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WHO declares Ebola outbreak a global health emergency

nytimes.com

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Re: WHO declares Ebola outbreak a global health emergency

#51

Post by JumpCrisscross »

rob_c wrote: post #26
lanyard-textile wrote: post #6

Notably (from NPR): >However WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stressed in a statement it "does not meet the criteria of pandemic emergency" and advised countries against closing their borders.

[flagged]

> "no evidence of human to human transmission"

Directly contradicted by the WHO: "...spreads from person to person through direct contact with the blood, secretions, organs, or other bodily fluids of infected individuals or contaminated surfaces" [1].

[1] https://www.who.int/emergencies/disease-outbreak-news/item/2...

Re: WHO declares Ebola outbreak a global health emergency

#52

Post by amanaplanacanal »

the__alchemist wrote: post #44
ticulatedspline wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

forgot 5. Covid was exactly the right amount of deadly, 0.5-1% which made it easy to "roll the dice" on making containment harder.

It was good practice for pandemic response. I think (blasphemy, which on its own is wild) the global reaction was too strong on an acute level, but was worth it as prepararion for a deadlier pandemic.

It was a natural reaction though. People saw the Italian hospitals overflowing and thought "oh crap! We can't let that happen here!" At least where I am they tightened and/or relaxed restrictions on a county by county level based on how full hospital beds were getting.

Re: WHO declares Ebola outbreak a global health emergency

#53

Post by delecti »

the__alchemist wrote: post #44
ticulatedspline wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

forgot 5. Covid was exactly the right amount of deadly, 0.5-1% which made it easy to "roll the dice" on making containment harder.

It was good practice for pandemic response. I think (blasphemy, which on its own is wild) the global reaction was too strong on an acute level, but was worth it as prepararion for a deadlier pandemic.

In another time it might have been good practice, but in reality I think, between the grifters pushing fear and those just too self-centered to go a few months without a haircut (yes oversimplifying and straw-manning), it actually precluded the chance that many people will ever cooperate with a pandemic response again.

Re: WHO declares Ebola outbreak a global health emergency

#54

Post by JumpCrisscross »

jmyeet wrote: post #8

First hantavirus now this. Look, there's valid reason to be concerned here but people who are fearing a repeat of the Covid-19 pandemic are seemingly missing why Covid was a pandemic. Covid spread so much for four main reasons: 1. It could spread airborne; 2. It spread relatively easily. Not quite measles-level of contagiousness but still, pretty good; 3. Unlike something like the flu, there really wasn't any kind of…

Covid turned into a pandemic because it wasn't taken seriously at the start. (Looking at you, China.)

Public-health experts never seemed concerned about hantavirus. They are with this. It's appropriate to take their declarations seriously.

> Ebola generally requires contact to spread

"Human infection occurs through close contact with the blood or secretions of infected wildlife, such as bats or non-human primates, and subsequently spreads from person to person through direct contact with the blood, secretions, organs, or other bodily fluids of infected individuals or contaminated surfaces. Transmission is particularly amplified in health-care settings when infection prevention and control (IPC) measures are inadequate, and during unsafe burial practices involving direct contact with the deceased" [1].

So yes on traditional burial. But much easier to spread than HIV.

[1] https://www.who.int/emergencies/disease-outbreak-news/item/2...

Re: WHO declares Ebola outbreak a global health emergency

#56

Post by bookofjoe »

fpaf wrote: post #30
BLKNSLVR wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was wondering about that with the hantavirus, whereby if it's got a higher fatality rate then it's less likely to be easily transmitted. Is that like a general rule, or pure bunk? (I'd probably assume the answer 'depends').

From COVID-era discussions (when virologists were briefly the stars of every talk show) I remember one explaining that it was less about fatality rates per se and more about the length of time you could carry the virus around and be nearly asymptomatic while still able to infect others. I understand the jury is still out on whether a virus can be considered "alive" but, like us, it is capable of replicating itself an…

>I understand the jury is still out on whether a virus can be considered "alive"

I remember way back in med school in the mid-70s our infectious disease professor asking this same question, in a philosophical as much as a mechanistic sense.

Re: WHO declares Ebola outbreak a global health emergency

#57

Post by JumpCrisscross »

rob_c wrote: post #39
mschuster91 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In this case I'd guess the DOGE cuts to foreign aid are a massive, massive contributor to the problem. A lot of third-world countries heavily relied on USAID et al to keep basic sanitation and healthcare going.

[flagged]

> sure there's a parable about teaching someone to fish rather than feeding them

This is less about feeding a neighbor than digging them a latrine so they stop crapping in your water supply.

Re: WHO declares Ebola outbreak a global health emergency

#58

Post by amanaplanacanal »

pixl97 wrote: post #45
mystraline wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. This is called "food service". Shit pay, no benefits, and managers who threaten to fire you if you dont show up. Sick? Puke in the bathroom. Whys this the case? Cause we Americans have garbage for labor laws. You can be fired for pretty much any reason. And you are NOT protected if youre sick. When I had to work food seevice, at starbucks, subway, random pizza chain, etc, I begrudgingly came in sick, infected LO…

>Cause we Americans have garbage for labor laws And healthcare being tied to "having a good enough job". But yea, it's a huge mess.

Divorcing health care from employment would be a wonderful change, but I don't see it ever happening. Employers love it because it makes employees fear for their job, and insurers love it because if everybody saw how much they were actually paying every month they would fight to change the system.

Re: WHO declares Ebola outbreak a global health emergency

#59

Post by cogman10 »

fpaf wrote: post #30
BLKNSLVR wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was wondering about that with the hantavirus, whereby if it's got a higher fatality rate then it's less likely to be easily transmitted. Is that like a general rule, or pure bunk? (I'd probably assume the answer 'depends').

From COVID-era discussions (when virologists were briefly the stars of every talk show) I remember one explaining that it was less about fatality rates per se and more about the length of time you could carry the virus around and be nearly asymptomatic while still able to infect others. I understand the jury is still out on whether a virus can be considered "alive" but, like us, it is capable of replicating itself an…

Yeah. HIV is a good example of this. Without treatment, it is deadly pretty much 100% of the time. However, it takes a long time after the shut down of the immune system before a systematic infection takes over and kills you.

That allowed for a deadly disease that's somewhat hard to spread (mostly just through sex) to ultimately go on a rampage.

Re: WHO declares Ebola outbreak a global health emergency

#60

Post by JumpCrisscross »

ls612 wrote: post #55

We went through this whole song and dance in 2014. Unless it has some really unlucky novel mutations it won’t spread well outside the tropics.

> Unless it has some really unlucky novel mutations

2014 was Ebolavirus proper (Zaire, I believe). This outbreak is this fucker of a chimera [1].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundibugyo_ebolavirus

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