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Ebola can survive on surfaces for almost TWO MONTHS

This just keeps getting worse…but here are some tips for avoiding the virus.

Tests reveal certain strains survive for weeks when stored at low temperatures

Research claims certain strains of Ebola can remain on surfaces for 50 days
It survived the longest on glass surfaces stored at 4° (39°F)
Centres for Disease Control and Prevention claims Ebola typically lives on a ‘dry’ surface for hours – including doorknobs and tables
But when stored in moist conditions such in mucus, this is extended
Survival time depends on the surface, and the room temperature
Virus can be killed using household bleach and people must come into direct contact with the sample to risk infection

By Mark Prigg and Victoria Woollaston for MailOnline

Published: 11:50 EST, 27 October 2014 | Updated: 15:14 EST, 27 October 2014

The number of confirmed Ebola cases passed the 10,000 mark over the weekend, despite efforts to curb its spread.

And while the disease typically dies on surfaces within hours, research has discovered it can survive for more than seven weeks under certain conditions.

During tests, the UK’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) found that the Zaire strain will live on samples stored on glass at low temperatures for as long as 50 days.

The tests were initially carried out by researchers from DSTL before the current outbreak, in 2010, but the strain investigated is one of five that is still infecting people globally.

The findings are also quoted in advice from the Public Agency of Health in Canada.

Ebola was discovered in 1976 and is a member of the Filoviridae family.

This family includes the Zaire ebolavirus (Zebov), which was first identified in 1976 and is the most virulent; Sudan ebolavirus, (Sebov); Tai Forest ebolavirus; Ebola-Reston (Rebov), and Bundibugyo ebolavirus (Bebov) – the most recent species, discovered in 2008.

HOW LONG DOES EBOLA SURVIVE?

For their 2010 paper, ‘The survival of filoviruses in liquids, on solid substrates and in a dynamic aerosol’, the UK’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) tested two particular filoviruses on a variety of surfaces.

These were the Lake Victoria marburgvirus (Marv), and Zaire ebolavirus (Zebov).

Each was placed into guinea pig tissue samples and tested for their ability to survive in different liquids and on different surfaces at different temperatures, over a 50-day period.

When stored at 4° (39°F), by day 26, viruses from three of the samples were successfully extracted; Zebov on the glass sample, and Marv on both glass and plastic.

By day 50, the only sample from which the virus could be recovered was the Zebov from tissue on glass.

For their 2010 paper, ‘The survival of filoviruses in liquids, on solid substrates and in a dynamic aerosol’, Sophie Smither and her colleagues tested two particular filoviruses on a variety of surfaces.

These were the Lake Victoria marburgvirus (Marv), and Zebov.

Each was placed into guinea pig tissue samples and tested for their ability to survive in different liquids, and on different surfaces at different temperatures, over a 50-day period.

When stored at 4° (39°F), by day 26, viruses from three of the samples were successfully extracted; Zebov on the glass sample, and Marv on both glass and plastic.

By day 50, the only sample from which the virus could be recovered was the Zebov from tissue on glass.

‘This study has demonstrated that ﬁloviruses are able to survive and remain infectious, for extended periods when suspended within liquid and dried onto surfaces,’ explained the researchers.

‘Data from this study extend the knowledge on the survival of filoviruses under different conditions and provide a basis with which to inform risk assessments and manage exposure.’

The researchers do stress that these tests were carried out in a controlled lab environment, and not in the real world, but published their findings to highlight the survival rates.

Last week the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated its Ebola guidelines following the rise in infections.

Ebola (pictured) was discovered in 1976 and is a member of the Filoviridae family. This family includes the Zaire ebolavirus (Zebov), which was first identified in 1976 and is the most virulent; Sudan ebolavirus, (Sebov); Tai Forest ebolavirus; Ebola-Reston (Rebov), and Bundibugyo ebolavirus (Bebov)

The centre explained that Ebola is not spread through the air, water, or food and a person infected with Ebola can’t spread the disease until symptoms appear.

The time from exposure to when signs or symptoms of the disease appear, known as the incubation period, is two to 21 days, but the average time is eight to 10 days.

HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF

The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention advises:

• DO wash your hands often with soap and water or use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer.

• Do NOT touch the blood or body fluids (like urine, feces, saliva, vomit, sweat, and semen) of people who are sick.

• Do NOT handle items that may have come in contact with a sick person’s blood or body fluids, like clothes, bedding, needles,or medical equipment.

• Do NOT touch the body of someone who has died of Ebola.

Ebola is spread through direct contact, through broken skin or through eyes, nose, or mouth, via blood and body fluids of a person who is sick with Ebola, or objects, such as needles, that have been contaminated with the blood or body fluids of a person sick with Ebola.

Signs of Ebola include fever and symptoms like severe headache, muscle pain, vomiting, diarrhea, stomach pain, or unexplained bleeding or bruising.

Dr Tom Fletcher of the Royal Army Medical Corps, who has treated victims in Guinea and Sierra Leone, says: ‘The initial symptoms are quite non-specific and similar to a flu-like illness.

