ABC Poll: 2/3 Want travel ban from Ebola countries.

[HenryHill9323 65]

How many US doctors and aide workers do you think go there to help when we tell them they can't come back?

 

The CDC thinks ebola isn't airborne and it's highly treatable. If you're going to shut down travel over 2 cases why stop there, let's start banning people who were exposed to the flu.

21 day monitored quarantine upon return.

[MDC 5,877]

21 day monitored quarantine upon return.

Some airports are already doing that, we're talking about restricting travel.

[HenryHill9323 65]

Some airports are already doing that, we're talking about restricting travel.

You asked about aid workers and wondered if they would go over there if they couldn't come back.

 

I solved that issue.

[penultimatestraw 473]

 

After criticism Frieden said that "a breach in protocol" could mean the protocol itself is breached; not tight enough. He clarified he wasn't saying she necessarily failed at following guidelines. People responded negatively to the rush to essentially say 'she effed up' in case the CDC is downplaying or ignorant of things themselves.

Probably a combination of poor protocol and human error. Doctors, nurses and other medical personnel are terrible at complying with infection control procedures, including basics like washing their hands. Doesn't surprise me if mistakes are made following a complex, unfamiliar protocol.

[MDC 5,877]

You asked about aid workers and wondered if they would go over there if they couldn't come back.

 

I solved that issue.

On page 1 you wanted a travel ban. Glad you've come around, dummy.

[penultimatestraw 473]

How many US doctors and aide workers do you think go there to help when we tell them they can't come back?

 

The CDC thinks ebola isn't airborne and it's highly treatable. If you're going to shut down travel over 2 cases why stop there, let's start banning people who were exposed to the flu.

The moratorium won't last forever, just a period beyond what we know about the disease's incubation period. I doubt this would dissuade most healthcare workers, who are already willing to put their lives at risk to help ebola patients overseas.

 

Having trained during SARS and the anthrax bioterrorism scare, I can assure you isolation protocols evolve on the fly. Unlike flu, we don't completely understand how Ebola is spread, and are making educated guesses at the best way to contain it. Also the mortality from ebola exceeds flu by a large margin, plus we have drugs to treat the flu. Ebola treatment is largely supportive, though antivirals are being used experimentally to treat it.

 

There may be only two cases now, but infections can spread exponentially once a critical number of cases is reached.

[penultimatestraw 473]

Some airports are already doing that, we're talking about restricting travel.

Waiting 60 or 90 days is restricting travel, isn't it? Nobody is advocating a permanent ban on travel from Africa, just a little more than checking for a fever at the gate.

[IGotWorms 3,300]

Jeez, I am agreeing with RP twice in the same thread.

This should give you pause. RP has a history of overreacting to things like a hysterical little girl, especially when he perceives that a democrat is somehow implicated. You really want to cast your lot with that?

[5-Points 2,715]

How many US doctors and aide workers do you think go there to help when we tell them they can't come back?

 

The CDC thinks ebola isn't airborne and it's highly treatable. If you're going to shut down travel over 2 cases why stop there, let's start banning people who were exposed to the flu.

Aide workers could use chartered flights rather than commercial flights. We could monitor them a helluva lot better that way as well as reduce the number of people they come into contact with.

[HenryHill9323 65]

On page 1 you wanted a travel ban. Glad you've come around, dummy.

I never, said I wanted a travel ban. I said I wanted to block entry into the USA from the Ebola countries.

 

Dumbfukk.

[HenryHill9323 65]

This should give you pause. RP has a history of overreacting to things like a hysterical little girl, especially when he perceives that a democrat is somehow implicated. You really want to cast your lot with that?

You are the dumbfukk who claimed we wanted to isolate them and let them all die.

 

Who is overreacting, dumbfukk?

[IGotWorms 3,300]

I never, said I wanted a travel ban. I said I wanted to block entry into the USA from the Ebola countries.

 

Dumbfukk.

Your thread title says "travel ban" you inbred little focktard

[MDC 5,877]

Waiting 60 or 90 days is restricting travel, isn't it? Nobody is advocating a permanent ban on travel from Africa, just a little more than checking for a fever at the gate.

