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Ebola And The Five Stages Of Collapse
Submitted by Dmitry Orlov via ClubOrlov blog,
At the moment, the Ebola virus is ravaging three countries - Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone - where it is doubling every few weeks, but singular cases and clusters of them are cropping up in dense population centers across the world. An entirely separate Ebola outbreak in the Congo appears to be contained, but illustrates an important point: even if the current outbreak (to which some are already referring as a pandemic) is brought under control, continuing deforestation and natural habitat destruction in the areas where the fruit bats that carry the virus live make future outbreaks quite likely.
Ebola's mortality rate can be as high as 70%, but seems closer to 50% for the current major outbreak. This is significantly worse than the Bubonic plague, which killed off a third of Europe's population. Previous Ebola outbreaks occurred in rural, isolated locales, where they quickly burned themselves out by infecting everyone within a certain radius, then running out of new victims. But the current outbreak has spread to large population centers with highly mobile populations, and the chances of such a spontaneous end to this outbreak seem to be pretty much nil.
Ebola has an incubation period of some three weeks during which patients remain asymptomatic and, specialists assure us, noninfectious. However, it is known that some patients remain asymptomatic throughout, in spite of having a strong inflammatory response, and can infect others. Nevertheless, we are told that those who do not present symptoms of Ebola—such as high fever, nausea, fatigue, bloody stool, bloody vomit, nose bleeds and other signs of hemorrhage—cannot infect others. We are also told that Ebola can only be spread through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected individual, but it is known that among pigs and monkeys Ebola can be spread through the air, and the possibility of catching it via a cough, a sneeze, a handrail or a toilet seat is impossible to discount entirely. It is notable that many of the medical staff who became infected did so in spite of wearing protective gear—face masks, gloves, goggles and body suits. In short, nothing will guarantee your survival short of donning a space suit or relocating to a space station.
There is a test that shows whether someone is infected with Ebola, but it is known to produce false negatives. Other methods do even worse. Current effort at “enhanced screening,” recently introduced at a handful of international airports, where passengers arriving from the affected countries are now being checked for fever, fatigue and nausea, are unlikely to stop infected, and infectious, individuals. They are akin to other “security theater” methods that are currently in vogue, such as making passengers take off their shoes and testing breast milk for its potential as an explosive. The fact that the thermometers, which agents point at people's heads, are made to look like guns is a nice little touch; whoever came up with that idea deserves Homeland Security's highest decoration—to be shaped like a bomb and worn rectally.
It is unclear what technique or combination of techniques could guarantee that Ebola would not spread. Even a month-long group quarantine for all travelers from all of the affected countries may provide the virus with a transmission path via asymptomatic, undiagnosed individuals. And even a quarantine that would amount to solitary confinement (which would be both impractical and illegal) would simply put evolutionary pressure on this fast-mutating virus to adapt and incubate longer than the period of the quarantine.
Treatment of Ebola victims amounts to hydration and palliative care. Transfusions of blood donated by a survivor seem to be the only effective therapy available. An experimental drug called ZMapp has been demonstrated to stop Ebola in non-human primates, but its effectiveness in humans is now known to be less than 100%. It is an experimental drug, made in small batches by infecting young tobacco plants with an eyedropper. Even if its production is scaled up, it will be too little and too late to have any measurable effect on the current epidemic. Likewise, experimental Ebola vaccines have been demonstrated to be effective in animal trials, and one has been shown to be safe in humans, but the process of demonstrating it effectiveness in humans and then producing it in sufficient quantities may take longer than it would for the virus to spread around the world.
The scenario in which Ebola engulfs the globe is not yet guaranteed, but neither can it be dismissed as some sort of apocalyptic fantasy: the chances of it happening are by no means zero. And if Ebola is not stopped, it has the potential to reduce the human population of the earth from over 7 billion to around 3.5 billion in a relatively short period of time. Note that even a population collapse of this magnitude is still well short of causing human extinction: after all, about half the victims fully recover and become immune to the virus. But supposing that Ebola does run its course, what sort of world will it leave in its wake? More importantly, now is a really good time to start thinking of ways in which people can adapt to the reality of a global Ebola pandemic, to avoid a wide variety of worst-case outcomes. After all, compared to some other doomsday scenarios, such as runaway climate change or global nuclear annihilation, a population collapse can look positively benign, and, given the completely unsustainable impact humans are currently having on the environment, may perhaps even come to be regarded as beneficial.
I understand that such thinking is anathema to those who feel that every problem must have a solution—or it's not worth discussing. I certainly don't want to discourage those who are trying to stop Ebola, or to delay its spread until a vaccine becomes available, and would even help them if I could. I am not suicidal, and I don't look forward to the death of roughly half the people I know. But I happen to disagree that thinking about what such an outcome, and perhaps even preparing for it in some ways, is necessarily a bad idea. Unless, of course, it produces a panic. So, if you are prone to panic, perhaps you shouldn't be reading this.
And so, for the benefit of those who are not particularly panic-prone, I am going to trot out my old technique of examining collapse as consisting of five distinct stages: financial, commercial, political, social and cultural, and briefly discuss the various ramifications of a swift 50% global population collapse when viewed through that prism. If you want to know all about the five stages, my book is widely available.
Financial collapse
Our current set of financial arrangements, involving very large levels of debt leading to artificially high valuations placed on stocks, commodities, real estate, and Ph.D's in economics, is underpinned by a key assumption: that the global economy is going to continue to grow. Yes, global growth started stumbling around the turn of the century, stopped for a while during the financial collapse of 2008, and has since then remained anemic, with even the most tentative signs of recovery having much to do with unlimited money-printing by the world's central banks, but the economics Ph.D's remain ever so hopeful that growth will resume. Nevertheless, this much is clear: halving the number of workers and consumers would not be conducive to boosting economic growth.