‘They include fever, headache and lethargy. This progresses to severe diarrhoea and vomiting.’

Officials have emphasised there is no risk of transmission from people who have been exposed to the virus, but are not yet showing symptoms.

But, specialists at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta found that the virus is present on a patient’s skin after symptoms develop, underlining how contagious the disease is once symptoms set in.

According to the CDC, the virus can survive for a few hours on dry surfaces like doorknobs and countertops and can survive for several days in puddles or other collections of body fluid.

However, bleach solutions, including household bleach, can kill it.

As Ebola grabs headlines, how close to curing it are we?

CDC to release new guidelines for returning Ebola workers

There is no FDA-approved vaccine available for Ebola, but experimental vaccines and treatments for Ebola are under development.

The CDC advises people wash their hands with soap and water or use an alcohol-based hand sanitiser, to protect themselves.

It warns to not touch the blood or body fluids, including urine, faeces, saliva, vomit, sweat, and semen of people who are sick.

Ebola was once thought to originated in gorillas, because human outbreaks began after people ate gorilla meat.

But scientists now believe that bats are the natural reservoir for the virus, and that apes and humans catch it from eating food that bats have drooled or defecated on, or by coming in contact with surfaces covered in infected bat droppings and then touching their eyes or mouths.

The current outbreak seems to have started in a village near Guéckédou, Guinea, where bat hunting is common, according to Doctors Without Borders.

US Ambassador Power will abide by quarantine requirements

Tags: EBOLA

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Categories barack obama, CRISIS IN AMERICA

OBAMA URGES STATES TO REVERSE MANDATORY QUARANTINES

27 Oct

Under Pressure, Cuomo Says Ebola Quarantines Can Be Spent at Home

By MATT FLEGENHEIMER, MICHAEL D. SHEAR and MICHAEL BARBAROOCT. 26, 2014

Facing fierce resistance from the White House and medical experts to a strict new mandatory quarantine policy, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said on Sunday night that medical workers who had contact with Ebola patients in West Africa but did not show symptoms of the disease would be allowed to remain at home and would receive compensation for lost income.

Mr. Cuomo’s decision capped a frenzied weekend of behind-the-scenes pleas from administration officials, who urged him and Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey to reconsider the mandatory quarantine they had announced on Friday. Aides to President Obama also asked other governors and mayors to follow a policy based on science, seeking to stem a steady movement toward more stringent measures in recent days at the state level.

The announcement by Mr. Cuomo seemed intended to draw a sharp contrast — both in tone and in fact — to the policy’s implementation in New Jersey, where a nurse from Maine who arrived on Friday from Sierra Leone was swiftly quarantined in a tent set up inside a Newark hospital, with a portable toilet but with no shower.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York, left, and Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York on Sunday. Credit Michael Appleton for The New York Times

It was the second striking shift in Mr. Cuomo’s public posture on the Ebola crisis in 72 hours; after urging calm on Thursday night, then joining Mr. Christie to highlight the risks of lax policy on Friday, Mr. Cuomo on Sunday night appeared to try to dial back his rhetoric and stake out a middle ground.

He said his decision balanced public safety with the need to avoid deterring medical professionals from volunteering in West Africa. “My No. 1 job is to protect the people of New York, and this does that,” he said. Those quarantined at home will be visited twice a day by local authorities, he said. Family members will be allowed to stay, and friends may visit with the approval of health officials.

Mayor Bill de Blasio, sitting beside Mr. Cuomo at a news conference in Manhattan, nodded in approval, and praised the governor for developing a set of flexible quarantine guidelines that, the mayor said, would show proper respect to those required to abide by them.

After Mr. Cuomo’s announcement, Mr. Christie issued a statement saying that, under protocols announced on Wednesday, New Jersey residents not displaying symptoms would also be allowed to quarantine in their homes.

Until Sunday night, the quarantine orders by Mr. Christie, a Republican, and Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, had drawn withering criticism from many medical experts, who said they would discourage aid workers from volunteering to help eradicate the disease at its source. By midday Sunday, Kaci Hickox, the nurse who became the first person isolated under the new protocols in New Jersey, emerged as the public face of the opposition, calling the treatment she received “inhumane” and disputing Mr. Christie’s assertion a day earlier that she was “obviously ill.”

“If he knew anything about Ebola he would know that asymptomatic people are not infectious,” Ms. Hickox told CNN.

Even some who acknowledged the states’ authority to enact the policy took issue with its implementation in New Jersey.

At Bellevue Hospital Center, staff members listened to Mr. de Blasio on Sunday. Credit Damon Winter/The New York Times

“We have to think how we treat the people who are doing this noble work,” Mr. de Blasio said. At a late afternoon news conference, he said Ms. Hickox’s treatment was “inappropriate,” adding: “We owe her better than that.”

Yet amid heightened public anxiety about the government’s handling of the crisis, state authorities have increasingly calculated that the mandatory quarantines will prove prescient. Since the governors’ announcement, Illinois and Florida have said they were instituting similar measures.