The OP is talking about a travel "ban" without any qualifications. I took that to mean "indefinite." That is IMO a gross overreaction to a disease that does not appear to be airborne or highly contagious.

 

I get that the mortality rate is high but that is almost certainly because it's afflicting mostly people with poor sanitation and poor healthcare. It's a scary virus because of what it can do untreated but people need to get a grip.

 

The media is playing Google Pilot for a cowardly rube.

[MDC 5,877]

Your thread title says "travel ban" you inbred little focktard

POW! Google Rube really walked into that one.

[HenryHill9323 65]

Your thread title says "travel ban" you inbred little focktard

Travel ban FROM EBOLA COUNTRIES.

 

good God you are the dumbest dumbfukk of all dumbfukks.

[HenryHill9323 65]

POW! Google Rube really walked into that one.

Oops! I was wrong....MDC is just as dumb.

[MDC 5,877]

Travel ban FROM EBOLA COUNTRIES.

 

 

Now you want a 21-day quarantine instead, gotcha.

[naomi 343]

The moratorium won't last forever, just a period beyond what we know about the disease's incubation period. I doubt this would dissuade most healthcare workers, who are already willing to put their lives at risk to help ebola patients overseas.

 

Having trained during SARS and the anthrax bioterrorism scare, I can assure you isolation protocols evolve on the fly. Unlike flu, we don't completely understand how Ebola is spread, and are making educated guesses at the best way to contain it. Also the mortality from ebola exceeds flu by a large margin, plus we have drugs to treat the flu. Ebola treatment is largely supportive, though antivirals are being used experimentally to treat it.

 

There may be only two cases now, but infections can spread exponentially once a critical number of cases is reached.

 

That seems perfectly reasonable to me.

 

This is that general thought amped up a bit:

 

The head of the CDC continues to rule out a ban on air travel for non-essential personnel to and from the countries where Ebola is raging…

 

Dr. Frieden strongly argued against curtailing travel to and from West Africa, in part because that could make it harder to get supplies to those countries. “That will make it harder to stop the disease,” he said. “Whatever we do, we won’t stop travel to and from these countries.”

 

It is hard to put into words how foolish this is.

 

If this virus gets loose inside the United States it could easily become the worst health crisis our nation has ever seen.

 

The key is to keep the virus from getting into our country in the first place.

 

Banning air travel for non-essential personnel to and from Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia would not be that big of a deal. Many other countries have already done it.

 

But the CDC and the Obama administration are not even considering it.

 

If they have made the wrong call on this, it could end up costing large numbers of Americans their lives.

 

 

 

Fighting Ebola in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea is incredibly important for everyone so those efforts shouldn't be hampered. Keep aiding that, restrict non-essential flights...logistical challenge doing both but one worth taking on.

[HenryHill9323 65]

Now you want a 21-day quarantine instead, gotcha.

I will try to dumb it down to your level once, and only once.

 

Ban entry into the USA of anyone from Ebola countries, as I stated in the OP.

 

Any healthcare workers who want to go there to help have to go into a 21 day monitored quarantine upon return to the USA.

 

I'm sure this will also go over your head.

 

[naomi 343]

Airline suspensions as of 10/9:

 

• Air France has suspended flights to Liberia and Sierra Leone. Flights to Guinea may be off-schedule, or cancelled at short notice.
• British Airways has suspended flights Liberia and Sierra Leone until 31 March 2015.
• Emirates has suspended flights to Guinea.
• Kenyan Airways has temporarily suspended flights from Liberia and Sierra Leone into Nairobi.
• Asky Airlines has suspended flights to and from Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
• Arik Air and Gambia Bird have suspended services to Liberia and Sierra Leone.
• Ceiba Intercontinental has suspended flights to west African countries.
• Korean Air has suspended flight to and from Kenya.
• Royal Air Maroc and Brussels Airlines are operating on modified routes and schedules.
• Delta has ceased flying to Monrovia, Liberia for commercial reasons not related to the EVD outbreak.

 

[MDC 5,877]

I will try to dumb it down to your level once, and only once.

