There was an incident yesterday in Los Angeles, where a man with a mask got onto a Metro bus and told the bus driver he had Ebola. When leaving the bus, he told the entire bus he had Ebola and threw his mask on the floor of the bus.

The driver drove back to the yard, told his supervisors, and thus began the isoation of the bus and the driver. They are saying they have the tape from the bus, and if they find this man they will bring charges of making a terrorist threat. What a waste of resources.

Let the crazy begin....

I just read that the Zuckerbergs are donating $25 million to the CDC foundation.


Also the WHO says that west Africa could see up to 10,000 new cases a week within two months. The confirmed that the death rate currently is 70% over there.

If that continues, in an 8 week time, approximately 56,000 people will die. That's a lot of lost lives.



NEW YORK (AP) -- Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, are donating $25 million to the CDC Foundation to help address the Ebola epidemic.

The money will be used by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Ebola response effort in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone and elsewhere in the world where Ebola is a threat, the foundation said Tuesday.

The grant follows a $9 million donation made by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen last month. Zuckerberg and Chan are making the grant from their fund at the nonprofit Silicon Valley Community Foundation.

Also on Tuesday, the World Health Organization said West Africa could see up to 10,000 new Ebola cases a week within two months and confirmed that the death rate in the current outbreak is now 70 percent. The disease has killed more than 4,000 people, nearly all of them in West Africa. The WHO has called the outbreak "the most severe, acute health emergency seen in modern times."

"The most important step we can take is to stop Ebola at its source. The sooner the world comes together to help West Africa, the safer we all will be," said CDC Director Tom Frieden in a statement.

this is the latest news on nina pham the dallas nurse's condition has gone from stable to good
 

They also have someone else that was close to Nina in isolation as they are showing symptoms. This was per CNN, just a few minutes ago.

The person that was close to Nina Pham, the Dallas Nurse, is her boyfriend, it was on the news today in Dallas. They didn't mention anything about him having symptoms today that I recall. I'll check the Dallas news tonight and go from there.

I"m glad the CDC is there giving extensive training for all the caregivers for PPE protection usage and giving the hospital protocols to follow. That should have happened when Duncan showed up at the hospital and it was reported to the CDC. They dropped the ball from the get go in my .02 opinion.

...
 

Folks are all ready slowly starting to over react.... In the emergency medicine world... God help anyone if they cough and have a fever!

Went thru I it with 9-11 twin towers and terrorist stuff and abandoned bags and white powder etc.

It's ok to be carefully and cautious but paranoid makes life harder!

Donate supplies to Nina Pham's dog, Bentley
 

MsTinkerbelly, the Dallas news stations have NOT reported that Nina Pham's boyfriend, who is the contact person in isolation for 21 days, as showing any symptoms, they have said he is being monitored only.

And the Dallas news stations have NOT reported anything about the claims that CNN has made about the Nursing Union statements made on behalf of anonymous nurses either.

Not sure why it's different reporting, makes me wonder though if someone somewhere isn't making HYPE to scare people.

CNN is reporting that a second health worker has it. CDC admitting more should have been done.

2nd health care worker tests positive for Ebola at Dallas hospital
By Holly Yan, CNN
updated 6:52 AM EDT, Wed October 15, 2014


STORY HIGHLIGHTS
>>Official: Duncan should have been transferred out of Texas immediately
>>Health department has interviewed the patient to find contacts
>>The second health care worker with Ebola reported a fever Tuesday
**Like nurse Tina Pham, the second worker cared for Thomas Eric Duncan**

(CNN) -- A second health care worker at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital who cared for Thomas Eric Duncan has tested positive for Ebola, health officials said Wednesday -- casting further doubt on the hospital's ability to handle Ebola and protect employees. The worker reported a fever Tuesday and was immediately isolated, health department spokeswoman Carrie Williams said.

The preliminary Ebola test was done late Tuesday at the state public health laboratory in Austin, and the results came back around midnight. A second test will be conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

"Health officials have interviewed the latest patient to quickly identify any contacts or potential exposures, and those people will be monitored," the health department said. But the pool of contacts could be small, since Ebola can only be transmitted when an infected person shows symptoms. Less than a day passed between the onset of the worker's symptoms and isolation at the hospital.

An official close to the situation says that in hindsight, Duncan should have been transferred immediately to either Emory University Hospital in Atlanta or Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. Those hospitals are among only four in the country that have biocontainment units and have been preparing for years to treat a highly infectious disease like Ebola.

