Ebola: "Out of Control in West Africa"

[Pete]

The real Ebola Czar - nobody has heard of

"...What’s particularly interesting about this discussion, then, is that nobody has even discussed the fact that the federal government not ten years ago created and funded a brand new office in the Health and Human Services Department specifically to coordinate preparation for and response to public health threats like Ebola. The woman who heads that office, and reports directly to the HHS secretary, has been mysteriously invisible from the public handling of this threat. And she’s still on the job even though three years ago she was embroiled in a huge scandal of funneling a major stream of funding to a company with ties to a Democratic donor—and away from a company that was developing a treatment now being used on Ebola patients..."

http://thefederalist.com/2014/10/14/president-obama-already-has-an-ebola-czar-where-is-she/

"...Just two years later, Congress passed the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act, which created a new assistant secretary for preparedness and response to oversee medical efforts and called for a National Health Security Strategy. The Act established Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority as the focal point within HHS for medical efforts to protect the American civilian population against naturally occurring threats to public health. It specifically says this authority was established to give “an integrated, systematic approach to the development and purchase of the necessary vaccines, drugs, therapies, and diagnostic tools for public health medical emergencies.”

Last year, Congress passed the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Reauthorization Act of 2013 which keep the programs in effect for another five years...."

"The Invisible Dr. Lurie

So, we have an office for public health threat preparedness and response. And one of HHS’ eight assistant secretaries is the assistant secretary for preparedness and response, whose job it is to “lead the nation in preventing, responding to and recovering from the adverse health effects of public health emergencies and disasters, ranging from hurricanes to bioterrorism.”..."

[Patriot007]

As an emergency doc without epidemiology expertise here's my 2 cents...

I had a "rule out Ebola" case the other day of a patient with flu like symptoms including vomiting that had contact with a friend from west Africa who also had flu-like symptoms. Immediately placed a mask on them and placed them in isolation. It was a particularly busy day with wait times in the hours and triage was overflowing. My first question- how long was this patient waiting/ in triage? My thought was how many people in waiting room have been exposed including those with minor complaints that left without treatment and will NEVER be tracked down.

My job was to gather a detailed history to determine whether the patient was " high risk" or not. I then discussed the case with infection prevention which is our protocol. We decided based off of the history that the patient was outside the incubation period since the friend was last in Africa over 60 days ago.

Now here's my point. To get this history I had the patient call her friend. We then deemed her " low risk" entirely off the history because we can't test. Therefore currently our strategy for public health when it comes to Ebola is literally "hope". Hope that people will be honest about travel history or contacts. The patient didn't come in thinking she had Ebola but because of the sign we had up volunteered she had a sick contact from Africa. If she had known her ED visit would be complicated by this protocol good chance is she would have omitted that info.

This is a completely unacceptable strategy. I may be preaching to the choir but we needed to restrict travel 2 months ago. Without restriction we are literally crossing our fingers and hoping for the best.

True the risk of even my fellow healthcare workers is low right now but this may not be the case 2 months from now.

[Badger52]

"...Just two years later, Congress passed the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act, which created a new assistant secretary for preparedness and response to oversee medical efforts and called for a National Health Security Strategy. The Act established Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority as the focal point within HHS for medical efforts to protect the American civilian population against naturally occurring threats to public health. It specifically says this authority was established to give “an integrated, systematic approach to the development and purchase of the necessary vaccines, drugs, therapies, and diagnostic tools for public health medical emergencies.”Yup. There was an article in the online Rochester MN paper yesterday about a lady who was concerned about some symptoms & called EMS, having recently been in TX. Turned out to be 'just' a genuinely bad case of flu.

Noteworthy to me was that local EMS turned out prepared for the worst immediately, they had protocols developed locally with Mayo who had developed a plan as discussed above (remember the Avian Flu?) and had kept it updated. Relatively small overall response but they were focused (and certainly weren't pressure-washing vomit off the sidewalk). Probably safe to say that some smaller & larger towns have these. I know before I retired we developed one (in presumed role supporting civil authority) in a very multi-discipline approach and roped in everyone from Mayo across the river to the local PH folks to the nearest guy that could lease reefer vans.

