Ebola. It is becoming a topic of polarizing opinions and tragic statistics.
In Africa, the disease is a full-blown outbreak, having infected nearly 9,000 and killed roughly 4,500. Here, in the United States, the subject of ebola is one that evokes fear, if not complete panic. First there were the two Americans who were flown into Atlanta, headquarters to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), to be treated at Emory Hospital. Both were miraculously cured and released.
There have, since, been two accounts of ebola in Dallas, Texas — the most recent being within the past few days.
Many people have strong opinions, often motivated by fear, on the subject. Their fear is not without justification, considering the staggering numbers.
Portland Trail Blazers owner Paul Allen seems to stand on the side of empathy, not losing site of the tragic loss of life in Africa or the terrifying reality of their plight.
Ebola, the scary math: if 1 case in Dallas causes 2, imagine Africa, according 2 CDC 1M active cases poss by Jan! fllw @TackleEbola
— Paul Allen (@PaulGAllen) October 15, 2014
Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban seems to be more on the pragmatic side of things, approaching the subject from a practical, do-what-must-be-done point of view. Just check out the article about Nigeria’s approach to stopping the spread of ebola that he linked to.
How Nigeria Stopped Ebola http://t.co/GloTSEu4zs
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) October 15, 2014
Similar to Nigeria, even more so, America is an industrialized, first-world nation. It should not be hard for government officials to implement a similar process to contain the disease and prevent an outbreak across the continental states.
To this point, however, it seems that various individuals continue to fail to uphold the procedures that are necessary to protect the general public. It’s a very real and very scary situation. But, as the Business insider article suggests, it should be more than possible to contain ebola.
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The fear people have is by extrapolating into the future.
We are not stupid. Of course there is no great risk right now, but things can change over coming months if 2 policies aren’t changed:
1. there has to be a limited ban on the USA giving Visa to travel to the USA from the infected regions. Healthcare workers can always get Chartered flights to and fro. If the US wants to throw money on the problem, they can reimburse the Airline companies that are losing money as a result of the partial ban.
2. there are several vaccines being worked on, including one by the US Army (revealed yesterday) and others by private industry. The job of the Federal Govt should be to remove all barriers to immediate testing, in Western Africa. Throw what ever money is needed (Repubs vow to cooperate) at producing enough of each experimental vaccine (say 500 doses) to test in W. Africa. Just throw out standard testing methods – this is an emergency.
I heard yesterday that there isn’t enough government structure to test in the 3 countries, but with the US Army present, that can change. They recommend testing in a country like Mali.
BTW, CNN reported that the vaccine being tested on animals by the US Army, is working well to both prevent and cure Ebola.
Obama has been reluctant to take these views, for political reasons. He is slow to adept to what most Americans think.
The CDC has stuck with the same views as Obama (maybe for political reasons).