(Salty language alert toward end)

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Maybe she’s on a Caribbean cruise?  Or, maybe, just maybe, she’s a stand in for Steven Tyler at an Aerosmith reunion?… Anyone?

WASHINGTON DC – Earlier this week, Sen. John McCain called for an Ebola czar, not knowing one already effectively exists. Why should he, since Nicole Lurie, M.D., M.S.P.H., has been completely M.I.A.
You have to wonder sometimes if anyone in a leadership position in the Obama administration bothers to show up to work these days.
Case in point is Dr. Nicole Lurie, who arguably should be front and center in planning for and responding to the Ebola outbreak.
After all, it’s right there in her job title. She’s the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, a position created in the wake of Hurricane Katrina that reports directly to the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Her mission, according to the HHS website, is “to lead the nation in preventing, responding to and recovering from the adverse health effects of public health emergencies.”
Lead? Well, maybe she’s leading from behind, because Lurie’s been nowhere to be found since Ebola showed up on U.S. soil. (more…)

With zero experience in healthcare, disease controls or medical best practices, Ron Klain is appointed by President Obama to lead the Ebola Crisis Team.  Hey, it’s not all that bad – he could have chosen Ben Affleck…
WASHINGTON (CBSDC/AP) — President Barack Obama on Friday turned to a trusted adviser to lead the nation’s Ebola response as efforts to clamp down on any possible route of infection from three Texas cases expanded, reaching a cruise ship at sea and multiple airline flights.

Facing renewed criticism of his handling of the Ebola risk, Obama will make Ron Klain, a former chief of staff to Vice President Joe Biden, his point man on fighting Ebola at home and in West Africa. Klain will report to national security adviser Susan Rice and to homeland security adviser Lisa Monaco, the White House said. (more…)

Trying to cut through the fog and chatter it appears the Carnival Magic cruise ship has been denied entry to Mexico.

Cruise ship with isolated health care worker who handled Ebola samples was turned away from Mexico: http://t.co/JspTA2nLpk

— ABC News (@ABC) October 17, 2014

….And therein lies the reason for governmental obfuscation and media avoidance of the entire episode.
The political risk is obvious.
Both Belize, and now Mexico, have denied entry for a U.S. cruise ship carrying a healthcare worker who treated Patient Zero Thomas Duncan – yet U.S. President Obama refuses to shut down inbound air passengers from West Africa.
If you take the situation at face value the political argument is that Obama cares less for the risk of his citizenry than the Prime Minister of Belize and the President of Mexico.
The position of Mexico and Belize undermines the position of President Obama.
So what’s going on?
The U.S. government, and Carnival Cruise lines, are stating the cruise passenger, and her husband, are self-quarantined and exhibiting no symptoms. The Belize government has stated a divergent set of facts, at least initially.  Belize was saying the cruise passenger WAS exhibiting Ebola symptoms. (more…)

If this is accurate it would explain why no travel ban is being considered.
Washington, DC – Judicial Watch has learned that the Obama administration is actively formulating plans to admit Ebola-infected non-U.S. citizens into the United States for treatment. Specifically, the goal of the administration is to bring Ebola patients into the United States for treatment within the first days of diagnosis.
It is unclear who would bear the high costs of transporting and treating non-citizen Ebola patients. The plans include special waivers of laws and regulations that ban the admission of non-citizens with a communicable disease as dangerous as Ebola. (more…)

• Belize Prime Minister, Dean Barrow, has told U.S. State Department the cruise ship will not be allowed to port. • Dallas healthcare worker who did lab work for Patient Zero, Thomas Duncan, is on board, exhibiting Ebola symptoms and quarantined. • Armed Belize Coast Guard refuse to allow docking for emergency airlift.  • Belizean Harbor pilot also not permitted to leave ship. • Belize Government Issues Press Release.

Overnight – U.S. Media not yet reporting on the severity of the incident – Galveston, Texas-based Carnival Magic cruise ship anchored at Stake Bank off Belize’s coast.

(more…)

5-Month-Old Lancen Kendall of Phoenix Arizona becomes the seventh child to die as a result of Enterovirus D68 since mid-August.

Arizona – […]   Lancen Kendall, is one of 24 cases statewide that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is testing for the deadly D68 strain.

Lancen’s parents say he showed no signs or symptoms that he was sick and that he just didn’t wake up from a nap earlier this month. He was rushed to Banner Thunderbird Medical Center and, five days later, pronounced brain dead.

“The lack of warning is the scariest part to me. We didn’t know he was sick,” said his father, Kevin Kendall.

The death of their 5-month-old is still an impossible scenario for the couple. Their son always had a beaming smile and appeared healthy, they say, but doctors determined he was dying from a strain of the enterovirus.

“It’s kind of terrifying that it literally came out of nowhere,” said his mother, Kathleen Kendall.  (link)

Lancen’s death in Arizona follows the deaths of children in Michigan, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Illinois, Missouri and a severe case in Alabama. (more…)

D’oh – When is an emergency travel ban not an emergency “travel ban”? When a subject of the emergency travel ban is relaxing on a Caribbean cruise with a captive audience of potential transfer carriers!…. Yea, ya’ can’t make this stuff up.
Apparently when they went looking for all of the potentially exposed healthcare workers to quarantine they’ve found a few went on vacation.
This story is evolving quickly – Despite the AP report (below) the Belizean authorities are stating the Dallas Healthcare worker is exhibiting Ebola symptoms (also below) and refusing port entry for emergency airlift evacuation.  Armed Coast Guard vessels are forcing the Carnival Magic Cruise Ship to remain at sea.  This is quickly becoming an international incident.  There are 3,652 passengers on board and a total population of 4,633 souls at risk.  “The Ebola Cruise” !  (more…)

The advisors to the President feel this Oval Office update was effective, hence the upload to the White House site.
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Key takeaways: The White House doesn’t support a travel ban (quarantine) from West Africa because it would drive people to be deceptive in their travel arrangements. In essence “they would lie”.
This position is undermined by the fact that patient Zero already lied to gain travel access to the U.S. subsequently creating the original Ebola exposure. This deception occurred while no travel ban is in place, so why would a travel ban increase the likelihood of deception? (more…)