Related:
"For an administration that prides itself in never letting a crisis go to waste, the Ebola outbreak is seemingly offering the perfect opportunity to achieve a long-time Western goal – to build up a U.S. military presence in Africa in the face of growing Chinese investment and influence on the continent."
Then I received confirmation:
"WHO chief calls Ebola outbreak a ‘crisis for international peace’" by Nick Cumming-Bruce | New York Times October 14, 2014
She says the outbreak threatens nations and cites the wealth gap as a health issue?
GENEVA — Dr. Margaret Chan, the director general of the World Health Organization, said Monday that the Ebola outbreak in West Africa has progressed from a public health crisis to “a crisis for international peace and security.”
“I have never seen a health event threaten the very survival of societies and governments in already very poor countries,’’ said Chan, who dealt with the 2009 avian flu pandemic and the SARS outbreaks of 2002-03.
So every six years or so we get a crisis that requires the pharmaceuticals to be funded? They must figure enough time has pa$$ed between $windles.
Chan made the statement in remarks delivered on her behalf at a regional health conference in Manila.
Ebola is in the Philippines now?
More than 4,000 people have died from the Ebola virus, all but a handful of them in the West African nations of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, according to WHO estimates issued last week. Chan declined to update those figures, saying they are still rising “exponentially.”
Instead, Chan drew a number of lessons from the outbreak. Most notably, she emphasized “the dangers of the world’s growing social and economic inequalities.”
“The rich get the best care,” she said. “The poor are left to die.”
And it has been that way for centuries despite the beneficial globali$m that has been practiced the last 30 years.
‘‘We are seeing, right now, how this virus can disrupt economies and societies around the world,’’ she said, but added that adequately educating the public would help governments prevent economic disruptions.
These f***ers CARE MORE ABOUT the MONEY!
Kanayo Nwanze, president of United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development, said Monday that there are already food shortages in Senegal and other countries in West Africa because farms have been abandoned and regional trade has been disrupted.
That's another way to get rid of a bunch of useless eaters.
Ebola emerged 40 years ago, and, Chan said, there were no vaccines or other remedies because it has traditionally been confined to poor African countries. A profit-driven pharmaceutical industry had no incentive to make products for countries that could not pay, she said.
That is what is wrong with the $y$tem of western medi$ine.
Related: $1,000-a-pill hepatitis drug price cut for poor nations
Still can't afford it.
The risks of neglecting health care in developing countries are global, Chan said, adding that “when a deadly and dreaded virus hits the destitute and spirals out of control, the whole world is put at risk.”
Remember this when you see the authorities complaining about the fear they have generated.
Moreover, she said, inadequate health care means that the kind of shocks the world is experiencing with greater frequency — including extreme weather events resulting from climate change, armed conflict, or “a disease run wild” — could “bring a fragile country to its knees.”
A second lesson drawn from the crisis was that “rumors and panic are spreading faster than the virus, and this costs money,” Chan said, noting a World Bank estimate that 90 percent of the economic costs of any outbreak “come from irrational and disorganized efforts of the public to avoid infection.”
The final message she wanted to deliver, however, was that “the world is ill-prepared to respond to any severe, sustained, and threatening public health emergency.”
I'm tired of having messages delivered to me from on high by evil globali$t $hit bags.
*************
France and other European countries are considering following the lead of the United States and Britain to start screening passengers arriving from West African countries hit hardest by the outbreak.
The French presidency said in a statement Monday that Francois Hollande discussed the possibility of starting screening passengers from Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone during a phone call with President Obama, the Associated Press reported.
France will also accept a request by Guinean authorities to set up additional Ebola treatment centers, the presidency said. France is already building one center in Guinea.
My question has been answered.
In Brussels, the European Union announced health officials will hold a meeting on Thursday to see where they can cooperate better to contain the disease. EU spokesman Frederic Vincent said they would center on whether there is a need to check passengers at EU airports.
On Saturday US customs and health officials began taking the temperatures of passengers arriving at New York’s Kennedy International Airport from the three West African countries.
The screening is to expand to four additional US airports this week, and Britain has also said it will introduce ‘‘enhanced’’ screening of travelers for Ebola at Heathrow and Gatwick airports and Eurostar rail terminals.
Ebola the excuse for more tyranny.
In a separate development Monday, health workers reported for duty at Liberia’s hospitals, largely defying calls for a strike that could have further hampered the country’s ability to respond to the outbreak, the AP reported.