So an "ebola tsar" (aka, another layer to make sure messaging isn't untidy) doesn't bode well. As a friend proferred yesterday, when personnel start to exceed 150 the Stupid goes up exponentially vs. Get It Done.

[Dohhunter]

I find it strange that none of Patient 0's family or friends who were in close contact with him after he arrived have yet to show any signs of contracting the disease. They were definitely in contact with him unprotected longer than anyone who treated him after he was diagnosed.

He probably made it a point to spare his family and only shit himself in the emergency room, the ambulance, the parking lot, the public restroom and in the nurses' tea.

I'm not sure pink is required.

[The Reaper]

I find it strange that none of Patient 0's family or friends who were in close contact with him after he arrived have yet to show any signs of contracting the disease. They were definitely in contact with him unprotected longer than anyone who treated him after he was diagnosed.

Contagion goes up greatly as the disease worsens, but I agree that it is surprising the family has not gotten sick yet.

TR

[Paslode]

Hell we not doing bad, only 2 sick nurses thus far from Thomas Duncan......Lets spin the roulette wheel again......


OCTOBER 17, 2014

Washington, DC – Judicial Watch has learned that the Obama administration is actively formulating plans to admit Ebola-infected non-U.S. citizens into the United States for treatment. Specifically, the goal of the administration is to bring Ebola patients into the United States for treatment within the first days of diagnosis.

It is unclear who would bear the high costs of transporting and treating non-citizen Ebola patients. The plans include special waivers of laws and regulations that ban the admission of non-citizens with a communicable disease as dangerous as Ebola.

One source tells us that the Obama administration is keeping this plan secret from Congress. The source is concerned that the proposal is illegal; endangers the public health and welfare; and should require the approval of Congress


http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2014/10/obama-plans-let-ebola-infected-foreigners-u-s-treatment/

[The Reaper]

Who knew people would lie?

Certainly not this Administration. :rolleyes:

TR

[Go Devil]

I find it strange that none of Patient 0's family or friends who were in close contact with him after he arrived have yet to show any signs of contracting the disease. They were definitely in contact with him unprotected longer than anyone who treated him after he was diagnosed.

They were probably aware that he had Ebola when he arrived and they avoided him "like the plague".
The next few weeks could prove to be traumatic.

[Richard]

Got your "Ebola-C" yet" These hucksters have already sold over $1M in product in the last couple of weeks. :eek:

http://ebola-c.com/

I can't imagine what it's going to be like for our national public transportation network when we enter into the annual upcoming holiday travel surge during the expected cold/flu season combined with the growing ebola phobia.

And so it goes...

Richard

[Old Dog New Trick]

Where I'm at today. One infected Ebola person and how fast would this quarantine a state.

[YM Cating]

Back in the 90s when I was an 18D, I read "The Hot Zone" (Richard Preston) about Ebola and thought right there and then to not just walk away from medicine, but run!

The fact that this disease is going wild now is or should be seen as a testament that organizations like the CDC, WHO, and anyone else involved don't have a clue as to how to isolate it and prevent its worldwide infection in a global environment.

Recent revelations that the CDC lost control of live viruses and stored others in a non-secure research facility should tell you they may have the best of intentions but lack the fortitude to live up to their charter of protecting the public.

Whatever protocols are in place in Georgia and the route there from Africa, I hope that nothing goes wrong. I hope that they find a cure without infecting others and that they have the best controls to protect anyone and everyone that comes into contact with this person and those in the host county.

Ebola as a bioterrorism weapon is on the horizon so for their part a cure and vaccine is needed...Godspeed.

What can you expect? They hired and armed a 3 time felon as a security contractor at CDC Atlanta. Makes you wonder if they bother to check if any of their doctors even have diplomas. It wouldn't be any surprise if one day a story was released saying that the contractor had been stealing and selling vials of deadly diseases just for kicks and giggles. And of course no one has been held responsible for that wildly gross negligence.