"If we knew then what we know now about this hospital's ability to safely care for these patients, then we would have transferred him to Emory or Nebraska," the official told CNN Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen.

"I think there are hospitals that are more than ready, but I think there are some that are not."

The latest infection marks the second-ever transmission of Ebola in the United States. Both stemmed from Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital. Late last week, nurse Tina Pham tested positive for Ebola. She also took care of Duncan, the first person to be diagnosed with Ebola in the United States. Duncan died last week. On Tuesday, Pham said she was doing well. "I am blessed by the support of family and friends, and am blessed to be cared for by the best team of doctors and nurses in the world," she said.

Troubling allegations

Also Tuesday, National Nurses United made troubling allegations about the hospital, claiming "guidelines were constantly changing" and "there were no protocols" about how to deal with the deadly virus." "The protocols that should have been in place in Dallas were not in place, and that those protocols are not in place anywhere in the United States as far as we can tell," NNU Executive Director RoseAnn DeMoro said. "We're deeply alarmed."

Nurses were told to wrap their necks with medical tape when equipment left their necks exposed; they felt unsupported and unprepared, and they received no hands-on training, union co-president Deborah Burger said. A Texas Health Presbyterian spokesman did not respond to the specific allegations, but said patient and employee safety is the hospital's top priority.

Global epidemic
While the Texas hospital deals with its third Ebola patient, the situation in West Africa is getting increasingly dire.

More than 4,000 people have died from Ebola this year in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.
And it could be up to 10,000 new Ebola cases per week in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone by the end of this year as the outbreak spreads, the World Health Organization warned Tuesday.

U.S. President Barack Obama says he'll reach out directly to heads of state to encourage other countries to do more to fight back.

"There are a number of countries that have capacity that have not yet stepped up," he said. "Those that have stepped up, all of us, are going to have to do more."

CNN's Catherine E. Shoichet and Tina Burnside contributed to this report.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/15/health...bola-outbreak/

I wonder if this was referring to the second nurse who now is positive for the virus. I'm sure these two won't be the only ones who test positive before all is said and done.

Anyone know how soon you will test positive after exposure? Or do you have to start exhibiting symptoms first??

I think this is good information and hope it answers some questions:

Tests for Ebola

A number of tests can be used to diagnose Ebola within a few days of the onset of symptoms, which can detect the virus's genetic material or the presence of antibodies against the pathogen.

The most accurate of these is likely the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, a technique that looks for genetic material from the virus and creates enough copies of it that it can be detected, Hirsch said. "PCR is a really definitive test," Hirsch said. It can pick up very small amounts of the virus.

>>>>>However, this test can be negative during the first three days an infected person has symptoms, said Dr. Sandro Cinti, an infectious-disease specialist at the University of Michigan Hospital System/Ann Arbor VA Health System.

"Somebody could be in the hospital for three to five days before a diagnosis [of Ebola] is confirmed," Cinti told Live Science. "The important thing is keeping the patient isolated until you can get to a diagnosis." Meanwhile, doctors will be running tests to rule out other diseases, such as malaria, which can be detected more quickly than Ebola, he said.

>>>>Another test for Ebola looks for antibodies produced by the body's immune system in response to the virus. Known as the antigen-capture enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), this test can take even longer than three days to give a positive result for an infected person, Cinti said. And antibodies can also be detected after a patient recovers, he added.

Once a patient is diagnosed with Ebola, scientists may attempt to isolate the virus -- which is a type of filovirus, known for their filamentlike shape -- by culturing it with living cells and examine it using electron microscopy. But culturing Ebola is very dangerous, and should only be done in a high-biosafety-level lab, Hirsch said. Culturing the virus is not a practical means of diagnosing infection, but may help researchers understand how the virus infects cells and test possible treatments.

So, given the severity of an Ebola infection, why wouldn't you test everybody with the remotest chance of having the disease?

A huge number of people come to the United States from Africa with fevers, Cinti said, and testing all of them for Ebola would drain hospital resources and raise unnecessary panic. "We really have to be clear and get good histories about exposure," he said. "It makes absolutely zero sense to test people who aren't from high-risk areas."

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-doctors-test-for-ebola/

I never said boyfriend. Close to her, worked closely with her, whatever.

Like i said there is someone at the hospital also being monitored.

