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The Shocking Truth: The U.S. Medical System Is Woefully Unprepared for Ebola
Government spokesmen and mainstream talking heads keep saying that Ebola is no threat to the U.S., because our medical system is thoroughly prepared.
However, Reuters notes that American nurses say they are not prepared for Ebola:
Nurses, the frontline care providers in U.S. hospitals, say they are untrained and unprepared to handle patients arriving in their hospital emergency departments infected with Ebola.
***
A survey by National Nurses United of some 400 nurses in more than 200 hospitals in 25 states found that more than half (60 percent) said their hospital is not prepared to handle patients with Ebola, and more than 80 percent said their hospital has not communicated to them any policy regarding potential admission of patients infected by Ebola.
Another 30 percent said their hospital has insufficient supplies of eye protection and fluid-resistant gowns.
CBS News reports:
U.S. hospitals and health care workers … say the staff at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas were unprepared to handle the patient — and that this is likely the case at hospitals throughout the country.
Bonnie Castillo, director of the Registered Nurses Response Network, part of the nurses union National Nurses United, said a majority of union members surveyed say their employers haven’t offered appropriate training to deal with an Ebola outbreak.
***
85 percent said they were not provided any type of formal education to prepare for Ebola patients.
Betsy McCaughey, Ph.D. – former Lt. Governor of New York - writes at Fox News:
Most hospitals in the U.S. lack the rigor and discipline to control Ebola. That’s why common infectious diseases such as MRSA and C. diff are racing through these hospitals, killing an estimated 75,000 patients every year. Ebola is even deadlier. Yet the CDC has done little to equip hospitals, other than send around memos.
Indeed:
- As Dr. Sanjay Gupta notes, there have been severe lapses in safety at the Centers for Disease Control and U.S. hospitals in treating infectious diseases
- The CDC’s budget has been slashed. In a report earlier this year, CDC warned:
“CDC continues to work with reduced financial resources, which similarly affects state, local, and insular public health departments. … These losses make it difficult for state and local health departments to continue to expand their preparedness capabilities, instead forcing them to focus on maintaining their current capabilities.”
- The CDC report also notes that state and local public health departments on the front lines of any health emergency have shed 45,700 jobs since the 2008 financial crisis (at the same time, hospital staffs are being reduced nationwide.)
- In 2010, the Obama administration scrapped CDC’s quarantine regulations aimed at Ebola
- The Department of Homeland Security inspector general issued a scathing report in September warning the department was woefully unprepared for a pandemic
In addition:
- Hospitals haven’t figured out how to dispose of Ebola medical waste
- Workers are potentially being exposed to Ebola without wearing any – or not properly wearing – protective equipment
- There are incredibly lax - and easily fooled - screening procedures at home and abroad
- Two national experts on the spread of infectious disease say that Ebola can spread through aerosols - so healthcare workers should wear protective respirators - but government officials refuse to even consider the possibility. In any event, the virus is mutating (and see this), so an overly cavalier attitude is not productive
It’s time to stop pretending we’re prepared. It’s long past time we actually became prepared.
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Agree. Insiders are given the top or important positions in government. Many Ivy League types. Many Lawyers. In USA it is always Politics too no matter the issue as people always come up through networks.
- Money in Politics
- Lawyers, remember they lie & twist the Legal System for Career advancement & self Promotion
- The Lobby System, remember results are subsidies, military actions, and foreigners are encouraged to apply
Once the nepotism-hires are filled, then it's on to the Affirmative-actioned "Diversity" stack.
NASA commissioned it's first Diversity Director in 1972. A mere forty years later, the USSA no longer has manned-launch capability. Coincidence?
Not sure. Space has a lot of military applications and NASA is supposed to be open to scientists of all kinds. I see NASA as constantly being the target of politicians that want to spend more on their own programs... like DOD programs. Remember the days when we actually had a Federal Budget Process and Congress passed budgets...