If they can't even run a basic, 30 second check against the federal data base, I highly doubt they have the competence to handle this problem.

A. Close the Southern Boarder, have the National Guard link arms and form a damn line if you have to but do it, we do have the man power. B. Block all flights from infected countries. C. Deny entry to anyone who has passed through an infected country within the last 21 days of their leaving that country. D. If someone has passed through an infected country but it's been more than 21 days, quarantine and examine just to be safe. If cleared, they go about their business.

[YM Cating]

Got your "Ebola-C" yet" These hucksters have already sold over $1M in product in the last couple of weeks. :eek:

http://ebola-c.com/

I can't imagine what it's going to be like for our national public transportation network when we enter into the annual upcoming holiday travel surge during the expected cold/flu season combined with the growing ebola phobia.

And so it goes...

Richard

I can't wait for the class action on that one.

How does one exactly 'SPECIALLY FORMULATE' a vitamin for Ebola? Maybe I'm wrong on this because I'm not a chemist, but I'm pretty sure vitamin C is Vitamin C.

[BryanK]

A new possible case in NY. It's okay, let's keep those flights rolling in :rolleyes:

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2014/10/23/cbs-2-officials-looking-into-possible-ebola-case-in-new-york-city/

[Team Sergeant]

A new possible case in NY. It's okay, let's keep those flights rolling in :rolleyes:

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2014/10/23/cbs-2-officials-looking-into-possible-ebola-case-in-new-york-city/

No it's ok the democrats said so. Let's just keep those flights coming into one of the most densely populated cities in the world. I'm sure the DHS and TSA have it all under control.....

What could happen?

[SF_BHT]

No it's ok the democrats said so. Let's just keep those flights coming into one of the most densely populated cities in the world. I'm sure the DHS and TSA have it all under control.....

What could happen?

:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::munchin

[The Reaper]

No it's ok the democrats said so. Let's just keep those flights coming into one of the most densely populated cities in the world. I'm sure the DHS and TSA have it all under control.....

What could happen?

Hey, its not like those huge metropolitan areas are chock full of conservatives either.

TR

[Paslode]

So...two doctors in Africa who were treating patients with Ebola ended up contracting it anyway, but then a doctor who was doing the same thing returns home to New York City. While very commendable what he was doing, it doesn't occur to him to maybe take some precautions since if other doctors caught Ebola, he might have inadvertently caught it too while over there? Instead he goes out and about, riding taxis, the subway, bowling alley, etc...it is almost comical, like he was purposely doing everything he could to try and spread the virus (I know he wasn't, but if there's anyway to do it, that's how).

I am really surprised, especially in light of the original two doctors that caught it, and nurses that caught it, that they do not have a mandatory quarantine period for personnel returning from treating Ebola patients in Africa. Instead they just return and are free to go out and about. I mean we used to quarantine the ASTRONAUTS who visited the Moon, a place with no atmosphere, and in completely sealed space suits, just in case, somehow, they contracted some alien disease of some type.

There ought to be some type of government requirement that if you go to such a region to treat such people, when you return home, you go into a quarantine before you can go out and about (a quarantine conducent to the incubation period of the disease they were treating). Or maybe quarantine them before they come home even.


He has the 'Right' to be here, Obama and Tom Frieden said so and it is also stated on the CDC website...

A U.S. citizen has the right to return to the United States. Although CDC can use several measures to prevent disease from being introduced in the United States, CDC must balance the public health risk to others with the rights of the individual. In this situation, the patients who came back to the United States for care were transported with appropriate infection control procedures in place to prevent the disease from being transmitted to others.

http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/outbreaks/2014-west-africa/qa.html

There ought to be some type of government requirement

Ebola in the U.S.: Stricter travel quarantine practices dropped by Obama admin. in 2010 (http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/oct/4/ebola-in-the-us-stricter-travel-quarantine-practic/)

[Badger52]

There ought to be some type of government requirement that if you go to such a region to treat such people, when you return home, you go into a quarantine before you can go out and about (a quarantine conducent to the incubation period of the disease they were treating). Or maybe quarantine them before they come home even.There you go (sorta). (http://www.foxnews.com/health/2014/10/25/new-york-new-jersey-order-ebola-quarantines/)


So... just for discussion, how is such a proposed required quarantine implemented?