As far as the nurses union goes, i have no clue.

After basically NO REACTION from the United States and the rest of the world during this crisis, I'll take a bit of over-reaction and paranoia. This disease has been around for decades and we did nothing.

No this was not a "United States" problem, but we could have helped stop this before it became our problem. Was this left alone because it was primarily killing poor black people? We involve ourselves in other people's wars and issues all of the time, was it because there was nothing in it for us to gain by helping?

This is going to get a lot worse before it gets better...paranoia? We will see!

I'm talking about the public....not government or administration and paranoia doesn't address the problem. A appropriate reaction from all does.When the public is informed it helps any system not get slowed down as they address the problem.

When I say paranoia I mean like the over reaction that some folks did after sept 11 .....calling reporting suspicious folks just because they were were from the Middle East and/or wore a turbin.In the early 80,s there was over reaction from some folks about aids too,not helping injured folks, as folks were educated and informed about what to do and not to do that paranoia was stopped.

I do whole heatedly agree that ALL agency's need to get on this and soon as they should on all matters affecting the health and safety of ALL communities......and country's.

Sorry I missed this.

It's a detailed process that I don't feel comfortable trying to explain on a website. I'll try to tell you the best I can but don't quote me on it or rely on it. The bottom line is you have to remember that the pathogen is alive. So you have to kill it.

When I was dealing with the horses, I had a quarantine area, a room to put on the equipment and a separate room to remove it. We worked in twos at the minimum. I had buckets of bleach that we stepped in when coming out of the quarantine area and buckets to dunk our gloves into. I also had a stack of those thick gauze bandages soaking in a vat of bleach.

So what we did was coming out of the quarantine area we put our bagged feet into the buckets on the floor. We took the bags off our feet as we stepped out. then dunked our gloved hands in the hand bleach buckets. Then we had our buddy hand us a bleach soaked gauze to remove one glove and it was removed by placing the bleached gauze around the top lip of the glove and pulling it inside out. Then it was placed it in a lined bucket. Repeat. Buddy hand another bleached gauze to remove the second glove. Removed it so it was inside out. After all that I had people sprayed down with a 50/50 mix of bleach and water.

To dispose I got an approved container and burned it FAR away from the horses.


There are going to be significant differences in how this needs to be handled such as masks, suits and the importance of not having exposure to skin especially if there are cuts or scrapes. I'm almost positive that what happened with the nurse is that she removed gloves and without thinking reached up to remove her mask and somehow infected herself. Sad.

For the most part the problem won't be with the putting on of the stuff. People who are scared are going to suit up. It's remembering to stay alert while taking it off.


There doesn't need to be panic but there sure as hell needs to be honesty and education.

And if we think we can control this by trusting other people to be honest with us we're crazy.


LOL, I must sound like a crazy person. Sorry.

I am having a bit of a problem understanding some of the reactions in the US to problems controlling an infectious disease, particularly in hospitals. Obviously, in countries in the midst of the breakout, things are well past dire so I confine this thought to the United States.

When I watched the video interview attached to the story out of Kansas I was glad that the Dr pointed out that 22 thousand people in the US died of the flu last year and yet folks are blasé about even getting inoculated against it. He also put up the thought that if 22 thousand people died of Ebola there would be rioting in the streets. I agree.

When it comes to protocols in hospitals for dealing with this; what is the surprise? Nosocomial diseases are rampant. These are hospital acquired infections (HAI), illness either bacterial or viral you come out with that you didn't have when you went in. They infect 700,000+ per year and kill over 75,000. Eblola is an infectious disease but thankfully much more difficult to transmit than flu, C.diff and others.

Only a couple of hospitals in the US are designed for containment. Just as many hospitals do not have trauma centers, or specialize burn units, etc. Why do we all of a sudden start thinking all hospitals should be equipped for something that has never happened here before? It is clearly demonstrated most cannot handle regular prevention of common bacterial spread.

I am not trying to minimize the danger to healthcare workers and do believe that a ramp up of training and equipment beyond what was previously provided is prudent and urgent at this time, things will likely get worse before they get better. But all of these 'representatives' screaming about how far behind or unprepared we are must have only just now taken off their blinders and are looking for targets to blame.

Well said Kelt, well said.

