Government preparation for an
epidemic has been woefully inadequate. It seems both Bush and Obama have spent
enormous resources chasing a few Arabs in the Middle East and left the door
wide open for a health menace like this. Obama is more responsible, he knew
Ebola was already striking in Africa and did nothing.
President Obama gives speech at the UN
on September 24, as Ebola was striking in Dallas
As the virus struck in
Dallas1 he was in NY talking shit about waging wars, the Middle East conflict, Russia versus Ukraine, and a few token comments about global warming. This reminds
me of Bush reading “My Pet Goat” in Tampa at the time the planes struck the
World Trade Center. Is the US is condemned to elect presidents who are very educated idiots?
NY Times Opinion by Alexander Garza
follows:
“Alexander Garza, associate dean of
public health practice and associate professor of epidemiology and emergency
medicine at St. Louis University College of Public Health and Social Justice,
was assistant secretary and chief medical officer of the Department of Homeland
Security from 2009 to 2013.
Systems to reduce the risk of
infectious disease being imported into the United States are already in place.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has trained workers in the
countries where Ebola is endemic to screen for the virus and take temperatures
of passengers before they can get on an airplane. Customs and Border Patrol
agents have been instructed on the signs and symptoms so they can report any
arriving passengers who may be infected to the C.D.C. quarantine officer.
But the response to Ebola needs to be more intensive.
Because of disease’s incubation
period, an infected person may not be symptomatic until they get on a plane or
even after they get off the plane, so more diligence is needed.
And this is no ordinary communicable
disease. It is the ISIS of biological
agents. The response should mirror antiterrorism efforts.
More screening workers need to be
put in airports outside of West Africa. At U.S. airports, people who have come
from West Africa should be more actively screened for symptoms and questioned
more closely about their possible contact with Ebola. (My opinion: People
traveling from countries with the Ebola
epidemic (Liberia, Senegal, etc) shouldn´t even be allowed to get on the plane).
Flight manifests should be scrubbed
for travelers coming from infected areas. This would allow a concentrated
secondary screening by trained quarantine officers regardless of whether a
passenger exhibited signs and symptoms of Ebola. Questions should include questions
about any close contact with a person infected with Ebola and what area of the
country they lived in or came from, since the disease is much more prevalent in
some areas than others.
Assuming that the patient in Dallas
would have answered this question truthfully, he would have been quarantined.
Persons denying contact would then be again evaluated for any signs of
infection such as a fever and finally customs and border officers could collect
contact information for their stay in the United States, including where they
were eventually going to stay. This could help local public health officials
know where these travelers are in the community and give a heightened sense of
awareness.
This could likely require a doubling
of the Global Migration and Quarantine office’s budget until this disease is
under control. And help from other agencies would also be needed.
The military can easily convert
artillerymen into infantry if they’re needed to fit the fight. It’s more
challenging for an agency like the C.D.C. to rally a surge of health
combatants. But it needs to be done to combat the disease as a whole government
effort.”
1 The NY Times reports the following: “Mr. Duncan started showing symptoms on Sept. 24 and sought medical care at
Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital on Sept. 25 but was sent home. His condition
worsened, and he was taken back to the hospital by ambulance on Sept. 28.
Officials confirmed on Sept. 30 that his blood tested positive for Ebola. On
Oct. 3, health officials in Texas said they had identified 10 people who are
most at risk of contracting Ebola after coming into contact with Mr. Duncan,
including the four people who were living in the apartment he was staying in
and three medical workers who rode to the hospital with him.”
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