The latest faits-divers
regarding Western fecklessness in confronting the epidemic (main essay
here: Ebola tourism).
[Update 9 October 2014]
(1) The Obama
administration’s timid response to the latest events -- a response evidently
reluctant, and under public pressure -- to the extent of taking the temperature
of passengers from ebola-ravaged lands, only at five airports and only after
it’s too late -- namely, after they have arrived here, from whence no-one will
have the guts to send them back -- is, as the CDC itself admits, mostly just
for show: to show, not that they
actually care, but they can at least pretend
to care. The French
socialist government has just announced that they are unwilling to go even that
far. The leader of the Front
national, Marine Le Pen, has called for suspending flights from the infected
countries; unfortunately, the
general election isn’t till 2017 -- plenty of time for the socialos to do irreversible damage in the meantime.
(2) Likewise
vulnerable is Spain, via their enclave of Melilla in Morocco. For reasons of political
correctness, Spain has refrained from erecting an adequate barrier, so that the
one they have is often scaled or knocked down. Just yesterday, over three
hundred sub-Saharans assaulted the enclave at several points simultaneously
(apparently coordinated by traffickers) -- some over the wall, some coming into
the port on a float. All
this in the hope (which in the past has repeatedly been fulfilled) of being
sent on their merry way to Spain, courtesy of the taxpayer, legality be damned,
and with all the diseases they might be carrying. Melilla itself lacks appropriate specialized hospital
facilities, and has requested them, in the face of the continued refusal on the
part of the Spanish government to
defend the enclave, or to allow it to defend itself. (Indeed, just a few days ago, yet another bisounours
European commission delivered a tut-tut report against the Melillian (and
Moroccan) authorities for
insufficient TLC towards the invaders.
(3) I just
watched a video from Sierra Leone, which attempted to show the professional
level of measures being taken by the government there. The camera crew followed a nice young
man -- a volunteer, bless him, in a very dangerous job -- driving to a crowded
quarter of Freetown to retrieve an
ebola-infected corpse. (Remember
that the corpse is at least as dangerous as the live carrier.) The crowd was hostile, especially
the relatives of the deceased; a
single soldier stood guard but did nothing; ultimately the young volunteer had
to retreat, leaving the corpse to rot and infect others.
We then proceeded to a similar mission, this time at a
military hospital, so that there was no problem with an unruly mob. We watching the volunteer and several
of his comrades, patiently and
dutifully suiting up, till they looked like astronauts. Only … one detail: In a suit like that, the astronaut
would be dead. For the suit left a
gaping hole at the throat. (Sort
of like the Maginot Line, which was sound in construction but omitted to cover
Belgium; epic fail.) The team proceeded anyway, having patched the gap with …
Scotch tape!
 |
| Uh-oh ... check your zipper .. |
(4) Those who
attempt to calm (or paper-over) public fears, speak blithely of “decontamination”
of infected premises, as though that
at least were a magic bullet. But
the NBC cameraman who came down with ebola despite not having had direct contact
with patients, believes that he caught it in the very act of decontamination -- splashback from spraying a car.
This morning, airline workers at LaGuardia went on strike
over being sent in to clean out blood and vomit from airplanes, with minimal
protective gear.
(5) Republicans
naturally have been seizing on this, perceiving an issue. Indeed there is an issue, though
they approach it in their by now familiar way, making up lies about ebola-ISIL
brigades already at the border with Mexico. It’s a good thing they are fuming, since the CDC/DHS
are both still stonewalling; but
as a party they offer nothing, since, scientifically, they are the party of
aggressive incompetence: witness
the many, many missteps in Texas.
However, some friends of mine are committing the fallacy of
discounting the dangers of America’s current lax approach, simply because the Tea Party types are
attempting to adopt the issue of their own; as though it were all no more than a Faux News
smokescreen. A good corrective
to this is to sample the public response in Europe, where Obama is not an
issue. The point of the examples
below is not to justify the public
response, but (a) to help Americans be aware of how this is playing out in
Europe, and (b) to counter the suggestion that the whole issue is just an
invention of the Teabaggers.
First, Spain.
* Remarkably, the tone of public opinion has been
unexpectedly hostile, both to the now gravely ill nurse’s aide, and to the
decision to repatriate the infected Spanish missionary-priest. The inhospitable attitude towards
the priest, their own compatriot, contrasts with the relative mildness of the
Liberian who managed to infiltrate the US under false pretenses. Also, the nurse’s-aide may not be
the brightest bulb (aides often aren’t;
she is not an R.N.), and may have infected herself by (as she says)
touching her face with her glove while "doffing" (disrobing): but please! The
particular situation she faced was unprecedented, and perfection
in such cases is impossible. And now a Spanish doctor has likewise quarantined himself: he says that the sleeves on his moon-suit were too
short. (Having seen that Freetown
video, I can well believe it.)