Quite the opposite: it would mean that most debt will have to be written off. Likewise, the valuations of companies that would supply half the demand with half the workers would be unlikely to go up. Nor would the houses, half of which would stand vacant and dilapidated, increase in value. If the supply of oil suddenly outstrips demand by 50%, then this would cause the price of oil to drop to a point where it no longer covers the cost of producing it, and oil producers will be forced to shut down. This would not be a happy event for those countries that are heavily dependent on energy exports in order to afford imports of food to feed their populations. Nor would such developments spell a happy end for those countries that need to continuously roll over trillions of dollars of short-term debt in order to continue feeding their populations via government hand-outs (the United States comes to mind).
“But what about wealth preservation?!” I hear some of my readers screaming in anguish? “How do I hedge my portfolio against a sudden 50% global population drop?” Well, that's easy: you need to be short all paper. Short it all: currency, stocks, bonds, debt instruments, deeds on urban real estate. Get out of most commodities: energy, obviously, but also precious metals, because you can't eat gold. Go long people (who will be in ever-shorter supply) and arable land (because people have to eat) and stockpile everything else that they will need to learn to feed themselves. If they are sufficiently grateful for all you help, they will feed you too. Alternatively, you can just sit on your paper wealth as it dwindles to nothing, and wait for the torches and the pitchforks to come out. Since wealthy people squander a disproportionate amount of wealth on themselves and their families, killing them off is a good wealth preservation strategy—for the rest of us, so feel free to do your part.
Commercial collapse
It would be a challenge to keep global supply chains in operation while commodity prices plummet in value, credit becomes unavailable, and other knock-on effects of financial collapse make themselves felt. Since a lot of production depends on overseas suppliers, it would shut down shortly after international credit becomes unavailable. Countries that have food security, strong central control, many state-owned companies and long-term barter agreements with other countries (Russia and China come to mind) may find it possible to switch their economies into the old command and control mode, so that the few products that are key for keeping the survivors alive remain available.
It should be expected that certain forms of production—those particularly capital intensive—would disappear entirely. Examples might include integrated circuit manufacturing, pharmaceutical industry, offshore oil drilling, satellite technology and so on. Certain long-lasting forms of technology, such as manual printing presses, manual typewriters and solar panel-powered shortwave radios, would remain in use, treasured and passed along as technological heirlooms.
For many operations, different staffing arrangements would need to be put in place. For instance, ships would need to double their crews, in expectation that at least half the crew might drop dead during any given trip. This would not be as problematic as it sounds: during the age of discovery it was not unusual for half the crew to be lost during a voyage from causes ranging from blunt trauma to scurvy. The shift to double-staffing would be particularly important for operations that affect public safety in a major way, nuclear power plants in particular.
Political collapse
A 50% reduction in global population would no doubt accelerate the already speedy process by which nation-states fail and turn into ungovernable regions. Not a year goes by without one or two more countries joining their ranks: Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Ukraine... Several African countries may join this list before the year is out.
Especially at risk are those countries that would be unable to continue feeding their populations once oil prices plummet. Saudi Arabia, for instance, would be quickly wiped out as a country once the vast welfare state supported by the House of Saud ceases to function. As soon as that happens, Saudi Arabia would become a particularly soft target for the Islamic Caliphate, with very interesting consequences for the entire region.
There is one effect that would be common to all countries, or at least to those who have not yet undergone political collapse: since the population would become much younger, gerontocracy would become a thing of the past. The swift die-off would cause life expectancies to plummet, but we should expect the effect to be much more pronounced at the higher end of the spectrum. In many of the prosperous, developed countries in particular, there is currently a very large bulge near the geriatric end of the age spectrum. In these countries, people have been living longer and longer thanks to aggressive medical interventions: cancer surgeries, drug regimens and a variety of therapies. Many of these people are living longer but in increasingly poor health, and we should expect Ebola to carry them off in disproportionately large numbers. Organizations such as the US senate, with an average age over 60, would be expected to lose much more than half of their members—to most Americans' inordinate glee, if public survey numbers are to be believed.
For those countries that manage to remain stable, the disproportionately heavy die-off among the aged may pave the way to large-scale economic and political reforms. Older people tend to vote more than the young, and they tend to vote for the preservation of the status quo rather than for change. This pattern is particularly clear in some countries, such as the US, where older people vote to maintain the privileges that had accrued to them during prosperous times, thereby depriving their children and grandchildren of a viable future. The demographic projection where soon there will be just two working-age people supporting each retiree would be invalidated. Other types of rapid positive change may occur; for instance, many academic disciplines, in which nothing can change until the old guard dies, may begin to see rapid progress.
Social collapse
There would likely to be a wide spectrum of outcomes. Those communities that are ethnically homogenous, well-defended, strongly bound together by conservative and uniform social and religious traditions, with a history of favoring self-sufficiency and perseverance, would be likely to survive and recover. On the other hand, those communities that are ethnically diverse with a history of bigotry, racism and ethnic strife, with weak, optional, or nonexistent standards of public morality, which are integrated into the global economy in non-optional ways, and which are unaccustomed to hardship, are likely to perish.
Cultural collapse
The cultures most favored to survive would be those that can be preserved autonomously at a small scale. Particularly favored to survive would be those that have a strong oral tradition, teach their own children within families rather than submitting them to government-run schools, and insist on internal systems of jurisprudence and governance in defiance of any external interference. It is hard to imagine that the Roma of the Balkans or the Pashtuns of Waziristan would fail to pass on their culture just because half of them suddenly die. Such circumstances may sound dire to most of us, but to these long-suffering tribes it's a sunny day in the park and a boat-ride on the pond, and they would be sure to add a few epic poems about it to their repertoire once it's over.
