With so many cautionary tales;
Andromeda Strain
12 Monkeys
The Walking Dead
28 Days Later
Contagion
Prometheus
Resident Evil
We know how this ebola thing has to play out.
Our Southern border must be closed. Flights from infected areas or with passengers originating from restricted areas must be denied access to the US, or at least quarantined for 21 days before being allowed to merge with the general population.
The alternative is that we allow ebola to gain a foothold here in this country and then we no longer have the metaphoric high ground from which to battle the disease.
This isn’t about political gain, being called racists, or being mean, it’s biology.
Since the disease has a greater than 50% fatality rate, I think it’s not something we want to underestimate or ignore.
The old bioweapon maps from the US Army, (which of course you can’t find on the internet anymore) showed very graphically just how quickly diseases with various methods of transmission could spread.
I am not suggesting, as some have, that ebola is a bioweapon. I’m saying that some pretty reputable science was done during the cold war that can give us predictions about what happens if something like ebola gets a foothold in this country. This science is backed up by fairly recent history.
There was a little thing called the 1918 Influenza. This pandemic infected an estimated 500 million people. Estimates are as high as 100 million people dead.
The really NASTY thing about this particular Influenza was that it killed mostly young adults in the prime of life. Contrast this, with most infectious diseases killing the very young or the elderly and that’s why the 1918 Flu is a standout in pandemics.
Oh and by the way, if anyone was going to weaponize a disease… the 1918 flu variant would be at the top of the list.
It’s tactically sound. Kill off the young adults, send their surviving children to indoctrination camps and use the elderly to clean up the bodies.
Gruesome and cold, but the logic can’t be ignored. You win wars by denying your enemy the ability to make war. No soldiers equals no fight. That’s just the mechanics of it, the demoralization of a people watching their sons and daughters die, and an entire generation of orphans is one hell of a weapon.
Thankfully, the superpowers during the cold war, concluded that biological war was just too damn dangerous and unpredictable. Oh sure there were dalliances with small pox and anthrax but it really is a very dangerous game.
Atomic bombs are probably safer.
The problem today is that our Government seems completely … what? Disinterested, Over-confident, laissez faire, about ebola and the ease with which a disease like this can bypass formerly insurmountable natural barriers; oceans, mountains, etc. Yet they’re the ones who have the Science suggesting the outcomes of transmissible diseases on large populations.
Given the events in TX, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to institute some serious and active quarantine measures. Mr Duncan, should never have made it to this country. He should never have been ABLE to pose a threat to the health and well-being of American Citizens.
I’m sorry that Mr. Duncan died. However, I find myself asking the following questions:
Who is going to pay for his hospitalization and treatment?
Is his family going to get a bill from the hospital?
Since his family is playing the race card, what the hell, I might as well go all in. So I have to ask:
What is their immigration status?
The immigration office has gone on record as saying that Liberians are among some of the people most likely to overstay their Visas. So why is The State Department still issuing any Liberian Visas? For that matter why are any Visas being issued to anyone from the affected countries in Africa?
How did Mr. Duncan come by the money for a plane ticket?
Was he a test subject from Boko-Haram, ISIS, or some other Muslim group? I do hope that our law enforcement is looking into his finances and the finances of his family. I personally wouldn’t be surprised to hear that his family got some “interesting” deposits.
I’m not trying to victimize the victim here, but there are many questions that have remained unanswered surrounding Mr. Duncan. These questions are worthy of some answers.
The race card has been played internationally and within our own country. The aggregate of the reports suggest that people in Africa believe that we have a cure for ebola, but that we didn’t give it to Mr. Duncan because he was black.
Maybe we do have a cure, maybe the experimental drugs work, but they’re in short supply and hard to produce. After all, they’re experimental, and by definition produced in very small quantities. It’s not like we can just turn on a factory and start churning out this stuff. Hell OUR generic pharmaceuticals are produced in India!
Some reports have commented on Mr Duncan not being given blood from one of the survivors. These reports attempt to imply that the reason these blood transfusions weren’t provided is because Mr. Duncan was black.
The more likely reason is because of a little thing called blood types. Based on the distribution of blood types around the world it’s likely that Mr Duncan was type O. This is a very common blood type.
But, there are relatively few survivors of ebola. It is entirely likely that of those few survivors healthy enough to donate blood, none were type compatible with Mr Duncan.
This means that if one of the survivors had given Mr Duncan a transfusion, and they were incompatible, the transfusion itself would have killed Mr Duncan before ebola.
These FACTS are not racist, these are scientific and biological facts.
It’s concerning that even black people in America believe Mr Duncan was denied drugs or treatment simply based on the color of his skin. That speaks to a fundamental lack of education in, or understanding of science & biology.
Moreover it speaks to the level of divisiveness that has permeated this country for far too long.
If white people wanted to kill black people… they’d do it. You wouldn’t have to rely on whispered conspiracy theories and innuendo. You’d have bodies in the streets.
It’s time for all of us to realize we’re all Americans and we’re all pretty much equally fucked if this disease gets a foothold here.
Sadly, due to the apparent level of ignorance about science and biology, it’s likely that minority neighborhoods will be the hardest hit.
I say this because if these neighborhoods don’t understand basic biology, or medicine they’re going to be unable to comply with quarantine requirements or even recognize the danger.
We’ve already seen this when the family of Mr. Duncan violated their quarantine and had to be placed under guard.
Instead minority neighborhoods will likely re-enact something akin to 12th century Europeans killing cats as a measure against the black plague. Ironically, the feral cats were one of the only protections against the plague.
See the plague was carried by fleas that lived on rats and the cats were helping to keep the rat population in check. Yes, the cats had fleas too, but their predation of the rats was of greater value.
Think of it like the disclaimer on drugs today. “Your physician has determined that the benefits of this drug outweigh the potential side effects.”
When the wholesale slaughter of cats began, the rat and consequently the flea populations exploded, and with them so did the disease.
Put simply; Ignorance and Stupidity Kills!
This is not a function of racism, it would be a function of the “Dumbing Down” of Americans through shitty education in the K-12 sector of our schools.
Think about that, the next time Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, or anyone else talks about how racist our country is.
Sunday 10/12/2014
And here we go! Healthcare worker preliminary test is positive for ebola. A twitter user probably said what a lot of folks in Dallas are thinking.
Then there’s this. Duncan’s family is making noise about a lawsuit. To which I say you have to be fucking kidding me!
I hope the people of Dallas file a class action law suit against Duncan’s family for all the emotional distress that his selfish actions caused.
The racist implications Duncan’s family are trying to make are disgusting.
Since America and American healthcare is so racist and unfair, I’m sure the people of Dallas would be more than happy to put Duncan’s entire family on a plane to Liberia.