Also see: Sierra Leone Gravediggers On Strike
Nurses and other health workers — though not doctors — had threatened to strike if they did not receive the higher hazard pay they had been promised by the government. That would have made the already difficult care of Ebola patients even harder, since the bulk of the staff at clinics and hospitals is made of up of Liberia’s nurses, physician assistants, and community health workers.
The outbreak has also reduced access to health care for those with other diseases because many hospitals and clinics have shut, often because their staff are afraid to come to work or are not sufficiently trained to handle a patient with Ebola if one arrives.
So we are being told.
--more--"
"WHO: 10,000 new Ebola cases per week could be seen" by Maria Cheng | Associated Press October 15, 2014
LONDON — West Africa could face up to 10,000 new Ebola cases a week within two months, the World Health Organization warned Tuesday, adding that the death rate in the outbreak has risen to 70 percent.
That will put the fear of Ebola into you.
**************
Health workers have been hit hard by the virus, which is spread by contact with bodily fluids like blood, vomit, and diarrhea. Doctors Without Borders said 16 of its employees had been infected with Ebola and nine of them have died.
Speaking Tuesday in Johannesburg, the head of the charity’s South Africa unit, Sharon Ekambaram, said medical workers have received woefully inadequate assistance from the international community.
‘‘Where is WHO Africa? Where is the African Union?’’ said Ekambaram. ‘‘We’ve all heard their promises in the media but have seen very little on the ground.’’
Except for another staged and scripted fake video?
**************
In other Ebola news:
A UN medical worker infected with Ebola in Liberia died in Germany despite ‘‘intensive medical procedures.’’ The St. Georg hospital in Leipzig said Tuesday the 56-year-old man, whose name has not been released, died overnight. He had tested positive for Ebola on Oct. 6, prompting Liberia’s UN peacekeeping mission to put 41 other staff members under ‘‘close medical observation.’’
Related: United Nations medical worker dies of Ebola
In Spain, the government’s Ebola committee said the assistant nurse infected with the virus has improved slightly but was still in serious condition. Fifteen contacts of hers were being monitored.
Notice how quickly she was forgotten?
Starting Thursday, customs and health officials at airports in Washington, Chicago, Atlanta, and Newark plan to take the temperatures of passengers arriving from three West African countries.
--more--"
Also see:
Snapshot: Economic data, Ebola rattle the markets
Despite Ebola fears, airline stocks rebound
Then they dropped again.
Ebola Lands at Logan
Time to get off the plane:
"5 taken from Logan plane in precaution; Ill passengers on jet deemed Ebola-free" by Trisha Thadani and Todd Feathers | Globe Correspondents October 13, 2014
Five passengers experiencing flu-like symptoms aboard an Emirates flight originating in Dubai were escorted off the plane Monday afternoon by a team in full hazmat suits at Logan International Airport, and other passengers were kept on board for nearly three hours while officials assessed the situation.
That is how martial law is going to be imposed. Not through armies and militaries, but through hazmat suits. When they show up on your street, it's over.
*************
Late Monday, the Boston Public Health Commission issued a statement saying there appeared to be no Ebola infection:
It does not appear that any of the sick passengers had been traveling in West Africa, where an outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus has already killed more than 4,000 people, said Matthew Brelis, spokesman for the Massachusetts Port Authority.
Two of the feverish passengers were transported to Boston Medical Center, said David Procopio, a State Police spokesman. The other three passengers exhibiting flu-like symptoms did not appear to have a fever, but were still taken to Massachusetts General Hospital, he said.
The emergency response at Logan came just one day after dozens of workers and patients were quarantined for hours at a Braintree medical facility after a man who had recently visited Liberia complained of a headache and body aches.
A Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center spokeswoman said Monday night that the hospital’s evaluation showed the man in the Braintree case does not have Ebola.
As Monday’s events unfolded at the airport, Brelis said, the mass response of emergency crews — it consisted of Massport Fire Rescue, the State Police, Boston EMS, Customs and Border Protection, the Boston Public Health Commission, and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — did not disrupt incoming or outgoing flight traffic at Logan.
This really is starting to stink.
Officials could not confirm Monday evening whether the five sick passengers were traveling together.
However, Mandy Mohan, who was on Flight 237, said a group of tourists on the plane who seemed to be traveling together were the focus of the health inspectors.