At the other extreme are those cultures that depend entirely on book-learning, and have a writing system sufficiently abstruse to require many years of schooling just to achieve a basic level of literacy (English, Chinese). Education relies on transmitting information from those who are older to those who are younger, and as the die-off compresses the age spectrum toward its younger end, the number of teachers will dwindle. Coupled with other inevitable disruptions, formal schooling may become impossible in many areas, resulting, a generation or so later, in very low levels of literacy. Severed from its main mechanism for acquiring knowledge, the culture of the people in such areas would disintegrate. At the very far end of the spectrum are found roving bands of feral children, speaking a language that no adult is able to understand. It is at this point that we are able to conclude that cultural collapse has run its course.
Mitigation strategies
I have already mentioned that it may be a good idea to make arrangements through which survivors would be able to feed themselves, and provide them with the few other necessities for survival.
Beyond that, there are the basic mechanics of handling the pandemic. The current strategy treats it as a medical problem, best handled by doctors and nurses working in hospitals and clinics. This strategy only works for as long as the epidemic can be said to be under control; once it can be said to be out of control, the surviving doctors and nurses (medics are usually the first to be exposed—and to die) would be well advised to specifically refuse to handle Ebola patients.
In absence of any curative or preventive therapies, Ebola patients need shelter, hydration, hygiene, palliative care and, if and when they die, sanitary disposal of the remains. The goal is to do what is possible to give patients a chance to recover more or less on their own. To this end, it is very important to do all the things necessary to make sure that people are dying just from Ebola, and not from exposure, dehydration, or from any of the opportunistic diseases that thrive in disrupted circumstances, such as cholera and typhus. Sanitation is the most important aspect of the entire operation.
These services need not be provided by trained medics. The main two requirements for such service are: 1. psychological immunity to scenes of horrific suffering and death; and 2. immunity to Ebola. The first of these requirements comes down to natural talent; some have it, some don't. The second requirement is being provided free of charge by the Ebola virus itself, in cooperation with the survivors' immune systems.
English lacks a good word to describe this type of specialist, but we don't have to reach far to find one: the Russian word for it is “sanitar.” A popular Russian saying goes “wolves are sanitars of the forest” because they take care of disposing of the sick, the weak and the lame, thus giving those that survive a better chance. A sanitar need not be medically trained, but some training is needed: in diagnosis, palliative care, sanitation procedures and corpse disposal.
A third requirement is one that applies to the sanitation service as a whole: the number of sanitars has to scale with the rate of infection. Since the number of those infected is increasing exponentially, the number of sanitars assigned to serve them has to be able to increase exponentially as well. It seems outlandish to think that sufficient numbers of people will spontaneously volunteer for the job, and this means that they have to be press-ganged into service. And a super-obvious way to do just that is to simply never discharge Ebola survivors: once you are in, you are in until the pandemic is over, or until you die, whichever comes first. If you recover, you are given a bit of training, and then you go to work.
If you don't like the mitigation strategy I am proposing, please feel free to propose your own. Keep in mind, however, that what you propose has to automatically scale with the increase in the rate of infection, which is exponential. Sure, you can propose setting a public health budget, but then it has to double every couple of weeks—and keep doubling until the number of patients is in the billions.
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It would be great to just ignore it, wouldn't it?
Yes. I have much better things to do with my time. Really, this wouldn't be an issue if .gov was even marginally competent. For some reason tptb find West Africa's talent pool indispensable. The hoax is that elected officials care about their constituents.
Miff,
Who I admire greatly, is in the front lines. She is scared more than I would like to admit. Laugh if you will, I won't.
There's a few of us "on the Front Lines" in this particular "war".
And take it from me - with everything else "out there" which doesn't get the MSM coverage, it's a "war" which we are currently losing. Once Antimicrobial resistance becomes very widespread (and it will) it will be game over for all elective surgeries, unless there is a very major attitude change at a Government level (read - regulatory level).
CRKP, VRE ESBL-VRE, NDM-1, -2, -3, -4, -5, -6 and -7 (so far), and whatever we've yet to "discover". Just for "starters".
Then add in the problems of MDR / XDR / XXDR TB, Rickettsial diseases (Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Typhus, etc.), novel / extended-habitat viruses (e.g. Nipah, Dengue, West Nile, maybe Rift Valley), all of which barely mention a whisper in MSM circles, and you realise that the future isn't going to be as good as the past few decades . . . . .
Ok, it's 6pm here and after that good dose of our shared reality, I am ready for a much needed cocktail and the enjoyment of the beautiful sunset on my back porch. Then I will prepare some Pacific Northwest mussels in wine, shallots, lardons and mushrooms served with homemade focaccia bread. This will be accompanied with a Caesar salad prepared with homemade dressing, shaved aged Parmesan and a fine rose. I'm not sure about my finish. Perhaps a couple of truffles and a tawny port?
Savor life while we can.
Miffed
A microbiologist that eats mussels. Cesium fortified ones at that.
Hardcore.
I feel like a pansy. I had a Totinos frozen pizza and 3 Coors for dinner.
News flash: "Life is fatal!"
You could eith bios fake footage. Wait till u see the boy.
http://youtu.be/0wM9A-a2_Wk
Four horsemen, five stages of collapse.
I'll have that Yellen on a pony nightmare again, hunting the four horsemen.
Its Saturday and this is the best Ebola news we will get. We have to wait until Tuesday for the real ebola news.
Thx Tyler for the non stop fear porn ...
You might be right. Nigeria has ebola under control.
Nigerian media...such as it is...is under control.
Note the difference?
Nigeria is scheduled in 2016
For the Olympics?!?
http://www.olympic.org/rio-2016-summer-olympics
Olympics? No. Obamacare? Yes.
