The Ebola virus in not indigenous to North America. So, when a pair of infected healthcare professionals flew to the U.S. for treatment at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, it scared more than a few people. Failed casino-owner Donald Trump even tweeted out, “Stop the EBOLA patients from entering the U.S. Treat them, at the highest level, over there. THE UNITED STATES HAS ENOUGH PROBLEMS! The U.S. cannot allow EBOLA infected people back. People that go to faraway places to help out are great — but must suffer the consequences!” The man gets dumber by the day.
The asshats (tinfoil asshats at that) over at WND claim that an Ebola outbreak in the U.S. could force the quarantine of whole cities.
Well, as my friends in London would say, “What a load of bollocks!” Don’t take your science news from a guy who lost money running casinos (a mathematically difficult thing to do if there is “00” on your roulette wheel) or people who think Obama is a dictator and weak (mutually exclusive categories).
Like a lot of viruses, Ebola is bad news wrapped in protein. It causes a hemorhaggic fever. The World Health Organization says the symptoms are “sudden onset of fever, intense weakness, muscle pain, headache and sore throat. This is followed by vomiting, diarrhoea, rash, impaired kidney and liver function, and in some cases, both internal and external bleeding.” Icky.
WHO adds, “Several vaccines are being tested, but none are available for clinical use. Severely ill patients require intensive supportive care. Patients are frequently dehydrated and require oral rehydration with solutions containing electrolytes or intravenous fluids. No specific treatment is available. New drug therapies are being evaluated.”
We don’t exactly know where it comes from, and we don’t have a treatment that attacks the disease directly. The best medical science can do is stabilize the patient and hope his or her immune system can beat the bug. The mortality rate has been as high as 90 percent (sub type Ebola Zaire), but it has also been 0 percent (an outbreak in a monkey lab in Reston, Va., resulted in four human infections, but no symptoms). The rate in the current outbreak is around 60 percent, lower than 90 percent in part due to a better understanding of how to stabilize victims.
Look at it this way: The death toll from this outbreak of Ebola is approaching 1,000 since March 2014. About twice that figure have died in Gaza in the last month. The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) killed 1,500 prisoners in a single day. It helps to keep a sense of perspective.
But here’s the important thing from WHO: “Humans are not the host organism — or natural reservoir — of Ebola viruses. Humans become infected when they come into contact with an infected host, although once humans become infected they can transmit Ebola to other people.” The way it is spread is through body fluids. Unless you come in contact with the fluids of an infected person, you are fine. Science has proved this. This is a fact. Please don’t say, “You don’t know that.” Yes, we do. Very smart people who have devoted their lives to this have shown that you can’t get Ebola from another person any other way.
So, if we fly infected doctors to Atlanta (where the Centers for Disease Control are), you are not at risk if you live in ATL. You are not at risk if you aren’t in the same room with them. If you are in the same room with them, and you haven’t been exposed to their blood, urine, feces, etc., you aren’t going to get sick.
Now, why not treat the infected healthcare workers as Mr. Trump suggested, “at the highest level, over there?” Because the highest level of treatment over there is not much of a treatment.
Ethical questions arise when you leave hundreds of black Africans to die while flying white Americas to Atlanta to save them. I get that, and that’s an argument worth having about the value of life and whose life is or is not more valuable. I happen to believe medically trained personnel should be saved first as they can do more good after treatment than others, but I haven’t thought it through completely.
What we can’t do is hold a debate based on falsehoods and fear. Ebola patients may well be flown into your city for treatment. And the odds of you getting it are just about zero.
Jeff Myhre is a contributing journalist for TheBlot Magazine.
