CDC confirms Ebola in the U.S.A.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Bravo! I like that flow chart!

[worstblogever]

Only a 1% population change then, eh?

On a related note, can the FCC fine stations for stupidity or fear mongering?

Considering they convinced half the country they were going to die of friggin' SARS a couple years ago, apparently not.

[CSTowle]

Considering they convinced half the country they were going to die of friggin' SARS a couple years ago, apparently not.

I remember the Daily Show having fun with Monkey Pox. And avian flu, and swine flu, and illegal immigrants with leprosy, etc., etc.

[Paradox]

Quick, everyone BATHE in Purell! Immune system damage be damned!!!!

[Jeff Brady]

Things more likely to kill Americans than Ebola:

Obama's drones
George Zimmerman
Prescription drugs
Anti-Vaxxers
Anti-Abortion nutjobs
Working 3 jobs
"responsible gun owners"
Toddler w/ a gun
Police
Poverty

[fly on the wall]

Things more likely to kill Americans than Ebola:

Obama's drones
George Zimmerman
Prescription drugs
Anti-Vaxxers
Anti-Abortion nutjobs
Working 3 jobs
"responsible gun owners"
Toddler w/ a gun
Police
Poverty

Ebola will be less of a political issue as more people catch it. I would rather that we overreacted to Ebola than if we underreact to the disease.

[ExcelsiorPrime]

Things more likely to kill Americans than Ebola:

Obama's drones
George Zimmerman
Prescription drugs
Anti-Vaxxers
Anti-Abortion nutjobs
Working 3 jobs
"responsible gun owners"
Toddler w/ a gun
Police
Poverty

Racism and drunken acts of stupid

[Kyer]

1. Yes! (Apparently with good reason seeing as it seems to be spreading around the globe, has a pretty high fatality statistic, does not have a ready cure, can mutate like any virus can.)

2. I don't know. That's the problem. The thing can take weeks to incubate inside someone before it's pretty apparent it isn't just a cold or a regular flu or, heck, allergies. By that time I could have had contact with a few infected people. How would I know before I start coughing and sneezing, and spitting/vomiting,bleeding out and infect my own loved ones?

Until I can get solid reassurances about this virus and how it -still- -currently- works (as opposed to how it worked in epidemics before or even last week) I'm going to be a bit paranoid about it.

Maybe that paranoia will end up saving my family's lives.

Kyer (see my Avatar title)

[Kyer]

Things more likely to kill Americans than Ebola:

Obama's drones
George Zimmerman
Prescription drugs
Anti-Vaxxers
Anti-Abortion nutjobs
Working 3 jobs
"responsible gun owners"
Toddler w/ a gun
Police
Poverty

Obama's drones
Government oopsies
Monsanto/gmo's/FDA approved chemicals
Prescription drugs
Hospital/doctor errors
Abortions
gun-toting criminals of any level of mental responsibility
Working 3 jobs to pay taxes/fees/services (or whatever the gubmint wants to call them)

Yeah, death is everywhere. Some deaths hurt more than others. Some can be avoided and some are foisted on you by outside forces.
You do what you can to avoid what you can avoid and pray about the rest.

[thespianphryne]

1. Yes! (Apparently with good reason seeing as it seems to be spreading around the globe, has a pretty high fatality statistic, does not have a ready cure, can mutate like any virus can.)

2. I don't know. That's the problem. The thing can take weeks to incubate inside someone before it's pretty apparent it isn't just a cold or a regular flu or, heck, allergies. By that time I could have had contact with a few infected people. How would I know before I start coughing and sneezing, and spitting/vomiting,bleeding out and infect my own loved ones?

You cannot contract Ebolavirus disease from a non-symptomatic person - this includes the the low likelihood of infection through sexual contact.

Until I can get solid reassurances about this virus and how it -still- -currently- works (as opposed to how it worked in epidemics before or even last week) I'm going to be a bit paranoid about it.

The virus would need multiple generations of accumulated mutations on a massive scale before developing a mutation that makes it airborne.

Maybe that paranoia will end up saving my family's lives.

If you have cold like symptoms, don't touch anyone. If anyone has cold-like symptoms, don't touch thatone.

Kyer (see my Avatar title)

[thespianphryne]

Just to illustrate the point about the airborne mutation, consider HIV: More people have had and have died from HIV. There are probably more people infected with untreated HIV, right now, than are infected with and have died from this latest outbreak of Ebola. The longer a virus is present in an untreated host and longer it reproduces, the more mutations it accumulates. When you put together the millions of generations of mutations accumulated by the millions of people with HIV right now and consider that it still hasn't gone airborne, it sort of gives you an idea of the time line for the development of catastrophic mutations.

I should be more worried about an aerosolised version of HIV - because that's a virus that an unaware/untreated person can be pass on while asymptomatic, and has a much longer incubation period allowing a person to infect way more people than a disease with such a catastrophic fatality rate.

[worstblogever]

As a pathologist I work with put it:

"People freak out about Ebola going airborne. WHY? That would be stupid. Evolution works for diseases to evolve in ways that promote their survival. Viruses evolve to learn how to survive for long periods of time in a host, not wipe them out entirely. Because if they did... they wouldn't survive."

She's got a point. Of course, mutation can also be random, with no benefit, as I pointed out. She agreed, but said the it's far more likely it mutates to be less lethal.

[Shawn Hopkins]

If the reason you're worried about Ebola is because it might mutate into some deadlier form at some moment, then how can you live with the constant panic of knowing that could just as easily happen with something more common like the flu? You can't live in constant panic all of the time.

[JCAll]

If the reason you're worried about Ebola is because it might mutate into some deadlier form at some moment, then how can you live with the constant panic of knowing that could just as easily happen with something more common like the flu? You can't live in constant panic all of the time.

Today he's only Ensign Trips, but he looks forward to promotion.

[Spider-Chan]

Yesterday on the news radio, the anchor was reading some tweets about ebola, some of them claiming it was a conspiracy. In the last one he said "@idontrememberthename says 'I think ebola is a smokescreen but I'm not sure of what' The only smokescreen @idontremember is that people are f****ing dying and you are making a game out of it". It was glorious.