Thread: Ebola

I heard just the opposite Bob

BUT

According to the reading I have been doing there is NO difference in any of the strains, this is of course being argued between "Experts"

I meant that the current knowledge of ebola is not like the knowledge of HIV in the early 80s. It's one thing to have unknown disease that is being figured out in real time and things change very quickly, and very different to have a disease that has been studied for 35 years through several outbreaks in different regions and now having immensely superior technology allowing us to know the exact structure of the current virus down to the individual atoms.

I can certainly understand the fear at the stage when the epidemiology is not known and crucial new information is being discovered daily. But I can't understand the current overreaction to a disease that in USA is extremely hard to catch for anybody other than the people involved in the direct care of very sick patients of which currently there are none.

Originally Posted by gssixgun

I heard just the opposite Bob

BUT

According to the reading I have been doing there is NO difference in any of the strains, this is of course being argued between "Experts"

Passing strange then that this is the same old Ebola yet instead of affecting a few hundred people in one area the current one encompasses 3 countries and has infected over 13,000 people killing near 5,000 so far. The BS meter is starting to pin in the red zone for me.

Bob

Originally Posted by BobH

Has anybody heard or read that this Ebola virus is more potent/stronger than the ones in previous outbreaks?

Bob

Vincent Racaniello, virologist at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University, wrote a post about the virus mutation. It is long-but worth reading-and the main takeaway should be this sentence: “We have been studying viruses for over 100 years, and we’ve never seen a human virus change the way it is transmitted.”

There is a reason epidemiology is something people have studied and continue to study a lot - it's not trivial.

The same exact thing, a burning match stick, can destroy from just a tenth of the stick to hundreds of thousands of acres depending on the conditions and the response. It doesn't mean that one flame was made of something more special than the other, just that the conditions of the subsequent spread were different.

Originally Posted by gugi

.

I can certainly understand the fear at the stage when the epidemiology is not known and crucial new information is being discovered daily. But I can't understand the current overreaction to a disease that in USA is extremely hard to catch for anybody other than the people involved in the direct care of very sick patients of which currently there are none.

I don't see an "Overreaction to the Disease" I see a reaction to bad messaging and timing by Politicians and Medical experts that proved to lose the public trust.. Now I see exactly what you said earlier

"The problem with adversarial measures is that they cause counter reaction and there are plenty of loopholes that would be suddenly employed and new ones developed.
It is complete foolishness to switch from cooperative to adversarial position when it doesn't guarantee you 100% effective prevention which you want, and will dramatically decrease the chances of achieving the real goal"


Or complete foolishness trying to bully the Public Trust Genie back into the bottle...

Originally Posted by DickWhitman

Vincent Racaniello, virologist at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University, wrote a post about the virus mutation. It is long-but worth reading-and the main takeaway should be this sentence: “We have been studying viruses for over 100 years, and we’ve never seen a human virus change the way it is transmitted.”

No, wasn't thinking of means of transmission. Just wondering if it is more potent this outbreak.

Bob

Originally Posted by BobH

No, wasn't thinking of means of transmission. Just wondering if it is more potent this outbreak.

Bob

And how. praytell, is that determined? LOL

I don't know what this 'bad messaging' is that's lost the public's trust.

We're 2 days away from an election - if the public really thought they are being put in mortal danger by the government the only talking points for any politician on the ballot would be 'close the borders', 'isolate everybody who has been in contact' and such.
Not the case at all and as always 80%-90% of congress will be reelected.

Obama is supposedly very unpopular but nobody is really challenging him - if he was that bad people would be running on the promise to impeach him and replace him with somebody else.
Just like his healthcare bill is supposedly really bad and unpopular, yet virtually nobody is running anymore on 'repeal and replace' despite the 50+ house votes for that while that voting had no effect other than pandering to the hard-core base.

When you look at the real facts there is nothing dramatic going on, just the usual BS with media and politicians trying to blow up and capitalize on the latest 'thing'.

Originally Posted by gugi

I don't know what this 'bad messaging' is that's lost the public's trust.

I sure can't convince you nor will I try

But the simplest of Google searches will give 100's of articles from Left, Right, and Scientific sources about it if you choose to open your eyes

"Lack of public trust about Ebola"

I am pretty sure you already know this however