“I think this is a policy that will become a national policy sooner rather than later,” Mr. Christie said in an interview on Fox News Sunday.

The Cuomo and Christie administrations began seriously considering a quarantine on Tuesday, aides said, after federal officials decreed that travelers returning from countries affected by Ebola in West Africa could enter the United States only at five designated airports, including Kennedy and Newark Liberty International.

Mr. Christie had grown increasingly frustrated by mid-October, aides said, over the failure of medical professionals to properly isolate themselves on a voluntary basis after returning from West Africa.

He was startled to learn that Dr. Nancy Snyderman, an NBC News correspondent who had traveled to Liberia and whose cameraman had contracted Ebola, left her home in Princeton, N.J., on Oct. 9 to pick up food at a favorite local restaurant.

When a doctor, Craig Spencer, tested positive in New York City on Thursday, the two governors watched as city officials strained to trace his every movement — on the subway, at a bowling alley, at a meatball shop.

Kaci Hickox. Credit Kara Hickox

What appeared to be a triumph of meticulous forensic work by city health officials, in retracing Dr. Spencer’s every step late last week, looked like a potential nightmare to governors who suddenly contemplated having to repeat such an exercise over and over.

In a series of phone conversations starting on Thursday night, shortly after Dr. Spencer’s condition was diagnosed, and continuing Friday morning, Mr. Christie and Mr. Cuomo decided to impose the mandatory quarantines, officials said — essentially declaring that neither state trusted those potentially exposed to the deadly disease to wall themselves off from the rest of society.

Aides to Mr. Cuomo said the notion of a mandatory quarantine had always been considered, and that the plan had been quietly vetted by attorneys and public-health officials.

Neither governor notified the White House.

It did not take long for a test case to arrive at Newark. Ms. Hickox, who had treated Ebola patients in West Africa, landed at around 1 p.m. Friday, and immediately became ensnared in the new order.

In a way, the NBC episode worked to New Jersey’s benefit. Because of it, Mr. Christie and his aides had already developed a legal framework for mandatory quarantines, which they applied to Ms. Hickox.

The benefits, supporters said, were clear: soothing public concerns with more aggressive monitoring at the front end and sparing officials from exhaustive retracing after the fact.

Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey. Credit Mel Evans/Associated Press

For Mr. Cuomo, though, embracing the policy proved somewhat complicated. Earlier this month, he cast decisions on screening procedures as “a federal issue.” In a news conference on Thursday announcing that Dr. Spencer had tested positive for Ebola, Mr. Cuomo appeared beside Mr. de Blasio and health officials to urge calm. (The city said Sunday that Dr. Spencer “looks better than he looked yesterday.” He remained in serious but stable condition.)

By Friday, appearing with Mr. Christie, the tone had changed starkly.

Tags: EBOLA; OBAMA

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Categories CRISIS IN AMERICA, EBOLA, FSP

Ebola cases hit 10,000 mark

25 Oct

October 2014 08.59 EDT

The number of people infected in the outbreak of Ebola has risen above 10,000, with the mortality rate now approaching 50%.

The World Health Organization said on Saturday that the death toll had risen to 4,922 out of 10,141 known cases globally in eight countries as at 23 October. Those figures show about 200 new cases since the last report, four days ago.

The three worst-affected countries in west Africa – Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone – account for the vast majority of cases, with only 10 deaths and 27 cases recorded elsewhere, WHO said.

Of the eight districts of Liberia and Guinea that share a border with Ivory Coast, only two have yet to report confirmed or probable Ebola cases.

The overall figures include outbreaks in Nigeria, where there were 20 cases and eight deaths, and Senegal, where there was one case and no deaths, that the WHO has deemed to be over. It also included isolated cases in Spain, the US and a single case in Mali.

However, the totals are still likely to be an underestimate because many people in the worst-affected countries have been unable or too frightened to seek medical care. A shortage of labs capable of handling potentially infected blood samples has also made it difficult to track the outbreak.

The latest figures show no change in the total number of cases in Liberia, suggesting that they may not reflect the real situation.

A total of 450 healthcare workers are known to have been infected with Ebola: 80 in Guinea; 228 in Liberia; 11 in Nigeria; 127 in Sierra Leone; one in Spain; and three in the US. A total of 244 have died from the virus.

WHO said on Friday that Ebola vaccine trials will start in West Africa in December, a month earlier than planned, and hundreds of thousands of doses will be available by mid-2015.

Authorities in Mali have taken action to calm fears over Ebola as the disease claimed its first victim: a toddler who was contagious while travelling more than 1,000km on public buses with her grandmother before being treated.

The WHO is treating the situation in Mali as an emergency because the two-year-old girl was secreting bodily fluids during the journey, which began in Guinea and took about 24 hours. The virus is transmitted by contact with bodily fluids.

“Bleeding from the nose began while both were still in Guinea, meaning that the child was symptomatic during their travels through Mali … multiple opportunities for exposure occurred when the child was visibly symptomatic,” the WHO said.

The Malian authorities were attempting to trace all those who had contact with the girl and her grandmother, placing 43 people under observation.

