New York Daily News Cover Blasts Obama
Update: At Congressional Hearings, Panel Says 100-150 People From Ebola-Infected Countries Enter the US, Per Day

Everyone's thinking it. They blast it in 44-font type.

Via Twitchy:

Their editorial on #EbolaCare is here.

The American health-care system’s failure to prepare for Ebola became even more terrifyingly evident with the revelation that a Dallas nurse traveled by air after treating a patient who ultimately died from the virus.

Amber Joy Vinson began running a fever the day after her flight, putting her on the edge of communicability when she crowded among fellow passengers. Tests later confirmed that she carried the lethal microbe.

Still struggling to get command of the country’s response to Ebola more than six months after the current outbreak started in West Africa, Centers for Disease Control Director Thomas Frieden was left to spell out a principle that should have been set weeks or months ago -- and backed up with stringent enforcement.

...

Later on Wednesday, after cancelling a congressional campaign trip to Connecticut, President Obama said that the U.S. would become more aggressive in coordinating the national response to Ebola, including sending a CDC team to any hospital with a confirmed Ebola case.

But, by stopping short of issuing mandatory protocols, the President again fell back on the catch-as-catch-can system that produced such disastrous results in Dallas. He did so at the peril of health-care providers and the public -- because trust that individual hospitals here, there and everywhere would perform superbly is decidedly misplaced.

...

Neither Obama nor Frieden had the sense to issue directives with the firm, clear quality of standards sought by National Nurses United, representing thousands of nurses across the country.

The webinars the bureaucrats have posted for health-care professionals to watch (on their own time, if they feel like it) specify that the personal protective equipment is best utilized by "dedicated staff with years of training," per the Daily News.

We have "dedicated staff with years of training." They're at the various speciality infectious disease treatment centers, such as the CDC's unit at Emory, or the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

And where were they when ebola came to America?

This is the bureaucratic mindset in practice.

A bureaucrat sends out a memo, an email, and tells people "Follow the below protocols in ebola cases" and considers his job done.

Hey, he sent out a memo. That's his job. Sending out memos. Can't say he didn't do his job.

Here's how a non-bureaucrat views this situation:

We have a serious public health crisis. We have known since March that ebola was back, and in subsequent months the disease infected people at an exponential rate. As full-blown epidemics do.

They suffered a 70% death rate for ebola infections in West Africa. (Here in the States, supposedly we will only have a 50% death rate-- but I'm not confident that the "experts" are right about that.)

Now, given the fact that ebola is raging across West Africa, killing thousands of people, would anyone who is serious about epidemic containment think, back in, say, June, "Well, we sent out a memo and posted an instructional video. Our work here is done."

No. Back in June, the CDC should have offered hospitals a major crash course in ebola containment. They should not have relied upon their previous memos. They should have actually checked and followed up with hospitals to ensure that people knew at least the basics of containment.

And when Duncan was diagnosed with ebola, they should have sent out a team of experts to oversee the hospital's handling of the matter or simply taken over treatment of Duncan themselves.

After disaster has already struck -- and after six months of the disease spreading exponentially -- the Commander in Golf Togs finally announces:

President Obama said that the U.S. would become more aggressive in coordinating the national response to Ebola, including sending a CDC team to any hospital with a confirmed Ebola case.

Congratulations on doing on October 15th what you should have done on March 25th.

Meanwhile, Hot Air notes that the LA Times is also complaining about this bumbling Keystone Cops performance.

The LA Times:

Even as U.S. health authorities continue to tell Americans not to worry about the Ebola virus, their assurances are being undercut by the increasingly obvious deficiencies in domestic planning. Thomas Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has repeatedly been forced to back away from his calming assertions that U.S. hospitals were ready for the disease and that the nation’s quarantines were more effective than those in Africa and would keep any infected people at home.

We've now seen what happens when the nation is faced with one ebola patient.

Ed asks: What happens when there's ten?

Liberia is on the edge of collapse. If the economy simply stops, millions of people will have no food, and furthermore, they'll be in a deadly hot zone.

At some point, if this contagion is not halted where it is the most widespread, we will be faced with thousands of people very rationally trying to get the hell out of Liberia.

Unfortunately, many of them will be infected, so their flight will serve no purpose except to put other populations at risk.

I'm of course hoping we can stop ebola from spreading in Liberia -- but at the current time, cases are increasing, and increasing at a rate of one doubling every three weeks.

Update: What if ten people come at once?

How about this: What if 100 actual ebola cases come over the course of 2-3 days?

Rep. Cory Gardner: (Dr. Frieden) I think you mentioned there were approximately 100 to 150 people a day coming into the United States from the infected areas.

Dr. Tom Frieden: That’s my understanding, yes.

Gardner: ANd, Mr. Wagner you admitted we're screening 94% of those people?

John P. Wagner: As of today that covers about 94%.

Gardner: So if 94% are being covered, that means somewhere between two and three thousand people a year are coming into this country without being screened from the infected areas?

1, I don't believe the 94% figure like I've come to disbelieve the "extremely low probability" claims, and 2, that "screening" now consists of two ineffectual steps: taking someone's temperature by an inaccurate remote sensor, and asking them where they've been the past 21 days.

Thomas Eric Duncan passed his temperature check and furthermore lied about whether he'd come into contact with ebola.

So, supposedly, 94% of arrivals from ebola infected countries are being put through multilayered screening, neither part of which works.

Oh, by the way, we now know you can actually have a fever and also be at high risk for ebola and yet still get on a plane.

posted by Ace at 02:18 PM

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