BTW, Obamacare?
Jezus fucking christ, Obamacare sounds like a $99,95 anal carrot. And that's a EU citizens remark.
Good luck with ebola....
I hope you know I was being silly. Nigeria? Please!
Ebolalympics! Now we have something.
Ebolapocalypse! FTW!
Well, I am and have been far more worried about the far reaching damage an assclown SOB like Obozo does than Obola.
Fear not on the obola front, our crack TSA has their screenings underway, and they are top notch. Nothing get by those guys!
That Duncan family is still alive so no worries.
You know, that's probably the best information that we've had access to for this entire episode. Sick as a dog, in an apartment full of family, yet no infections.
21 days......
Yen Cross commented in another thread that an informed ZHer said it was more like 24-25 days, so it could still be another couple weeks before we know for certain.
I read a nurse in Liberia went symptomatic at 25 days after a negative test.
Died later.
I'm going with 28 days for safety.
We already have asymptomatic animal carriers.Tick tock for human ones.
28 days later?
When I see them out in public in two weeks I will believe that.
For all I know the CIA has vanished them.
If this is just govt. incompetence,not some PTB psyop,I would not put it beyond
our Dear Leader to liquidate loose ends.
Only a tiny step beyond droning to death.
Obozo lies about everything,why would he tell the truth now ?
If you don't like the mitigation strategy I am proposing, please feel free to propose your own...
You first. Second, that Joseph Mengele clone, 'ole Zeke Emmanual.
That is so unfair.
Mengele was a far better man than Zeke Emmanual.
Cue "Typoid Mary".
Make that "Obola Barry".
Obola Lola...
Obolapaloza
safe 100% by "relocating to a space station"
Prez obola is as we type planning to send Liberian astronauts to the ISS. Problem solved and it is good for diversity! /s or maybe not, it is a strange time we live in.
duplicate
At first, I was as paniced as everyone else. Now, I'm starting to think this is scaremongering for commercial purposes.
Regardless, it's still a good idea to stock up on food, drink, fuel, meds, supplies and heirloom seeds. Just in case.
And lead, too...though now that it seems to be airborne, 12 gauge 00 might not be the way to go. I'm betting all those movies showing people shooting zombies with shotguns were disinformation. Best to go long 7.62x54 and get them before you see the reds of their eyes.
I'm going with a 50ft exclusion zone if it comes to that.
Trespassers beyond that line will be shot.
Subject to revision , but signposted as a kill zone.
Submited for your approval. There's a signposted up ahead... it's the Kill Zone.
Anyone who doesn't will certainly be among the first casualties.
The guy forgot to say that the only country that had a quick response from the initial treatment - did not send the infected home with antibiotics or anti thermal - was Brazil
Until the Air Force is involved, everyone here knows what is Ebola and Obama.
Two very similar pests.
Kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk
:-)
The US will prosper through this pandemic and show the world how it's done, meanwhile our government powers will hold many copies of live virus. Etc.
We are, however, continually successful in the prevention of the export of live virus to hazard nations such as China.
This is the real threat to peace.
Francis Dolarhyde: "Do you see?"
The US is the leader of the free world. That's just the way we roll.
America, fuck yes.
I decapitated a wasp on my windowsill at the time of my posting, yet its body continues to buzz, alive for some 20 minutes. I only say this because it is outside of my grasp as it buzzes, potent and dangerous.
It's buzzing like a razor. I don't think humans understand levels of survival.
I dig your style.
I also think a crash course on survival is about to be taught.
"Fuck it, we"ll do it live" kinda course.
Pass and you get a set of steak knives. Fail you get hot bloody shit in the bucket seat of your car.
O'Reilly, Christ that's perfect. Perfect reaction.
Doctor doctor, I have just come back from west Africa and I keep vomiting up numbered paper tickets.
It's nothing to worry about sir, it seems you have a mild case of Tombola.
What are the words to that old song: Doctor doctor, give me the news, I got a bad case of Ebola blues...
A couple of inaccuracies that should be corrected, but nothing to substantive. The outbreak in the Congo is one of Marberg, not ebola. Same family, but they are different bugs. The current mortality rate of ebola of 50% is due to the fact that it is one of four strains. The strain that is running around is the least "lethal" of the batch at 50%. Ebola is a rapidly mutating rna virus. Rna viruses are sloppy when they replicate. They do not patch up errors in their rna when they make them. Basically a batch of typing monkeys on meth. Many of the coppies are rubbish, but many more are not. Some of them are sufficiently different to cause problems.
Good thing it has a vastly different, larger and more densely packed pool of hosts to play with now, eh?
Add to that, some help from the mil labs to guide that rna to new horizons.
Even at "least lethal", which I'm not entirely sure you are correct about, Ebola Ziare is still listed as a Class 4 Bioweapon, unless they have updated that since 2002. If they updated it, I'm sure the CDC and WHO did it last week. Soap and water, dude. No biggie.
You make it sound all warm and fuzzy. Like fucking hey fever or something. I think it's more hot and prickly...and runny.
Zaire and Sudan are the more virulent strains. I thought that this is the zaire ebola. Only Reston from the Phillapines was non-lethal to humans.
I think the mortality rate is close to 70%, people mistakenly say 50% when they just look at the ratio of deaths to infected without considering a lot of the infected will die once it runs it's course.
Well. It's not 100%, which is the new danger benchmark, obviously.
Carry on.
2nd least lethal. Ivory Coast strain of Ebola has a very low mortality rate (Ive seen rates quoated as 0% to 20%.)
