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Ebola Thread


FreeThinkerNZ

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A thread for posting pics, links, questions and thoughts about Ebola.

 

Serious articles and funny pics equally welcome!

 

 

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I'm not following the Ebola story, but it smells like the typical hyped story of the month.  I predict it blows over like bird flu and shark attacks and will be replaced with Miley Cyrus having a public breakdown.

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As of 22 October 2014, 9,964 suspected cases and 4,881 deaths had been reported;[6][100] however, the World Health Organization has said that these numbers may be vastly underestimated.[142] [143]

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebola_virus_disease#2014_West_African_outbreak

 

Call me boring, but I'm a humanist.  That means I care about thousands of people dying horrible slow deaths from an outbreak that's difficult to control because of extreme poverty.  I don't call this hype or treat it like something that's going to "blow over".

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Ebola has been around for decades.  What's hype is that it's now in the news on front pages.  I strongly doubt the reason for this has anything at all to do with humanitarian reasons. 

 

The media is like a tail that wags the dog.  Sometimes the tail just chases the dog and other times it tries to control the dog.  It's unclear here which is which.  But if we start getting calls to send in the military, we'll know. 

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Whatever.  Back to the memes for now.

 

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As of 22 October 2014, 9,964 suspected cases and 4,881 deaths had been reported;[6][100] however, the World Health Organization has said that these numbers may be vastly underestimated.[142] [143]

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebola_virus_disease#2014_West_African_outbreak

 

Call me boring, but I'm a humanist.  That means I care about thousands of people dying horrible slow deaths from an outbreak that's difficult to control because of extreme poverty.  I don't call this hype or treat it like something that's going to "blow over".

 

 

I am getting a lot of conflict here. Are you making fun of people with ebola or are you saying you care?

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I'm not making fun of people with Ebola.  I'm making fun of Republicans who are confused and hold irrational beliefs about it, and who are using it as just another way to complain about Obama and liberals.  They deserve ridicule.

 

It was thanks to US funding cuts that a vaccine under development for the last ten years wasn't developed in time for this, the worst outbreak since the disease was identified in 1976.  Most of us find such things depressing to hear about, so ridiculing politicians who usually get in the way of scientific and social progress is one way of coping.

 

This thread is for anyone who wants to post an interesting story about Ebola, or an interesting or funny pic or anything else about it.  There are lots of interesting stories about the science, the geopolitics, the response etc.  I didn't want to have two threads, and I figured people would be smart enough to get their heads around a wide-ranging general thread.

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I'm not making fun of people with Ebola.  I'm making fun of Republicans who are confused and hold irrational beliefs about it, and who are using it as just another way to complain about Obama and liberals.  They deserve ridicule.

 

It was thanks to US funding cuts that a vaccine under development for the last ten years wasn't developed in time for this, the worst outbreak since the disease was identified in 1976.  Most of us find such things depressing to hear about, so ridiculing politicians who usually get in the way of scientific and social progress is one way of coping.

 

This thread is for anyone who wants to post an interesting story about Ebola, or an interesting or funny pic or anything else about it.  There are lots of interesting stories about the science, the geopolitics, the response etc.  I didn't want to have two threads, and I figured people would be smart enough to get their heads around a wide-ranging general thread.

 

I got ya.

 

Personally I am thankful it has such a long time to kill you. If you were on some small chance to get it in the US you will most likely live.

 

I am sad that so many people are dying from something we can save them from. I am also sad that their belief in superstition and fear of the west has kept many from getting care in time to help them and slow the spread to others who may actually not feel like their neighbors in those countries.

 

I am happy that at least one country seems to have it under control and I really hope this time next year they have eradicated it again and no one else is dying from it.

 

It is a nasty way to die and I would not wish it on even my worst enemies.

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Someone in the chat room today was worried about Ebola spreading in the US.

 

Here is some official information about the condition, showing how extremely low the risk is:

 

http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/outbreaks/2014-west-africa/qa.html

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Fox News anchor being rational and reasonable.  What the hell is going on here?  Looks like Ebola may have some sort of supernatural powers.

 

 

 

Not everyday that you hear a conservative talking head saying, "Don't be afraid".

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I suppose Fox's owners want you folks to be worried about other things for their usual reasons, so time to combat that hysteria about the wrong things.

 

Yes that's probably borderline conspiracy theory... but honestly, given what usually comes from them, can you really blame me for it? :Hmm:

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Short comedy video on the differences between UK and US coverage of Ebola:

 

 

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Four Types Of Ebola Panic That Are Secretly Racist

 

 

If it sounds like I'm over-analyzing this one story, then think about how many "Ebola is scary!" stories focus on how dirty and gross Africa is -- while stories about Nigeria quickly and efficiently controlling the disease are treated as a mysterious anomaly that must be thoroughly investigated so that we can glean Nigeria's strange, foreign secrets.

332386.jpg?v=1Scientific American

But when you read the article, you find out the answer is pretty simple: "What Nigeria did is routine, regular -- but vigorous and rigorous -- public health practice," according to the expert interviewed for the article. So that solves that mystery. We're talking about Africa with the same misguided condescension normally reserved for the disabled: "Wow! you managed to put your pants on all by yourself! Good job understanding the basics of society, entire continent of Africa!"

But it goes beyond run-of-the-mill condescension and gets pretty freaky, because...

 

http://www.cracked.com/blog/4-reasons-ebola-panic-secretly-racist/

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Yes, it would be strange and suspicious for Fox News to be actually reporting the truth about something. I guess given enough time, anything can change.

