Posted on 10/25/2014 6:55:04 PM PDT by Gadsden1st
I’ve been walking the earth for a half a century, so I’m sure I’ve picked up a bit along the way. I know the Gettysburg Address by heart. I can recite all the presidents. I can taste the difference between Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi, and I’m fairly certain I can tell you the starting lineup from the 1976 Cincinnati Reds. But if you ask me if I’m worried about Ebola, if our hospital is ready or if our nurses and staff are up to the challenge, chances are you will probably hear me say this:
“Hell if I know.”
Again, I apologize the manner that I posted this article has caused you so much anguish. Should you bother to actually read the article, you will see I simply excerpted the very first part of his article. It was his article and I showed him the respect of presenting the beginning of his article as he wrote it.
I did not get the impressing he was trying to be “scary” and I did not selectively excerpt the article to try to be “scary”.
While I realize there are a great number of “over the top” ebola items blazing around the internet, I thought this was an honest look at the issues facing the professionals that we are looking to for answers. Since I may be faced with the same type of decisions he is expecting to face, I guess I found some comfort in the article.
I promise not to post any articles next Friday night. I wouldn’t want to be accused of trying to be “Scary”, Trick or Treat.
-->"Hospital staffers reportedly take sick day rather than treat New York’s first Ebola patient"
“Thanks for the summary, I didn’t want to go to the link.”
That is a very interesting take. You seem to post as presenting yourself as a very knowledgeable, scientific, expert on health issues. Yet, you are happy to take other’s opinions about an article written by an Emergency Doctor than bother to spend no more than ten minutes to read it for yourself. Some read it and see the alarm about the flu, I read it and see the alarm about HCWs saying “Screw It”. Not to mention the various approaches to treating flu vs ebola that have not been mentioned in the comments here.
People need to remember to show us that these are excerpts.
“More times than Lois Lerner has hit her hard drive with a hammer.”
Sounds like a Freeper.
New York has declared HCWs comming back from treating patients in Africa have to go into 21 day quarantine.
Will everyone treating our good Doctor in New York have to be in quarantine NOW while they are treating him, and then remain in quarantine for 21 days after he is cured or dies?
If not, WHY not?
Great article.
That's a question that I've had, too.
It's beginning to look like there really are only a handful of hospitals in the US that are capable of dealing with a single Ebola patient without it having a major impact on their normal functions.
I am not sure i buy any of this.
the Flu of the 1920 era.
the world was recovering from World War 1.
hundreds of thousands of sick soldiers were moved by ship.
there are food shortages during a war.
there are everything-shortages during a war.
many governments were wiped out.
other governments were bankrupt.
and on and on
Thank you for posting this. I read the entire article.
Very honest and interesting.
Thanks for posting this.
I admire the doctor’s straightforwardness... rare these days.
One answer to the problem might seem unrelated, but it’s not. We need much more distributed, community-based production of all necessities: agricultural, manufacturing, etc.
Very centralized production in a few places of the world owned by a few rulers of the world is counter to our security. It necessitates too much travel and migration that cannot be stopped without terrible consequences. We should be able to make most of what we need in each community and home, but activities to make it possible are outlawed by our corrupt system of many state and local regulations against domestic competition.
“I read it and see the alarm about HCWs saying “Screw It”.”
I was saying that about Ebola when it first broke. (And all other sorts of workers that don’t want to catch it, or are staying home with sick family).
There was a headline that many of the HCW at Bellevue called in sick upon finding out that Dr. Ebowla was there.
As a health care professional I “probably” could do this. The vast majority of people could not. I as others would not abandon a family member. This is a recipe for logarithmic spread of the disease.
We must isolate any and all travelers from an Ebola infected nation. If we do this, we will have sufficient beds and facilities to treat the few cases we will have. If we do not, we may be on the verge of a medical catastrophe.
I’m not a physician or a nurse, but I have participated in Emergency Preparedness committees, and these are the sorts of things that are contemplated.
When a large out-break of a communicable disease takes place, you have to screen people before they get inside the hospital. You don’t want to contaminate the general staff and the broad body of patients already inside.
An overflow tent situation is considered a likely way to respond to these types of situations.
As for treating these people in large open spaces in a big tent, it may be a great idea. Now, if you can just get the inner city people to play along...
Boy, the racial tension that will come about in nanoseconds will be something to behold.
Thank you for this post, a fascinating read from the doctor’s perspective....
OK, I missed the comments on the article the first time — NoScript was blocking them. Had not previously seen this part of linkedin.com.
I found the nurses calling out sick pretty interesting from your link, but was struck even more by this...
“The Post said Spencer, who is in stable condition, has been playing an active role in his recovery, putting his medical skills to use, lecturing the staff about proper treatment. “As a doctor, he knows a lot about medicine, so he would call the nurse’s station all day and going back and forth the doctors on what to do,” the source told the Post.”
If he is such an esteemed expert, why was he riding the NYC subway with symptomatic Ebola?
Tents in Iowa cornfields in February may not attract many sick people. I suspect we will need quickly erected field triage buildings with heaters and negative pressure rooms with HEPA filtration and disinfectant showers for those exiting in biohazard level 4 suits. Sounds like something the Army Corps of Engineers could handle. Or perhaps the large engineering firms.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.