Mali had long been considered highly vulnerable to Ebola, as it shares a border with Guinea.

The UN flew about one ton of medical supplies to Mali on Friday to help combat the outbreak. The cargo included hazard suits for health workers, surgical gloves and face-shields.

Meanwhile, anyone flying into New York and New Jersey after having contact with Ebola sufferers in West Africa will face mandatory 21-day quarantine, the governors of the two states said on Friday.

The first person to be isolated under the new policy has tested negative for the virus.

The woman, who has not been identified, had no symptoms when she arrived at Newark Liberty airport but developed a fever after being admitted to hospital, the state health department said.

Tags: EBOLA

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DOCTOR IN NEW YORK INFECTED WITH EBOLA VIRUS

24 Oct

The Ebola virus is now in the concrete jungle…

A doctor in New York City who recently returned from treating Ebola patients in Guinea became the first person in the city to test positive for the virus Thursday, setting off a search for anyone who might have come into contact with him.

The doctor, Craig Spencer, was rushed to Bellevue Hospital Center and placed in isolation at the same time as investigators sought to retrace every step he had taken over the past several days.

At least three people he had contact with in recent days have been placed in isolation. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which dispatched a team to New York, is conducting its own test to confirm the positive test on Thursday, which was performed by a city lab.

While officials have said they expected isolated cases of the disease to arrive in New York eventually, and had been preparing for this moment for months, the first case highlighted the challenges involved in containing the virus, especially in a crowded metropolis. Dr. Spencer, 33, had traveled on the A and L subway lines Wednesday night, visited a bowling alley in Williamsburg, and then took a taxi back to Manhattan.

Photo

Police officers stood outside the apartment of Dr. Craig Spencer on West 147th Street in Harlem on Thursday. Credit Jennifer S. Altman for The New York Times

The next morning, he reported having a fever, raising questions about his health while he was out in public. The authorities have interviewed Dr. Spencer several times and are also looking at information from his credit cards and MetroCard to determine his movements.

Health officials initially said that Dr. Spencer had a 103-degree fever when he reported his symptoms to authorities at around 11 a.m. on Thursday. But on Friday, health officials said that was incorrect and that Dr. Spencer reported having a 100.3-degree fever. They said the mistake was because of a transcription error.

People infected with Ebola cannot spread the disease until they begin to display symptoms, and it cannot be spread through the air. As people become sicker, the viral load in the body builds, and they become increasingly contagious.

Mayor Bill de Blasio, speaking at a news conference at Bellevue on Thursday night, sought to reassure New Yorkers that there was no reason to be alarmed.

“Being on the same subway car or living near a person with Ebola does not in itself put someone at risk,” he said.

Dr. Spencer’s work in Africa and the timing of the onset of his symptoms led health officials to dispatch disease detectives, who “immediately began to actively trace all of the patient’s contacts to identify anyone who may be at potential risk,” according to a statement released by the health department.

Photo

Bellevue Hospital Center, where the first person in the city to test positive for Ebola has been quarantined. Credit Joshua Bright for The New York Times

Dr. Spencer’s fiancée has also been quarantined at Bellevue. Two other friends, who had contact with him on Tuesday and Wednesday, have been told by the authorities that they too will be quarantined but whether they will isolate themselves in their homes or be relocated was still under discussion, according to a person briefed on the investigation. None of the three were showing signs of illness.

The driver of the taxi, arranged through the online service Uber, did not have direct contact with Dr. Spencer and was not considered to be at risk, officials said.

Speaking at the news conference, city officials said that while they were still investigating, they did not believe Dr. Spencer was symptomatic while he traveled around the city on Wednesday and therefore had not posed a risk to the public.

“He did not have a stage of disease that creates a risk of contagiousness on the subway,” Dr. Mary Bassett, the city health commissioner, said. “We consider it extremely unlikely, the probability being close to nil, that there will be any problem related to his taking the subway system.”

Still, out of an abundance of caution, officials said, the bowling alley in Williamsburg that he visited, the Gutter, was closed on Thursday night, and a scheduled concert there, part of the CMJ music festival, was canceled. Health workers were scheduled to visit the alley on Friday.

At Dr. Spencer’s apartment building, his home was sealed off and workers distributed informational fliers about the disease.

What the New York City Ebola Patient Was Doing Before He Was Hospitalized

Locations visited by Craig Spencer, a Manhattan doctor who has tested positive for Ebola.

OPEN Graphic

Dr. Spencer had been working with Doctors Without Borders in Guinea treating Ebola patients, and completed his work on Oct. 12, Dr. Bassett said. He flew out of the country on Oct. 14, traveling via Europe, and arrived in New York on Oct. 17.

Since returning, he had been taking his temperature twice a day, Dr. Bassett said.

He told the authorities that he did not believe the protective gear he wore while working with Ebola patients had been breached but had been monitoring his own health.

Doctors Without Borders, in a statement, said it provides guidelines for its staff members to follow when they return from Ebola assignments, but did not elaborate on the protocols.

“The individual engaged in regular health monitoring and reported this development immediately,” the group said in a statement.

