          3. So your point is to change the discussion. Ok fine… why is this distinction important to you, bob; when you still claim Australia is a republic?

          4. ” Because Gregg’s point is about the governments disinterest in stopping the spread of these viruses, and you seem to want to argue about a point that even your link claims is trivially insignificant. ”

            All bob can argue is the trivially insignificant.

          5. “why is this distinction important to you”

            Because incorrect information regarding public health threats can cause unnecessary fear and even panic. EV-D68 is, thus far, definitely worrisome and perhaps even scary, but polio (as experienced in America in the 1950s) was far worse.

          6. Wikipedia claims “Early in the 20th century polio would become the world’s most feared disease.” Ask any doctor if they expect EV-D68 to get anywhere near that severity.

          7. Because incorrect information regarding public health threats can cause unnecessary fear and even panic.

            Yet, according to this article from the NYTimes, it is enterovirus-68s similarity to polio that caused it to be noticed and identified in the US this year. In fact, the article even explains that infections from this virus were likely under-reported in the past year.

            I’m failing to see the incorrect information provided by Gregg, but I’m starting to see where bob was wrong.

  6. Apparently nervous people in Dallas have been flocking to Cowboys stadium where nobody can catch anything.

      1. I just hope we can keep laughing. It takes serious people taking responsibility but we live in a pass the buck society these days (or rather, the buck definitely stops with me except I don’t see no buck.)

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