"You're returning from an area with heavy exposure to Ebola. You're coming with us to be quarantined."
"Uh, no I'm not."
Play that tape to the end.

[SFOC0173]

Accusations of Ebola Cover-up:
http://www.infowars.com/medical-professional-health-authorities-covering-up-ebola-cases-in-u-s/

Russian Military Labs:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/ebola-crisis-rekindles-concerns-about-secret-research-in-russian-military-labs/2014/10/23/ce409716-5945-11e4-b812-38518ae74c67_story.html

[The Reaper]

Excellent article.

TR


Just When You Thought it Was Safe to Come Out of the Containment Unit
by Gary Anderson

Journal Article | October 25, 2014 - 7:02am

http://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/just-when-you-thought-it-was-safe-to-come-out-of-the-containment-unit


There has been a lot of alarm spread about Ebola and the past weeks, and I am loathe to add fuel to the fire, but I am concerned about the possible weaponizing of Ebola by Islamic extremists. I was the Chief of Staff of The Marine Corps Warfighting Lab in the late 90s, and we examined the problem; at the time we concluded that it is too hard to turn Ebola into a weapon due to the difficulty of transmission. However, what we did not consider at the time was deliberate transmission by a human being to other people effectively becoming, an Ebola Suicide Device (ESD). If that sounds far-fetched, consider the fact that Yemeni terrorists developed the shoe bomb and have been reportedly working on an undetectable toothpaste bomb. These efforts require a certain amount of technological sophistication; the ESD would require none. Now also consider the fact that the Islamic State has used chemical weapons in Iraq and has actively recruited American school girls as "useful idiots".

Both the Yemenis and they Syrian-based Khorason Group are well financed and have American passport holders in their ranks. Buying people airplane tickets to an infected African country and allowing these volunteers to wallow among the victims for a few days before heading for the US would not be hard since there are no travel restrictions in place and the infiltrators would not yet show symptoms; it would be fairly easy to have the human time bombs ill and infecting many victims before they themselves become too sick to move.

Our current precautions at the five American international airports designated to screen incoming passengers for Ebola assume that the passengers involved are unaware that they may be infected and have nothing to hide. Even a passenger who suspects that he or she may be infected and is trying to get to the United States in the chance of getting better treatment is not likely to be deliberately trying to infect other people. Consequently, we may have created a critical vulnerability through lack of anticipation. An American doctor recently tested positive for Ebola, and has been loose in New York for several weeks.
A reasonable precaution would be to check the passports of those passengers coming into the country from the affected nations to see if the holder has recently been in Turkey, Yemen, or other nations used as terror transit points so they can receive special attention. It would be considered to be politically incorrect to profile military age Muslim men and women who fit that travel footprint, but then again, we are much better at closing the barn door after the horse has gone AWOL than we are at anticipating asymmetric attacks.

Another potential danger is a home grown terrorist, such as the afore-mentioned school girls, making a quick trip from a place like Minneapolis to Liberia or Sierra Leone. Again, neither of these places is a tourist magnet. I'm not suggesting a McCarthy-like persecution for anyone visiting those countries, but with the exception of health care professionals and reporters, I'd be a little suspicious of any Americans junketing in a hot zone.

Our government policy makers have ruled out flight restrictions for reasons that probably have more to do with progressive sensibilities than national security concerns, but they could at least allow border officials who are doing the screening to use common sense in evaluating the profiles of incoming travelers and the latitude to temporarily quarantine folks whose stories, "just don't seem right".

(Cont. at link above)

[Trapper John]

Excellent article.