Dr. Spencer began to feel sluggish on Tuesday but did not develop a fever until Thursday morning, he told the authorities. At 11 a.m., he found that he had a 100.3-degree temperature and alerted the staff of Doctors Without Borders, according to the official.

Photo

Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo spoke during a press conference at Bellevue Hospital in New York on Thursday. Credit Joshua Bright for The New York Times

The staff called the city’s health department, which in turn called the Fire Department.

Emergency medical workers, wearing full personal protective gear, rushed to Dr. Spencer’s apartment, on West 147th Street. He was transported to Bellevue and arrived shortly after 1 p.m.

He was placed in a special isolation unit and is being seen by the designated medical critical care team. Team members wear personal protective equipment with undergarment air ventilation systems.

Bellevue doctors have been preparing to deal with an Ebola patient with numerous drills and tests as well as actual treatment of suspected cases that turned out to be false alarms.

A health care worker at the hospital said that Dr. Spencer seemed very sick, and it was unclear to the medical staff why he had not gone to the hospital earlier, since his fever was high.

Dr. Spencer is a fellow of international emergency medicine at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center, and an instructor in clinical medicine at Columbia University.

Photo

“He is a committed and responsible physician who always puts his patients first,” the hospital said in a statement. “He has not been to work at our hospital and has not seen any patients at our hospital since his return from overseas.”

I agree with Robert Koorse – why did Dr. Spencer not voluntarily quarantine himself, after having such intimate contact with Ebola patients?…

Doesn’t it seem reasonable to expect that licensed medical professionals like Dr. Spencer Craig and Nurse Amber Vinson would have the…

If Dr. Spencer survives, he should be prosecuted. He knew the risks, he knew the danger to others if he wandered out of isolation . . . and…

Before Thursday, more than 30 people had gone to city hospitals and raised suspicions of Ebola, but in all those cases health workers were able to rule out the virus without performing blood tests.

While the city has stepped up its laboratory capacity so it can get test results within four to six hours, the precautions required when drawing blood and treating a person possibly sick with Ebola meant that it took until late in the evening to confirm Dr. Spencer’s diagnosis.

Doctors said that even before the results came in, it seemed likely that he had been infected. Symptoms usually occur within eight to 10 days of infection. Dr. Spencer stopped working with Ebola patients 11 days ago and returned home six days ago.

Ebola is transmitted through bodily fluids and secretions, including blood, mucus, feces and vomit.

Because of its high mortality rate — Ebola kills more than half the people it infects — the disease spreads fear along with infection.

Tags: EBOLA

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Categories CRISIS IN AMERICA, EBOLA, FSP

Mark Caserta: Should we be concerned about Ebola outbreak

23 Oct

Or does “O” have it under control?

Oct. 23, 2014 @ 06:57 AM

MARK CASERTA

The deadly Ebola virus is now in the United States. So how concerned should we be?

In September, the Obama administration told Americans we had little to fear about an Ebola outbreak in the U.S., like the one occurring in certain West African countries.

“The CDC has concluded that there is no significant risk in the United States from the current Ebola outbreak,” said White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest.

“And while it is unlikely that the disease would spread if the virus were detected in the United States, the CDC is taking action to alert health care workers in the U.S. and remind them how to isolate and test suspected patients while following strict infection control procedures.” Ebola virus disease is a rare and deadly affliction caused by infection with one of the Ebola virus strains. It’s spread through the transmission of bodily fluids or contaminated surfaces and causes an acute, serious illness which can be fatal if untreated. There are currently no licensed vaccines. The menacing nature of the virus has sparked fear that it could spread from West Africa to other regions or continents.

“This epidemic is without precedent,” said Bart Janssens, director of operations for Medecins Sans Frontieres. “It’s absolutely not under control, and the situation keeps worsening There are many places where people are infected but we don’t know about it.” CNN recently reported the current Ebola outbreak is “running much faster” than the international response to it, according to the co-discoverer of the virus.

“This is the first Ebola epidemic where entire nations are involved, where big cities are affected,” Peter Piot, a microbiologist and former undersecretary general of the United Nations, said. “And I continue to be worried that the response to the epidemic is really running behind the virus.” Three weeks ago, Barack Obama took to the podium along with CDC Director, Dr.

Tom Frieden, to “calm” the nation regarding the Ebola outbreak.

“First and foremost, I want the American people to know that our experts, here at the CDC and across our government, agree that the chances of an Ebola outbreak here in the United States are extremely low,” Obama said. “In the unlikely event that someone with Ebola does reach our shores, we’ve taken new measures so that we’re prepared here at home.” But despite the president’s “reassurance,” recent events make one question just how prepared we truly are for an Ebola outbreak.

As of last Friday, eight confirmed cases of Ebola have now been or are being treated in the United States while 125 other people are being monitored or are in some form of quarantine, according to the CDC.

So, how concerned should Americans be about a potentia Ebola outbreak in the U.S.?

The same president who told us there wasn’t a “smidgen” of corruption in the IRS, “you can keep your health care plan if you like it” and the Benghazi attack was the result of an anti-Muslim video is now telling us not to worry about Ebola. You tell me.