And Star Wars programs came along maybe the decision was we needed Cold War Weapons and Defenses as an alternative space program.
We have Atlas payload (Liquid Fuel)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlas_V
Payload to LEO 9,800–18,810 kg[1] (21,600–41,480 lb)
Payload to GTO 4,750–8,900 kg[1] (10,470–19,260 lb)
Saturn V for Apollo Missions (discontinued, Liquid Fuel)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_V
Proposed successors
See also: M-1 (rocket engine), NERVA, Orion (spacecraft), Sea Dragon (rocket), Ares V and Space Launch System
Jupiter Rockets (Solid Fuel)
The Jupiter family of Heavy Lift Launch Vehicles is part of the proposed DIRECT Shuttle-Derived Launch Vehicle architecture. It is intended to be an alternative to the Ares I and Ares V rockets which were under development for the NASA Project Constellation.
"Another 30 percent said their hospital has insufficient supplies of eye protection and fluid-resistant gowns."
Lol. They are thinking about treating 10 or maybe 15 cases at a major urban hospital. If this thing gets going beyond one local cluster, this number is 100%. If 100 people turn up with ebola at any U.S. hospital, infection control would break down on the first shift change.
They don't call him Obola for nothing.
"The CDC’s budget has been slashed."
lol...ahhh yes, the inevitable bureaucratic/statist talking point..."We don't have the money!" The CDC's budget is 11.3 billion dollars. Thats billion, with a B. How much did they waste on the Zombie Apocalypse again?
People have such short memories, thats a lot of bio-suits & respirators.
//////
As my blood pressure begins to elevate, all those memories of an out of control bureaucracy come rushing back to me:
“We need to revolutionize the way we look at guns, like what we did with cigarettes,” Dr. Mark Rosenberg, who oversaw CDC gun research, told The Washington Post in 1994. “Now [smoking] is dirty, deadly and banned.”
Ahhh yes, the good old days, when guns were contagious and infecting millions ;-)
/////
So as I sit back popping these Ebola Squirrels!!! off the power line with my .22 "assault weapon", lets not forget this (though not an indictment of the CDC itself, the WHO runs in the same incestuous circles:
"Scientists who advised the World Health Organization on its influenza policies and recommendations—including the decision to proclaim the so-called swine flu a "pandemic" had close ties to companies that manufacture vaccines and antiviral medicines like Tamiflu, a fact that WHO did not publicly disclose.
The links between the advisors and the companies that make money from vaccines and flu treatments were detailed in a report published online by the British medical journal BMJ, which investigated the advisors' role in WHO's policy. "
"And in the U.S. a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services defended WHO's handling of the pandemic.
"The WHO handled the outbreak in a very measured and appropriate manner," he said. "Their decisions were driven by the existing and evolving conditions at the time and what the best scientific information was telling us. It's very easy to look back through a 20-20 lens and essentially be an armchair quarterback."
Thats a statement that is at variance with the now known facts (the fact they were in bed with pharma) so you'll pardon me if I don't accept the proposition now that anything they say is true.
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/SwineFlu/swine-flu-pandemic-world-health-organization-scientists-linked/story?id=10829940
Not saying your points are not valid. What I am goin to remind you of is the nature of viruses.
Whether the CDC's budget is in billions with a B or not.
Viruses mutate. It's what they do. This can happen very, very quickly, literally from the host to the next victim. There are variables that NO ONE (no matter their budget) can control for. It may seem off topic, but it's not--this world is full of teratogens that can effect mutation. Maybe if patient zero had not been exposed to, say, depleted uranium from the shells used to bomb his area during a conflict 5 years before he was born---ebola would not have mutated into something more easily transmissible.
Blaming everyone for what they knew, how they knew it, when they knew it and all that? Does not change the nature of viruses, nor our inability to combat them. If I morphed into a different person every 3 minutes, how is it that you would ever be able to identify me as the person who murdered your family?