 

Ban entry into the USA of anyone from Ebola countries, as I stated in the OP.

 

Any healthcare workers who want to go there to help have to go into a 21 day monitored quarantine upon return to the USA.

 

I'm sure this will also go over your head.

 

So you took one position and changed it a page later.

[HenryHill9323 65]

I'm sure this will also go over your head.

Nailed it!

[MDC 5,877]

We have hundreds of US troops in Africa. No word yet if Henry has set a new policy for their return. Maybe he'll cut them a break and give then 21 days.

[mobb_deep 917]

Isn't America now an Ebola country? This is really going to f up my upcoming travel plans to Canada.

[HenryHill9323 65]

So you took one position and changed it a page later.

My position has not changed since my OP.

 

Your level of dumbassery hasn't changed either.

[MDC 5,877]

My position has not changed since my OP.

 

Your level of dumbassery hasn't changed either.

Nobody comes back in!

 

Derr... except humanitarian workers and military personnel.

 

Trolled and rolled ... too easy!

[HenryHill9323 65]

Nobody comes back in!

 

 

Who said that? I certainly didn't.

 

Your idiocy keeps piling up, Sport.

[MDC 5,877]

Travel ban!

[HenryHill9323 65]

She may have poop, blood, urine and/or sputum on her. Hate to agree with RP, but it isn't entirely clear how Ebola spreads at this point. The nurse failed to take all the protective precautions. They speculate she may have been infected when removing her protective gear, though I've also heard she wore the wrong type of face mask.

 

As far as the poll in the OP, it is hard to argue against a moratorium on travel from high risk areas in Africa. That being said, our general sanitation and access to medical care should theoretically prevent Ebola from becoming widespread in the US.

What do you think about the present protocol of just taking the temperature of those getting on flights? Seems to me a stupid plan given the 21 day incubation period, especially since that protocol ended up giving us Mr. Duncan.

[ZeroTolerance 582]

Highly unlikely that it is airborne as the infection rate in the countries currently suffering epidemics would be insanely higher. The answer to why it is spreading over there is pretty simple:

 

1. family members sharing homes with little to no plumbing or sanitation

2. burial customs that encourage physical contact with the corpse and a culture that encourages families to lie about what killed their family member and/or bribe officials to provide documentation that says the body was ebola free

3. people refusing to get treatment because anyone known to have ebola dooms themselves and their entire family to being treated by the community as lepers

 

Nevertheless, I am also in favor of a travel ban as it has already been proven that people living in the infected areas don't give two sh*ts about exposing family members and general citizens abroad to the disease as long as it means they get out of the area. It will be too difficult to check the background on EVERY person who bounces off a couple connecting flights out of Liberia. I personally do have some stake in the issue as I work primarily in the emergency department and thus am frequently one of the first to be exposed to whatever screwed up as-of-yet-undiagnosed illness patients come to the hospital with initially.

[BunnysBastatrds 1,909]

I live in a port city that imports many items from said points of interest from Africa. What should we do? That should be the emphasis....no?

[jerryskids 5,169]

AIDS, Obama, Ebola...Africa is nothing but trouble. Can't we just burn the entire continent down to the ground and salt the earth? And maybe have some collateral napalm hit the Middle East? I simply don't have enough bullets to shoot 7 billion zombie walkers and Captain Ebola Tripps is giggling it's way across the globe.

I wanted to give you a for the reference to The Stand with "Captain Trips".

[penultimatestraw 473]

The OP is talking about a travel "ban" without any qualifications. I took that to mean "indefinite." That is IMO a gross overreaction to a disease that does not appear to be airborne or highly contagious.

 

I get that the mortality rate is high but that is almost certainly because it's afflicting mostly people with poor sanitation and poor healthcare. It's a scary virus because of what it can do untreated but people need to get a grip.

 

The media is playing Google Pilot for a cowardly rube.

Well, I am not proposing a complete, permanent ban on travel.

 

But I do not think we know enough about ebola's spread to take it as lightly as you suggest. While living conditions and sanitation certainly play a role in deaths due to the disease in Africa, to suggest the mortality rate is inconsequential outside those conditions is also short sighted.