TR


Just When You Thought it Was Safe to Come Out of the Containment Unit
by Gary Anderson

Journal Article | October 25, 2014 - 7:02am

http://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/just-when-you-thought-it-was-safe-to-come-out-of-the-containment-unit


There has been a lot of alarm spread about Ebola and the past weeks, and I am loathe to add fuel to the fire, but I am concerned about the possible weaponizing of Ebola by Islamic extremists. I was the Chief of Staff of The Marine Corps Warfighting Lab in the late 90s, and we examined the problem; at the time we concluded that it is too hard to turn Ebola into a weapon due to the difficulty of transmission. However, what we did not consider at the time was deliberate transmission by a human being to other people effectively becoming, an Ebola Suicide Device (ESD). If that sounds far-fetched, consider the fact that Yemeni terrorists developed the shoe bomb and have been reportedly working on an undetectable toothpaste bomb. These efforts require a certain amount of technological sophistication; the ESD would require none. Now also consider the fact that the Islamic State has used chemical weapons in Iraq and has actively recruited American school girls as "useful idiots".

Both the Yemenis and they Syrian-based Khorason Group are well financed and have American passport holders in their ranks. Buying people airplane tickets to an infected African country and allowing these volunteers to wallow among the victims for a few days before heading for the US would not be hard since there are no travel restrictions in place and the infiltrators would not yet show symptoms; it would be fairly easy to have the human time bombs ill and infecting many victims before they themselves become too sick to move.

Our current precautions at the five American international airports designated to screen incoming passengers for Ebola assume that the passengers involved are unaware that they may be infected and have nothing to hide. Even a passenger who suspects that he or she may be infected and is trying to get to the United States in the chance of getting better treatment is not likely to be deliberately trying to infect other people. Consequently, we may have created a critical vulnerability through lack of anticipation. An American doctor recently tested positive for Ebola, and has been loose in New York for several weeks.
A reasonable precaution would be to check the passports of those passengers coming into the country from the affected nations to see if the holder has recently been in Turkey, Yemen, or other nations used as terror transit points so they can receive special attention. It would be considered to be politically incorrect to profile military age Muslim men and women who fit that travel footprint, but then again, we are much better at closing the barn door after the horse has gone AWOL than we are at anticipating asymmetric attacks.

Another potential danger is a home grown terrorist, such as the afore-mentioned school girls, making a quick trip from a place like Minneapolis to Liberia or Sierra Leone. Again, neither of these places is a tourist magnet. I'm not suggesting a McCarthy-like persecution for anyone visiting those countries, but with the exception of health care professionals and reporters, I'd be a little suspicious of any Americans junketing in a hot zone.

Our government policy makers have ruled out flight restrictions for reasons that probably have more to do with progressive sensibilities than national security concerns, but they could at least allow border officials who are doing the screening to use common sense in evaluating the profiles of incoming travelers and the latitude to temporarily quarantine folks whose stories, "just don't seem right".

(Cont. at link above)

Exactly correct IMO. Thanks for the link TR. Most appreciated.

[YM Cating]

“Locals say they aren’t going to adhere to quarantine because they believe Ebola is caused by witchcraft,” he said. “… In cases like that, all the science is fundamentally irrelevant.”


If they hold to their beliefs than there is nothing in this world that can save them. Apparently there's been growing violence, now there's a black market for blood, reporters have been stoned to death and officials are taking bribes. For a bribe they will allow families to have traditional funerals for their family members who died from ebola, essentially allowing the virus to spread. The officials mark the deaths down as 'unrelated.'

I pray for our troops over there.

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/ebola-virus-outbreak/pentagon-dispatches-west-africa-paint-stark-portrait-ebola-epicenter-n233621

[Paslode]

“Locals say they aren’t going to adhere to quarantine because they believe Ebola is caused by witchcraft,” he said. “… In cases like that, all the science is fundamentally irrelevant.”


If they hold to their beliefs than there is nothing in this world that can save them. Apparently there's been growing violence, now there's a black market for blood, reporters have been stoned to death and officials are taking bribes. For a bribe they will allow families to have traditional funerals for their family members who died from ebola, essentially allowing the virus to spread. The officials mark the deaths down as 'unrelated.'

