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466 postsEbola is a disease caused by an ebolavirus. Symptoms start two days to three weeks after contracting the virus, with a fever, sore throat, muscle pain and headaches. Vomiting, diarrhea and rash follow, along with decreased function of the liver and kidneys. Victims bleed both within the body and externally. From 1976 through 2013, the World Health Organization reported a total of 1,716 cases. In 2013 an outbreak started in Guinea, spreading to neighboring African countries and infectied doctors, some of who were transported back to the US for treatment. The virus continues to claim victims as it spreads to more countries.
The Carnival Magic is returning to Texas after being refused permission to dock in Mexico and Belize. The worker from Texas Health Presbyterian remains in self-quarantine and is not ill. Carnival Cruise Lines spokesperson:
Regular debarkation will take place. The lab worker continues to show no symptoms.
AfriCom commander Gen. David Rodriguez says at a Pentagon briefing that troops with the division, known for its role on D-Day and fighting the Iraq War under Gen. Petraeus, will only need gloves and masks.
They don’t need the whole suit – as such – because they’re not going to be in contact with any of the people.
Rodriguez says the 101st Airborne will primarily be building hospitals, ultimately leading what could be a contingent of 4,000 American service members. They’ll be housed either in tent cities at military airfields or in Liberian Ministry of Defense facilities. Their health will be monitored through surveys and taking their temperature on their way in and out of camps. If a service member does get sick, they will be flown home immediately for treatment.
U.S. hospitals are preparing for flu season and a rush of panic by people with flu thinking they have Ebola, as the two have similar symptoms. At least one panic case has already been reported, as a woman who had traveled to South Africa presented at a hospital with what she thought were potential Ebola symptoms, but was found to be pregnant. Dr. Bruce Hirsch, an infectious diseases specialist at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, NY:
It tells you how ready for panic we can get ourselves. There’s a lot of anxiety and the answer to anxiety is information and training.
Dr. Sampson Davis, an emergency medicine physician at Meadowlands Hospital Center in Secaucus, NJ:
I think there will be an increase of people who want to get checked out just because of the fear factor, especially if we start to see more of a spread of Ebola
Medical staffing agency Angel Staffing Inc. is hiring people with basic EMT or paramedic training to assist Customs and Border Protection officers and the CDC in identifying possible victims at JFK’s Terminal 4 as part of heightened screening. EMTs will earn only st $19 an hour while paramedics will earn $29. Applicants must be registered with the National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians. It is also selecting screeners to work at Washington Dulles, Newark Liberty, Chicago O’Hare, and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta.
The Better Business Bureau is warning that major websites are budding and posing as fundraisers and charities that help Ebola victims. For example, one website that has these possible scams is GoFundMe that claims to be taking donations for the nurse Amber Vinson, but the family is unable to verify the veracity of the specific fundraiser. Though GoFundMe is a legitimate crowd sourcing fund raising site, scam artists can use such sites to pose as a legitimate operation. The BBB shut down the specific sub site. However, there are as many as 100 such websites to claim funds for various Ebola campaigns, with the first set of scams showing up when Thomas Duncan made entrance to the US with infection. Even telephone scandals posing as well-known chapters are cropping up.
Panic occurs when people on board the Carnival Magic cruise ship hears about a woman passenger who worked in an Ebola laboratory. After days pass, the captain acknowledges that a current passenger is a lab supervisor at the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas. The suspect passenger and her husband volunteer to remain in their room during travel. Up to 40 workers wear masks and clean the ship with fluids. Passenger Malone:
People are scared. I’ve seen people crying. You’re using the same buffet line as someone else, the same waiters, the folks that clean the state rooms. If someone was cleaning their state room and cleaned yours right after, the exposure that you have there to elevators…it’s very tight quarters and a lot of interaction. It’s really difficult to control any type of virus that’s on a cruise ship. It’s like a floating petri dish. It spreads very rapidly. They’re cleaning elevators. I’ve seen people with pink liquid cleaning the bar area and the handrails.
Press secretary Josh Earnest says the White House was looking for an ‘implementation expert’, not necessarily someone qualified in Ebola treatment. He tells CBS that Klain is responsible for coordinating the approach to the virus between the various agencies such as USAID and AfriCom overseas and the DHS and CDC domestically:
This administration, under the direction of the President, is pursuing a whole-of-government approach…it is the responsibility of Mr Klain to coordinate those efforts across agencies to make sure we are maximizing this whole-of-government approach.
Klain was selected for his experience in private- and public-sector management:
The president wanted someone who could working in a coordinating function…what we were looking for is not an Ebola expert but an implementation expert.
Some Republicans and political commentators have referred to Klain as a ‘czar’:
They’re certainly welcome to do that. We describe him as the Ebola response coordinator.
He is reporting to Rice and Monaco, but Pres. Obama remains in ultimate charge of the Ebola response.
Earnest explains that Klain will lead a response effort that incorporates many government agencies and says Pres. Obama wanted a person in charge of the response who focused solely on the virus:
By bringing on Mr. Klain he will dedicate 100% of his time to coordinating this whole-of-government approach…The president recognized that the response would benefit from having someone that could devote 100% of their time to coordinating the response, and somebody like Mr. Klain, who has a strong management track record both inside government and outside has the right track record…This is much bigger than a medical response…there is a significant medical component, but it’s not solely a medical response
The Russian government has placed all students arriving from west Africa – more than 1,000 people – under monitoring. Deputy education minister Kaganov:
I’m sure there is no real danger of Ebola getting into [Russia].
