Ebola Virus – No worries! Right?

I hear that victims of the highly infectious and contagious Ebola Virus are being brought to these United States.   Pray for these poor people.  It’ll be the first time this deadly and highly infectious and contagious virus will be on these shores.

Hey!  Don’t fret, today Pres. Obama said there is nothing to worry about.  This, the day after we learned that the ObamaCare website cost tax payers $840 million.

With the Obama Administration on the watch, what could go wrong?

I mean, look at the competence with which the invasion at the southern border is being handled.

Surely they would tell us if there were some kind of problem, right?  I mean, look at the transparency they have displayed with Benghazi and the IRS investigations.

BTW… have any of you read Tom Clancy’s Executive Orders?

NUTSHELL: Iranians manage to weaponize Ebola and seek to release it in these USA.

A ripping good yarn and surely pure fiction.  Pure fiction.  I mean, no problems with Islamic fanatics these days.

All in all, I’d rather have a Pres. Ryan, if you get me.

But… what could go wrong?

I think I’ll put it on my Kindle wish list.  I haven’t read it for years. [Yes. I knew it. Someone already came through. But there are other books in the list!]

And… pray for these poor people, those coming here and those in Africa.  Ask the Archangel Michael to avert this horrible plague.

I hope Catholic leaders there will have processions.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
This entry was posted in Global Killer Asteroid Questions, Lighter fare, Semper Paratus and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

21 Comments

  1. acardnal says:

    Fr Z, speaking of your Kindle Wish List, you said this a couple posts ago (today) but I feel you left something unfinished.

    ” I just finished American Sniper and I am moving on to”. . . . Nothing further. I’m unable to make any comment on the post.

    I await in great anticipation: So WHAT you are moving on to?

  2. acardnal says: I await in great anticipation

    Simultaneously:

    The Great Bridge by David McCullough

    and

    Ten Universal Principles: A Brief Philosophy of the Life Issues by Fr. Robert Spitzer, SJ

  3. Siculum says:

    This was posted in “Lighter Fare.” If only.

  4. SKAY says:

    As you say, Father–what could go wrong?

    They tell us there is very little chance that ebola will get out into the population here–yet this administration will not do what is necessary to control the southern border for political reasons. The border patrol is overwhelmed and is not able to control who or what is able to come in and they have said as much. The border patrol members are coming down with the infectious diseases and one man’s children came down with chicken pox because he had been exposed to it at work.
    As doctors have said –ebola is one plane ride away from the US. All the precautions they talk about when discussing planes coming to the US probably do not apply to planes flying to other countries below the border. “It” could just walk across the border and disappear into the population until he or she showed symptoms. People from China and India ( and who knows where else) are also crossing the border so why not Africa too. The doctor and nurse coming back here wore all the protective suits around the patients they were treating –yet they caught it.
    The US citizen who caught it in Africa and died was going to be flying home to Minnesota according to his wife.

  5. Juergensen says:

    It’s just a coincidence that Obama is allowing Ebola to enter the country and that an Ebola outbreak would give him the opportunity to suspend the Constitution and declare martial law. It’s just a coincidence.

  6. Lynn Diane says:

    This is not a highly transmissible infectious agent. Known transmission of this virus so far has been mainly caused by the reuse of contaminated needles. Aerosol transmission in humans is thought to be rare. Butchering contaminated meat can result in the virus being introduced into cuts and abrasions, which may result in infection. Ingesting contaminated meat is an unproven but possible route of infection; cooking rapidly inactivates the virus. Direct intimate contact with infected blood through breaks in the skin is a likely but not very effective route since secondary attack rates don’t exceed 10-15%. The two infected patients brought to the U.S. will be cared for in special facilities at biosafety level 4, which is an extremely effective way of controlling infectious agents. Scientists here in the U.S. will get a good look at the virus with complicated equipment, which will aid in combating the disease and developing a cure.

  7. Reconverted Idiot says:

    In other news, didn’t the CDC have some pretty serious ‘mishaps’ recently?

  8. jflare says:

    Lynn,
    Checking Wikipedia for a reference, I see that symptoms can take anywhere from two days to three weeks to develop; when symptoms do show, they may be mistaken for a particularly bad cold or flu. That’s a very long time for someone to go without knowing that they’ve contracted the virus. In fact, I think I read the aforementioned “Executive Decision” while deployed several years ago; the virus manages to spread quite far, quite quickly, precisely because someone who took an international flight had been exposed to it, but didn’t know it.
    According to the article, it’s not entirely clear what all means might be available to allow the virus to transmit itself.

    …I keep thinking of how the Black Plague wiped out a large part of Europe’s population in a matter of years once upon a time.

    If nothing else, I’d say we’d be well advised to remind everyone to be plenty careful about personal hygiene.

  9. jflare says:

    Whoops! It’s “Executive Orders”, not Decision. Odd. I could swear I read a book or saw a movie by the latter title somewhere along the line….

  10. Lin says:

    My confidence in our country is sadly lacking at this time considering who got elected POTUS. GOD have mercy on us!

  11. According to the book “Hot Zone” http://www.amazon.com/The-Hot-Zone-Terrifying-Story/dp/0385479565/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1406989538&sr=8-1&keywords=hot+zone
    Ebola already got to the US back in the 90’s but did not make it out of the lab or building where the monkeys carrying it were held. That variant may have been air-borne (it somehow travelled from one room to another). The building, outisde Washington, is still sealed.