“One of them was kind of sick, so they were checking for symptoms, checking what their temperature was, and stuff like that,” Mohan said.
Mohan said he could see a large assemblage of emergency response crews outside of the plane and dozens of people wearing protective gear.
The remaining 182 passengers and 19 crew members began trickling off the plane at about 5:30 p.m. and then cleared customs, according to a statement from Massport.
Many passengers hugged family members who were awaiting their arrival outside of the baggage claim area.
Maimoona Shaikh was waiting with her husband for their family members, who traveled to Mecca for the Hajj and were coming back on the Emirates flight via Dubai.
See: Was Ebola Meant For Muslims?
Although Shaikh’s family members were among the last ones to come off the plane, she said she was not worried about their health and that “it’s common to come back [from the Hajj] and have a little cold.”
Maybe it is MERS.
Kumar Pal, 35, of Boston, who was also on Flight 237 after traveling from India via Dubai, said the thought of Ebola had not crossed his mind during his travels abroad — not until he landed in Boston and hazmat crews abruptly boarded the plane, that is.
Hmmmmmmmm!
Wasn't even thinking about it, huh?
“They were all in [hazmat suits], so some people became worried about the possibility of an infectious disease,’’ Pal said.
Nothing to fear.
Jaffea Mohamed, 34, said his in-laws were also traveling from India via Dubai. While he was waiting for them to come off the plane, he said, he understood that the emergency response was just “precautionary” and was necessary for “the safety of everybody that is traveling.”
Tyranny is always justified when health is an issue.
--more--"
Maybe this will help you board faster:
"Airline says thumbprint could speed boarding" by Julie Johnsson | Bloomberg News October 13, 2014
SEATTLE — The next breakthrough in paperless airline ticketing may be under your thumb — literally.
Alaska Airlines is exploring using fingerprints to replace the travel documents, driver’s licenses, and credit cards now needed to get on a jet. It would be the first US carrier to employ biometrics for boarding passes and inflight purchases.
My advice to you is avoid flying at all costs.
The digit scans are designed to save harried travelers seconds at bag drops, checkpoints, and passenger lounges.
Yeah, sure they are.
Multiplied across thousands of people slogging through busy concourses, the time savings would mean a ‘‘substantially faster experience,’’ said Henry Harteveldt, a travel analyst. ‘‘Air travel is about moving quickly, and yet airports are one of the places where travelers seem to move the slowest,’’ he said.
Yeah, right, the arrogant a$$hole airlines care about you. That's why they bare charging fees all over the place, packing you in like sardines, and cutting down the leg room.
It’s Alaska Airlines’ latest effort to use technology to distinguish itself. The carrier pioneered online ticketing and satellite navigation for jet landings in the 1990s, introduced wireless check-in in 2001, and last year became the first airline to accept Google Wallet.
The carrier started testing the system Aug. 21 at a frequent fliers lounge in Seattle. Encouraged by the response, Alaska put print readers at all four of its “Board Rooms.” Going beyond lounges is more complicated. The carrier must persuade regulators its device is foolproof and will safeguard privacy. And it faces another challenge: handling all the data on a normal boarding pass. ‘‘You’re not going to be able to look at your finger and go, ‘Look I’m in 16D,’ ” said Sandy Stelling, an Alaska executive.
But it is in the testing stage and only a matter of time until another piece of the global surveillance grid is in place.
--more--"
"Ebola risk minimized, but fear high; Two Mass. scares underscore spread of worries in nation" by Meghan E. Irons and Todd Wallack | Globe Staff October 13, 2014
Fears about the deadly Ebola virus spread to Massachusetts this Columbus Day weekend, prompting holiday press conferences and reverse 911 calls to reassure a jittery public after two Ebola-related scares.
I love it! Authorities who have created such fear to push their agenda are now complaining about it! Another agenda push blowing up in their f***ing faces!
On Sunday, when a man who had traveled to Liberia showed up at a Braintree clinic with flulike symptoms, he triggered a full hazmat response, and was escorted by police to a Boston hospital in an ambulance, while his car was plastered with orange biohazard signs to keep people away.
But don't be afraid.
Then, on Monday, a team dressed in yellow protective suits quickly surrounded and boarded an Emirates flight from Dubai at Logan International Airport after several people on board exhibited flulike symptoms, sparking fears they might have the dreaded disease that is sweeping parts of West Africa.