It's easy to lay blame, because people want an explanation to point at and say, "THERE! THAT is the reason for all of this misery!"
I'm not afraid of most things--I've seen a lot in my 23 years in healthcare. Things that people do to each other and to themselves would shock you. Some days it's hard to leave the house knowing these people are all around us.
What I am afraid of is viruses in combination with desperation (add in a little ignorance and some entitlement and you get my meaning). By the time this virus holds still long enough for some type of intervention or mutates into something less lethal---lots of people are going to be infected. What surprises me is that anyone can claim that they just "never saw this coming". Globalization is awesome when it's attached to profits, eh?
nmewn,
I upvoted you. Very good points.
These bastards are terrorizing the people for their own profit in my opinion. And when I say "profit" it can take many forms, gowth of their departments/bureaucracies or individual power/influence/stature...or just plain old money.
There is something very unique and priceless about one single emotion, trust. Once its lost its likely gone forever. One has to guard it like their very lives depend on it.
Because it just might ;-)
I thought the little old ladies would tear Berstanki limb from limb for stealing their interest income. Never happened.
But all the women I know, especially the little old ladies understand this airline thang, and they are pissed.
They tyranny is in deep weeds on this one, because it is so blatantly wrong.
Plus one, it is blatantly wrong.
There are very few things people actually need a national government for, otherwise the states working individually or in concert can do anything it can. Protecting what they claim is its "national sovereignty" is one of them.
If it can't, obviously its not needed and is a waste of resources ;-)
Seems like they are handling the situation perfectly if you consider that they are intentionally bringing this here.
Several observations:
1) The CDC and DoH are useless and serve no effective function in treatment of patients, hospital and doctor diagnostic or treatment procedures, or hospital best practices. Any money given to these agencies for any such purpose is a waste, and budget cuts at these agencies are completely irrelevant. The WHO does track some disease outbreaks and clusters sometimes in some places, but also serves very little purpose or function as they hide most of their genetic studies of viruses and rarely provide timely or useful information about transmission methods and vectors.
2) For the head of the CDC to come on national television and downplay the entire threat, as well as lie about the current state of research on how the virus is transmitted, illustrates point 1, but also serves to spread misinformation to hospital staff about what types of precautions they must take. Based on his statements, a nurse or nurse practitioner would probably fall back to standard droplet protection, rather than full isolation, for any suspected cases. Full isolation should be required with all the appropriate medical waste procedures implemented at every hospital for every person who expresses any sort of hemorragic fever symptoms.
3) "Most hospitals in the U.S. lack the rigor and discipline to control Ebola." This is exactly, EXACTLY correct, which is why the head of the CDC is nothing short of criminally negligent to come on national television and downplay the threat. Hospitals hate full isolation. Staff hate full isolation. The general trend in all hospitals is to avoid this if at all possible. It is a lot of work, and if there is one thing that is certain in hospitals, it is that staff like to avoid hassles and will get careless and lazy very quickly if not kept at a heightened alert level.
4) All hospitals must be given, now... not tomorrow, NOW, all available information about the methods and likelihood of person-to-person transmission.
Local hospital administrators and doctors must take responsibility for this. The CDC and DoH are useless, and it is obvious that the Department of Homeland Security is doing, and probably will continue to do, nothing to screen entrants to the country or examine their history of contact with infectious disease abroad. As usual, you are on your own, and the government, not only is not helping, it is throwing fuel on the fire.
Yeah... DoH or HHS seems more set up for subsidies or welfare.
The System is "Corporate" not government. We can blame all kinds of people, but it is part of this Fascist Coup that has taken place.
- Marriage of Corporations to Government
- Great part of the Margin corporations get comes from government, or the FED... Like a force multiplier
- The Meme about Privatization covers up "Corporate Welfare" and the power of the Lobby to corrupt and all the nepotism
Notice how we have plenty of body bags & coffin liners. Notice how the "fear" about pandemics, and funding for Big Pharma vaccines went way up after 2001. But look at all the inaction and lack of prep.