Nosocomial diseases are usually those infections/viruses contracted by patients in the hospital who are already immunocompromised. This does not related to hospital staff, which I think is what the big deal is over. The surprise is as nursing/healthcare staff, we should know how to prevent ourselves from being infected with anything, whether that be ebola, HIV, tuberculosis, etc. Unfortunately, as I mentioned in a previous post, we are all human and as humans we make errors. Now you have nurses who have been infected, taking care of patients in a hospital. To me that is a huge deal. I'm not so much worried about the person that they encounter in the grocery store.

While every hospital doesn't have to be prepared for this type of thing, what happens when a person comes into any ole hospital with symptoms that may not scream ebola or do for that matter. What's that hospital to do? They all need to be prepared for any type of infectious disease scare in my opinion, which to me means protective garb and a negative pressure room. Also they should have yearly training as part of continuing education, which we all need to have anyway. Unfortunately though, hospitals are busy and short staffed so this kind of training doesn't occur.


I agree that we shouldn't be pointing fingers. We just need to get everyone on the same page and try to contain it as much as possible and save as many people as they can.

I couldn't agree more and should clarify that I was not talking about healthcare staff individuals. My thoughts are more about admin policies that allow for training and basic equipment to be inadequate for regular encounters with the sick public. The reactions are as though it was somehow new.

Anytime you put a lot of sick people in a small space things are going to spread. This time of year especially lots of folks will present with fever and who knows where they came from? I don't have the answers but also wish everyone could stop looking for targets and and coordinate getting sensible precautions in place. A possible positive outcome would be that facilities will have the needed supplies and training going forward beyond whatever this outbreak brings.

A surprise to me or maybe I'm misunderstanding... I though all hospitals in the US would have at minimum PPE and a negative pressure room. Is that not true?

Note; my background is not medical at all. I come from the biohazard/HAZWOPER side of "keeping tiny bugs out".

They should all have some type of PPE but I doubt if some of the smaller hospitals have what they would need to fully garb up for something like this. I could be wrong though. Does anyone work in a smaller hospital or rural hospital?

There's clearly some discrepancy in the amount and quality of PPE and other precautions that most hospitals have available to them, and that a few specialized hospitals have. From several comments, it also appears that the flu is more communicable and deadlier than Ebola; so, if it has been important all along to have better precautions for the flu, why don't all U.S. hospitals already have them? Something is just not adding up here, and that's what has me concerned the most. I don't want to go down the path of paranoia, but I feel like something is being withheld from us about the nature and severity of Ebola.

FINALLY, the Dallas News stations are now reporting about the 2nd Nurse, Ms. Vinson, that treated Duncan in his early stages of illness, is confirmed to have Ebola, and is on a flight to Atlanta to go to isolation there at the Biohazard Hospital containment center. What bothers me about this? This woman knew she was exposed to Ebola and was self monitoring for signs of Ebola, and while at home on paid leave, she took a flight out of state and then returned a few days later and immediately a few days later or so had to go to the hospital for signs of Ebola. There are clear and cut guidelines set at the CDC that they should NOT be allowed to travel like this and that it was YET ANOTHER MISTAKE ALLOWED. My other questions are that there are 75 to 76 total people that are at home and being monitored or are self monitored that were in contact with the Ebola patient Duncan. When are they going to tell the truth about the fuckups they are allowing to have happen? When are they going to stop this shit? How many more people need to become infected before they actually get their shit together about stopping the spread of this Dreaded disease?
How many more lives need to be taken? And why hasn't the world countries come together to stop the spread of Ebola in Africa?
I think there is a lot more to this story than we are being told.

The nurses Union in Dallas Texas is claiming that the hospital did not provide adequate PPE for the caregivers and also didn't train them as they should have been trained to handle the biohazard waste products of an Ebola patient. that nurses have anonymously come forward to have the Union speak out against the hospital for their lack of training and PPE issues. they are also claiming that there were biowaste such as soiled laundry and items that were piled to the ceiling in the isolation area because no one knew what to do with them.

How can a hospital allow this sorta thing to happen when they knew this paitient had Ebola or was at the least , suspected to have it? Are they just stupid asses running this hospital? I think they aren't equipped or trained to handle this type of disease obviously. And it pisses me off they haven't been prepared to handle it, knowing that there is practically an epidemic going on in Africa and travel is involved via airlines to all sorts of countries.Talk about population control.........wow just wow.

