I said a couple months ago that this kind of action should've happened sooner. I feel like they really dropped the ball here. They got used to Ebola outbreaks burning themselves out and became complacent.

Some people on these boards were telling me only about a week ago that Ebola was too difficult to transmit person to person for this outbreak to ever become a serious epidemic.

I don't see them making that argument now.

when they say that all they really mean is that it's not as contagious as the flu.

Well, thank fucking god for that, but it doesn't mean we can relax about it. If someone vomits or coughs near you, and you get a microscopic bit of fluid in your eye - you've got it. Just because it isn't HIGHLY contagious, doesn't mean it still can't infect even people who take precautions. There have been strains that seemed to transmit more readily than others and considering how quickly viruses mutate, it's shocking they don't take it more seriously.

As a funny side note, all the posters citing the CDC made me chuckle, as in the book by Richard Preston, the army thinks the CDC is WAY too arrogant and relaxed about Ebola. I know it's 'based' on a true story, but it's a recurring theme in the book. I guess time will tell who is right.

Sure didn't seen to slow down HIV very much when it hit the streets.

Mr. Preston must feel like a sad, sad prophet right about now.

That WAS because there is a highly latent period between infection and symptoms during which you can transmit it. HIV has a different 'plan' for transmission than Ebola does. Ebola is only transmitted once symptoms show up, so that works in our favor. But just because there are many 'in our favor's (not technically airborne, cannot transmit without symptoms) doesn't mean it won't spread. We are humans on a crowded planet. Ebola is a virus that cares only about surviving. It will, eventually, find a way. Imagine, if you will, Ebola Reston transmission with Ebola Zaire's death rate. The bigger and longer the outbreaks are, the more likely this is going to happen. Eventually.

I also hope emergency rooms are not overwhelmed by fearful thousands with only mild cases of diarrhea and such.

Yes, lots and lots of people got HIV.

Lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of people got the Spanish flu.

(And when looking at it, make sure you correct for population size)

HIV/AIDS has been anything but a goddamned walk in the park. How many millions have to die early, painful deaths before you would agree it is a truly serious disease?

HIV is a very serious disease that has killed millions.

Airborne HIV would be a monstrously awful disease that would kill billions. It would utterly annihilate modern society, either through what we had to do to contain it, or what it would do if we did not contain it.

That doesn't make HIV a walk in the park. It makes us lucky HIV was not worse.

I just reread it but it was the PDF file and I couldn't find the disclaimer I thought I had read with the book, that the names had been changed. I *thought* the book was mostly true, but I've heard 'true stories' in books that weren't 100% true. So thanks

This needs to be stopped at its origin.

But these are the same people who managed to lose how many vials of smallpox and anthrax, and allowed them to stay lost for how many years?

I expect you will be linking to claims the C.D.C. started it in Nigeria just to seize the oil there....

"No bottom! No bottom with this line!"

I've said it before, but I say again, and with added emphasis: You clearly know nothing about me.

I would certainly put up three for five on it.....

And you are free to embarrass yourself over it all you might wish.

And that within the hour of my comment, and here in this very thread.

Of course, it is possible that you would still have the sense, or the self-control, to refrain, simply on the grounds of not giving me the gratification, but if something like that appears in Russia Times or in Consortium or Reader Supported News, you may not even so be able to restrain yourself.

The CDC is one of the premier centers on Ebola. They have had the virus under study since the first outbreak. However, there are only 15 BSL-4 labs in the USA and Ebola is a very tough nut to crack.

The recent smallpox vials have absolutely nothing to do with the CDC's research on Ebola.

Sheesh!

But everything to do with misplacing incredibly dangerous pathogens. Are you suggesting that stunning breakdown of control is not a matter for concern?

and has little to do with the current situation.

The CDC is one of the primary centers for studying these pathogens, arguably THE center. And they have been doing so since the very first outbreak. They know more about Ebola than anybody on the planet.

But, go ahead and poison the well. After all, we all need to be more afraid.

If my commenting on this topic on an Internet chat board is going to start some kind of mass panic, then we are already in a far worse situation that anyone (excepting yourself) has yet suggested. If that is the case, you should follow your own advice, and don't "Poison the well" yourself.

someone now long dead.

But carry on with your silliness, Alex Jones.

better now than later

They have moved to level 1 responses before ( some merely for natural disasters or preplanned events)
Prior events include:

"
2011: Japan Earthquake and Tsunami
2010: New Hampshire Anthrax; Haiti Earthquake, Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, Haiti Cholera Outbreak
2009: Salmonella typhimurium outbreak; Presidential Inauguration; H1N1 Influenza
2008: Satellite intercept; Salmonella and E. coli outbreaks; Hurricane Dolly; Tropical Storm Edouard; Hurricanes Gustav, Hanna, and Ike
2007: XDR/MDR TB Patient; Hurricane Dean
2006: Mumps; Tropical Storm Ernesto; E. coli outbreaks, Botulism Outbreak, Mycoplasma Pneumonia
2005: Presidential Inauguration, Marburg virus; Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma
2004: Avian Influenza, BioWatch, Influenza vaccine shortage; Guam typhoon; Ricin; Citites Readiness Initiative, G8 Summit; Summer Olympics; Democratic National Convention; Republican National Convention; Hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne; West Nile Virus; Tsunami
2003: Columbia Space Shuttle Disaster; SARS; Monkeypox; Northeast blackout; Hurricane Isabel; Domestic Influenza; California wildfires; Ricin; Tularemia; Anthrax; BSE (Mad Cow Disease)
2001: World Trade Center Attacks; Anthrax Attacks "

source: http://www.cdc.gov/phpr/eoc_responses.htm#aar

Given the both international and inter-agency cooperation need for this it will be expensive and require more that a local state or even limited federal response.
for more info on how the criteria for which response level is is met see
http://www.fema.gov/pdf/emergency/nrf/nrf-core.pdf

Hope this helps.
bench