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Ebola has been around for decades.  What's hype is that it's now in the news on front pages.

 

Actually this is the worst outbreak on record since the disease was identified. Its not just media hype. Sure its not going to spread contagion style in the U.S. like some paranoid nuts are claiming, but things are seriously bad in the affected nations right now.

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Embarrassing... a NZ Green Party MP calls for homeopathy to treat Ebola, and got a swift telling off from his party leader.

 

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11350661

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I do think it worthwhile to keep an eye on the situation in the media. Not because I'm concerned about it spreading in the US (already discussed my reasoning behind that HERE), but because it is something that has the potential do a great deal of harm to many folks in the world at large. And yes, it has made its way to the US, where it has been contained for the most part. Nigeria did contain their outbreak; Spain handled their brush with Ebola with extreme measures such as killing an infected nurse's dog.

 

So, let's get to the crux of this situation.

 

The panic was/is somewhat justified from a rational mathematical standpoint. The original outbreaks are/were progressing geometrically [Wiki Link HERE].

 

What the hell is a geometric progression?

 

For example, the sequence 2, 6, 18, 54, ... is a geometric progression with common ratio 3. Similarly 10, 5, 2.5, 1.25, ... is a geometric sequence with common ratio 1/2.

 

 

What does that mean when it comes to the spread of disease? It means that things can go from bad to worse in the blink of an eye, basically. HERE is a blog that attempts to explain the harsh realities of the ebola epidemic in Africa (pre-October, mind you.) The CT blog makes some good points in the blog entry. Many persons are concerned about ebola for humanitarian reasons. It seems terrible and somewhat racist to be like "Meh. Who cares if a bunch of Africans die? My country is civilized and I don't have to worry." So if an individual still has some notions of wanting to be seen as a "decent" human being, it becomes necessary to express concern and give some thought to the issue at hand.

 

However, to quote the CT blog:
 

 

Another practicality; it’s all very well to fly the odd Ebola-stricken aid worker back to the UK to be treated – though it presents a stark and nasty calculus of the respective values of African and European/American lives. But how will that work if we’re sending a dozen or two dozen sick and infections soldiers back every month to the UK’s precious few medical isolation units? As to the dead, the flower-lined streets and heroes’ laments of Royal Wooton Bassett will be a dim memory for those felled by a revolting disease spread partly through contaminated corpses.

 

Scale matters. A lot. It changes not just the scope but the type of problem we’re dealing with, and the proliferation of problems around that. An exponentially growing problem is a problem that metastasizes out of recognition every few months.

 

 

That's cold hard reality of western humanitarian efforts to contain this horrible disease. Do the ends justify the means in regards to humanitarian efforts when it hits home?

 

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Also, there is still some things in regards to the current Ebola epidemic crisis that haven't been widely reported. Such as, Sudan's media blackout in regards to reporting Ebola cases in that country. There have been hundreds of laboratory-verified and clinically treated cases of Ebola in several African countries. [Map and stats courtesy of the CDC] The disease has spread into western Africa; if it continues to spread westward it could very easily spread to Egypt, Syria and the Middle East. It could easily be the Black Death redux due the destruction of infrastructure in many of those countries during the past decade or so combined with a serious lack of medical care. What then? How much longer until it spreads into India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and SE Asia? Or even China?

 

So yes, it is worth panicking about, imo. If the disease did spread into the Middle East and Central Asia, it could pass into Europe. Perhaps the disease would not spread or vaccines would become available to the masses to stop the spread of it. Or perhaps it will pass over and we will look back at this time as one of unwarranted panic spread by screaming idiots shilling homeopathic alternatives and attempting to pray the crisis away.

 

The greatest danger? National Geographic said a few things worth remembering [emphasis mine]:
 

 

The virus probably will not go airborne, but it could conceivably increase its Darwinian fitness in other ways, becoming more subtle and elusive.

The genetic study by Gire and his colleagues (five of whom were dead of Ebola by the time their study appeared) found 341 mutations as of late August, some of which are significant enough to change the bug's functional identity. The higher the case count in West Africa goes, the more chances for further mutations, and therefore the greater possibility that the virus might adapt somehow to become more transmissible-perhaps by becoming less pathogenic, sickening or killing its victims more slowly and thereby leaving them more time to infect others.

 

That's why, the Gire group wrote, we need to stop this thing everywhere as soon as possible. Future spillovers of Ebola are bound to occur, but those freshly emerged strains of the virus, direct from the reservoir host, won't contain any adaptive mutations that the West Africa strain is acquiring now.

 

We need to terminate Ebola 2014 before the virus learns too much about us.

 

 

No one knows, of course, how much worse the epidemic in West Africa will get. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a report, in late September, projecting that under the worst-case scenario there could be 1.4 million cases by early next year. The World Health Organization said Tuesday that new cases could rise to 10,000 per week by December, ten times the rate of the previous month. And the World Bank has warned that costs of the epidemic could reach $32.6 billion, which would be an economic catastrophe for the three West African countries that would compound their health catastrophes.

 

 

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As always,

 

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So people like FTNZ and Seven77 as humanists, medically knowledgeable people have brought up some good points.

But we have to do better by the people who are trying to curb the Ebola. Protect the protectors? Something better than spiriting them away to isolation when they come home. I don't know, that just seems wrong. If they're not sick, maybe they do have to be isolated, I'm not qualified to say one way or the other. But at least protect their dignity by letting them talk to family or go on the Internet, etc., normal human things. I saw something where someone, it seems, came back, she was spirited away to an undisclosed location, isn't able to talk to people, stuff like that.

Surely we can do better by these people!

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