Makes me wonder if it wouldn't be a bad approach to a vaccine, not that we'd ever know.
i would add that one can't compare the mortality rate (of infected) to the percentage of killed by the disease from the whole population (also including not infected). in his comparison it would assume that 100% were infected by the bubonic plague and two thirds survived. a bit misleading, to say the least.
furthermore, overall 50% of population degrease is still far fetched even when considering the higher mortality rate due to the delay between being infected and dying of it. this would be the reality if the current world urban population (54%) wpuld be infected with the mortality rate of 90%. not going to happen, even though most will not die of ebola but of something else.
As I recall Marburg popped up in Uganda. In the Congo (DRC), it's Ebola zaire. A different strain than the one on the west coast of Africa, apparently, but still Ebola zaire.
This article is going a bit hard off the reservation I think :)
You can't eat Ebola.
..."Our current set of financial arrangements, involving very large levels of debt leading to artificially high valuations placed on stocks, commodities, real estate, and Ph.D's in economics,"...
Ph.D's in economics! Glancing blow to the Krug dude.
I like this Olov guy. Totally dig his humor.
His book "Reinventing Collapse" is a favorite of mine.
8000 Ebola victims
58 now in NZ
Latest:
http://tersee.com/#!q=ebola&t=text
There is no pandemic, nor is there an epidemic of Ebola, any where. There is always the threat on any given day, in any given place on Earth. There are too many other issues to threaten our lives as we've known it, to let this eat up all our intellectual oxygen. If and when I learn of millions infected, then I'll seriously worry. jmho
It's not that I don't seek out stories to scare the crap outta myself, but at the end of the day I try to assess what seriously threatens my means of existence. It still is the government, just not yet regarding Ebola.
The .gov owns it. Better watch it. They don't like you bad mouthing their new toy. It is refreshing to see an optimist on here, though. Must be very lonely.
My wife would laugh out loud if she heard some one characterize me as an optimist. We're all probably leaning quite pessimistic, otherwise we wouldn't be at ZH so much. It's lonely isn't it?
Then...please....can you try harder to work yourself into some sort of, at the very least, agitated state? You trying to be different?
I do like your posts, though, even if my capacity for pessimism vastly exceeds yours. Still nice to know how far out I am....or am not.
This...is ongoing. I'm not selling .gov short on this.
Then...please....can you try harder to work yourself into some sort of, at the very least, agitated state? You trying to be different?
Thanks for the heartfelt smile I gained from your reply.
This author made a hell of a jump from the beginning of the article to later part.
Learning based on books will be a negative?
Some things cannot be put in a two sentance story....
"Fear, its what is for dinner".
Those with book learning will know some ways to protect themselves.
Those without will either be totally adrift, dependent on radio & TV, or advised by the local witch doctor.
Education will likely confer a benefit.
ZMapp is a mix of 3 drugs, each of which has a different method of slowing the spread of Ebola -- giving the body's Immune System (IS) time to create and scale up its own defenses that attack and destroy the virus.
W/o ZMapp, the virus and its rapid replication simply overwhelms the IS of the body of most people, causing the cascading series of System breakdowns and death. Natural Selection at work -- same as for the Bubonic Plague of the Middle Ages, whose survivors were immune to it.
p.s. If you had watched last Monday's episode of Nova, you'd have learned this also. PBS is good for some things - you simply have to pick your programs, rather than be B&W doctrinal.
As ive said many times: come springtime, the flu will have a vastly superior kill total than ebola. This shit reads like, and is being reported as, a neocon's wet dream. IE potential martial law and with a bit of luck we can wipe out some of the "useless eaters".
ZH, I understand the desire to hunt the truth and present the data but I fear you are being led down the wrong path here. The hysterical MSM response should be enough of a red flag as it is.
1000 unreported cases last week... I repeat "unreported" cases. Once it hit the US and Europe the silence set in just like everything else... OBTW did you know that TEPCO was still releasing up to 300 tons of radioactive water including MOX into the ocean everyday? Didn't think so..Welcome to the real world bitchez
As a former lab tech who worked in infectious disease research, I ASSURE you that humans infected with ebola and who are NOY YET externally symptomatic are still very infectious, eg through exchange of body fluids during sexual interactions.
We really don't know how soon virus appears in the various bodily fluids. The studies have not been done.
Studies can give more precision to estimates of viral distribution, but once the virus is in the lymphatic or blood system, then the virus is also in semen and vaginal secretions.
Didn't someone wear that mask in Eyes Wide Shut?
None of this article will matter if your health collapses first
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-10-06/doctor-who-discovered-ebola-197...
"Half the victims fully recover"
Does the author actually read the literature available from NEJM, CDC and WHO? Victims may well end up with life long damage to various organs and related problems.
...which is great for the economy.
Keyword"may"
you "may" die on an airplane.
you "may" die by flu.
you "may" die by cancer.
you "may" fill in the blank.
Everybody is always looking for a new boogeyman. You are conditioned to look for one.
Ebola is not the end all of humanity. The FED is a more dangerous virus than ebola and a likely candidate for the end of humanity. The FED will kill more people this year than ebola. That I promise.
For a second or so, I wasn’t sure if I was reading some super cool dystopian novel or an article…Not that disagree with anything expressed by Orlov, on the contrary - I think he is spot on. It’s just that we’re so conditioned to perceive reality as something that is fictional, that it is hard to believe that what is coming, is actually REALLY coming.
Fuck Yeah I'm going to be rich when I come back to earth.
was interested until he said - "until they develop a vaccine" - that is when he lost me - after all this is being done on purpose and originated in Bill Gates/Geroge Soros lab - and who doe you think will develop the vacciine - and who will allow these psychopaths to inject them?
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Oh yes, about Ebola.....
No need to worry. That is a drill. I repeat, it is only a drill.
Bad things never "happen" when they drill.