Also look at all the Funding of Terrorism Studies going back to the 1970s... which soared after 2001 and we put together a huge DHS budget to prepare for emergencies.
Actually this Stinks. Stinks like they want to spend money. They will hang back and say later "Who Knew?" Then they will send billions to corporations.
A fantasy government trying to deal with a real threat.
Not shocking, just tragically comedic.
Zero Confidence.
Knowledge is out there. Alberta (CANADA) has been working on EBOLA for 10 years........Maybe the right FDA, CONGRESS palms were not greased so the cure can't be used yet. Amazing how Capitalism works.....
THIS IS NOT FREE ENTERPRIZE is it? GREED.................That it, thats all.
Good point. We can gauge our government by the lack of involvement & action in many areas.
Someone was talking about that yesterday.
Obama & CDC & Big Pharma don't seem to be doing much... like they are waiting for the Lobby Dollars to trigger Government... or Our Health Institutes don't work till there is money for corporate profits.
I'd like to see how they would react if 20 planes full of Liberian nationals landed in DC.
Let's cut out the middle-man and just have the Liberians crash into D.C. More efficient, no?
That is a good one. But it is starting to feel like the Underground bunkers must be finished and store goods all put in.
Hey maybe that is the real reason that food packages are smaller and we pay more for everything now... Damn government contracts have driven up the cost of everything.
Our Hidden organized crime Jesuit, Masonic and Zionist rulers are now preparing for population reduction of the useless eaters. These are the same EU criminals that took over the US in the 1913 Fed Act and has been controlling us through bribes and death threats.
The CDC has two patents on the Ebola virus so obciously they funded this cluster and it's no accident they arranged to bring it here to start this plague.
The sheeple aren't going to know what hit them if the dollar devalues by 50-75% when the de-dollarization of the world finishes and the 60% of dollars overseas returns to our shores in a tsunami shit-tide.
Our hidden organized crime rulers realize we won't be able to print dollars any longer to fund the entitlement state so we might as well kill the elderly and young dependents as they are the most vulnerable.
Our callous hidden rulers are already restricting the use of colloid silver natural antibiotic in Africa and will restrict it here also. Get ready to see Vitamin C restricted here as it's a powerful anyibiotic also.
It's going to be every man for himself as most of the sheeple have been captured through toxic injury and will be naively be waiting on Big Government to save them.
Most will die not knowing about the jackals who captured our government a century ago and treat us like cattle.
Just a point--antibiotics do nothing for viral infections.
And it is absolutely amazing that what the big worry is here is the "devaluation of the dollar" rather than human life.
It's always been "every man for himself". Some just have chosen to ignore that fact and rely (blame) on everyone/everything else for the conditions of their lives.
We've been 'captured' for way longer than 100 years, but yeah, the royalty see there aren't enough resources on the earth to prop up all their slaves.
...we have displaced rituals in godless, pagan America. Faux Christianity on our airwaves. Our symbols and rituals are meaningless.
Now Obama and his multiple Stooges are bringing back REAL plagues and curses upon this once fine land.
May I suggest the following: Burning Man is really a Bone-A-Thon for Bay Area programmers and nerds that don't mind paying $400 per ticket to access the prune poon out on Pyramid Lake outside of Reno. Who cares?
EVERY CITY in the world will soon be having a daily Burning Man, whther we like it or not. Might as well ritualize it. "Bone-Fire" from the Middle Ages bubonic years lends its spirt to the bonfire of the vanities.
Get your marshmallows stacked, dying time has arrived....
Ring around Rosy
Pocket full of Posy
Atishoo
Atishoo
All fall down.....
I thought the line was "ashes to ashes, we all fall down."
Unless, you're advertising Kleenex tissues, in which case, brilliant marketing idea. Sell that right now.