The incidents followed news of the first Ebola death in the United States, in Texas, and the infection of that patient’s nurse.
Suddenly, a disease that seemed thousands of miles away has spread inside US borders.
The city has already quietly dealt with three to four other suspected cases of Ebola in recent months, none of which actually turned out to be Ebola, health officials said Monday. Instead, the patients had other diseases common in West Africa, such as typhoid and malaria.
That makes me feel a lot better. They only had typhoid and malaria.
“They were treated with appropriate personal protective equipment,” said Dr. Anita Barry, who heads the infectious disease bureau of the Boston Public Health Commission, “and they went back to living their lives.”
The two weekend scares also appear to be unfounded....
Like so many.
On Tuesday morning, Governor Deval Patrick was scheduled to receive an Ebola preparedness briefing from public health officials and airport personnel.
As public worries intensified over the long weekend, Boston public health officials called a news conference on the Monday holiday to assure residents that Boston hospitals are prepared if an actual case of Ebola eventually turns up. They also wanted to tamp down fears that the disease could spread even if it reaches the region.
Now I'm getting afraid. They hype false crisis and tell us to relax during a real one!
Unlike many other diseases, Ebola cannot be spread through the air or water. Instead, people need to have direct physical contact with someone who is already ill or with their bodily fluids. And people are not contagious until they begin to show symptoms.
It was reported weeks ago you can get it from surfaces. Why is the propaganda pre$$ covering that up?
“This is not something that is going to come at [people] through the air by someone they sat next to on the T who looked perfectly healthy,” said Barry, who heads the infectious disease bureau of the Boston Public Health Commission. “Frankly, they are more at risk from influenza.”
City officials said they also have plenty of experience dealing with infectious diseases.
Barry declined to talk in detail about the Braintree case or why it garnered so much media attention, particularly since officials determined within hours that the patient probably did not actually have Ebola.
But Barry said Boston hospitals would “absolutely not” send a potential Ebola patient back to their car to isolate them from other patients, as the Braintree clinic did. She said it is important to not only isolate patients, but also to keep an eye on them.
“I have never in my 31 years of doing this job ever isolated or quarantined someone in a car,” she said....
She is scary looking.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines normally recommend putting a patient suspected of having contracted Ebola in a single patient room with the door closed and making sure that staff who enter the room are wearing protective equipment, including gloves and a face mask.
But Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates, which runs the Braintree clinic, defended its actions Monday, saying its medical team followed procedures that were crafted based on the CDC recommendations....
Related:
With possible Ebola case, Beth Israel took careful steps
CDC reviewing procedures after new case of Ebola in Dallas
CDC faults its own steps on Ebola
Feel better now?
Mayor Joseph C. Sullivan of Braintree said many in town were worried over the weekend that the patient might have spread the disease to local residents before he was taken to the hospital.
Sullivan spent much of the weekend trying to squelch rumors that the man lived in Braintree or had children in the schools. The town even issued a reverse 911 call to calm anxious residents.
“The news has created significant Braintree buzz,” Sullivan said. Residents “were concerned about the safety of their family and their neighbors.”
Similar Ebola fears have swept the country....
Fanned by the media!
Public health officials emphasized Monday that people are unlikely to contract the disease from incidental contact, such as walking by someone with Ebola. Even shaking hands with a patient is considered “low-risk exposure” by the CDC.
Then why all the gear needed?
But caregivers at hospitals are at higher risk if they do not take enough adequate precautions, such as donning plastic gloves and other protective gear, since they are often in lengthy close contact with patients. And the disease is thought to have spread rapidly in West Africa, partly because of the lack of protective gear and the custom of touching the dead at funerals.
Federal health officials on Monday launched a review of procedures for treating infected patients and urged hospitals to increase their focus on handling the disease Separately, the World Health Organization called the outbreak ‘‘the most severe, acute health emergency seen in modern times.’’
That would get you back to the top of this post.
--more--"
"Mass. officials stress low Ebola risk, preparedness" by Nicole Dungca and John R. Ellement | Globe Staff October 14, 2014
After a holiday weekend that included two Ebola scares, Governor Deval Patrick, flanked by Boston’s mayor and state health and public safety officials, on Tuesday sought to reassure the public that residents of Massachusetts are at low risk of contracting the disease.
Patrick emphasized that there have been no confirmed cases in Massachusetts, but said that the state was prepared to respond in case the deadly disease does arrive here.
