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CDC confirms first Ebola case diagnosed in US

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Re: CDC confirms first Ebola case diagnosed in US

#101

Post by joe_the_user »

comrh wrote: post #4

Am I correct in assuming that cultural differences concerning death and the dead along with our healthcare system mean Ebola in America would be relatively containable?

Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia are some of the most poorest countries on earth. Liberia especially is haunted by its brutal, child-soldier fueled civil war and the entire society is rather rickety.

Nigeria, not even the most advanced nation in Africa, seems to have been able to contain Ebola, according to the CDC [1]. There have been isolated cases in European nations that didn't lead to an outbreak. So I think the US can contain (but don't think I'm not nervous about this still, the disease is distinctly disturbing).

[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/01/health/ebola-outbreak-in-n...

Re: CDC confirms first Ebola case diagnosed in US

#102

Post by crimsonalucard »

lee wrote: post #75

Am I one of the minorities who believe that this hype about Ebola is more sensationalism and news than an actual pandemic we should be fearful for? Let's take a lot at what we can agree on: * The number of cases of infected patients is fairly small. * The vector of transmission is fluid exchange, so that reduces its ability to spread. * The virus doesn't appear to lie dormant, and is only contagious when the patient…

I think this is one of the few cases where parts of the sensationalism is legitimate.

I think the media has desensitized many people to the point where they can't recognize a significant and potential danger.

Re: CDC confirms first Ebola case diagnosed in US

#103

Post by nikolaj »

The headline variations are quite interesting:

CNBC: First confirmed case of Ebola confirmed in the United States: CDC

NYT: Airline Passenger With Ebola Is Under Treatment in Dallas

BBC: First Ebola case diagnosed on US soil

CNN: Ebola case is the first diagnosed in the U.S.

FOX: EBOLA HITS AMERICA CDC identifies first case on US soil

Obviously Fox takes the FUD crown, but I thought the NYT actually misrepresented it a bit..

Re: CDC confirms first Ebola case diagnosed in US

#104

Post by frostmatthew »

arrrg wrote: post #92
lee wrote: post #75

Am I one of the minorities who believe that this hype about Ebola is more sensationalism and news than an actual pandemic we should be fearful for? Let's take a lot at what we can agree on: * The number of cases of infected patients is fairly small. * The vector of transmission is fluid exchange, so that reduces its ability to spread. * The virus doesn't appear to lie dormant, and is only contagious when the patient…

The likelihood of any kind of pandemic is extremely low, sure. However, your dismissal of this epidemic and its impact is arrogant and disgusting. It’s still a disaster in the affected countries, with many knock-on effects. Also, it would have been better to spend more money earlier to prevent unnecessary deaths. This Ebola epidemic is actually something people hardly care about. Hardly anyone is donating, for exampl…

> Hardly anyone is donating, for example.

It might be beneficial to provide a link to where people could/should donate.

Re: CDC confirms first Ebola case diagnosed in US

#105

Post by atiffany »

arrrg wrote: post #92
lee wrote: post #75

Am I one of the minorities who believe that this hype about Ebola is more sensationalism and news than an actual pandemic we should be fearful for? Let's take a lot at what we can agree on: * The number of cases of infected patients is fairly small. * The vector of transmission is fluid exchange, so that reduces its ability to spread. * The virus doesn't appear to lie dormant, and is only contagious when the patient…

The likelihood of any kind of pandemic is extremely low, sure. However, your dismissal of this epidemic and its impact is arrogant and disgusting. It’s still a disaster in the affected countries, with many knock-on effects. Also, it would have been better to spend more money earlier to prevent unnecessary deaths. This Ebola epidemic is actually something people hardly care about. Hardly anyone is donating, for exampl…

Where is the most effective place to donate?

Re: CDC confirms first Ebola case diagnosed in US

#106

Post by guscost »

lee wrote: post #75

Am I one of the minorities who believe that this hype about Ebola is more sensationalism and news than an actual pandemic we should be fearful for? Let's take a lot at what we can agree on: * The number of cases of infected patients is fairly small. * The vector of transmission is fluid exchange, so that reduces its ability to spread. * The virus doesn't appear to lie dormant, and is only contagious when the patient…

One thing the news stories never mention is that the death toll from malaria every day is comparable to the total deaths in this recent Ebola outbreak:

http://www.malariaworld.org/lastweek

Re: CDC confirms first Ebola case diagnosed in US

#107

Post by rnovak »

kyro wrote: post #87
rnovak wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love how you're complaining about people posting without authority, meanwhile not providing a reason that we should listen. Can you say hypocrite?

You don't have to be an authority to criticize others for speaking about a topic in which they likely have zero expertise.

proof of lack of expertise? Oh right, there is none. You don't know someones credentials over the internet. Unless you maybe divine them somehow

Re: CDC confirms first Ebola case diagnosed in US

#108

Post by crimsonalucard »

tjradcliffe wrote: post #84
jonrimmer wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it mutates and becomes airborne, it might be. That's why containment is so important, even if it doesn't seem so threatening in its current form. Viruses constantly mutate, and every extra person they infect gives them a million more opportunities to do so. All it takes is one of those mutations to make the virus airborne, and we're in big trouble.

While it is tautologically true that if Ebola were to become capable of airborne transmission it would be much more dangerous, there is considerable evidence against the proposition that it is "just one mutation away" from such capability. Ebola has been around for a long time, and by your own reckoning has had billions of opportunities to mutate into an airborne form. It has not done so. Why not? The Ebola genome co…

There was an airborne strain of ebola that made it to American soil. The catch was that this strain only infected monkeys.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reston_virus

Re: CDC confirms first Ebola case diagnosed in US

#109

Post by kyro »

rnovak wrote: post #107
kyro wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't have to be an authority to criticize others for speaking about a topic in which they likely have zero expertise.

proof of lack of expertise? Oh right, there is none. You don't know someones credentials over the internet. Unless you maybe divine them somehow

"Likely" is the word you seemed to have overlooked.

Re: CDC confirms first Ebola case diagnosed in US

#110

Post by lee »

arrrg wrote: post #92
lee wrote: post #75

Am I one of the minorities who believe that this hype about Ebola is more sensationalism and news than an actual pandemic we should be fearful for? Let's take a lot at what we can agree on: * The number of cases of infected patients is fairly small. * The vector of transmission is fluid exchange, so that reduces its ability to spread. * The virus doesn't appear to lie dormant, and is only contagious when the patient…

The likelihood of any kind of pandemic is extremely low, sure. However, your dismissal of this epidemic and its impact is arrogant and disgusting. It’s still a disaster in the affected countries, with many knock-on effects. Also, it would have been better to spend more money earlier to prevent unnecessary deaths. This Ebola epidemic is actually something people hardly care about. Hardly anyone is donating, for exampl…

I don't know if you can call it a disaster. The total number of cases, as reported by the CDC, is less than 7000 so far.

I don't mean to be callous, but compare that number to the number of total deaths to Malaria or even the flu, and that number pales in comparison. I am not callous to say that we shouldn't care about the Ebola outbreak, but if you look at the numbers, directing that money to buy more mosquito nets or Malaria vaccines will likely save more lives.

Malaria kills close to a million people a year. If you're looking for a cause for donation, the most value per dollar could be directed there.

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