* As for Spanish commentary on sites reporting the Melilla
story (which, admit it, you never heard of until just now), it is
unprintable: harder than the
hardest of hard lines you are likely to hear in the United States.
Next, France.
* This morning, some parents are boycotting the local school
owing to the return of a pupil from ebola-wracked Guinea.
* The teflon/happytalk French health minister today
dismissed the need for further protective measures, with the curious reasoning
that “there are no cases of ebola in France”. (Que l’on sache, one wishes to add.) As though on cue, no sooner had she issued this unsettling
reassurance, then a possible case was announced:
9 October 2014 Un bâtiment de la DDASS [direction départementale des Affaires sanitaires et sociales] de
Cergy-Pontoise, en banlieue parisienne, a été bouclé ce soir après le malaise
dans ces locaux d'une personne qui pourrait être d'origine guinéenne et présentant des symptômes grippaux semblables
à ceux du virus Ebola, a-t-on appris de sources concordantes.
Un lecteur ironise:
Ce n'est pas possible. Mme Touraine
nous a garantie qu'il y avait aucun danger. Nous aurait on menti ?
Another comments, more ominously:
Le camp des Saints version 2014.
[Update, 13 Oct 2014]
Mounting pushback:
Doctors and nurses pray before
entering the Ebola ward at JFK Hospital in Monrovia, Liberia. After a doctor at
the hospital contracted the virus, some employees quit and the facility stopped
accepting patients.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/liberia-already-had-only-a-few-dozen-of-its-own-doctors-then-came-ebola/2014/10/11/dcf87c5c-50ac-11e4-aa5e-7153e466a02d_story.html
The French ministre de la santé, Marisol Touraine, has been
as bad as the CDC director Thomas Frieden, showing the same opacity and blithe
dismissal. Most recently, under
pressure, she has said she is “considering” clamping down on direct flights
from Conakry. Well, not actually
clamping down -- not actually banning the flights; but anyhow taking the passengers’ temperature after they
arrive in France and it’s too late.
The workers aren’t buying it.
Le syndicat national des
professionnels infirmiers dénonce lundi l’ « omerta » des
pouvoirs publics sur Ebola.
http://www.lesechos.fr/economie-france/social/0203853766757-france-un-syndicat-dinfirmiers-denonce-lomerta-sur-ebola-1053003.php
Frieden’s recent foot-in-the-mouth statements were
particularly egregious. Naturally,
health-care workers are “bristling” that he (seemingly) blamed the nurse --
e.g.
This
healthcare worker risked their life and according to the hospital they worked
for she was wearing the required PPE. Why would any healthcare worker want to
care for these or any other infectious patient when the CDC will blame the
healthcare worker for their contraction of the disease. Why take care of these
patients and potentially die? Would you want your legacy to your children to be
“breach of protocol”
Actually, his verbiage was so vague that it was unclear whom
or what he was blaming; but really
it was worse than that. If
breach there was, by all means lay it out, so that the same mistake won’t be
repeated. But he did not
follow through with any details at all;
and apparently, he was talking out of his fundament: they still don’t know what went
wrong. (As another reader
commented, “A breach in protocol … or a protocol that’s broken?”) Thus, quite apart from any, let us say,
lack of bedside manner, the CDC chief’s approach is intellectually quite
worrisome as well.
Pushback from a physician:
Officials had previously never made
it clear that the 48 people being evaluated did not include those treating him
after his admission to the hospital.
Dr. Joseph McCormick, regional dean
of the University of Texas School of Public Health in Brownsville, said he was
shocked that none of those monitored by officials were hospital workers caring
for Mr. Duncan after he was put in isolation. Dr. McCormick worked for the
C.D.C. in 1976, when he helped investigate the first epidemic of Ebola in
central Africa.
“You know that once this guy is
really ill and he’s hospitalized, there’s going to be a lot of contact,
manipulation of blood specimens, cleaning up if he’s vomiting or if he’s got
diarrhea,” Dr. McCormick said. “You certainly can’t assume that because he’s
hospitalized and in this unit that everything is fine and everything that goes
on will be without any risk. I mean that’s just ludicrous to think that.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/14/us/dallas-nurse-ebola-patient.html
Acronym note:
Although usually referred to as “CDC”, the full and official
name of the agency is “CDCP”:
Center for Disease Control
and … Propagation?
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