Politically Correct Ebola

The American Thinker ^ | 28 Aug 14 | Ronald R. Cherry, MD

[xzins]

Sometime during the last week the Public Health Agency of Canada changed its website’s content regarding Ebola transmission. Last week I published a preliminary essay on the Airborne Transmission of Ebola, and more recently comprehensive essays, all citing the Canadian PHA’s section entitled “Mode of Transmission.”

8-06-14:

“In the laboratory, infection through small-particle aerosols has been demonstrated in primates, and airborne spread among humans is strongly suspected, although it has not yet been conclusively demonstrated.”

8-25-14:

“[A]irborne transmission has not been demonstrated between non-human primates.”

Why did the Public Health Agency of Canada change it just now? Why do they ignore the scientific literature which directly refutes their current website content regarding the transmission of Ebola between non-human primates (monkeys)? They removed “airborne spread among humans is strongly suspected,” yet airborne spread among humans is still strongly suspected because physicians in West Africa, like Dr. Kent Brantly and Dr. Sahr Rogers, along with nurses and other health workers, are becoming infected with Ebola despite CDC level protection against direct contact with the bodies and body fluids of Ebola victims, leaving airborne transmission as the remaining alternative mode -- 129 are now dead. We also know that airborne transmission has in fact been demonstrated between non-human primates because The United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases conducted a monkey to monkey Ebola study in December 1995, published in The Lancet, Vol 346, which conclusively demonstrated it.

[xzins]

Why this timing for the change?

Another good question

[exit82]

www.house.gov

www.senate.gov

Call your reps and tell them to shut immigration down from West Africa including people coming from other hubs, and to shut our southern border down.

We have to act now to stop this.

We can plainly see our fearless leaders do not have control of the situation.

The reps have to hear a groundswell from us.

The family you save may be your own.

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

Thinking like a chess player, I suspect that Obama is waiting for panic to reach critical mass. Then he can give FEMA more draconian power under an ‘Ebola Tzar’.

[LambSlave]

I don't think this is some kind of conspiracy.

The 1995 paper's cited here is a red herring-- the authors of this paper have long stated that it was not performed under controlled conditions and that the apparent transmission has a number of alternate explanations-- it was also for a unique strain of Ebola (Reston) that does not cause disease in humans.

The more recent paper from 2012 Transmission of Ebola virus from pigs to non-human primates did in fact strongly suggest that pigs were able to transmit the virus to macaques through the air; however, the authors did conclude that it could have occurred either by inhalation (of aerosol or larger droplets), by droplet inoculation of eyes and mucosal surfaces, or by fomites due to droplets generated during the cleaning of the room. This is important because for true airborne transmission the pathogen must be able to attach to and infect cells in the upper respiratory tract of the target-- this was not demonstrated and would require an additional adaptive mutation (although other studies have suggested it is possible in non-human primates). Thus the macaques may have been absorbing droplets that were swallowed, or rubbed/splashed on eyes or other mucoscal surfaces. This is still bad, but not as bad as infection by direct inhalation.

Also, the pigs DID clearly have infection of cells in the nasopharynx-- but this has only been observed in pigs to date.

To tidy up these loose ends, the same authors published a new paper in the spring,

Article Here

using only primates, and found that they could not transmit the virus through the air. They concluded that "two NHPs were lethally infected with EBOV, and no EBOV virus or antibodies to EBOV GP were detected in the neighbouring uninfected NHPs for up to 28 days after the challenge date. The presence of transmission in the pig-NHP experiment and not the NHP-NHP experiment, both performed under similar conditions and environments, could be explained by the fact that EBOV disease in pigs is respiratory in nature with high amounts of infectious particles present in the oro-nasal cavities in the symptomatic phase of the disease which provided an opportunity for release into the environment."

[xzins]

Why do you think they’re wearing head to toe hazmat suits with hoods, goggles, gloves, and respirators?

[DaveyB]

My concern is that Ebola is the perfect crisis to suspend the Constitution impose marshal law and cancel the elections, for our national good of course. OK maybe not all three at once.

The question is am I just being paranoid, or not paranoid enough?

[LambSlave]

I have worked in a BSL3 lab before, where we wore similar protection even with much less infectious agents than Ebola. It is very easy to get exposed, even if the agent is not airborne. One infected drop of blood, saliva, mucous from an Ebola victim can contain over a million copies of the virus; you only need one to ten copies to get a full blown infection yourself. So rubbing your eye after touching a surface that is contaminated (VERY easy to do), splashing a drop in your face, inhaling a drop that is then absorbed through the mucous membranes of your mouth or tongue, a microscopic cut on your hand, under your fingernail... a million ways to get infected that are not airborne, and just one of them is enough to kill you. So you wear the gear.