I pray for our troops over there.

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/ebola-virus-outbreak/pentagon-dispatches-west-africa-paint-stark-portrait-ebola-epicenter-n233621


Samantha Power is on her way to visit....its all good


Have the person sign a contract before they go over there. Also bring the whole thing under government control perhaps so that people can't just go and treat such people without going through some protocols. Or if none of that is doable, at least have the government directly ask the person if they could come into a quarantine for awhile, just to be on the safe side.

Contracts only apply to those that play by the rules, and contracts only work if the rules of the contract are enforced.........and what you are asking for is something Uncle Sugar and his Nanny State already has the ability to do....plus we have a new Ebola Czar, an Ebola QRF Team...the only thing we are missing is a new Ebola specific agency like the TSA

[Badger52]

So far it looks like the NY, NJ, and IL govs are relying on voluntary compliance as they work out the details later.

LINK (http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/10/26/ny-governor-admits-ebola-policy-could-be-unenforceable/)

"Could you have a hostile person who doesn’t want to be quarantined?" Cuomo said during a campaign appearance in the New York City borough of Queens Saturday. "I suppose you could. But that hasn’t been the case yet." The governor added that officials had not determined whether those refusing to be quarantined could face arrest or prosecution, saying "It's nothing that we've discussed, no." When asked by the News where the quarantined people would be held, Cuomo even seemed unclear on that point, saying "Some people could be quarantined in a hospital if they wanted to be."
Separately from the issue at hand, Cuomo's choice of words is illuminating but standard for his ilk. There are those who are compliant, and those who are hostile.

[Paslode]

Another kink in the Administrations attempted Ebolazation of the US.

As fear of Ebola infections spreads to developed economies, U.S. and British insurance companies have begun writing Ebola exclusions into standard policies to cover hospitals, event organizers and other businesses vulnerable to local disruptions.

As a result, new policies and renewals will become costlier for companies opting to insure business travel to West Africa or to cover the risk of losses from quarantine shutdowns at home, industry officials told Reuters.

Contd - http://www.businessinsider.com/insurance-now-has-ebola-exclusions-2014-10#ixzz3H0khSUNe


And then there is this comment on quarantine from the President of Ebola....which is pure gobbledygook reasoning.....High on the YGTBSM scale.... If your are a Volunteer Military member assigned to the Ebola MOS you MUST be locked up for 21 days, but if you are a private sector volunteer worker you are free to return to the US and free to roam the streets freely upon your arrival which gives me visions of an Ebola laced Maria Von Trapp singing the Streets are alive with the Smells of Ebola..

“It’s part of their mission that’s been assigned to them by their commanders and ultimately by me, the commander-in-chief. So we don’t expect to have similar rules for our military as we do for civilians. They are already, by definition, if they’re in the military, under more circumscribed conditions,” he said.
The president went on to say, “When we have volunteers who are taking time out from their families, from their loved ones and so forth to go over there because they have very particular expertise to tackle a very difficult job — we want to make sure that when they come back that we are prudent, that we are making sure that they are not at risk themselves or at risk of spreading the disease — but we don’t want to do things that aren’t based on science and best practices.”

“Because if we do then we’re just putting another barrier on somebody who’s already doing really important work on our behalf. And that’s not something that I think any of us should want to see happen,”

http://thehill.com/policy/defense/222162-obamas-quarantine-remarks-draws-fire-from-military-spouses

The next question was whether Obola was receiving instructions from the Telepromter or if he did this on the fly.

[sinjefe]

That is a bunch of gobbledygook.

[Richard]

Becoming lost in the weeds of mass fear and exploiting it for political gain is certainly nothing new, and when viewed through the 'window of History,' it appears to be human nature.

And so it goes...

Richard

The Psychology Behind Our Collective Ebola Freak-Out
Time, 20 Oct 2014

In Hazlehurst, Miss., parents pulled their children out of middle school last week after learning that the principal had recently visited southern Africa.

At Syracuse University, a Pulitzer Prize–winning photojournalist who had planned to speak about public health crises was banned from campus after working in Liberia.

