Reminder – healthcare workers in Liberia are now on strike.

Pres Obama signs Exec Order authorizing use of Reservists to assist in US Military mission building Ebola treatment centers in West Africa.

— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) October 16, 2014

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President Obama Has Cancelled Tonight’s Fundraiser !!

CDC Thomas Frieden says:

“We have stopped every Ebola outbreak, until this one!

The second Ebola treatment nurse, diagnosed with Ebola herself, is a 29-year-old named Amber Vinson.
Riddle me this: The second nurse who has Ebola in Texas flew on a plane two days before apparently developing symptoms. The CDC is alarmed by the commercial travel method. The CDC says Ebola exposures should have “controlled travel” only, and wants 132 passengers who were on the plane with the nurse to call them ASAP. Why?

[Frontier Airlines] “At approximately 1:00 a.m. MT on October 15, Frontier was notified by the CDC that a customer traveling on Frontier Airlines flight 1143 Cleveland to Dallas/Fort Worth on Oct. 13 has since tested positive for the Ebola virus.

The flight landed in Dallas/Fort Worth at 8:16 p.m. local and remained overnight at the airport having completed its flying for the day at which point the aircraft received a thorough cleaning per our normal procedures which is consistent with CDC guidelines prior to returning to service the next day. It was also cleaned again in Cleveland last night. Previously the customer had traveled from Dallas Fort Worth to Cleveland on Frontier flight 1142 on October 10.  (link)

The CDC opposes a travel ban to/from West Africa. To support their position the CDC says if a person has no symptoms there is no reason to worry. They say the Dallas nurse, Amber Vinson, had no symptoms – yet her travel is alarming.  A contradiction, no? (more…)

https://twitter.com/DRUDGE_REPORT/status/521462911001055233
We can’t begin to say how infuriating this is. Friday the first U.S. troops arrived in Monrovia to begin setting up aid for Liberian healthcare workers within the Ebola “Hot Zone”. Today those same healthcare workers go on strike.

“Beginning tomorrow we will be on a nationwide strike in every hospital and every health centre including ETUs (Ebola Treatment Units),” said Joseph Tamba, chairman of the health workers’ union.

There is NO DOUBT they have taken the opportunity of our U.S. arrival to remove themselves from the risk inherent in the care of Ebola patients. This will put additional pressure on our military to fill the caregiver void.
Insufferable !

It has been a challenging pill to swallow to see 4,000 of our servicemen and women dispatched into a dangerous region on a humanitarian effort when little to no support is coming from Western “allies”. Add to that the pure selfishness of the Liberian opportunists which further endangers our troops, and the entire situation is beyond insufferable. (more…)

(CNN) — [Breaking news update, posted at 11:32 a.m. ET]

“The (Ebola treatment) protocols work. … But we know that even a single lapse or breach can result in infection,” Dr. Tom Frieden, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, said Sunday.

According to CNN, the health care worker is a female nurse:(CNN) — [Breaking news update, posted at 10:32 a.m. ET]
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EV-D68 More Dangerous Than Ebola

PHILADELPHIA – Infectious diseases caregivers and public health professionals are gathered in Philadelphia through the weekend for the annual meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), more commonly known as IDWeek 2014. (You can also follow attendees in real-time on Twitter at the hashtag, #IDweek.)
The Society organized the press conference because of the very timely news about Ebola here, Europe, and West Africa, as well as children with respiratory disease caused by enterovirus D68.
The vast majority of today’s panel discussion focused on enterovirus D68, or EV-D68 for short, a virus that’s causing particularly severe respiratory illness in children nationwide. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported yesterday that EV-D68 infections have been confirmed in 45 states. Five children with the virus have died thus far and some children, especially in the Denver area, are experiencing muscle paralysis.
[…] The virus was first discovered in 1962 but not seen again in the U.S. for 36 years. Over 100 types of enterovirus are known, but they are distinct from polioviruses, stressed Aaron M. Milstone, MD, an assistant professor of infectious diseases at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center.
In the current outbreak, Jackson said that EV-D68 is primarily affecting children. No cases have been identified in adults, suggesting that some previous exposure to EV-D68 conferred immunity to the currently-circulating virus. (more…)

