Someone needs to explain to me why people would send hate mail to Emory University Hospital

[malaise]

for welcoming and treating two caring fellow Americans for a horrific illness.
When did two American citizens become unwelcome in their own homeland?
What has happened to the America I grew up admiring? Who is spreading and feeding fear in America.
This is frightening.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/atlanta-hospital-receives-hate-mail-for-treating-aid-workers-stricken-by-ebola-9645199.html
<snip>
The Atlanta hospital treating one of the US aid workers stricken with the Ebola virus, and preparing to receive a second, has appealed to the public to show compassion, after receiving “nasty emails” asking why the patients were allowed back into the country.

Emory University Hospital is expecting the arrival of Nancy Writebol early next week. She will be treated in a specially equipped isolation unit alongside one occupied by Dr Kent Brantly who arrived over the weekend.

Officials there are striving to reassure nervous members of the public that the aid workers’ presence in the city did not imply a risk of an Ebola outbreak on US soil.

“I hope our understandable fear of the unfamiliar does not trump our compassion when ill Americans return to the US for care,” said Dr Tom Frieden, director of the US Centres for Disease Control (CDC), also based in Atlanta. He noted the agency had received some “nasty emails” and about 100 calls from people questioning why the sick aid workers should be let into the US.

[MohRokTah]

1. Because the media whipped it up as these people coming back willy nilly with no precautions. eom

[magical thyme]

40. it's not just the media. A DUer was in meltdown because she could see a cameraman without a

hazmat suit filming Dr. Brantly's arrival.

Never mind that he was 15-20 feet away from the ambulance. Never mind that the patient was in a hazmat suit so even if he exploded in projectile vomit, his body fluids would be contained.

[winter is coming]

2. They expect the President to visit and wanted to be first in line with teh ugly?? n/t

[msanthrope]

3. Because they are fucked up. nt

[RKP5637]

16. That's really the bottom line, there are some really fucked up hateful ignorant and stupid people

in the US, all over the place.

[elleng]

4. CAN'T!

IMPOSSIBLE!

[n2doc]

5. Luckovich explains:

[newfie11]

6. Love this and soooo true!

[malaise]

13. The idiocy outbreak

Brilliant

[Marrah_G]

7. Because people are ignorant of science for the most part

[alp227]

8. So right wingers lump in US citizens with those Central American refugee kids

in Third World Disease Hysteria huh?

[MADem]

31. And those "west Africans" and "Africans in general" doncha know....

Those right wingers just love lumping!

[dembotoz]

9. because people are stupid

[Ruby the Liberal]

10. Fear. nt

[Algernon Moncrieff]

11. ^^^Yes. This

People who fear the consequences if the disease breaks out in American cities. While I share their fear, I'd counter that hospitals fight infectious disease, and we're treating Americans.

[Hoyt]

12. Still lots of ignorant people in the area. Personally, I think it's good for Emory.

[magical thyme]

39. it's good for all of us. they have gotten the 1st human treatments ever of a treatment in developmen

that ultimately benefits everybody. Especially since the treatment appears to be very, very effective.

[Delmette]

14. Because they are fearful, ignorant and selfish.

[JI7]

15. same reason people said the Border Kids were going to bring Ebola and other diseases

[GusBob]

17. another vote for stupidity

Huge problem in our country

[malaise]

18. Stupidity is global

not American.

[3catwoman3]

28. True, but a particularly...

...virulent strain seems to be taking a deep hold here.

[malaise]

33. Want to bet?

[GusBob]

43. the american strain is virulent and causes the hate mail

Name me another country where this could happen.

Did you hear what Rush and Trump had to say? Sure you did

What other countries in the world have loud mouths like them AND fox news AND the tea party AND the NRA AND. Christian conservatives AND Bible belters who believe in religion over science. AND well you get the picture.

Americans have a special sort of knee jerk dumb - a talk first think second brand of entilted ignorance- whereby they would send hate mail to a leading educational facility and expect their exceptional ignorance to be obeyed.

And yes there is some of this on DU too. Its everywhere but its a big problem in this country

[malaise]

44. Let me see

What about Jamaica when the Haitian refugees land?

I'll take that for $2,000 Alex!

You know what makes that worse. After the Haitian Revolution, we were all welcome in Haiti and not just welcome - we were free. Their constitution banned slavery.

[Applan]

19. Because the President happens to be black

The only reason needed

[shenmue]

20. More proud graduates of the University of Duh

Where they majored in Being a Horrible Person.