[xzins]

With this administration’s willingness to stage an operation against US gun stores via Fast and Furious, and their willingness to state a misinformation campaign about a Benghazi video about mohammed, and their willingness to lie about IRS targeting of conservatives, I would say that suspecting these people is a rational thing to do.

[xzins]

And they also wear them to prevent inhalation.

And there is evidence that air transmission is more than possible.

Would any doctor you know want to be unprotected in front of an Ebola patient when he sneezed?

[caww]

Trauma nurse said it was not uncommon for “Aids” patients brought in to spit on staff. They have a mask they ‘put on patients’ who do that. But the staff is always covered well and as specified when treating an aids patient.

[LambSlave]

First off— most doctors aren’t qualified experts here, biomedical research scientists are; most doctors only see filoviridae in medical school very briefly and don’t follow the academic literature, so unless this is their specialty or unless they are working in a research lab studying microbiology, virology, pathology, or infectious diseases they are not experts. Second— what part of this don’t you understand? You still need a respirator!! Some of the large droplets from a cough or sneeze could contain saliva, vomitus and probably blood in the late stages, which are all infected. It is technically not airborne transmission, but if you inhale it and it is absorbed by your mucuous membranes you will be infected. If you read my post you see that airborne transmission means something that can be transmitted in air (e.g. with very little or even no water) and able to infect cells in the respiratory tract of the target. That is airborne transmission, which means everyone in a room breathing the same air gets it. That is a vastly different beast than what we are seeing now. The Ro (measure of transmission) for this Ebola epidemic is around 2— that means each infected person is infecting two people; if it were truly airborne Ro could be in the 5 - 15 range, which would be a plague of apocalyptic scope.

[xzins]

If it is caught by virtue of being in the air, then it is not true that it can only be taught by touching bodily fluids, the message being put out by the government and media.

Short distance, long distance, I don’t care. If it can be caught from an air transmission then I want air protection.

[LambSlave]

I agree completely with you there xzins; the message being put out by the government and their assessment of risk are BS. I predicted back in May that this would be a regional epidemic in West Africa by the end of summer with 4 to 10k cases and could not understand WHO’s lack of action. Even then, it was clear that this was not like earlier outbreaks. I think that if we fail to aggressively get a handle on this in Africa, we will see a million cases in West Africa by the end of winter, and at that point it will become a pandemic. I did not expect to see cases in the US until winter, so this turn of events is surprising. Isolated cases are easier to contain, but there is still a fair chance of any one of them creating a focal point for another outbreak.

[Smokin' Joe]

Ping…

A link to this thread has been posted on the Ebola Surveillance Thread

[null and void]

The game of Ebola Roulette continues...

*click* spin *click* spin *click* spin…BANG!

Eeeee-bolllll-aaaaaa ping!

Bring Out Your Dead

We’re gonna need

a bigger cart!

Post to me or FReep mail to be on/off the Bring Out Your Dead ping list.

The purpose of the “Bring Out Your Dead” ping list (formerly the “Ebola” ping list) is very early warning of emerging pandemics, as such it has a high false positive rate.

So far the false positive rate is 100%.

At some point we may well have a high mortality pandemic, and likely as not the “Bring Out Your Dead” threads will miss the beginning entirely.

*sigh* Such is life, and death...

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[Smokin' Joe]

You’re Welcome, Alamo-Girl!

[Liz]

FLASHBACK: Obama Administration Dumped Quarantine Rules----sucked-up to civil libertarians
Breitbart ^ | 10/01/14 | Kerry Picket / Posted by Enlightened1

Politico initially reported in August of 2009 that the Obama administration examined Bush administration 2005 quarantine regulations, which were criticized by civil liberty advocates.

In April 2010, Politico reported the administration “quietly dumped quarantine rules that would have required air passengers to submit more information to airlines and strengthened the government's authority to detain travelers suspected of carrying disease.” (Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...

[Liz]

Hillary said it takes a village. But it took only one doofus--- Obama---to expose the lib/prog's dumb "humanitarian" elitism that is endangering us.

These brain-dead, feel-good types believe “singling out” backward nations or antediluvian cultures which pose deadly threats to the public health or safety of Americans “stigmatizes” those nations or cultures, it “shames” them, it makes them "feel" unequal.

It’s (horrors) "judgmental."

We can never, Ever suggest that America prefers already existing tax-paying, law-abiding citizens to foreigners w/ big plans for our heads.

Dumbo Dummycrats are the reasons for the deluge of Central American refugees, the reason why illegals never feel the sting of US justice, the reason we remain unable to strip jihadists of US citizenship.

The reason why a year after two Chechen refugees on expired visas bombed/maimed/killed Boston Marathoners, America is preparing to expand resettlement of blood-thirsty individuals who have big plans for our heads, and border-jumpers carrying horrific contagious diseases.