Mark Caserta is a conserva tive blogger, a Cabell County resident and a regular contributor to The Herald-Dispatch editorial page.

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Categories CRISIS IN AMERICA, FSP

EBOLA IS THE CHALLENGE OF OUR GENERATION

18 Oct

HOW WILL THIS END???

London (AFP) – Aid agency Oxfam on Saturday said Ebola could become the “definitive humanitarian disaster of our generation”, as US President Barack Obama urged against “hysteria” in the face of the growing crisis.

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Oxfam, which works in the two worst-hit countries — Liberia and Sierra Leone — called for more troops, funding and medical staff to be sent to tackle the west African epicentre of the epidemic.

Chief executive Mark Goldring warned that the world was “in the eye of a storm”.

“We cannot allow Ebola to immobilise us in fear, but… countries that have failed to commit troops, doctors and enough funding are in danger of costing lives,” he said.

The worst-ever outbreak of the deadly virus has so far killed more than 4,500 people, mainly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, but isolated cases have now begun to appear in Europe and the United States.

“The Ebola crisis could become the definitive humanitarian disaster of our generation,” a spokesperson for the British-based charity said as it appealed for EU foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg on Monday to do more.

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A passenger arrives wearing a face mask at Los Angeles International Airport as fear of the Ebola vi …

Obama’s warning about hysteria came a day after the World Bank said the battle against the disease was being lost and as the US president named an “Ebola czar” to coordinate Washington’s response.

In Sierra Leone, Defence Minister Alfred Paolo Conteh was put in charge of the fight against the disease as the death toll there rose to 1,200.

In a statement, President Ernest Bai Koroma said the defence minister would “with immediate effect” head a new national Ebola response centre.

A global UN appeal for nearly $1 billion (785 billion euros) to fight the spread of the disease has so far fallen short, but a spokesman told AFP more money was coming in daily.

Out of $988 million requested a month ago, the UN said Saturday $385.9 million had already been given by a slew of governments and agencies, with a further $225.8 million promised.

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US President Barack Obama, seen here at the White House on October 16, 2014, said Ebola is “a s …

“It has been encouraging to see the amount and the speed with which these amounts have been committed,” said Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN’s humanitarian office (OCHA).

But the total was still some way off, Laerke said. “Nobody’s smiling in this crisis, so I’m not going to go out and clap my hands and say everything is going fine, because it’s not,” he told AFP.

– Panic growing –

Meanwhile, as panic and Ebola scares spread worldwide, Obama called for patience and perspective.

“This is a serious disease, but we can’t give in to hysteria or fear — because that only makes it harder to get people the accurate information they need. We have to be guided by the science,” Obama said.

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Jeff Hulbert from Annapolis, Maryland, calls for a halt of flights from West Africa, as he protests …

Friday saw a number of false alarms in the United States as fears grew, including at the Pentagon, where an entrance was closed after a woman vomited in a parking lot. US authorities later found no evidence that she had contracted Ebola.

“We have to remember the basic facts,” Obama said Saturday.

The United States — where a Liberian man died from Ebola on October 8 and two American nurses who treated him have tested positive — was not seeing an “outbreak” or “epidemic”, Obama stressed.

More “isolated” cases in the country were possible, he conceded. “But we know how to wage this fight.”

The US president played down the idea of a travel ban from west Africa.

View gallery

Employees of the emergency medical service at Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle airport in Paris check for si …

“Trying to seal off an entire region of the world — if that were even possible — could actually make the situation worse.”

– ‘Losing the battle’ –

Obama’s call for calm was in stark contrast to World Bank chief Jim Yong Kim, who warned Friday that “we are losing the battle”.

He blamed a lack of international solidarity in efforts to stem the epidemic.

“Certain countries are only worried about their own borders,” he told reporters in Paris, as leaders in Washington and beyond grapple for a coordinated response to the outbreak.

Airports in several countries were taking passengers’ temperatures in a bid to detect Ebola carriers, although experts have expressed doubts about the effectiveness of the checks.

France on Saturday started carrying out health checks on Air France passengers arriving from Guinea, where the epidemic began in December, while a cabin crew union called for a halt to flights from Conakry altogether.

The United States, Britain and Canada have already launched screenings at airports for passengers from Ebola-hit zones. The EU is reviewing the matter.

As of October 14, 4,555 people have died from Ebola out of a total of 9,216 cases registered in seven countries, the World Health Organization said.

Society & Culture
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OBAMA POLITICIZES FIGHT AGAINST EBOLA

17 Oct

So Obama names an Ebola Czar, charged with supervising the fight against this dangerous virus. This “czar” has zero experience in the medical field. He’s a politician. You can’t make this stuff up. Such is the wisdom of this president.
Don’t forget what Obama’s former Chief of Staff, Rahm Emmanuel said, “Never let a crisis go to waste,” he said. “Because you can do things you otherwise wouldn’t be able to do.”
Americans must pay attention to this.