Sell it like you mean it. Sell it like your mother's cornhole!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_a_Ring_o'_Roses
The rhyme has often been associated with the Great Plague which happened in England in 1665, or with earlier outbreaks of the Black Death in England. Interpreters of the rhyme before the Second World War make no mention of this;[15] by 1951, however, it seems to have become well established as an explanation for the form of the rhyme that had become standard in the United Kingdom. Peter and Iona Opie, the leading authorities on nursery rhymes, remarked:
The line Ashes, Ashes in colonial versions of the rhyme is claimed to refer variously to cremation of the bodies, the burning of victims' houses, or blackening of their skin, and the theory has been adapted to be applied to other versions of the rhyme.[18] In its various forms, the interpretation has entered into popular culture and has been used elsewhere to make oblique reference to the plague.[19]
Several folklore scholars regard the theory as baseless for several reasons:
Thanks for that. American Horror Movies have used the song as a vehicle for mood or ritual. Could have been a dance or ritual I suppose.
Now I get it. Ashes. Ashes is what you get when you burn the dead. Ashioo is sarcasm that calls attention to Ebola.
Good sarcasm thread here.
Stop Picking Your Nose!! You're gonna get sick!!
...any statesman other than Rand Paul have the cajonnes to file Impeachment charges against Obama? His father?
If any of us read the last few day's headlines will realize that everyone on ZeroHedge has been predicting and forewarning what is currently transpiring in Dallas, since mid July.
What is with the faux surprise? The dumbing down of the nation by a surfeit of stupid laws and regulations (ACA,etc.) The msm, everything?
Most US hospitals would empty out of staff within 20 minutes of a true ebola onslaught. I don't blame them, where does it stop? Why not charge the true criminals...Obama and the faceless hoards of lobbyists and spineless officials allowing all to unfold?
Various news organs love to play scapegoat: the Texas nurse that did not admit the Liberian on the 26th is being the fall guy/gal. Why not ALL the airlines in Brussels and in Monrovia?
Ebola will unfold just like the enterovirus that the Central American hoards brought with them across the southern border, courtesy of an Obama Free Pass.
My own ruminations? The Zaire strain only has to work its magic until the holidays. It is a perfect cover story for a nasty strain that will be unleashed. Consider the Dallas Deal one big baton being passed on..."Zaire strain, meet the Obamey Strain."
All of this stinks of 9/11 cupability.
Duncan should have never been given a visa. The reason he got a visa is an illegal PROGRESSIVE IMMIGRATION POLICY to import a voter base that will keep progressive criminals in power.
Progressive murderers infesting the FEDGOV do not care how many Americans die as long as they can remain in power. American citizens are already dying by the thousands as a result of the illegal importation of a disease and criminal laden voter base.
Power kills, and the bloody progressives are ready to kill as many American citizens as it takes.
http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/MURDER.HTM
Progressives truly are the bloodiest murderers on the planet, second only to Islam who are fellow travelers in murdering tyranny.
Progressive criminals infesting the FEDGOV are a mortal threat and American citizens should fear for their lives.
Time for impeachment is long past and if no one will arrest the traitor progressive criminals then law abiding citizens threatened with murder by a rouge lawless government may opt for Rule .308 to fight for their lives.
Grimaldus
Yes, the admin has blood on its hands now that the first kid died from Central American polio, e.g. Entero 58. Those parent of paralyzed kids need to meet Obama face to face and ask why their kids health were destroyed for political gain.
Plus 1 But I disagree that it is left or right, D or R.
It is corruption... and many can fall into it by just getting a career, getting some money, wanting more, and being willing to stay silent.... do unethical things for career... or unwittingly serve a government under a Coup which has rejected the US Constitution with it's Amendments.
The Definition of Capitalism from Karl Marx seems appropriate under the Fascist-Socialism-Military-Republic of the USA.