Here's my advice... Prepare for the worst! Have at least a six month supply of food for you and your family. Have the means and a plan to defend yourself if need be. Don't expect any help from anyone and have the proper medications and antibiotics your family may need in a crisis situation. Know your water supply, if it's muni then know your natural source and if there isn't fresh water near by buy a pool at Walmart and fill it in your garage. I expect to see cases of Ebola in LA, NY, SF, DC, CHI and other major cities. When this happens its on bitchez. The masses will freak out and life as we know it will collapse within months. What the fuck, spend a grand to protect yourself and if nothing happens you can always eat the food and know if anything you self insured yourself otherwise just sit around diddling yourself until it's too late. Maybe it's time to build your own wall? I did along time ago and sleep very well at night, thank you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngX5jJVrx8U
Absolutely correct! The worst that can happen from preparing for the worst is you end up sleeping well at night. Should something 'go down' if you have prepared in advance you can spend your time more efficiently than those who will be forced to live like wild dogs looking for their next meal. There are free and low cost things you can do to prepare. Many companies are doing the typical American gouge when it comes to survival products. Use your head! In most situations you will need : water, food, shelter. Be able to distil water, be sure to have SALT. If you buy sea salt you will get the trace minerals you need. Like taking a vitamin. Sugar stores a long time if kept dry. Rice also. Rice isn't very nutritious but add some sugar for energy, salt for minerals, etc you got a low cost meal that will get you thru.
This freebie is pretty cool: http://www.everstrykematches.com/
Isn't that special.
This isn't a big deal.
It won't break out into anything big.
Betting on collapse is being on the wrong side of the trade, like shorting JGBs.
Ebola is real. Ebola will kill some people. Ebola will spread to some extent across most of the planet. Hovwer, ebola has a low reproductiive number, around 2. It doesn't spread easily. This is consistent with the reality that ebola hasn't wiped out Africa centuries ago or the world for that matter.
If you are right, it won't matter. No one will be aorudn to hear your celebration.
CDC: Could Be 1.4 Million Ebola Cases by January https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwtWxYO6CLo
- Treatment of Ebola victims amounts to hydration and palliative care. Transfusions of blood donated by a survivor seem to be the only effective therapy available.
- Even if its production is scaled up, it will be too little and too late to have any measurable effect on the current epidemic.
- And if Ebola is not stopped, it has the potential to reduce the human population of the earth from over 7 billion to around 3.5 billion in a relatively short period of time.
EBOLA - YOUTUBE
http://forum.prisonplanet.com/index.php?topic=257349.msg1487322#msg1487322
EBOLA - BLOOMBERG
http://forum.prisonplanet.com/index.php?topic=257349.msg1487325#msg1487325
EBOLA - ZERO HEDGE
http://forum.prisonplanet.com/index.php?topic=257349.msg1487326#msg1487326
EBOLA - MISCELLANEOUS
http://forum.prisonplanet.com/index.php?topic=257349.msg1487350#msg1487350
Ok. So lots of rumors and comments on here again about how everyone is going to get ebola. Or how the economy is going to collapse. Over a week and only one confirmed case and here on eastern Long Island my business is now a solid 10 months booked. Zerohedge has become a habit to me going back 4 or 5 yrs. being a member for close to 4. I gained a lot from the comments. But not any more. It's seems like the same things are said over and over about now it's the Jews fault or blacks and Latinos. But nothing informative any more.
Why the fuck haven't you taken that bag off your head in almost 4 years? Are you that self conscious ? Are you a closet fag or something? Remember this is the fight club.. Not the Huffington Post.. What if this turns into a pandemic and Tyler actually saved your ass because you took it seriously and protected yourself and family and educated all your friends? I got no time for dumbfucks like you and will not allow any of you naysayer beggars that will try to come into my circle when SHTF... Good luck, glad your business has orders that will never be filled... So the only question left before you leave Zero Hedge is... Do you like Apples?
It won't be the Jews or the Blacks and it is unlikely to be Ebola, but one thing is for sure, this is ZeroHedge and no one gets out alive.
You're right. Everything will be okay. Until it isn't. You have normalcy bias. Those who don't are called conspiracy theorists. They are the Burt Gummers whose devotion to canned goods and firepower may be overkill even when beset by graboids. But many more will survive by preparation than by luck.
Ebola, Electronic Medical Records and Obama Donor Judy Faulkner’s Epic Systems
Mark Krikorian on the CDC's dual citizen head:
Globalist Gibberish from CDC Chief on Travel Ban
American Children Dying Of EV-D68 Because Of Obama’s Kidinvasion Malfeasance
Dr. Gil Mobley, he of the hazmat suit in Atlanta, seems to agree with the decision in Connecticut.
http://video.foxnews.com/v/3834246341001/#sp=show-clips
Incoming is: Ebola challenges financial slobs.
http://patrick.net/forum/?p=1223928
Pallative care = a big rock
or
too many pain killers and a plastic bag.
The same way you treat severe radiation burns.
Pallative care = a big rock
or
too many pain killers and a plastic bag.
The same way you treat severe radiation burns.
I believe the global economies have ebola.
Is there anything worse than Mexican 49ers fans?
"Go long people (who will be in ever-shorter supply) and arable land (because people have to eat) and stockpile everything else that they will need to learn to feed themselves. If they are sufficiently grateful for all you help, they will feed you too."
I like the way this man thinks.
This is an example of the way we need to be thinking. Not hoarding and preparing to hide out, but organizing the people around us for mutual survival and reconstruction.
Growing food, obtaining and moving enough fuel for agriculture, reinventing non-powered horticulture and horse or ox-powered agriculture, becomes urgent. But for the first few years moving and distributing food will be critical. New England of course will face an urgent crisis, but so will Iowa, which produces vast quantities of food-industry inputs but not much that can be eaten raw, and not much that can be produced without diesel fuel and a broad spectrum of manufactured inputs.