Obama to Tap Former VP Chief of Staff Ron Klain as Ebola ‘Czar’

President Barack Obama will appoint Ron Klain to head up efforts to address the Ebola threat, a senior administration official tells NBC News.

Klain is a former chief of staff to both Vice President Joe Biden and former Vice President Al Gore. He left the vice president’s office in 2011. He is now the president of Case Holdings and serves as the general counsel for Revolution, an investment organization.

Obama signaled his openness to appointing an Ebola “czar” Thursday night, telling reporters that it “may be appropriate” to elevate an additional person to coordinate the U.S. response. (White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Friday that Klain’s official title is not czar, but Ebola Response Coordinator.)

Klain will report directly to White House National Security Advisor Susan Rice and the president’s Homeland Security Advisor Lisa Monaco. He is tasked with protecting Americans from the disease and making sure the response is coordinated with the U.S. effort to stop Ebola in West Africa.

The White House had previously resisted the idea of a czar, saying that the administration had already established clear lines of responsibility for handling the threat.

But Obama faced pressure from critics who argue that the nation’s hospitals are not prepared for an outbreak of the virus.

Tags: EBOLA

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Categories CRISIS IN AMERICA, FSP

Mark Caserta: Obama’s policies are on November ballot

16 Oct

Oct. 15, 2014 @ 09:20 PM

No doubt when President Obama told Mitt Romney during the first 2012 presidential debate that he “liked” the term “Obamacare,” he was confident the appellation would be revered as an historic accomplishment for his administration.

Certainly Democrats have been willing to spend your hard-earned tax money to preserve the president’s aspirations. Bloomberg Government reports the cost of HealthCare.gov has now exceeded the $2 billion mark, while the total cost of Obama’s health care reform is more than $73 billion.

But nowadays it’s difficult to find a Democrat who openly supports any of this president’s policies in their election campaigns, much less Obama’s signature health care legislation. But in a recent speech, President Obama assured Americans his policies were indeed on November’s ballot.

“I am not on the ballot this fall,” President Obama said. “But make no mistake: these policies are on the ballot. Every single one of them.”

Yes, there are people who now have healthcare who didn’t prior to the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

But millions have been forced off their existing plan (despite Obama’s promise this would never happen, winning him the esteemed Politifact “Lie of the Year” Award) into health care exchanges where they’re experiencing less coverage, higher deductibles and fewer choices in providers.

In fact, if the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) had scored the ACA correctly, it probably would never have passed! According to Forbes Magazine, 12.5 percent fewer people are uninsured by 2014, rather than the 37.3 percent projected by the CBO.

Additionally, of the millions with canceled coverage, 1 million remain uninsured. And Americans are experiencing far higher premiums than originally estimated while nearly $7,000 will be added in taxes/fees over a decade even for families in the lowest 20 percent of household income.

And all around the country businesses are preparing for the impact of the employer mandate under Obamacare. Understand, these companies will not simply absorb these additional costs. They’ll either cut expenses or raise prices.

Currently hundreds of employers are cutting back on employee’s hours to avoid paying for health care, forcing these individuals into purchasing coverage from an exchange or pay a fine.

And many people still don’t realize the IRS will be the enforcer for ensuring everyone meets their “shared responsibility payment” as decreed by the individual mandate of Obamacare. And Americans have already seen what IRS leadership is willing to do to propagate this president’s ultra-liberal agenda.

Now, there are points in the ACA which should remain, such as coverage for “pre-existing” conditions. But Democrats failed to engage in the necessary conversation about allowing the free market to work in the insurance industry by instituting healthy interstate competition and tort reform.

Instead, they went right for socialized medicine.

Simply put, Barack Obama and complicit Democrats passed legislation that forces Americans into purchasing a product, despite their wants or needs, so they can “redistribute” the assets as they deem “fair.” They’ve taken the “care” out of health care and made it health “control.”

So Democrats may want to run, but they cannot hide. They gave us Obamacare.

Mark Caserta is a conservative blogger, a Cabell County resident and a regular contributor to The Herald-Dispatch editorial page

Tags: MID-TERM ELECTION

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Categories BIG GOVERNMENT, CRISIS IN AMERICA, POTUS

Marc Thiessen: Why is Obama skipping more than half of his daily intelligence meetings?

15 Oct

IS HE THAT MUCH SMARTER THAN HIS ADVISORS? OR WOULD HE SIMPLY RATHER BE GOLFING?

By Marc A. Thiessen September 10, 2012

President Obama is touting his foreign policy experience on the campaign trail, but startling new statistics suggest that national security has not necessarily been the personal priority the president makes it out to be. It turns out that more than half the time, the commander in chief does not attend his daily intelligence meeting.

The Government Accountability Institute, a new conservative investigative research organization, examined President Obama’s schedule from the day he took office until mid-June 2012, to see how often he attended his Presidential Daily Brief (PDB) — the meeting at which he is briefed on the most critical intelligence threats to the country. During his first 1,225 days in office, Obama attended his PDB just 536 times — or 43.8 percent of the time. During 2011 and the first half of 2012, his attendance became even less frequent — falling to just over 38 percent. By contrast, Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush almost never missed his daily intelligence meeting.