More effort needed to fight Ebola in US, abroad
 

So I got this directly from the CDC website. I was interested to see what they said about how this can be transmitted, which it looks like it has to be through direct contact with bodily fluids to broken skin or mucous membranes.

However, I did also look up how long it lives outside the body and have included that below as well. If dried on a surface such a door knob it can live for several hours. So I suppose if the traveling nurse on the plane got her bodily fluids on the tray table or something like that and someone came along and touched it afterwards within that few hour time span, they could become exposed. Supposedly hospital-grade disinfectants can kill it like household bleach. I'm sure everything doesn't get wiped off in the plane unfortunately.



Anyway, here it is:

When an infection does occur in humans, the virus can be spread in several ways to others. Ebola is spread through direct contact (through broken skin or mucous membranes in, for example, the eyes, nose, or mouth) with


•blood or body fluids (including but not limited to urine, saliva, sweat, feces, vomit, breast milk, and semen) of a person who is sick with Ebola

•objects (like needles and syringes) that have been contaminated with the virus

•infected animals

•Ebola is not spread through the air or by water, or in general, by food.

However, in Africa, Ebola may be spread as a result of handling bushmeat (wild animals hunted for food) and contact with infected bats. There is no evidence that mosquitos or other insects can transmit Ebola virus. Only mammals (for example, humans, bats, monkeys, and apes) have shown the ability to become infected with and spread Ebola virus.

Healthcare providers caring for Ebola patients and the family and friends in close contact with Ebola patients are at the highest risk of getting sick because they may come in contact with infected blood or body fluids of sick patients.

During outbreaks of Ebola, the disease can spread quickly within healthcare settings (such as a clinic or hospital). Exposure to Ebola can occur in healthcare settings where hospital staff are not wearing appropriate protective equipment, including masks, gowns, and gloves and eye protection.

Dedicated medical equipment (preferable disposable, when possible) should be used by healthcare personnel providing patient care. Proper cleaning and disposal of instruments, such as needles and syringes, is also important. If instruments are not disposable, they must be sterilized before being used again. Without adequate sterilization of the instruments, virus transmission can continue and amplify an outbreak.

Once someone recovers from Ebola, they can no longer spread the virus. However, Ebola virus has been found in semen for up to 3 months. Abstinence from sex (including oral sex) is recommended for at least 3 months. If abstinence is not possible, condoms may help prevent the spread of disease.


How long does Ebola live outside the body?

Ebola is killed with hospital-grade disinfectants (such as household bleach). Ebola on dried on surfaces such as doorknobs and countertops can survive for several hours; however, virus in body fluids (such as blood) can survive up to several days at room temperature.

Hospitals get people with infectious diseases every day. Someone wrote earlier that more people die from the flu. Should all of those nurses who care for those patients be quarantined?

Why would a hospital in Dallas prepare for an Ebola virus outbreak? Africa is a long way from Dallas. I do also believe that the Ebola virus has been around for a significant amount of time. According to the WHO, there were two simultaneous outbreaks in 1976. That was 38 years ago.

The hospital with the outbreak was just the unlucky facility who was chosen by patient zero (Duncan). They probably wish that the he never showed up at their facility. This could be happening anywhere at any hospital. The hospital didn't make the nurse go on a commercial flight. That was her own mistake. I don't always agree with hospital administration but I don't think any of this makes them stupid asses.

Yes, it is the hospitals responsibility to train all of their staff on how to handle infectious diseases in general. For all we know, they do this there but if you are trained on something four months ago (just an example) and it doesn't come up, you tend to forget or you tend to get careless. Hell you can still be careless. If someone is vomiting on your protective gear and you take it off, you might get some bodily fluid on you. It happens. Nurses contract HIV/AIDs in this same manner. They contract all types of diseases this way. Not all facilities can have what the CDC has with the showers and air tight rooms and such. It's unfortunate, because they should have this but that's extremely costly.

I truly believe there will be others infected and probably in the Dallas area at that hospital. It's a virus. It spreads. People do the best that they can. I'm just not going to live my life in fear at this point and blame people when I'm not the one having to go through the ordeal. I also think that when you have an abundance of people reporting on a subject, facts can get misconstrued. Keep that in mind.

Anyway, just my opinion....

For a moment i got caught-up in the statistic of 22,000 people a year dying from flu, but i think in the case of Ebola we might be comparing apples to oranges.