[jeff47]

21. THEY'RE GOING TO KILL US ALL!!!!!!!

DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND?!?! THEY ARE GOING TO GIVE US ALL EBOLA!!!! AND THEN WE'LL ALL DIE!! THE CDC LOST VIALS RECENTLY, SO THIS WILL KILL US ALL!!!!!!!!

In other words, stupid mixing with fear and anti-science.

[haele]

22. Because they've devolved into Trolls who have nothing better to do.

They live in a very small world with very little power to change it. They're addicted to outrage, it gives them that adrenaline rush that the day to day happiness can't.
They're emotionally lazy, default to tearing down anything they didn't approve of and intentionally cut down anyone or anything that might appear to be "better" than them or what they are capable of doing.
I used to call them Eeyores, but quickly stopped once I thought about it. Eeyore was never cynically mean and jealously spiteful, and would do the right thing even if he complained about how "it might not work" or "it will just break".

Haele

[marmar]

23. Reminds me of a Tommy Lee Jones line from Men in Black......

"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it."

[Brigid]

24. Another vote for Stupidity.

It's everywhere.

[Solly Mack]

25. Fear and ignorance.

Sadly.

[notadmblnd]

26. Hell, some people have been spreading fear right here.

But we know why hate mail was sent. It's sad, but we know why.

[malaise]

34. True

I did see a thread asking what happens if the plane crashes

[Eleanors38]

27. Listenin' to punk-right radio. nt

[Warpy]

29. The more ignorant people are, the more easily frightened they are

Limbag didn't have to try at all to whip this stuff up.

[JVS]

30. There was a thread here on DU just the other day with a bunch of people freaking out about Emory...

bringing over people with Ebola and denouncing their decision to do so. And DU is relatively sanguine about things scientific. If people here are flipping their shit about something like this then there are probably a lot of people who are afraid and angry at Emory for behavior that they perceive as putting the general public at risk.

[cwydro]

32. Some DUers

on those threads even implied the infected patients deserved because of their missionary work.

[moriah]

42. That made me livid. Seen how many hospitals Samaritan's Purse runs?

They both, for ZERO pay, risked their lives to work with patients that I'm willing to bet at least half on DU would run screaming from. Hell, I'd probably run screaming, so I'm not saying that to judge. Facing your own mortality and choosing to risk your life to help others in desperate need is something we should be praising, not bashing. The Ebola Consolidated Case Management Center is run by Samaritan's Purse, the missionary organization, as well, even though it's not on their website as one of their main hospitals in Africa. How much else do they do that's not on the website?

[malaise]

35. Yes

but there are trolls here too

[distantearlywarning]

36. Because America is full of morons

And all of them are angry and think they are entitled to inflict their moronic opinions on other people.

[maxrandb]

37. It's our fault

People screamed “Let Him DIE!!” to boisterous applause and cheers, and we rewarded them by handing over the House and multiple State Legislatures to them.

People wore T-bags on their tri-corner hats, carried assault rifles in the streets, screamed like banshees about a “Muslim-Kenyan Usurper” in the White House, demonized their fellow Americans, demanded legislation that screwed the poor, minorities, women, the Middle-Class and kids who did nothing wrong except follow their parents to our country…and we rewarded them by giving them the House and multiple State Legislatures.

20+ Six-Year olds…THAT’S RIGHT…20+....SIX-YEAR OLDS, were assassinated in their school, and the people with the Tri-Corner hats demanded that we do nothing…or EXPAND THE AVAILABILITY OF GUNS…and that House and those State Legislatures they control did just that.

You want to know why folks send hate mail to a fucking Hospital????

We all better look in the mirror, because our inaction enabled it.

This is the kind of fucking country you get when good people do nothing!

We not only enabled this shit…WE REWARDED IT

Welcome to the new America!

[malaise]

38. Good post

Sadly you're right

[steve2470]

46. excellent post nt

[moriah]

41. Because they don't understand the Emory Unviersity Hospital's negative-pressure isolation unit....

... is one of four in the country that we've built to handle it when doctors get exposed to diseases in the lab. This same unit handled all the SARS patients without spreading the disease, and SARS was airborne.

I'm not going to deny it'd be nice if we had one of these on an island somewhere. But we don't, and these are our people. (And to anyone, ANYONE, who bashes them for being Christian missionaries, YOU go build 10+ hospitals in Africa like Samaritan's Purse has done, or do like this doctor did and volunteer to be exposed to death just to save lives. These are the GOOD missionaries, people -- the ones that actually are dedicated to improving the lives of those they run across in service, not just saving their souls.)

[steve2470]

45. ignorance and a hard heart nt