  12. Vincent. says:

    I was going to post about the book The Hot Zone but I see Br. Tom beat me to it. I read the book sometime in 1996 and it has remained in he back of my mind since. Scary stuff. Interestingly, I recall that the book also discussed the hypothesized origins of AIDS.

  13. SKAY says:

    From the information I have heard from Doctors who are being interviewed and are concerned — it is spread by bodily fluids and anything those fluids touch. Although it is not spread by air–if someone who is contagious coughs or sneezes the fluids from that contaminate what it lands on. Apparently the incubation period can be up to 21 days and possibly not show any symptoms. Even then the symptoms may just look flu-like.
    I am sure all precautions are being taken–but no one has any idea how these two healthcare workers contracted the disease-even with protective clothing and precautions. I hope they will be able to at least figure that out.
    I am concerned with people who come into this country asymptomatic and are in the incubation period. We have an open border which defies common sense. People from other continents are crossing without necessarily being stopped or checked.
    Also –Obama is having an African summit bringing in leaders from all over Africa complete with all their varied delegations August 4-6. It is not just one leader from one country with a small delegation. How many in the delegations will be properly screened? I think we may begin to see more immigrants from there coming across the border using all the same reasons. (if they make it across the border they can stay and that is now easily done)
    I realize that the CDC is busy trying to keep Americans from panicking — but when you see medical experts on the disease coming down with the disease — you do wonder if they really know everything about how it is transmitted. We have good reasons for being skeptical. Isolation and proper screening seems to be the most important part of keeping this from spreading. According to the WHO– “Men who have recovered from the illness can still spread the virus to their partner through their semen for up to 7 weeks after recovery.” I had not heard that before.

  14. Matt R says:

    It’s been a while since I read Executive Orders. I found it to be better than the novels immediately preceding and following it.

  15. Defender of Truth says:

    Bro. Ford: In checking the Internet for ebola in the United States, I found a list supplied by the CDC in which there is no mention of ebola entering the United States in the manner indicated in the book you referenced. Amazon does list the book as a true story however. The CDC does list ebola coming into the U.S. via monkeys from the Philippines. The monkeys and the ebola were contained in a facility in Texas.

  16. pvmkmyer says:

    A very knowledgeable doctor/expert on Fox the other day said the main reason for the high mortality rate from the Ebola virus is because in these poor areas in Africa they do not have the necessary medical means to properly hydrate the patients. Most of the deaths are caused because they don’t have the means to give them IV fluids to replace what they’ve lost, so their organs fail. In the US and the developed countries of the Western World she expected a far lower mortality rate, and advised the obvious precautions if you come into contact with people with flu-like symptoms.

  17. Lynn Diane says:

    jflare, yes, indeed, infected but asymptomatic people carrying all sorts of diseases may enter the U.S. The important thing is the mode of transmission. Ebola seems mainly transmitted by blood contact, such as the REUSE of contaminated needles, which is common in Africa but not here. Another problem is needle sticks. The person drawing blood from the patient accidentally inserts the used needle into his or her own skin. The BIG difference between Ebola and the Black Death is that the Black Death is a pneumonic form of bubonic plague that develops rapidly and is spread by aerosols so people can cough or sneeze or even just talk, infecting other people. We have pneumonic plague here in the western U.S. from time to time because bubonic plague is endemic in wild rodents here. Ebola is not known to be easily transmitted by aerosols in humans. My reference is the bible of virology texts, the 6th edition of Fields Virology, 2013. Everybody calm down.

  18. jflare says:

    Lynn,
    I don’t think anyone has begun to panic.
    Nor do I think you should expect to see anyone here beginning to sound as though there’s a boogeyman behind every shade. On the other hand, neither are we going to pretend that we have no need to be concerned.
    My point with Black Death was not to go “running through the streets, screaming about how we’re all going to die”. My point is to emphasize that it would not take a huge error for a very large death toll to ensue. Considering the number of people who might use drugs–especially illegally–who’re more prone to use needles, we have reason to be cautious.
    Then too, keep in mind that I work in a capacity in which cuts, even minor ones, may not be terribly common, but neither are they unheard of.
    I don’t think it foolish to remind everyone to be careful.

  19. SKAY says:

    I think there is still a lot to learn about how it is transmitted.

    There are many other ways for this virus to spread outside of Africa as this article points out about black market monkey meat — something most of us in the US never were aware of. This is about the UK–but it could happen here.
    The situation at the southern border invites it.

    http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/494920/Ebola-Black-market-monkey-meat-could-see-virus-hit-UK

  20. Lynn Diane says:

    The Wall St Journal printed an excellent article by Ian Lipkin titled “Ebola: how worried should we be?” as an editorial in today’s (Aug. 4) newspaper (Aug. 3 online edition). Please read it. American illegal drug injectors and people with fresh cuts are very unlikely to be infected; they’re not in intimate contact with fresh blood, feces, vomit of symptomatic patients with Ebola. The situation is much different in Africa where hospitals use the same needle all day long for ALL patients and sterilize it only at night, where mourners have direct contact with the bodies of those who have died of Ebola, and where ordinary common-sense public health precautions may be rejected as a Western plot against Africans.

  21. Xopher says:

    Small Spoiler Alert

    I am currently reading Executive Orders, and as soon as I made it to the first Ebola part, I started seeing headlines. Then, as soon as I arrived at the first part that confirmed for me that the Iranians (in the book) are trying to figure out how to disseminate it in the US, I saw headlines about how it is now here.

    @jflare: As a modern aircraft fan, Executive Decision infuriated me with their Nighthawk butchery.

Comments are closed.