[Thanos]

[Xort]

Only killed 3,800 people with an expected mortality rate of over 50%. But don't worry it's only transferable by direct contact with fluids. So I guess those aid workers were drinking the blood and fluids of the sick and dying because how else could they have been infected right?

This strain of ebola is partly airborne and can be transmitted by people coughing up fluids into a mist. Sure it's not airborne like some others but being in contact with someone that coughs will infect anyone that breaths the air near them.

I'm not sure what the technical definition of airborne is, but fuck technical when your life is at risk.

[Thanos]

Killed 3800 people in a place with a shattered or completely non-existent medical infrastructure and where unhygienic burial practices are endemic with too many people coming into contact with a recently deceased. So far might cause the death of one nurse in Spain who wasn't wearing proper hazmat gear because the hospital admin fucked up or was playing the austerity game with protecting the employees. Also one dog has been killed in a completely hairbrained panic that the transmission in Spain will somehow go from human to dog, then do a 180 in mid-air and then move on again to other humans.

More people in North America will die of the flu over the next six months, because they believe the government is using tracking chips inside the vaccines to follow their movements, than ebola will ever kill here. All because at least 60% of our society is comprised of morons that won't get a flu shot.

The world can survive the actively bad people, because they're really few and far between despite all the damage they cause. The actively and proudly stupid ones though? Those are the ones that will take us all down because there's just too many of them now and their demographic keeps getting bigger every day. Just go for a drive in a moderate level of traffic to see the full proof of that.

[Xort]

Thanos Thanos:

Also one dog has been killed in a completely hairbrained panic that the transmission in Spain will somehow go from human to dog, then do a 180 in mid-air and then move on again to other humans.

Do you think that infected animals can not spread ebola to humans? Because that's how humans got infected in the first place; Infected by wild animals that had/have ebola.

I couldn't state with authority if dogs can or can not get ebola, but I know that some animals can and can then infect humans.

$1:

More people in North America will die of the flu over the next six months, because they believe the government is using tracking chips inside the vaccines to follow their movements, than ebola will ever kill here.

An interesting point, do anti terrorism efforts work because more people die from the police shooting them than terrorists? Or is the rate of terrorism so low because we spend so much effort to counter it?

Will ebola only kill a few people because we are on guard for it? Or will it only kill a few people because it's not very dangerous?

$1:

All because at least 60% of our society is comprised of morons that won't get a flu shot.

The scare mongering of the flu has pissed the public off and they just don't care anymore. Yeah fire up something like the Spanish Flu and kill full percentiles of the population and people will care. But having the already immune compromised people die from the flu isn't a real public health issue. Having otherwise healthy people outside of the traditional vulnerable demographics get sick and then die is a worry to the public.

When the flu was making young healthy people very sick but still hardly killing anyone people took notice but likely did nothing to avoid infection, like not going to public places to engage in social activity.

$1:

The world can survive the actively bad people, because they're really few and far between despite all the damage they cause. The actively and proudly stupid ones though? Those are the ones that will take us all down because there's just too many of them now and their demographic keeps getting bigger every day. Just go for a drive in a moderate level of traffic to see the full proof of that.

I'd rather have the flu then Ebola. The flu has never killed over 50% of the infected people, even 5% now days would be the top issue for a nation and lead to direct government action to contain.

The flu vaccines are very hit and miss, a few years the manufacturers have totally missed the actual flu that became common, leaving idiots that got their shot and thought they were immune going around spreading it.

The actual effects of the flu vaccines are very much like the war on drugs. Busts are up? The system is working, fewer drugs are getting on the street. Busts are down? The system is working fewer shipments are being made so fewer are being stopped.

People died from the flu? OMG get shots!
No on died from the flu? OMG the shots work!

The difference that people should care about is the mortality rate. Anything above 5% is unacceptable from a public health point. Hell 5% would bring most nations to their knees if the rate of infection was medium or better.

[Thanos]

If a false panic over the flu is wrong then how is creating a false panic over ebola right? Are some false panics more wholesome and patriotic than other false panics?

As for people basically being morons, and turning their backs on concretely proven immunization practices that have save uncountable millions and millions of lives over the last hundred-plus years, I'd expect the same dullards that won't get flu shots to be the exact same dullards that wouldn't get a shot to immunize themselves against ebola if one existed. The Obamunist is trying to kill me with ebola! And then he'll dig up my corpse and try to kill me a second time with his Obamunistic ebola vaccine! That's the heart of the problem right there. Stupid people being stupid and through their indomitable stupidity creating an existential threat to others. This is where things go bad, all because of a demographic of morons exercising in full their democratic right to be a bunch of fucking morons.

That the rest of us who know better keep allowing these idiots to drag the rest of us down with them is like fucking unforgivable, man.

[Xort]

Ebola is a serious but manageable threat. The flu is a (currently) very minor threat and much harder to manage.

The issue of a vaccine for the flu is more or less an issue of the flu general being seen as a minor inconvenience rather than a life threatening or life changing illness. This view of the flu is currently correct, but that could change rapidly. This potential for change has been the call of the professionals for seemingly years now. They keep telling me that this flu is super badass, but it never seems to get any traction and do any real harm.