Heard of Craig B. Hulet craigbhulet.com Vietnam Vet & Terrorism Expert with lots of other experience. He is pretty close to where i am right now.
http://www.eliasound.biz/hulet/mp3s/2014/09.26.14.mp3
How does one explain such gross mismanagement of our nation?
I'm an old timer, and I can't remember things ever having been this fucked up.
Has the federal government been involved in any successful endeavors since the Apollo Project?
Please SF: The terms like FUBAR and others are very old. I'm 81 and the only difference now is that the idiots have computers and can FU quicker now. The week before Tet the intel guys were telling us how there was no serious problems on the horizon. We have been looking toward the horizon recently for a black swan and I think we might have seen it in Dallas. Ugly bitch it was (is).
Hey SF., Yes they have. In fucking over their own 99% and the rest of the worlds as well.
SF beatnik
Another 30 percent said their hospital has insufficient supplies of eye protection and fluid-resistant gowns.
Why? Profits are more important than functionality or misappropriated money going into wages at the highest level means you cannot buy the things you need to do the job. Neocons control the government / economy for themselves not founding fathers who care more for principles that time is long since passed.
What gets me and the above and it is the same for the UK those found ill with ebola should never have returned home until cured instead the dicease is spread. The only question left is are they dumb and thus culpable for generating a pandemic accidentally or is it by design the black swan event being not WW3 but a global pandemic instead.
There once a virus called Ebola
That entered the country through Aquilla
Assurances came in droves
While bodies stacked high in stoves
To be burnt in HazMat Flotillas
Are you by chance related to the LimerickKing?
I liked that JB. Inspires me a little.
All the reports I have seen of African medical staff treating Ebola has been top notch, within the limited facilities.
Personal Protection, treatment centres, decontamination and body disposal have all been managed.
On the other hand the USA have shown the complete opposite.
This Dallas case has been a total incompetent mess.
The above article if true is setting up for a big problem.
It will only take a handful of cases to develop, and the medical system will collapse. Africa is in survival mode, US medical preoccupied with $$$, nurses, doctors will walk for their own safety.
I agree completely. The thing is: everyone in health-care knows how to prevent the spread of infection if they know what type of disease they are battling. Actually preventing transmission, however, requires constanct discipline, attention to every detail, and a very devoted workforce. In Africa, what you have are volunteers, highly motivated, great people. What you have in many U.S. hospitals are people who got into nursing because it is the fastest and easiest way to a good paycheck. There are many good nurses (and other staff) in U.S. hospitals, but there are many bad ones as well. It only takes a few lazy employees to disrupt and destroy the best isolation or contamination containment procedures.
agreed. it takes discipline to make sure everything is done in the right order, without touching non sterile objects. lots of concentration. don't bump anything, don't drop anything. put everything in the right place for what your doing. its choreographed movement.
AB, I agree with some of the points you made, but the scope of the problem is much greater than is being discussed.
I have worked in the hospital setting for 18yrs, and will say I have little confidence that the hospital I work at could effectively handle more than a handful of cases, if that. Not one word about Ebola has been mentioned in any meeting I've attended, in emails, or conversations with co workers since it was first reported on.
Supplies frequently run short of what we need, including staff to safely take care of patients. Between the baby boomers, traumas, and disability crowd, it's difficult to keep up, and do a good job. What impact do you think Ebola would have?
It concerns me that physicians and nurses trained to deal with Ebola, have not been able to prevent becoming sick themselves in many cases. It's unlikely that they all ignored protocol. My guess is that in the U.S., it would take a few staff becoming infected to shut down a facility entirely. Would you risk death (yourself or family) by going to work?
I sincerely hope that the problem is exaggerated, but suspect it isn't. I happen to watch an interview today of a "Doctors without borders" physician, in which she said the infection rate is growing at an exponential rate. Also, she said that the number of actual cases is seriously (believable) underreported, and may be 5 times higher than documented cases.
Continuing to allow flights in from the epicenter of this outbreak is criminal.