 

There is a panel discussion on a medical site among physicians, many of them infectious disease specialists like myself, who echo my concerns. At this point I think it is better to be safe than sorry - the only other contemporary infection with which I would suggest such caution is avian influenza.

 

ETA Smallpox and pneumonic plague would also fit the bill, and are category A on bioterrorism lists for the same reasons as ebola.

[penultimatestraw 473]

This should give you pause. RP has a history of overreacting to things like a hysterical little girl, especially when he perceives that a democrat is somehow implicated. You really want to cast your lot with that?

 

What do you think about the present protocol of just taking the temperature of those getting on flights? Seems to me a stupid plan given the 21 day incubation period, especially since that protocol ended up giving us Mr. Duncan.

I don't think temperature alone is an adequate screening protocol.

[penultimatestraw 473]

Highly unlikely that it is airborne as the infection rate in the countries currently suffering epidemics would be insanely higher. The answer to why it is spreading over there is pretty simple:

 

1. family members sharing homes with little to no plumbing or sanitation

2. burial customs that encourage physical contact with the corpse and a culture that encourages families to lie about what killed their family member and/or bribe officials to provide documentation that says the body was ebola free

3. people refusing to get treatment because anyone known to have ebola dooms themselves and their entire family to being treated by the community as lepers

 

Nevertheless, I am also in favor of a travel ban as it has already been proven that people living in the infected areas don't give two sh*ts about exposing family members and general citizens abroad to the disease as long as it means they get out of the area. It will be too difficult to check the background on EVERY person who bounces off a couple connecting flights out of Liberia. I personally do have some stake in the issue as I work primarily in the emergency department and thus am frequently one of the first to be exposed to whatever screwed up as-of-yet-undiagnosed illness patients come to the hospital with initially.

Good points. But you're RT right? So no risk for you...

[kilroy69 993]

I have no problem at all keeping anyone from these countries out.

[tanatastic 2,061]

Does no one watch movies? It's not airborne yet but will be soon. Seriously if some numb nuts brings this to California I'm gonna freak.

[drobeski 3,061]

Why is Obama sending our marines to fight a disease ?

 

 

Oh I forgot he hates the military.

 

My bad.

[Frank M 181]

Does no one watch movies? It's not airborne yet but will be soon. Seriously if some numb nuts brings this to California I'm gonna freak.

 

HIV is one of the most rapidly mutating viruses there is, it's been in the US since the 70s, and it is not airborne. The idea that viruses always mutate into flying things able to infect everyone within a certain radius is fiction from the movies. FIrst, Ebola is perfectly hardy and contagious and easily spread through contact with infected body fluids the way it is now. Second, the cost to the virus in becoming more easily transmitted through the air is likely too great, and would lead to it either being more fragile or less infectious.

 

As it is, there is some level of danger that the news media is playing up and the CDC is playing down, and that is that since Ebola is present in virtually every body fluid, including saliva, it may be capable of infecting someone through a wet cough or a sneeze. The likelihood is low, since neither of those are characteristic of an Ebola infection, but the possibility is there.

 

Everyone has to remember that so far, the only people infected with Ebola are people who have had close contact with severely ill patients. It is only being transmitted exactly the way it has always been transmitted.

[MDC 5,877]

Well, I am not proposing a complete, permanent ban on travel.

 

But I do not think we know enough about ebola's spread to take it as lightly as you suggest. While living conditions and sanitation certainly play a role in deaths due to the disease in Africa, to suggest the mortality rate is inconsequential outside those conditions is also short sighted.

You may not be suggesting a permanent or indefinite travel ban but the respondents to the poll in the OP was. So was RP until he started qualifying his statement on Page 2.

 

I'm not taking it lightly or suggesting the mortality rate is "inconsequential" - that is what's known as a straw man argument. I am saying it is highly unlikely to reach epidemic levels in the US. If Ebola were airborne there would be far more than 7,000 cases mostly confined to poor villages with bad sanitation and healthcare.

 

Ebola is this year's avian flu. The media will move on to other things to panic about in a few months.