Why does that not fill me with confidence?
“We’re doing everything we can. According to the Centers for Disease Control, we still remain at low risk of Ebola, but we’re remaining vigilant,” he said at a news conference at Logan Airport.
Mayor Martin J. Walsh of Boston echoed the governor’s comments, repeatedly stressing that there is no reason for the public to stay off the MBTA and no reason to avoid the Head of the Charles Regatta, one of the nation’s most famous rowing competitions, on the Charles River this weekend.
Related: Stepped-up security planned for Head of Charles
“There have been no cases, no toxic cases, on the MBTA,” Walsh said. “Simply going on the train, you are not going to catch Ebola.’’
The news conference, coming amid heightened concerns nationally and an increase in cases overseas, amounted to a full-bore effort to assuage and educate the public about the virus.
I'm being propagandized again!
Public health officials sought to quell fears....
They fan them up on one hand, try to put them out on the other.
--more--"
Never mind the public. You guys have bigger problems:
"Mass. nurses worry about Ebola preparedness" by Felice J. Freyer | Globe Staff October 16, 2014
As a second nurse fell ill in Dallas, the union representing thousands of Massachusetts nurses sounded alarms Wednesday about the adequacy of Ebola preparations at hospitals in the state.
“For us, it’s hit home,” said Donna Kelly-Williams, president of the Massachusetts Nurses Association, noting that the only people to become infected with Ebola in the United States are nurses. “What I am seeing firsthand and what I have heard from nurses across the state — there are not the preparations we need.”
But hospital officials said they have been working on preparations since the summer and are responding as quickly as they can to shifting circumstances and new knowledge.
“The truth is that we attempted to be proactive from the beginning,” said Dr. Eric Goralnick, medical director of emergency preparedness at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. “Now it’s here, and we can feel it. Anxiety is high. We’ve got to take it up to the next notch, and we are taking it up.”
Truth? In my newspaper?
Nurses said they are worried because someone returning from West Africa with symptoms of Ebola could seek care in any medical setting, and a nurse is likely to be the first person to interact with the patient. They say they are equally concerned about being assigned, without adequate training, to care for an Ebola patient once admitted.
Some hospitals have decided to provide training strategically.
******************
Kelly-Williams, a nurse at Cambridge Health Alliance, said nurses across the state have told her that their only training has been an e-mail guiding them to a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website.
Which are not adequate according to reports.
And she said nurses report that most hospitals do not have hazmat suits and respirators to protect those caring for an Ebola patient.
The Massachusetts Hospital Association asserted in a statement Wednesday that the state’s hospitals, with guidance from the state Department of Public Health, have been conducting Ebola response training, plan more training, and have personal protective equipment available.
“All Massachusetts hospitals have established policies for containing and treating all types of contagious diseases,” the statement said.
Still, nurses are concerned.
“Dallas was a big eye-opener,” said Karen Higgins, copresident of National Nurses United, parent of the Massachusetts nurses’ union. “The status quo is not going to work.”
Hasn't been.
Hospitals across the country have protocols for handling infectious diseases, but Ebola is “something that’s out of the realm of what we would routinely take care of,” Higgins said.
She has spoken out nationally, insisting most hospitals have failed to prepare adequately.
But on Wednesday, she said Boston Medical Center, where she works as an intensive care nurse, had “stepped up to the plate.” Although training had been minimal to date, she said, the hospital now has plans for one-on-one training and drills.
“They were one of the first places to respond to what’s happening in Dallas,” she said. “I applaud them.”
Who got to her?
************
The disclosure that a second Texas nurse is stricken with the viral ailment followed frenzied responses in the Boston area over the Columbus Day weekend. When a patient who had traveled to Liberia went to a Braintree medical practice feeling ill, the patient was isolated, and the clinic was temporarily closed. On Monday, hazmat teams raced to a jet at Logan Airport after reports of five people with flulike symptoms aboard an Emirates flight.
In both incidents, Ebola was quickly ruled out — but not before anxiety intensified....
--more--"
Related: R.I. man says he’s recovering from Ebola
I'm lovin' it!
"Second nurse gets ebola, drawing new scrutiny" by Manny Fernandez and Jack Healy | New York Times October 16, 2014
DALLAS — New shortcomings emerged Wednesday in the nation’s response to the Ebola virus after it was revealed that a second nurse was infected with Ebola at a hospital here and that she had traveled on a commercial flight the day before she showed symptoms of the disease.
