Why was any hospital in this country so unprepared after they received warnings in July from health officials, and, also by the president's public statements to the country and to the world to be alert and prepared in August and September?

The Texas hospital's incomplete understanding of the manner in which this virus could infect attending medical staff was tragic, and problematic, but it was also totally predictable, given that no US hospital has had any recent experience in dealing with Ebola.

Calling this "criminal negligence" is quite an overstatement. If you were going to name a culprit guilty of negligence here (which I wouldn't do) the first choice would have to be the CDC, whose job it is to be on top of international public health threats, and communicating the necessary protocols for healthcare worker responses.

The nurses in Texas were infected because that hospital did not immediately respond to those July warnings with resources, proper equipment, and training.

CDC wasn't perfect, but, hospitals being run by CEO's claiming to be worth their $5million a year salaries should have responded immediately and proactively to the warnings.

There are some 6,000 hospitals in the U.S. Do you really think that all of them "immediately respond to... warnings with resources, proper equipment, and training"?

Do you think that those that triage (prioritize) new threats of outbreaks abroad are all guilty of "criminal negligence" because they don't immediately drop everything and figure out the new protocols?

I'm sure you don't think that. Which is why I suggest you are over-the-top when describing the Texas hospital's failure to be ready for one of the first U.S Ebola patients as "criminal negligence."

a great show of defying the WH and federal government every chance he gets.

And, yeah, this hospital had resources and wasn't even training its staff for even basic infectious prevention. Fer chrissakes, did you bother to listen to the nurses who spoke out?

OSHA would be kicking ass and taking names by now if it had, too.

Any hospital that doesn't understand that some pathogens are actually DEADLY and need to be controlled and cleaned up with meticulous attention to detail needs to be shut down and the folks running it need to find another line of work. Hygiene is BASIC to medical services.

Any hospital that doesn't understand that some pathogens are actually DEADLY and need to be controlled and cleaned up with meticulous attention to detail needs to be shut down and the folks running it need to find another line of work. Hygiene is BASIC to medical services.

I'm pretty sure that everyone would agree with your assertion, but respectfully, that isn't the issue. The (retrospective) issue raised by claiming the Texas hospital engaged in criminal negligence is this:

Should hospitals in the U.S have known everything we now know about managing Ebola cases associated with the West Africa outbreak when no hospitals outside West Africa had ever been required to manage such a case?

I say they did what they could do knowing what they knew; that Monday morning quarterbacking always reveals deficiencies, as in this case; and that nothing that was or wasn't done at the Texas hospital in any way suggests criminal negligence on the part of anyone.

That is the totality of my point.

I am reminded here of a comment someone wrote about conservatives on the general subject of their love of criminalization and jails, which was this:

"Got a complex social problem? We have a jail for that!"

.

supposed to be all that the CDC fucking DOES. The CDC got it wrong in two ways: One, they had faith that ordinary hospitals were up to the task of safely dealing with a very dangerous pathogen--WRONG!! And two, they didn't seem to have a task-force ready to go to at least supervise and assist, nor did they communicate proper protocols for PPE and other ebola-related medical procedures/issues (such as waste disposal, advanced care like dialysis and ventilators). Also, why didn't they immediately move Duncan to a proper facility once he was diagnosed? They just totally fucking fell down on the job--and they had ONE JOB!!! The equivalent would be if the ISIS bombing campaign kicked off with the United States Air Force missing every target or crashing all its jets the first week.

and this tiny outbreak we've had here in the US isn't guaranteed to be the last outbreak here. I like Obama being pro-active on this.

We've found out how the two people got it, they are getting better, and no one else has tested positive for it.

Btw, how much money is this new czar going to get for doing nothing? I want to apply to be the Y2K Czar and get a fat paycheck.