Thread: Ebola

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