I asked National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor about the findings, and whether there were any instances where the president attended the intelligence meeting that were not on his public schedule. Vietor did not dispute the numbers, but said the fact that the president, during a time of war, does not attend his daily intelligence meeting on a daily basis is “not particularly interesting or useful.” He says that the president reads his PDB every day, and he disagreed with the suggestion that there is any difference whatsoever between simply reading the briefing book and having an interactive discussion of its contents with top national security and intelligence officials where the president can probe assumptions and ask questions. “I actually don’t agree at all,” Vietor told me in an e-mail, “The president gets the information he needs from the intelligence community each day.”

Tags: OBAMA DAILY BRIEFINGS

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Categories barack obama, CRISIS IN AMERICA, Military

TOM DELAY: OBAMA PARALYZED BY MUSLIM SYMPATHIES

15 Oct

NEW YORK – President Obama’s left-leaning political ideology combined with sympathies for Islam acquired from being raised by a Muslim stepfather paralyze him as he faces the threat posed by the Islamic jihadist group ISIS, former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay told WND in an interview.

googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-story160LeftSide’); }); “In defending America against radical Islamic terrorism, Barack Obama cannot be trusted,” DeLay said.

“Barack Obama was raised a Muslim, and he claims he is a Christian, and I can’t say for sure whether he’s a Christian or not, but he has shown over the last few years that he has great sympathies with Islam,” DeLay explained.

“You combine that with Obama’s political orientation that is far to the left,” he continued, “and you get a president who hates war, hates the military, and you have a formula for military inaction when it comes to combating radical Islamic terrorists like we are seeing in ISIS.”

DeLay’s indictment of Obama did not end there.

“You add to mix that Barack Obama is incompetent, way over his head as president, and the whole combination produces a worldview that makes Obama detached and reluctant to take the type of the military action against ISIS that would be effective,” he said

DeLay concluded Obama “does not want to face the reality of the danger and threat represented to the United States by ISIS, and he does not want to admit the connections between al-Qaida and ISIS, because he refuses to understand that we are in a war against radical Islamic terrorism.”

Congressional resolve

He said if he were leading Republicans in the House of Representatives, he would rally Congress around a resolution calling on Obama to take immediate military action against ISIS.

DeLay acknowledged that a congressional resolution “can’t force Obama to take effective military action, because he’s still commander-in-chief.”

“But a properly drafted congressional resolution passed with bipartisan support could communicate to the president the will of the people is that he must take effective action and he must take it now,” DeLay said.

“Obama does not understand that there is no alternative but to destroy ISIS,” he said.

DeLay said the U.S. needs “to go into Iraq and Syria with effective military action, and we can’t stop until we destroy ISIS.”

“The truth is that ISIS is a huge threat to the United States and the whole world. But the problem is that under Obama, radical Islamic terrorism is growing in strength every day,” he said.

Words and action

DeLay discounted Vice President Joe Biden’s charge in a speech Wednesday in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, after the video release of the beheading of another American journalist by ISIS, that the U.S. will “follow ISIS to the gates of hell.”

“Biden’s speech didn’t impress me,” DeLay explained, “because the words Obama and Biden speak about going after ISIS do not match with the Obama administration inaction.”

DeLay compared Obama to British Prime Minister David Cameron.

“I read carefully as Barack Obama and David Cameron joined together co-authoring a column in The Times in London that published very tough words attacking ISIS,” DeLay commented. “Cameron has great rhetoric but no power, while Obama has horrible rhetoric and all the power.”

DeLay said the step Obama should be taking at the upcoming NATO meeting in Wales is to form a “coalition of the willing” like President George H. W. Bush did in the run-up to the Gulf War in 1991.

Instead, DeLay said, Obama is leaving the border with Mexico wide open, with no measures to block Islamic terrorists from mixing in with the invasion from Central American of “unaccompanied minors,” many of whom are teenagers in the prime gang-recruitment years, including some with criminal records in their home countries.

“It’s like the pre-911 environment,” DeLay lamented. “For all I know there are radical Islamic terrorists taking flying lessons again in the United States, and all the Obama administration would look the other way, just like the Obama administration does on stopping illegal immigration.”

DeLay referenced recent news reports that some 11 airliners were missing from the airport in Tripoli after radical Islamic terrorists overran it.

He joined with Reps. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., and Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., in criticizing the Obama administration for trying to lift a ban on Libyans coming to the U.S. to attend flight school or to study nuclear science.

“We have something like 6,000 foreign student visas where the Department of Homeland Security cannot find where the students are today,” DeLay commented. “It would be just the same letting Muslims come back into the country to learn how to be airline pilots. The Obama administration would probably just look the other way.”

Tags: ISIS, Muslim radicals

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Categories barack obama, CRISIS IN AMERICA

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Marc Thiessen: Why is Obama skipping more than half of his daily intelligence meetings?

TOM DELAY: OBAMA PARALYZED BY MUSLIM SYMPATHIES

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HOW LONG DOES EBOLA SURVIVE?

HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF

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