I believe in vaccination for the range of illnesses that have real and serious negative outcomes. For the flu I think that some people in high risk categories for infection and harm should get the generic vaccination for the flu, even if it's effect is questionable. For people in low risk life styles, that is low risk from harm and low risk from infection they can pass.

People should pass on getting the shot, not because of any risks of a vaccine, but because it's in pointless for the low risk people and has a real cost associated with it.

I'm hostile to people saying don't worry about Ebola worry about the flu, because what they are not saying is, don't worry about Ebola our current precautions are likely sufficient to keep it in check, worry about the flu because it kills a few people each year.

[Thanos]

Out of the dozen or so flu immunization's I've received over the last fifteen years or so I never experienced any adverse side effects, or inherited any long-term problems from it at all. But I can specifically remember the multiple weeks of things like work missed and disrupted school attendance from the years I didn't bother to get a flu shot. That was real, not imaginary shit like the anti-vaxxers spread, with real consequences like getting let go from one job for being too sick to show up or failing a class because a pneumonia/flu once hit me so hard at the exact wrong time I couldn't catch up on what I missed.

I never said not to be worried about ebola. I said don't listen to the professional liars, the same ones that cooked up things like the invasion of Iraq over lies, that are lying about ebola for political reasons and to generate crash-TV ratings. Our medical infrastructure is in place to prevent a pandemic. The Africans generally don't have this luxury and that's why an ebola outbreak in Europe or North America won't be anywhere near as devastating as it is in Liberia or Sierra Leone. Panic-mongering is evil and does no good for anyone. And people should be asking some serious questions about the character and motivations of those that are starting a panic over ebola.

[Thanos]

[grainfedprairieboy]

I think you're both right. Thanos is correct about the flu shot and vaccinations and Xort is correct that we need to be on guard for Ebola because despite our top drawer medical system it can get out of control and fast a number of ways .

[Thanos]

The thing is that our medical system is an incredible strong and powerful line of defense. It's an ingenious infrastructure and R&D system that gives us an incredible leg up on any epidemic. Thirty years ago AIDS was a death sentence. Today it's something where anyone infected with it can take a handful of pills per day and live a long life. Assuming that we're automatically lose control, even in the face of something as lethal as ebola, and fall into some kind of biological mega-death and chaos simply isn't plausible.

[Xort]

http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/12/health/ebola/index.html

So a nurse in Texas that was using protective gear has tested positive for Ebola after treating the guy that died.

The first thing the CDC does is claim that it must have been an error.

$1:

"At some point, there was a breach in protocol, and that breach in protocol resulted in this infection," he said at a news conference Sunday. "The (Ebola treatment) protocols work. ... But we know that even a single lapse or breach can result in infection."

Someone was infected? Must have been a breach of protocol. Otherwise the CDC would have to admit that a trained professional with extensive protective gear was infected despite the protective actions, and then just how screwed the general population is if they run into a sick person.

$1:

Ebola is actually difficult to catch. People are at risk if they come into very close contact with the blood, saliva, sweat, feces, semen, vomit or soiled clothing of an Ebola patient.

Read what is actually said here. If you touch something that someone who was sick was wearing, or any part of their body or anything they came from that person, you can be infected.

Super hard to get; a person in protective gear with training still gets infected. Nothing to worry about! CDC says it's hard to get!

Lets keep letting infected people travel in commercial airlines when they get sick playing doctor to the poor Africans.

[Benn]

Xort Xort:

Only killed 3,800 people with an expected mortality rate of over 50%. But don't worry it's only transferable by direct contact with fluids. So I guess those aid workers were drinking the blood and fluids of the sick and dying because how else could they have been infected right?

This strain of ebola is partly airborne and can be transmitted by people coughing up fluids into a mist. Sure it's not airborne like some others but being in contact with someone that coughs will infect anyone that breaths the air near them.

I'm not sure what the technical definition of airborne is, but fuck technical when your life is at risk.

I agree it is likely easier to catch than stated.

As far as our top shelf medical system goes, is this the one that sent that guy who died in the US home with antibiotics when he went to emergency? Is this the one that so far has a 1 infected medical staff per patient ratio so far despite precautions?

We'd better pray it does not become as bad as the flu!

[Benn]

Thanos Thanos:

Brought to you by maters of deception.

Well its true, they are lol.

[PublicAnimalNo9]

Thanos Thanos:

The thing is that our medical system is an incredible strong and powerful line of defense. It's an ingenious infrastructure and R&D system that gives us an incredible leg up on any epidemic. Thirty years ago AIDS was a death sentence. Today it's something where anyone infected with it can take a handful of pills per day and live a long life. Assuming that we're automatically lose control, even in the face of something as lethal as ebola, and fall into some kind of biological mega-death and chaos simply isn't plausible.

Our medical system is also our potential weakness. Where's the first place people are going to go when they start to feel really sick? There's a genuine fear that Ebola may be particularly prone to hospital based spread because the sum'bitch is also an airborne virus.

$1:

Airborne precautions should be utilized including, at a minimum, a fit-tested, HEPA filter-equipped respirator (such as an N-95 mask), a battery-powered, air-purifying respirator, or a positive pressure supplied air respirator to be worn by personnel coming within 1,8 meter (six feet) of a VHF patient.

VHF = Viral Hemorrhagic Fever.

[bootlegga]

Thanos Thanos: