I don't give a flying fuck about Americans' panic over Ebola, or stupid headlines

[magical thyme]

I simply want to see it taken seriously in Africa, and taken seriously here.

So far, it's been deny, deny, deny, blatant lies and false assurances, slow small response to the catastrophe unfolding in W. Africa, incredibly unbelievably (although working in a hospital, not surprising to me) inept response to our first inevitable case, followed by hair on fire stupid.

Frieden looked good on paper and has the background, but apparently has been totally asleep at the switch. I'm just a lowly lab tech and was following the news reports out of personal interest. My alarm grew over the summer at the total lack on international response. My alarm grew at Frieden's statements because based on my low base (albeit higher than the average person seeing as I trained and work in the field) of knowledge and experience, as opposed to somebody, like, say, the head of the CDC. I knew he was either 1. flat out lying or 2. woefully misinformed and not bothering to inform himself, either about the disease itself or the working conditions inside many hospitals.

I knew the airport screening would have zero to limited effectiveness because the threshold temperature was set too high, temps weren't taken on arrival, and a single symptom shouldn't have been the screen to begin with because individuals vary widely in their response to anything. Oh, and individuals sometimes lie, even to themselves, not to mention others.

I knew the threshold criteria were set too high because fevers and symptoms happen on a continuum, and contagiousness happens on a continuum, not with an on/off switch (ok, fevers have an on/off switch, but it's like a light dimmer type switch).

I knew the CDC guideline PPEs were inadequate because -- as anybody who actually looked at the pictures and read the articles could see -- research scientists working with it, doctors and nurses treating patients in Africa, and the 4 BSL-4 facilities all used complete coverage biohazard suits, and in some cases positive pressure suits and purified air under the hoods. A small amount of reading showed drill training practice with helpers to undress. So how the fuck were standard hospital droplet protection, which leaves skin exposed, with standard hospital "training" (a bunch of slides and a poster) at dressing/undressing going to work? They weren't.

It wasn't rocket science to see Frieden was failing here. He didn't talk to the doctors who actually treat patients. He didn't investigate real hospital practices. He apparently isn't aware of individual differences in response to any infection, or that contagiousness itself happens on a continuum, not with an on/off switch. It's mind boggling. He just made a pile of assumptions.

And now a lawyer/insider with zero experience with or knowledge of epidemiology or healthcare in charge of response.

I still don't see an appropriate response. Now it's just all out panic, do something mode, with overreactions in one spot, underreactions in another, an inappropriate reactions in a third.

[Bluenorthwest]

1. Over 20,000 Americans had died of AIDS before the US President even said the word out loud

Most Americans ignored it along with Dutch and voted for him a second time, then for his VP Mr Bush. To me, this time our government is doing much, much more, much better, much faster. What is not different is the rumor and panic spread by speculating ninnies and fearful bigots. That is the same.

[VanillaRhapsody]

2. and Chicken Littles that think the sky is falling..

[KingCharlemagne]

9. Jesus, Reagan presided over the worst recession in this country since the Great Depression (worse

even than the recession of 2008-09) with unemployment reaching 12%, IIRC. And Americans still re-elected him. I guess because they thought beating inflation on the backs of the working class was a good thing to do. Beats the shit out of me.

[geek tragedy]

3. "Now it's just all out panic." Oh the irony. nt

[Nay]

4. I agree with everything you say. I trained as a med tech years ago (never

practiced) and I would have done better than the idiots at that TX hospital. What's so vexing is that the information on how to respond to an actual Ebola patient is only a fingertip away -- on the Internet, from the CDC, from ANY infectious disease specialist, from Medecins Sans Frontieres, from 2 dozen other authorities.

Why were none of these experts consulted or brought in? Who knows? We can postulate several reasons:

1. Hospital leaders, whether they were doctors or not, put their own need to seem in control over the needs of the patient, the workers, the public. I think we would all be gobsmacked at how often this happens in crisis situations -- in one of my exercises during a class in operational management, the point that was made was that someone in the group would step forward to lead, but that person was not necessarily the expert, nor would this person listen to an actual expert in the group. Eye-opening. In the 5 groups who participated in this scenario, all followed the self-selected leader and all died.

In that TX hospital, IMHO, this led to crazy decisions like a) 70 workers rotated in and out of an Ebola room, rather than limiting access to the bare minimum needed; b) those workers went on to other rooms to treat regular patients; c) those workers were not given the proper shielding materials, but were ordered into the Ebola room; d) statements like "we couldn't find the right stuff to buy!11!!" are so moronic as to be immediately dismissible -- NO ONE goes in until you have the right materials; and e) 'voluntary quarantine' for workers who had had contact with the Ebola patient without the recommended gear.

2. Cost. They gotta do everything on the cheap, so every movement depends on the cost of that movement, not the sanity of that movement. This is the result of a capitalistic system's reduction of everything to a price. It's everywhere and it's deadly.

3. Then, of course, there's the chilling idea that there's a certain set of leaders who don't care if Ebola gets out and scares the public -- they didn't mind lying about WMDs, either. Putting a little scare into hoi polloi keeps them under the thumb. That's one of the reasons that Frieden was in charge at that hospital -- he's a figurehead, probably somebody's buddy or cousin or fellow board member, and was never expected to actually be competent. There are lots of such people in high and low positions now, with the disdain the country has for actual intellect and true competence.

Knowing all this, esp the fact that several "managers" without medical training have totally fucked up the US's response to Ebola, I have NO FUCKING IDEA why President Obama has appointed another manager without medical training to supervise this clusterfuck. I mean, what the hell.

[DebJ]

8. the 70 hospital workers being exposed is what totally blew my mind from the get go.

Complete and utter idiocy.

[marions ghost]

12. good points

Cynicism is appropriate about how this was (and is being) handled.

You said--"There are lots of such people in high and low positions now, with the disdain the country has for actual intellect and true competence."

.......SO True!

People who blame the nurses and hospital staff are missing the point.

[deutsey]

5. For months before Ebola came to the US

I've been disgusted by the way the world "community" has ignored what's happening in West Africa.

We're a sad, stupid species.

[lunasun]

7. + 1

[FSogol]

6. Unrec. Whole lot of armchair quarterbacking here. If you knew, why didn't you say anything before?

[Nay]

11. Well, it's not armchair quarterbacking if those of us with experience went "WTF??"

from the very first moment we heard about the practices of the TX hospital with the Ebola patient.

Frankly, as an ex-med tech, my hair stood on end. What you should be asking is "why didn't the hospital listen to their own workers who tried to talk sense into them?" because I can assure you, many workers probably did try to stop the idiocy and failed because management was lacking common sense and was full of overweening arrogance as well. And, I suspect, lack of experience, and possibly a problem with political/good-old-boy appointments who, when the shit hit the fan, not only did not have the experience to deal with the situation but also had the arrogance to believe he/they didn't need to listen to anyone else, either, even their own experienced people.

[marions ghost]

13. I've seen it

---you are unfortunately right.

[valerief]

10. Exactly. Most of us are not in grave danger now, but this ebola shit needs to

be as controlled as it can be so it doesn't get worse. Ebola kills and it kills FAST.