Syracuse is reported to disinvite Washington Post photographer du Cille, a Pulitzer Prize winner, from a journalism workshop as he had been in Liberia three weeks earlier, more than the 21-day Ebola incubation period. A student is reported to have researched du Cille and discovered the trip and raised concerns, after which provost Eric Spina consulted with health officials and made the call. Du Cille:
It’s a disappointment to me. I’m pissed off and embarrassed and completely weirded out that a journalism institution that should be seeking out facts and details is basically pandering to hysteria.
Travel agents in the U.S. say that individual customers have canceled trips due to concerns over Ebola, although the travel market remains mostly unaffected overall. Tim Husted, a traveler-services executive for Carlson Wagonlit Travel, says fewer than 1% of the company’s leisure travelers have changed a booking and there is even less of a reaction among business travelers, although a few have requested routes that avoid Dallas. Maryann Cook, a travel agent in New York, says a Florida doctor who booked a $197,000 family safari trip to South Africa for 30 people next year wants to rebook it for 2016, even if it means losing a $60,000 deposit.
He didn’t feel a real urgency because South Africa is so far away from the problem spot, but he got a lot of stress from his children and his children’s children.
New York travel agent Blake Fleetwood says a client who booked travel to India is worried about a stopover in London, where there could be a greater chance of exposure to travelers from west Africa.
We’re hearing from everyone. Even people flying domestically are very nervous.
He says he understands the anxiety:
I wouldn’t fly on Frontier Airlines. I know that’s a crazy thing to say, but I just wouldn’t want my mind to be bothered. I would take another airline.
The New York Times reports that only a handful of U.S. hospitals are equipped to handle the large amounts of waste produced by cases of Ebola. Aside from Emory University and the University of Nebraska, most facilities don’t have incinerators or autoclaves (steam sterilizers) and specially trained staff. Texas Health Presbyterian had to pack and ship 55-gallon drums of waste including body fluids, linens, hazmat suits and an entire hospital bed, to a Port Arthur, Tx., incinerator. Debra Sharpe, a Birmingham, Ala., biosafety expert:
It would take me anywhere from four to six weeks to train an employee to work in a high containment lab in a safe manner. It’s ludicrous to expect doctors and nurses to figure that out with a day’s worth of training. None of the science is new; none of the protection components are new. It’s just new in a health care setting. Hospitals and the C.D.C. should have been reaching out to the biosafety community before now, to try to adjust to this.
Texas Health Presbyterian workers who treated Duncan have been restricted from going out to restaurants, grocery stores, and movie theaters as well as traveling by plane, ship, long-distance bus, and other types of transportation during the 21-day observation period. (Restriction documents here.) Dallas County Judge Jenkins:
These are hometown health care heroes. They want to do this. They’re going to follow these agreements.
The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) has issued a task order for three U.S. biotech labs to submit plans to produce ZMapp. One of the labs is housed at Texas A&M Health Science Center and works with GlaxoSmithKlein Plc, and was established in 2012 2by U.S. officials as a Center for Innovation in Advanced Development and Manufacturing, with $440 million in seed money. two other U.S. emergency drug manufacturing centers are a facility led by Emergent Biosolutions in Baltimore and a second in Holly Springs, North Carolina, led by Swiss drug company Novartis AG. Once proposals are submitted on Nov. 10, BARDA will choose one or more of the labs to produce the drug. Official at the Texas facility:
We are prepared to take action immediately to ramp up production on this promising experimental drug for those in need of Ebola therapies
60-year-old retired municipal worker Emanuel Smith is arrested and part of the Horseshoe Casino is shut down after Smith says he is there to avoid his ex-wife, who he jokes has Ebola. Records show the comment:
[…] Caused panic [and] a large financial loss
Perry comes under scrutiny from both Republicans and Democrats for traveling to Europe during the Ebola scare on a foreign policy trip, ahead of an expected presidential run, that meant he was away when the infections of Pham and Vinson happened. Republican strategist Mark McKinnon:
Crisis management is actually something Perry has done pretty well in the past. But, in this case when the national spotlight was on Texas, Perry was missing in action. And based on pure politics, this is a situation where he could have taken command and control and looked presidential. He’s trying to jump back on stage now, but at the very least, he missed the first act because he was in Europe.
Democratic strategist Paul Begala:
Of course, Gov. Perry should have canceled his trip or come back from Europe — just as President Obama should have gone to the border. As George H.W. Bush said, ‘90 percent of life is just showing up.’ Now, will that hurt Perry two years from now? No way.
U.S. soldiers are reported to receive four hours of training about Ebola before deploying to west Africa, and are having to invent some protocols and procedures on the fly. The first 500 personnel to arrive are also waiting for longer-term infrastructure to be set up, and have been housed in government buildings and hotels, it says. U. S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases spokesman:
All training is tiered to the level of risk each person may encounter
Frontier is now seeking to contact 800 passengers who flew on plane number N220FR, an Airbus A320, after Vinson’s flight. The plane made five flights before the CDC informed the airline that she may have been contagious and it was removed from service, flying to Atlanta and Fort Lauderdale, then back to Cleveland. Passengers on the Oct. 10 Frontier Flight 1142 from Dallas/Fort Worth to Cleveland and passengers on Monday’s Flight 1143 from Cleveland to Dallas/Fort Worth have been asked to call the CDC and monitor themselves for symptoms.
The Washington Examiner reports that the Obama government may be planning to bring foreign Ebola patients to the U.S. for treatment. The report cites the conservative group Judicial Watch, which is representing the paper in a Freedom Of Information Act suit, as saying:
Specifically, the goal of the administration is to bring Ebola patients into the United States for treatment within the first days of diagnosis
A report says that Klain was involved in President Obama’s decision to visit the solar power company in 2011 despite questions over its finances. As Ebola ‘czar,’ Klain will report to National Security Advisor Susan Rice and homeland security adviser Lisa Monaco, it says.