The nurse, Amber Joy Vinson, 29, was on the medical team that cared for the Ebola victim Thomas Eric Duncan after he was admitted to the hospital on Sept. 28 and put in isolation.
Vinson should not have traveled on a commercial flight, federal health officials said. She boarded Frontier Airlines Flight 1143 on Monday, en route from Cleveland to Dallas-Fort Worth.
One official said Vinson had called health officials before boarding the plane to report having a slightly elevated temperature but was allowed to fly.
This after I have been told for a week by the CDC that procedures were in place. It's al;most as if they want it spreading.
A second case of Ebola among the nearly 100 doctors, nurses, and assistants who treated Duncan for 10 days at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital was not unexpected. For days, federal health officials have warned that in addition to Nina Pham, the first nurse confirmed with the disease, other cases were likely.
But the appearance of a new Ebola patient replayed a health drama that unfolded in this city twice before in a two-week period.
I'm tired of ma$$ media drama narratives.
The day also provided more signs of concern about the ability of federal officials to control the spread of the disease, particularly to health care workers — and indications that the issue was becoming politicized.
President Obama Wednesday canceled his travel to a fund-raiser in New Jersey and a campaign rally in Connecticut so he could convene a meeting of officials to coordinate the government’s response to the spread of the virus. Cities and states adopted heightened security measures, and Vinson was being treated at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta rather than in Dallas — all signs of the heightened focus on the disease.
Then this must be serious! He cancelled the fund raisers!
House Speaker John A. Boehner on Wednesday became the most high-profile Republican to urge Obama to consider a travel ban on those traveling to the United States from West African countries where the Ebola virus is spreading rapidly. The same point has been raised by several Republican candidates in tight Senate races, including David Perdue of Georgia, Mike Rounds of South Dakota, and Joni Ernst of Iowa.
That's not political; that's smart.
At Kent State University in Ohio, where Vinson studied nursing and her mother and two other relatives worked, officials issued a statement asking her three family members to stay off campus for the next three weeks, “out of an abundance of caution.” Frontier Airlines said it had put the two pilots and four flight attendants on Flight 1143 on paid leave.
Not quarantined though?
The Frontier jet that carried Vinson on Monday made five flights after her trip before it was taken out of service, according to Flightaware.com, a flight tracking website.
Who was on those flights?
****************
Hours after CDC Director Dr. Thomas R. Frieden spoke, a federal health official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, said that because it was thought that Vinson’s protective gear would have kept her safe and because the temperature was only mildly elevated, she fell into a category not covered by CDC guidelines and therefore was not forbidden to board the plane.
He said the error was on the part of the CDC, not the nurse....
And yet we are supposed to trust them.
Frieden stressed that the passengers were a low-risk group. Because Vinson did not have a high fever and did not experience nausea or vomiting on the plane, the risk “to any around that individual on the plane would have been extremely low,” he said.
Even as those with protective gear are getting sick?
--more--"
Also see:
Too bad it is ruining the campaign!
"Obama halts trip to deal with Ebola; Will eventually campaign on governors’ races" by Josh Lederman | Associated Press October 16, 2014
WASHINGTON — Barack Obama’s best-laid plans to go all out for Democrats in the final weeks of the midterm elections are running smack into a widening Ebola crisis, as Americans anxiously turn to the government and their president for answers.
HA!
That is the LAST PLACE WE ARE TURNING for ANSWERS!
Hours after unveiling an ambitious itinerary to boost Democratic candidates for governor, Obama abruptly called off the first stop on his tour Wednesday, postponing a fund-raiser in New Jersey and a rally in Connecticut for Governor Dannel Malloy — Obama’s first major campaign appearance of the season.
Already conceding the Senate, 'eh?
Instead, he called top officials to the Cabinet Room for an emergency meeting on the response to Ebola.
The rare move to cancel a presidential trip only hours before Air Force One was scheduled to take off reflected a growing sense of urgency at the White House to deal with the Ebola epidemic head-on.
Translation: It's hurting Democratic chances.
When previous crises have cropped up, such as the riots in Ferguson, Mo., and the downing of a Malaysia Airlines jet in Ukraine, Obama was sharply criticized for refusing to alter his travel plans.
This time, the White House seems determined to show the commander in chief is fully engaged.
That's the illusory image they want to present anyway.