With the flu, most people get a flu shot and they get through the season fine, some people get the flu With/without flu shots and they come through just fine. The people most likely to die are the very young, the very old and the immune compromised. With Ebola, there is no vaccine; Young, old, sick and well...all are at the same risk of 50-90% DEATH rate.

The flu means you get sick, and in most cases you are home with family/without family, you recover and life goes on. With Ebola, you are isolated, your house is decontaminated, your pets are isolated...you will probably die unless you are one of the lucky ones, especially if there is an epidemic and there are not enough people to treat the sick.

No, do not be fooled into thinking this is the same as the flu...not yet time for panic, but I'm scared. Why isn't our Government ready?

Dr Nancy Snyderman
 

WHAT was this doctor thinking????????

H E L L O you were suppose to be in quarantine!!!

I don't know what I'm more disgusted with, her careless disregard OR the lame lame apology, if you can even call it that, once she was busted!

I think it's promising that people are surviving. I think it's promising that they gave the first nurse in Dallas the blood of the doctor who survived so she could get his antibodies. She is improving. Whether that is from his blood or her own immune system, who knows. It could be both. Hopefully it will be only a matter of time before the powers at be whoever that may be are able to get a vaccine for this as well.

On Monday, a clinical trial on humans began for the Canadian-developed Ebola vaccine. We'll see how that goes.

It will be interesting to see what happens here in the next few days.

Nailed it... protocols and systems do not withstand the failure of a person to exercise good judgement. A breach in a PPE protocol can be understandable due to poor or lapsed training... repeated training and extensive measures can be taken to make up for that. Hopping on a commercial flight as a medical professional undergoing self monitoring/reporting - is poor judgement. Massive difference.

The idiot factor is as always the unknown piece of the puzzle. Sick people who don't get care (we are a society that goes to work sick) and people who think the rules don't apply to them...these will be contributing factors to the spread, even if the hospitals are prepared for the influx of patients.

all the comments are great and because we are all half way intelligent people we know this all comes down to the $$

the nurses in this situation are heroes and for them to request working conditions necessary to preserve their own lives as well as their patients lives is not too much to ask...no matter what the cost...

there will be a meeting tomorrow at 2pm to discuss a possible declaration of emergency by governor rick perry which may bring much needed federal funds

Yes, with better care in the west there is a better chance of survival, IF this does not get too big to contain. With the need for isolation and decontamination, we could see this become too big, very fast.

I was the one who referenced the 22,000 flu deaths. If you re-read what I said, I was not comparing the two diseases at all, I was comparing the level of media hysteria per death in the US. Incidentally, those 22,000 did not experience a peaceful recovery at home with loved ones. They died. The death rate between the two diseases is very different and ebola is clearly more lethal if contracted but dead is still dead.

I think the why and how of hospital preparation as it is (not idealized) was well addressed by SleapyButch.

Check this new website out!
"EbolaDeeply.org is a nonprofit “impact journalism” project that aims to provide better information on the current Ebola outbreak to Western media, while providing health information and alerts to rural African communities. It was designed to give perspective on the outbreak by aggregating news, data, analysis and expert opinion. EbolaDeeply was founded by CNN anchorwoman Isha Sesay, who is from Sierra Leone, and Lara Setrakian, founder of NewsDeeply and SyriaDeeply. "

http://www.eboladeeply.org/

I did mention that the 22,000 died, not sure where you got peaceful recovery? I pointed out that most people get the flu and can handle it at home. I compared it to Ebola where everyone needs medical care, probably as an inpatient in a hospital. I still think that the hysteria stems from a disease we (general population) know little about, and IMO we are not currently equipped to handle in mass quantities.

I compared the flu to Ebola in an effort to show why I (read I) was more concerned/scared regarding a possible Ebola outbreak.

Thanks Jesse, this looks promising, the executive summary seems quite thorough.

Thanks for the source links too, their outbound links seem to be credible as well.

You're welcome, Kelt. Hopefully, we will hear some semblance of truth from this site. I am over the media drama.

...
 

This is an example of the russian roulette that is played and has been for a very long time.

The risk benefit... all based on money/cost.

If there was a small pox outbreak in any state there isnt enough vaccines available {again decisions based on $] to give to all that would possibly be exposed, they would prioritize..... how ever they decide.

This is an example of one where there is a vaccine and because it hasnt been a issue [in there eyes] they dont ensure there is enough on hand due to cost and shelf life and storage.