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Ebola cases pass 2k as crisis escalates

nature.com

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Re: Ebola cases pass 2k as crisis escalates

#71

Post by natalyarostova »

roboys wrote: post #64
natalyarostova wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the politically appropriate word instead of civilized to enumerate the difference between taking a public health first approach vs. killing first responders on conspiracy?

I would call them suspicious instead of uncivilized. Europeans have tested harmful drugs on Africans without their knowledge for more than 2 centuries (including injecting live cancer cells and spreading HIV in very recent cases). I don't think we can blame them for avoiding this treatment like the plague.

I'm empathetic to the idea that for entirely uneducated populations differentiating between legitimate treatment and experimentation is impossible, so their instinct is to avoid it.

I'd still be wary of making too many excuses for their wanton attack and murder on health-care workers as mere suspicion, as that gives off an impression of racism of lower expectations, in my humble opinion. Or, I mean, even if it doesn't, at a certain point we need to draw the line at acceptable behavior. Whether it's their upbringing, or they are justifiably suspicions, they are evil, or they are uneducated, in the end it sort of doesn't matter, right? It's still some other group trying to kill other people, where we have a belief on which one is correct and which one isn't.

Re: Ebola cases pass 2k as crisis escalates

#72

Post by sctb »

DisposibleHero wrote: post #37

It's interesting to note how we can have consensus on 2,000 individual cases being called a true crisis, but we still cannot agree ~76,000 monthly border crossing[1] is a true crisis. Perhaps it's because Ebola is deadly and it's easy to remain ignorant of the humanitarian crisis plaguing many of those 76,000 monthly refugee/asylum seekers... both before and after crossing. Perhaps it's because we all fear catching E…

> Eschew flamebait. Don't introduce flamewar topics unless you have something genuinely new to say. Avoid unrelated controversies and generic tangents.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Ebola cases pass 2k as crisis escalates

#73

Post by _1qd4 »

mieseratte wrote: post #45
i_am_nomad wrote: post #38

To those of you worried about a global outbreak: USAMRIID is closing in on a highly effective (near 100%) treatment for Ebola. So far it is 100% successful in macaques, which is a good animal model for the disease in humans. The project lead spoke to my research group - his talk about Ebola, and some of the cultural and geographic challenges in fighting it, was fascinating.

Could you elaborate on those challenges?

The doctors and medical staff are mostly white, while the people they are treating are mostly black. To the ignorant, this would appear like an attempt at a genocide or recolonization.

Re: Ebola cases pass 2k as crisis escalates

#74

Post by layoutIfNeeded »

roboys wrote: post #62
low_roar1 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I would be careful of the use of the word 'civilized' in this context. You're implying DRC and/or other African countries are uncivilized. Which is just not true. No, I stand by what I said and by the following definitions of the word "civilized", and never talked about "other African countries": > easy to manage or control; well organized or ordered: > having an advanced or humane culture, society, etc. Given the…

Seems the "advanced cultures" tend to send their so called "civilized" companies into these regions and they historically have acted very uncivilized (in many cases worse than the local bush-people with no formal education). Wouldn't be suprising if ebola is being spread in Congo for the same reasons that HIV was spread by the apartheid South African government. Natural resources make our so called "civilized" do som…

>HIV was spread by the apartheid South African government

[citation needed]

Re: Ebola cases pass 2k as crisis escalates

#75

Post by iaeqi »

Creationer wrote: post #54
sixQuarks wrote: post #8

The internet was supposed to create an educated society with information at your fingertips, instead we got fake news and echo chambers spreading extreme thinking We have huge groups of actively ignorant people supporting the growth of climate change, anti-vaccination, and a host of other dangerous actions. Now those fighting Ebola outbreaks are getting attacked. I hope I’m wrong, but it looks like rationality is fas…

The average IQ in the DPRC is 78. The population has grown from 12 million in 1950 to 87 million today. You cannot evaluate the actions taking place in that country and then apply them to the rest of the world.

Wow man, how deeply antisemitic of you. Are you somehow suggesting we should not import these people into the first world to enrich us?

Re: Ebola cases pass 2k as crisis escalates

#76

Post by thrower123 »

ctrl-j wrote: post #23
goldenchrome wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It really sounds like you're reading too much news. News is fear mongering most of the time. Try taking a short break, you might be surprised how much better you feel!

Feeling better and taking care of yourself is, of course, really important. However, measles outbreaks and hate-crimes aren't going to stop because one does not pay attention to the news.

Actually, for the most part, they do go away. In both cases, if you live in the USA, your probability of encountering either is vanishingly small, so if you don't have the news pumping up and amplifying these incredibly rare events, you can trundle along blissfully and deal with the local problems that actually impact you.

Re: Ebola cases pass 2k as crisis escalates

#77

Post by dang »

Kiro wrote: post #32
docker_up wrote: post #3

The fact this is going to spread worldwide is inevitable. I honestly think we need to prevent people from this area of the world from coming to the US until they get this under control, this is simply unacceptable from a global standpoint.

Do you think HN is contained to the US or are you just ignorant?

Please don't be rude on HN, no matter how ignorant anyone is.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Ebola cases pass 2k as crisis escalates

#78

Post by ajnin »

The june 2 WHO bulletin about the outbreak, which I believe is the source data for the article. It contains more data including a graph of number of cases by date of illness onset, which I think gives a better idea of the progression of the epidemic : https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/325126/SITR...

Re: Ebola cases pass 2k as crisis escalates

#79

Post by landryraccoon »

jerf wrote: post #65
landryraccoon wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Epidemics are not political matters. Why then are you entirely focused on a political solution to a non-political matter? Closing borders is a political solution. I disagree because your situation disrespects the progress that technical solutions have made over thousands of years of human progress. As medicine, hygiene and diagnostic tests improve, the probability of the dramatic epidemic event you propose falls cl…

The solutions you refer to don't exist, or can not be meaningfully deployed. I cite as evidence the article itself. Ebola isn't even all that contagious, really, and if those solutions were the solution to the problem, this article wouldn't have had to be written. Not everywhere is a first-world country. Most places aren't first-world country. Heck, even in the first world countries not everywhere is necessary "first…

> The solutions you refer to don't exist, or can not be meaningfully deployed. I cite as evidence the article itself. Ebola isn't even all that contagious, really, and if those solutions were the solution to the problem, this article wouldn't have had to be written.

Did we read the same article? This article is about the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a nation which does not have closed borders with the rest of the world, and Ebola has not spread beyond it's borders. The DRC does not have adequate medical infrastructure, sanitation or education and therefore the outbreak is occurring there.

Europe and the United States do have effective technology, medicine and disease control, so there is almost no risk of a widespread Ebola outbreak here.

> once a highly-preventable epidemic sweeps through.

Until you present a pathogen with this quality that cannot be controlled in the western world this is science fiction. You might as well argue that xenophobia and authoritarianism will prevail once sentient androids revolt. Until you have evidence the threat actually exists you're arguing based on ideology.

Re: Ebola cases pass 2k as crisis escalates

#80

Post by jlmorton »

i_am_nomad wrote: post #38

To those of you worried about a global outbreak: USAMRIID is closing in on a highly effective (near 100%) treatment for Ebola. So far it is 100% successful in macaques, which is a good animal model for the disease in humans. The project lead spoke to my research group - his talk about Ebola, and some of the cultural and geographic challenges in fighting it, was fascinating.

U.S. Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases is doing the important testing work, but the novel drug is GS-5734 / Remdesivir from Gilead Sciences.

https://www.gilead.com/purpose/advancing-global-health/ebola

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