Yet if Obama’s schedule is in flux, his approach to the midterms is not. Obama plans a narrow focus on a handful of governor’s races, betting that Democratic wins in state houses can help him protect his legacy on health care and the economy — even if the Senate falls to Republicans.
Which it likely will.
The emphasis on governors marks a shift for Obama, who spent much of the past six months in ritzy homes raising money for House and Senate Democrats. But races for governor are a rare bright spot for Democrats this year, when historical trends and a rough map are working against them in Congress.
They are going to get smoked in three weeks!
All of the states where Obama has announced plans to campaign are states he won twice:
He might as well wave a white flag of surrender.
■ Michigan: Obama will rally for Mark Schauer, who Democrats say has a realistic chance to oust Republican Governor Rick Snyder. Michigan also has the only Senate race where Obama is expected to campaign.
■ Wisconsin: Unseating GOP Governor Scott Walker, a potential 2016 presidential candidate, would be a major coup for Democrats. Obama will rally for Walker’s opponent, Mary Burke, who recently got a boost from first lady Michelle Obama.
Related: Burke Can Beat Walker in Wisconsin
As long as she acts like a Republican!
■ Pennsylvania: Democrats say GOP Governor Tom Corbett’s poor approval ratings make him ripe for defeat. Obama plans an event for Democrat Tom Wolf, who polls indicate has opened up a lead.
Related: Pennsylvania Porn Scandal
If he's caught up in that....
■ Illinois: Nowhere can Obama still command as much adoration as in Illinois, his home state. Obama has already helped Governor Pat Quinn raise money and will follow it up Sunday with a public campaign appearance. Quinn is fending off a challenge from GOP businessman Bruce Rauner.
That's why the nuclear false flag will be in Chicago.
■ Connecticut: Obama’s rally for Malloy, originally scheduled for Wednesday, will be rescheduled. Malloy barely defeated Republican Tom Foley in 2010, and Republicans are hoping Foley will be more successful in this year’s rematch.
There is a di$connect there.
■ Maryland: Obama will campaign for Democrat Anthony Brown, who has a sizable edge over Republican Larry Hogan in this Democratic-leaning state.
■ Maine: Although there is a wild card — independent candidate Eliot Cutler — Democrats still see Representative Mike Michaud as one of their best prospects to pick up a governor’s mansion this year. Michaud faces GOP Governor Paul LePage, who is seeking another term.
Ma$$ media hates LePage, which is a good reason to like him.
--more--"
As always, I turn to the Boston Globe editorial staff for solutions:
"Leadership, bold steps needed on Ebola in the US" October 16, 2014
If further confirmation was needed that the Ebola epidemic is a menace to be soberly reckoned with, it came this week: The World Health Organization predicted that new cases could reach 10,000 a week by December — a number that threatens to swamp efforts to contain a fast-moving, virulent foe. In the United States, politicians and doctors scrambled to reassure the worried following reports that a second nurse in Dallas, who has tested positive for the disease, boarded a plane the day before she was diagnosed. Scores aboard that flight are now being monitored. As public concern mounts, so does the need for clear-eyed leadership — in the medical community, in statehouses across the country, and in Washington.
The national response to Ebola seems to have been patched together on the fly. Although the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it is ready to deploy specialized teams to help any hospital with an Ebola patient, the agency’s credibility has taken a significant hit in Dallas, with CDC Director Tom Frieden facing criticism over his insistence that “any hospital in the country can safely take care of Ebola.” Front-line medical workers need not just words of reassurance, but a level of confidence in their ability to execute complex protocols flawlessly. The union National Nurses United issued an urgent call for state-of-the-art protective equipment and hands-on training.
In Massachusetts, things seem relatively calm. Governor Patrick and Mayor Walsh held a news conference to make the point that no cases have been confirmed in the Commonwealth, and said the state and the city are working with medical facilities. The Head of the Charles Regatta is proceeding as planned this weekend, as it clearly should. A doctor writing in the Globe documented the steps taken at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center when a patient who had recently been in West Africa came in complaining of aches and pains.
But elsewhere, the Ebola crisis is also bringing out the worst sort of scaremongering and political posturing.
I take that as a compliment, and if that is not the pot hollering kettle. A paper filled with fear complaining about people being fearful.
Scott Brown, while campaigning for the US Senate in New Hampshire, gave a radio interview linking the country’s “porous” border to Ebola, saying, “I think it’s naive to think that people aren’t going to be walking through here who have those types of diseases.”
