Thread: Ebola

Originally Posted by pixelfixed

What non-medicos do not realize is,It took one person,one norway rat,and one Flea to start an epidemic that killed Millions of people.
It took one person to spread the spanish Flu that Killed 10s of thousands in The U.S.
It took one person infected with Polio to destroy thousands of lives.
Yes, Science can get us thru this.If we let it happen.

I don't know about this one person thing - it's the SCIENCE that claims it is so but we all know how trustworthy SCIENCE is. If you stop being dogmatic and read the non-SCIENCE sources you'll find out there are plenty of alternative explanations that make just as much sense.
There were people long before there was SCIENCE and they survived just fine, well technically they all died, but still the point is that they lived all of their lives without any SCIENCE mumbo-jumbo (which was just for the chief/priest/shaman/etc. because he could manhandle it).

And let's not forget that 7,000 IIRC have been infected in the African countries with a bit more than half dieing. This in a geographical area with a population of millions of people and an infrastructure that is lacking. Nigeria has just been declared virus free, after a recent outbreak that claimed 20 lives, if I have the stats right.

I'm not minimizing the problem, or unsympathetic to the people who are bearing the brunt of it. I do think the world should do whatever is necessary to combat ebola, marburg and other serious infectious diseases that are especially recurring in "third world" countries, but I don't see it happening unless we are effected to the extent that it becomes self preservation. YMMV.

Jimmy, forgive me but your post almost suggests that it's best that that the US gets infected with Ebola in order to fix the problem. I'm not ready to subscribe to that thinking or sacrifice our own to save the rest of the third world. Call me selfish but I don't believe in sharing the pain just to resolve it.

I've always had a positive attitude toward science. In high school I mixed my sports with my science class & got a "C" every grading peroid.

My wrestling coach was having an affair with my science teacher, so as long as I kept winning, my science & math grades were taken care of.

Originally Posted by OCDshaver

Jimmy, forgive me but your post almost suggests that it's best that that the US gets infected with Ebola in order to fix the problem. I'm not ready to subscribe to that thinking or sacrifice our own to save the rest of the third world. Call me selfish but I don't believe in sharing the pain just to resolve it.

As an old ironworker I knew used to say, "Don't put words in my mouth and then quote me." I'm not suggesting that at all. Merely pointing out that until it seemed to be a direct threat, "we" weren't very concerned, based on our response. Sort of like the situation in Rwanda when the slaughter was happening. What was Clinton's response ....... play nice now children, or something along those lines ....... if that.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

As an old ironworker I knew used to say, "Don't put words in my mouth and then quote me." I'm not suggesting that at all. Merely pointing out that until it seemed to be a direct threat, "we" weren't very concerned, based on our response. Sort of like the situation in Rwanda when the slaughter was happening. What was Clinton's response ....... play nice now children, or something along those lines ....... if that.

The thing about ebola is that there's never been a very large outbreak until now. It generally hits a small community hard, then goes back into obscurity. We have limited research dollars, so it's going to be spent on whatever is seen as an immediate threat. Every year we (in the military/DoD) get a list of major research topics from congress that reflects what are considered the top threats/problems, and we have to put the money there. And when it comes to DoD, when you have thousands of soldiers dying from often preventable injuries, and tens of thousands coming back with injuries that require treatment, something like ebola is just not the main focus.

Originally Posted by MajorEthanolic

The thing about ebola is that there's never been a very large outbreak until now. It generally hits a small community hard, then goes back into obscurity. We have limited research dollars, so it's going to be spent on whatever is seen as an immediate threat. Every year we (in the military/DoD) get a list of major research topics from congress that reflects what are considered the top threats/problems, and we have to put the money there. And when it comes to DoD, when you have thousands of soldiers dying from often preventable injuries, and tens of thousands coming back with injuries that require treatment, something like ebola is just not the main focus.

That is the cold logic behind what gets done with taxpayers dollars for medical research. I am sure the same holds true up here. The short version is "If it is not happening to us it does not matter" regardless of how it is justified. That goes for private sector research not funded by government monies also, with the added disincentive of there being little profit in it if they are successful in finding a vaccine. A basic complete lack of altruism.

Fortunately for the people that so far have been the only ones effected by Ebola, Africans, there now seems to be more of an incentive to come up with a vaccine. The public in the West now views it as more of a direct threat. Lets hope that when this current large scale outbreak is declared over this new found incentive does not disappear totally also.

Bob

Originally Posted by gugi

I don't know about this one person thing - it's the SCIENCE that claims it is so but we all know how trustworthy SCIENCE is. If you stop being dogmatic and read the non-SCIENCE sources you'll find out there are plenty of alternative explanations that make just as much sense.
There were people long before there was SCIENCE and they survived just fine, well technically they all died, but still the point is that they lived all of their lives without any SCIENCE mumbo-jumbo (which was just for the chief/priest/shaman/etc. because he could manhandle it).

You realize that the average life expectancy before "science" as you put it, was in the 30's-40's, right?

Originally Posted by DickWhitman

You realize that the average life expectancy before "science" as you put it, was in the 30's-40's, right?

Not to mention the 50% child mortality rate.

Exactly. Yet people still believe we walked the earth with the dinosaurs.