An office building in Brecksville, Ohio, closed where almost 1,000 people work over fears that an employee had been exposed to Ebola.

A high school in Oregon canceled a visit from nine students from Africa — even though none of them hailed from countries containing the deadly disease.

All over the U.S., fear of contracting Ebola has prompted a collective, nationwide freak-out. Schools have emptied; businesses have temporarily shuttered; Americans who have merely traveled to Africa are being blackballed.

As the federal government works to contain the deadly disease’s spread under a newly appointed “Ebola czar,” and as others remain quarantined, the actual number of confirmed cases in the U.S. can still be counted on one hand: three. And they’ve all centered on the case of Thomas Eric Duncan, who died Oct. 8 in a Dallas hospital after traveling to Liberia; two nurses who treated him are the only other CDC-confirmed cases in the U.S.

The almost-zero probability of acquiring something like Ebola, given the virus’s very real and terrifying symptoms, often doesn’t register at a time of mass paranoia. Rationality disappears; irrational inclinations take over. It’s human nature, and we’ve been acting this way basically since we found out there were mysterious things out there that could kill us.

“There are documented cases of people misunderstanding and fearing infectious diseases going back through history,” says Andrew Noymer, an associate professor of public health at the University of California at Irvine. “Stigmatization is an old game.”

While there was widespread stigma surrounding diseases like the Black Death in Europe in the 1300s (which killed tens of millions) and more recently tuberculosis in the U.S. (patients’ family members often couldn’t get life-insurance policies, for example), our current overreaction seems more akin to collective responses in the last half of the 20th century to two other diseases: polio and HIV/AIDS.

Concern over polio in the 1950s led to widespread bans on children swimming in lakes and pools after it was discovered that they could catch the virus in the water. Thirty years later, the scare over HIV and AIDS led to many refusing to even get near those believed to have the disease. (Think of the hostile reaction from fellow players over Magic Johnson deciding to play in the 1992 NBA All-Star Game.)

Like the first cases of polio and HIV/AIDS, Ebola is something novel in the U.S. It is uncommon, unknown, its foreign origins alone often leading to fearful reactions. The fatality rate for those who do contract it is incredibly high, and the often gruesome symptoms — including bleeding from the eyes and possible bleeding from the ears, nose and rectum — provoke incredibly strong and often instinctual responses in attempts to avoid it or contain it.

“It hits all the risk-perception hot buttons,” says University of Oregon psychology professor Paul Slovic.

Humans essentially respond to risk in two ways: either through gut feeling or longer gestating, more reflective decisionmaking based on information and analysis. Before the era of Big Data, or data at all, we had to use our gut. Does that look like it’s going to kill us? Then stay away. Is that person ill? Well, probably best to avoid them.

“We didn’t have science and analysis to guide us,” Slovic says. “We just went with our gut feelings, and we survived.”

But even though we know today that things like the flu will likely kill tens of thousands of people this year, or that heart disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S. every year, we’re more likely to spend time worrying about the infinitesimal chances that we’re going to contract a disease that has only affected a handful of people, thanks in part to its frightening outcomes.

“When the consequences are perceived as dreadful, probability goes out the window,” Slovic says. “Our feelings aren’t moderated by the fact that it’s unlikely.”

“Statistics are human beings with the tears dried off,” he says. “We often tend to react much less to the big picture.”

And that overreaction is often counterproductive. Gene Beresin, a Harvard Medical School psychiatry professor, says that fear is causing unnecessary reactions, oftentimes by parents and school officials, and a social rejection of those who in no way could have caught Ebola.

“It’s totally ridiculous to close these schools,” Beresin says. “It’s very difficult to catch. People need to step back, calm down and look at the actual facts, because we do have the capacity to use our rationality to prevent hysterical reactions.”

http://time.com/3525666/ebola-psychology-fear-symptoms/?xid=newsletter-brief#3525666/ebola-psychology-fear-symptoms/

[ddoering]

Heck, everyone's got Obamacare now so what's all the worry about?