Related: Scott Brown Surges Past Jeanne Shaheen
Ebola must be why.
The governor and attorney general of Louisiana fought plans to put the ashes of a Dallas Ebola victim’s incinerated belongings in a hazardous waste site in their state.
All this shows the need for leadership that rises above politics. President Obama canceled a trip on Wednesday to meet with the agencies involved in the US response. Although the White House expressed confidence in the CDC’s leadership, the federal government should take the bold steps needed to coordinate training and care as cases emerge. It’s a bad time to be without a surgeon general; dismayingly, Obama’s appointment of Dr. Vivek Murthy of Brookline sank earlier this year because of NRA opposition.
See: Gunning For Murthy
But the president needs a confidence-inspiring figure to lead and explain the nation’s Ebola efforts — or should be prepared to step into that role himself.
He appointed a czar like the Globe wanted. Whoopee.
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And at the bottom of it all?
"The Ebola Epidemic is a hoax on the scale of 9-11 and Sandy Hook. The purpose is to frighten the masses into accepting martial law measures and to send troops to occupy West Africa. It’s not Ebola that will get you. It’s the vaccines....
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As I begin today I'm told it is a war on every front as I logged in, so this truly is it, folks. That author I quoted above was right. It has been an honor to have served you these eight years, and I will continue until the end. Goodbye.
"Ebola comes to last safe district in Sierra Leone" by Clarence Roy-Macaulay and Paul Schemm | Associated Press October 17, 2014
FREETOWN, Sierra Leone — The Ebola virus has infected two people in what was the last untouched district in Sierra Leone, the government said Thursday, a setback in efforts to stop the spread of the disease in one of the hardest-hit countries.
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Ebola is rampant in the rest of the country, with 425 new cases just in the past week and a health care system that is struggling to deal with the onslaught of the disease....
Planes cannot fly to the affected countries because they are afraid they will be refused permission to land elsewhere, said the African Union chair Nkosazana Zuma on Thursday.
Currently only Moroccan airlines and Brussels Air fly to all three countries.
Kaifalah Marah, Sierra Leone’s finance minister, on Thursday warned that border closures and cutting flights were ‘‘killing our economies,’’ describing the isolation as a de facto economic embargo....
WELL??!!
‘‘It’s critically important that these countries stay connected to the rest of the world, part of the reason for making this trip is that if you take the proper precautions, it is safe to travel and work here,’’ US Agency for Development chief Rajiv Shah said during his trip through Sierra Leone on Wednesday.
AID = CIA!
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"Private-care doctors in state receive little advice on Ebola" by Felice J. Freyer | Globe Staff October 17, 2014
Medical practices around the state face an unnerving possibility: that a patient with Ebola symptoms could show up first at the doctor’s office, not the hospital.
It happened Sunday when a man who had recently traveled to Liberia went to a Braintree group practice, complaining of a headache and body aches. The highly publicized response, which turned out to be a false alarm, underscored that the front line of medical care is not always the emergency room.
The episode at Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates was “the wake-up call that probably much of the state, if not the country, needed,” said Jamie Barber, chief executive of Compass Medical, a multispecialty practice with eight Massachusetts locations.
I've been up!
But doctors in private practice have had little guidance from health officials on how best to protect staff and patients without fueling needless fears about a virus that is unlikely to threaten most Americans.
It was not until Wednesday that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention put out recommendations specific to office-based practices....
“No phone calls or alerts,” and “everybody is nervous.”
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Related: More Ebola precautions needed, Mass. officials say
I don't want to go to the doctor or hospital for anything right now. That's where the diseases are.
Related:
"An Ebola-infected nurse’s air travel between Dallas and Cleveland has sent ripples of concern through at least two states, leading to school closings and voluntary isolations. On Wednesday, officials had emphasized that the passengers on the plane were a low-risk group. “It’s not a rational decision,” said Dr. Andrew T. Pavia, chief of pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Utah. “And it’s harmful, in that it’s going to further spread misunderstanding and irrational fear.”
That the government's MO regarding ISIS, global warming, Iraqi WMD, and all the other self-serving scares they have concocted!
Also see: Congress scrutinizes handling of Ebola cases in Texas
It's what they call a photo-op so members can look butch to constituents on the eve of elections.
That's the end of today's posts.