Much of the soil has been rendered infertile, and much precious time and effort will be spent discovering which pieces of land can still produce a crop without industrial inputs.
Accumulating things you think will be useful - especially a great seed collection, nothing GM, legacy varieties if you can find them, would be good. But you might also want to look for hundred-year-old books on all aspects of food production and processing, and modern works on all aspects of organic farming. Start reading and talking about them. Look up your local organic farmers association, and find out what they are thinking and doing.
You might also want to find out who has draft horses, and if you're rich enough, buy one - or a breeding pair. Learn about oxen and mules. Find out who has horse-drawn equipment in the back of their barn, and find out if there are any old-timers left who remember how to use them.
A cow would be a good investment - not a super-producing modern Holstein, something old-fashioned. Learn about raising chickens or other fowl for home consumption, how to feed them without purchased grain, how to grow your own chicken feed, and make a start at it. If you have a pond, ducks and geese will forage for much of their food in summer.
Don't waste time getting started. The best time to start is tomorrow morning. If you have the money, look for apartners, perhaps young people with know how and ideals. Remember though, if you hire them they'll most likely look out for themselves when the paychecks become worthless or stop. You really don't want employees. You want partners.
And then you have to let go of the belief that your money makes you more important, more deserving, that your money gives you power. True, your money can help start this effort, but from then on it will be all about what you know, what you do, how well you win and keep the trust and cooperation of those around you, and what you can contribute.
These are things I was thinking about before Ebola. The coming economic disaster could well collapse our food system regardless of what triggers it.
How is that supposed to happen, exactly? Half or more of the people you talk to about this don't even see it as a threat! Look at the comments here. This is the clever crowd. Now discuss the same with the check out girl at the Piggly Wiggly. Good luck.Couple that with a CDC that is moving forward with a soap and water strategy. I keep waiting for them to recommend leeches or nailing garlic above your door.
This thing doubles every day and we debate that there's even a need for action.
Ebola doubles every three weeks not every day. Also, it is dependent on unwashed crowded sweaty populations that lack flushing toilets and showers, or plumbing in general.
The current episode of the Walking Dead is dealing with the contagiousness of the "virus" and how to quarantine themselves. New season tomorrow night!
Don't forget the cannibals!
I want a drumstick! Wonder if it tastes like chicken....
I bought season one and season three of the walking dead. A lot of ugly zombies being chopped up, but no naked super models. I want a new zombie virus that infects only politicians. The infected politicians only want to eat the brains of lobbyists and lawyers.)) Then I will buy a Nother season of the walking dead.
I never watched the show until last season. I've watched 3 marathons on AMC so I've pretty much caught up and revving for tonight's season premiere.
I wonder how popular 'The Walking Dead' TV series is in west africa.
Snakes on a Plane
.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snakes_on_a_Plane
Timing is everything. Stock market, Ebola, heck even when to take a shit. To early, not really a big deal. To late, things could get messy.
Must always have a plan A, plan B, or in this case a plan C for when things get really messed up.
Right now I'm married to my job so I'm screwed if Ebola comes to visit me at my place of work. Just wondering how long I'll have to wait before I get a phone call saying don't bother to come to work because there is no business.
Timing is everything. Just a matter of time before I get that phone call. As you can see, I don't have a plan.
Yes I have guns, ammo, food, T.P., water. But what's the point if I get sick? Don't know about you, I'm staying away from hospitals, planes, buses, cruise ships, as long as I can.
It turns out that there is a vaccine against Ebola. Pentagon scientists were developing it for 30 years, and all the rights for the drug belong to the government of the United States. Two infected US medics received injections of the vaccine and they started recovering from the disease immediately. Why has this been made public only now?
Why is it that the USA holds all the rights for the use of the vaccine?There can be two most obvious answers to these questions.As one can see, Ebola is a perfect biological weapon: it spreads quickly and gives nearly 100% mortality rate. Those having the life-saving vaccine can dictate any conditions to others.
The second answer is a purely commercial interest. It is enough to arrange panic with the help of the media, as it was the case with several epidemics before, such as avian flu. Afterwards, it will be possible to sell the life-saving medicine at any price.
EBOLA Biological Warfare – Is India Prepared ?Just so you know, your stated conspiracy was the precise plot-line for Dustin Hoffman's movie 'Outbreak'.
Which must mean it's like totally dead on balls correct.
I think there was a similar Austin Powers plot line.
If not, there should have.
You've spammed the same shit in half a dozen places in the last few minutes.
What Soviet-Guinean expedition in 1982 discovered the then unknown virus in the rain forests of Guinea?
What two infected US medics received injections some vaccine and they started recovering from ebola immediately?
You're like a Nigerian scammer peddling poorly written, factually challenged doom porn for the gullible.
No joke: Jessie Jackson has teamed up with Thomas Duncan's extended family to sue the Dallas hospital he died in. Saying he received low grade Ebola care because he was African. You can't make this American stuff up.
I hope he teams up...real close like. Extended meetings in rooms with poor ventilation and no AC.
Him popping like a zit..well...it's just so perfect.
I hope RevJackson 'laid his hands' on Duncan... /s ahhh,,,
Thomas Eric Duncan, Eric Thomas Duncan, Eric Duncan, or whatever the media will call him next, is not what he seems.
http://jimstonefreelance.com/ebolaeric.html
If this is actually the man in question, (and I'd venture to guess there aren't many 43-year-old Liberian men sharing that name, or combination thereof) this reeks of Deep Politics. At the very least, it bears further scrutiny.
This authors rambling hyperbolie is not reasonable, or even rational in my eyes. Projecting a scenario that the entire world will get Enola, and that half of the worlds population would die is not reasonable. Ebola appears to feed on unwashed crowded third world slums. The chances of a DC politician getting it are zero.