I am not underestimating this theat. I suspect the deaths in Africa are at least, at least, 10 times what is reported, and probably much closer to 30-50 times. How many have died of "malaria" and really died of Ebola, for example? They cannot dig the graves fast enough according a recent NYT report, and the number of new graves in one cemetary for young people is something like 120, while there have only been 10 reported cases of Ebola there and only 7 deaths. That would indicate 15-20 times the number of deaths as reported.
Take a look at my other posts. In fact, look at my other comments dating back 3 years. 3 years ago, everyone on ZH was talking about black swans. I commented at the time that the next black swan was most likely the outbreak of a lethal, contagious disease. I have been expecting this for years- ever since reading William McNeil´s Plagues and People in graduate school actually.
AB, you also understand, then, that the cultural beliefs and behaviors of the countries where ebola has been a problem effects the virus itself.
Burial/funeral ritual in African culture involves family and friends washing the body and preparing it for burial. Not with gloves on or a hazmat suit--this is done as a show of love and respect for the deceased.
This entire horrific mess was inevitable with the deliberate suppression of education, women's/reproductive rights, financial stability, etc. in these African nations for the profit of the industrialized world. Their customs and beliefs are all that they have--their sense of community and family. Now even that is being taken away, as they are not permitted to care for their dead in their own way.
What scares me is the prospect of some homeless person or a shut in or a person with no family---dying of this virus at home or on the street---without proper diagnosis. The first responders don't know. How could they? All they've got on is gloves. Droplet precautions are NOT practiced with first responders--police, fire, EMT, Paramedic.
Those responders are now infected. What about the morgue attendant or the ME where the body is taken? What about the mortuary where the body is being prepared (much like that cultural ritual in Africa)?
I'm not afraid of this virus getting hold because a patient came in to the ER. I'm afraid of the person who DOESN'T come in to the ER and dies at home.
We can no more break an entire continent of their cultural behavior and beliefs than we can break our own. Understanding how this virus mutated into what it is and why it is continuing to spread is not that difficult--and it has nothing to do with the Illuminati or a Mason (I find that reprehensibly insensitive to the plight of these victims)
The spread and mutation of this virus (or any other) was inevitable.
In the ER a month or so back with my friend and 84yr old neighbor. Retired from a long career as a hospital administrator. He was put in a pvt room for observation and tests. Long story short, as the hospital personel went thru their routines it was painfully obvious they were not focused on the jobs at hand. I watched in amazement as one after another fumbled simple things. My friend looked over at me when staff had left the room, rolled his eyes and said, "well, the're sure not the "A" Team." This was in our largest private hospital in the county. His wife who was also witnessing this comedy and a volunteer at the hospital had words with TPTB the next day.
You hear the stories but direct experience is really scary.
I posted here on ZH and was lambasted for pointing out the weaknesses of the TX hospital and their use of IT technology and consistent processes that allowed, no forced a person who said he had problems out of their hospital and into the community to spread the disease.
Most DRs, especially those with over 20 years experience are used to doing everything themselves, the way they have always done. There is no consistency of process. They view that as a affront to their creativity. Its like they are afraid of that little tablet that they now must rely on.
CDC are morons but they are being aided and assisted by Luddite Drs.
Expecting DRs and Hospitals to control this is just not going to happen.
hibou-owl,
All the reports I have seen of African medical staff treating Ebola has been top notch, within the limited facilities.
Personal Protection, treatment centres, decontamination and body disposal have all been managed.
I agree, as you pointed out, the limited coverage I have seen shows people, granted limited resources, doing the very best they can with what they have. I have alos noticed, as I am sure you and everyone else has, that about 10% of the cases are indeed those very same medical personnel.
I am a volunteer fireman and part of an ambulance crew. We are discussing this. Oddly, the doctors I know are more concerned then the EMTs/Paras. An ambulance is a very tiny space to be in with a patient.