(Via WFB) U.S. Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes is lying about her support for the state’s coal industry according to Kentucky Democrats, including members of her campaign team, who were captured on a hidden camera video.
The video, produced by conservative filmmaker James O’Keefe, shows five employees of the Grimes campaign and local Democratic Party affiliates speculating that the Democratic challenger to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) is only professing her support for the industry out of political expediency.
“If we can get her elected do you think she is going to do the right thing and she’s gonna try to wipe out that coal industry and go for better resources?” asks an undercover videographer in one segment of the video.
“I absolutely think she is,” responds Fayette County Democratic Party operative Gina Bess.
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Everybody say Pla-a-a-ague! “Pla-a-a-ague“….
Now wave your hands all up in the air – and spread the plague like you just don’t ca-are!

I’m sorry folks, but Bloodborne Pathogens 101 teaches day #1, Rule #1, that you do not use high velocity pressure to clean up OPIM (other potentially infectious materials) when dealing with bloodborne pathogen clean-up.  Why? Because you run the risk of aerosolizing the virus.
And the Centers for Disease Control says:

“nothing to worry about folks, this could never happen here in the U.S.A “....

Seriously?

What we had suspected was the case is now confirmed by the New York Times.  Patient Zero, Thomas Duncan, came to the U.S. knowing he was exposed to Ebola and seeking treatment.

MONROVIA, Liberia — A man who flew to Dallas and was later found to have the Ebola virus was identified by senior Liberian government officials on Wednesday as Thomas Eric Duncan, a resident of Monrovia in his mid-40s.

Mr. Duncan, the first person to develop symptoms outside Africa during the current epidemic, had direct contact with a woman stricken by Ebola on Sept. 15, just four days before he left Liberia for the United States, the woman’s parents and Mr. Duncan’s neighbors said.
In a pattern often seen here in Monrovia, the Liberian capital, the family of the woman, Marthalene Williams, 19, took her by taxi to a hospital with Mr. Duncan’s help on Sept. 15 after failing to get an ambulance, said her parents, Emmanuel and Amie Williams. She was convulsing and seven months pregnant, they said.
Turned away from a hospital for lack of space in its Ebola treatment ward, the family said it took Ms. Williams back home in the evening, and that she died hours later, around 3 a.m. (more…)

Today the CDC confirmed the first case of unintentional importation of Ebola virus in the U.S.  (Full Video):

Patient Zero, a Liberian, located in Dallas Texas flew to the United States from Monrovia.

• 9/20 and 9/21 travel to the United States.
• 9/24 Became symptomatic for Ebola
• 9/26 Presented for treatment.
• 9/28 Admitted to hospital in Dallas for isolation, quarantine and treatment

Between 9/24/14 and 9/28/14 (4 days) Patient Zero was contagious and unconfined.  This is why the CDC says THERE WILL MORE LIKELY BE more infected as a result.
ALARMINGLY – It was discovered that in 1995 the ability of Ebola to aerosolize –or transmit via airborne pathogens– was reported, studied and confirmed.
Ebola, despite the CDC “calming” claims to the contrary,  has been scientifically proven to be a communicable airborne virus.   Coughing and sneezing can transmit the Ebola virus just like coughing and sneezing can transmit the flu.


Source link – National Institute of Health [ PMID: 7547435 ]

Source Link – National Institute of Health [ PMID: 8551825 ]
From the abstract (emphasis mine): (more…)

DALLAS – Officials with the Center of Disease Control have confirmed the first case of Ebola in the U.S. in Dallas. The CDC will host a press conference at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday to address the issue.
Officials at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital say the patient is being kept in isolation until preliminary results came back Tuesday.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 12 other people in the U.S. have been tested for Ebola since July 27. Those tests came back negative.
Hospital officials said in a statement that the latest patient’s symptoms and recent travel indicated a possible case of Ebola. The virus has killed more than 3,000 people in West Africa and infected a handful of Americans who traveled to that region. (more…)