EBOLA ??????????????????????????????????????????? Yeah Right !!!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1ZonCVRQ-2s
hahahahahhah
Hellooooooo, vaccines coming out to you next !!!!!!!!!
I'm sorry. I must have missed something. Since when did ZH become infested with so many trolls? No idea what the troll ratio is now, but it's high. When I see people like miffed and indypat writing short stories that are well capitalized and well thought out and reinforce the narrative of an ebola virus that is real and potentially very dangerous it makes me pause, and question, their agenda.
Where are the thinking people? Someone with the initials BB said the ebola virus is fake. Exactly. He got 15 up votes and 35 downvotes. That's the level of ignorance and insanity here on ZH. Bunch of fucking muppets.
I've said it before and i'll say it again. If ebola was running rampant among so many hosts in so many diff places, people would be dropping like flies. They said it broke out in Dec 2013 and have been tracking it since March 2014. We are in October. That's damn near 10 months this thing has been loose. How many deaths? 3000? 4000? Fucking kidding me. You would need to add TWO ZEROES to those numbers if this was REAL ebola outbreak. There is a ton of other evidence and irrefutable facts that point to total bullshit on behalf of the CDC and WHO and their affiliated crony bioweapon research orgs.
As far as I can see, this place got hijacked when it was sold. I mean, some of these names that have been here for years and years could also have been hijacked. Ebola is a fucking scam, just like all the other scams they've perpetrated. And fuck that line of thinking that "get out in front, even if it's a hoax it's going to affect you" blah blah blah. When you take that attitude you are doing exactly what the herd is supposed to do. The fact that you actually buy into the narrative means u have been compromised. You are not independent, you are a notch. A lever. a pixel. A useless eater.
If you have been fooled by the ebola scare you ARE a useless eater. Regardless of your educational credentials, experience, or good looks. You are part of the supply of power that the top of the pyramid receives. When they push the right psychological and emotional buttons, you respond. Without fail. Go kill yourself.
Everything you said rings hollow to me.
A second Human Being hero healthcare worker diagnosed with ebola in Texas. It is criminal negligence to not help the people in West Africa and require a minimum 21 day quarantine before leaving the region.
Please pray for the speedy recovery of this hero. http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/oct/12/state-health-officials-2nd-ebola-case-in-texas/
please be a false positive.
I'm actually scared for the first time.
belly brain if there is nothing to worry about as you are suggesting then can you please give us your explanation as to why the State Department placed an order for 160,000 Hazmat suits ?
W
Texas healthcare worker tests positive for Ebola
http://mobile.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSKCN0I10AM20141012?irpc=932
"Texas healthcare worker tests positive for Ebola."
Just watch Ebola spread. Next time you use those dollars, ride that plane, bus, commuter train, elevator, eat at a restaurant or drink at a bar. All places where Ebola can be transmitted,
"I'm actually scared for the first time."
Why do you think anyone that works with that disease are suggested to where those hazmat suits? It's all about te money, the government knows once this disease takes hold it will keep people out of places where people shop. Couldn't believe they compared it to AIDS.
So many errant assumptions, a worthless article.
-If demand for oil reduces by half, we are at 1965 with half of today's global population. I recall that people had oil then. Demand will elevate prices so that some oil is recoverable.
The assumption that the demographic will be younger and the old will die in larger numbers, is incorrect. It may be the opposite as in the Spanish Flu that cytokine stormed the young and health into the grave in one day.
A health worker in Texas at the hospital where the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the United States died last week has tested positive for the deadly virus in a preliminary test, the state's health department said on Sunday. U.S. authorities are…
Latest:
http://tersee.com/#!q=ebola&t=text
8000 Ebola victims
58 now in NZ
And apparently he was wearing "full protective gear" or so the flashing Reuters headline says. Bet that doesn't mean self contained breathing apparatus.... Remember: Not airborne... Hedge accordingly.
IMPEACH OBAMA = STOP EBOLA
immigrants used to go through a process, including a medical exam and quarrantine and deportation.
Stupid, for political / racist reasons, bypasses the LAW...
Allegedly the ussa is a "country of laws"..... not under presidente ebola
At this point in time,(while we're still early in the game.) the only "civilized" way to frontrun this beast
from an investment standpoint...
http://www.corporationwiki.com/Puerto-Rico/Carolina/commercial-incinerat...
.......too long?
I say we take off and nuke Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
First, there was Zero. Zero looked around and said, "I am One". One looked at Zero, and said "ONE", I am. (huhhh???) One looked at One again, and said 'TWO'. Two looked at One, and said "THREE". (WTF??) Three looked at Two, and said "I am now FiVE".
Five looked at Three, and Two, and ONe, and said "I am now Eight". (I'm gettin' lost...) Eight looked at Five, and said "I'm THIRTEEN". (stop it,,,stop it,,,) Thirteen looked at Eight, and 5, and 3, and 2, and 1 and 0,,,and announced to the freakin' UNIVERSE 'I am TWENTY ONE". Mr (or is is Mrs.?) 21 looked at 13 and said "I am now 34, with no capital letters". 21 looked up to 34, and divided itself by 34, and became .618%, and then spoke these words "only 38.2% believe"...and thus, they were spared. (which may or may not be a TRUE story,,,ya know how stories get started)
And so, in that day, it was, and shall be... For now, anyway.
Ebola
Ebola alert as Boston hospital is evacuated Ebola fears hit both U.S. coasts on Sunday afternoon when patients showing signs of the deadly virus showed up in Los Angeles and Boston.
The World Health Organisation issues stark warning as the Government is set to announce "important changes" in the NHS to tackle a possible outbreak
Latest:
http://tersee.com/#!q=ebola&t=text