[Health] The Infectious Diseases Thread

Rip · Post by **Rip** » Fri Oct 17, 2014 12:09 pm

Captain Caveman wrote:Woman pukes on flight and is locked in the bathroom the remainder of the trip.

People are fucking insane.

How long before someone tries to toss a vomiting passenger out the door?

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Fri Oct 17, 2014 12:29 pm

Never thought I'd live to see the day an Emergency Operations Center is activated because someone vomited near the Pentagon.

Fretmute · Post by **Fretmute** » Fri Oct 17, 2014 12:30 pm

When the plane landed, all passengers were told to remain in their seats as emergency personnel boarded the plane and took the woman away.

. . . and delivered her directly to a lawyer.

LawBeefaroni · Post by **LawBeefaroni** » Fri Oct 17, 2014 12:35 pm

$iljanus wrote:
Moliere wrote:
I see skin where the cuff meets the glove so that person is obviously doomed.

When JCPenny talked about courting a new demographic, they weren't kidding.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Fri Oct 17, 2014 12:36 pm

Fretmute wrote:
When the plane landed, all passengers were told to remain in their seats as emergency personnel boarded the plane and took the woman away.
. . . and delivered her directly to a lawyer.

I'm not sure about that. It wasn't the other passengers that locked her in the bathroom, it was the flight crew under the direction of the pilot. I'm nearly certain the Patriot Act allows for such things. Thanks Obama.

LawBeefaroni · Post by **LawBeefaroni** » Fri Oct 17, 2014 12:42 pm

Also, there's a huge cab stand on a side street near where I work. There are always a lot of taxis lined up. A few food trucks specializing in African food have taken to parking there to feed them. Naturally, the spot has become a gathering place African cab drivers to hang out and shoot the shit. I love going there and getting lunch and taking in what I call "mini Africa".

I saw the food trucks getting sho'd away by city guys yesterday. The spot is close to hotels I guess.

The funny thing is, I might peg the drivers as higher risk but not because they're African. Because they're in cabs all day with tourists and make airport runs.

LawBeefaroni · Post by **LawBeefaroni** » Fri Oct 17, 2014 12:44 pm

Smoove_B wrote:
Fretmute wrote:
When the plane landed, all passengers were told to remain in their seats as emergency personnel boarded the plane and took the woman away.
. . . and delivered her directly to a lawyer.
I'm not sure about that. It wasn't the other passengers that locked her in the bathroom, it was the flight crew under the direction of the pilot. I'm nearly certain the Patriot Act allows for such things. Thanks Obama.

They're attaching a trigger mechanism to vomit bags now. If you pull one out of the seat, you get tased and encased in a negative pressure isolation bubble. On transatlantic flights, you just get ejected.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Fri Oct 17, 2014 1:00 pm

I'm a little hurt that I wasn't named the Ebola Czar this morning. I'm sure there was a good reason a lawyer was.

$iljanus · Post by **$iljanus** » Fri Oct 17, 2014 1:13 pm

Sorry Smoove. You can be picked for the next hemorrhagic fever that hits our shores.

msduncan · Post by **msduncan** » Fri Oct 17, 2014 1:19 pm

I feel 100x better about stopping Ebola now that a Washington career bureaucrat with no medical training or experience has been named the Czar. Bravo to President Clueless.

Captain Caveman · Post by **Captain Caveman** » Fri Oct 17, 2014 1:25 pm

msduncan wrote:I feel 100x better about stopping Ebola now that a Washington career bureaucrat with no medical training or experience has been named the Czar. Bravo to President Clueless.

Yeah, I too was disappointed it wasn't Smoove, but we must move on.

J.D. · Post by **J.D.** » Fri Oct 17, 2014 1:25 pm

Man I can't WAIT to go to Disney next week with two flights there and two flights back. God forbid my four year old starts coughing on the plane.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Fri Oct 17, 2014 1:25 pm

Yeah, I guess judge supervisors for Arabian horse shows are hard to come by. I really have no idea why you'd pick someone with exactly zero background to be the face for Ebola response. Scratch that....I understand why he was picked. I can't believe anyone thought it would be a good idea.

Rip · Post by **Rip** » Fri Oct 17, 2014 1:50 pm

Smoove_B wrote:I'm a little hurt that I wasn't named the Ebola Czar this morning. I'm sure there was a good reason a lawyer was.

Sorry but you are overqualified. Of course most people it would appear are. No other way to explain the selection.

J.D. · Post by **J.D.** » Fri Oct 17, 2014 1:51 pm

I know it's easy to forget through all the HYSTERIA and noise but the only cases in North America are still those that caught it while in Africa, or caught it treating patients from Africa.

Rip · Post by **Rip** » Fri Oct 17, 2014 1:51 pm

J.D. wrote:Man I can't WAIT to go to Disney next week with two flights there and two flights back. God forbid my four year old starts coughing on the plane.

If you need to vomit just do it in your mouth and swallow it.

LawBeefaroni · Post by **LawBeefaroni** » Fri Oct 17, 2014 1:57 pm

Smoove_B wrote:Yeah, I guess judge supervisors for Arabian horse shows are hard to come by. I really have no idea why you'd pick someone with exactly zero background to be the face for Ebola response. Scratch that....I understand why he was picked. I can't believe anyone thought it would be a good idea.

It's a PR position. I'd rather have an actor or lawyer or celebrity in the job than someone who would be effective at an ebola response. The experienced ebola fighter should be working on solutions and response rather than dicking around DC doing press conferences.

That it went to a favored political operative is disappointing but not suprising. He's going to be doing spin and possibly some motivational speaking. And it doesn't change my confidence level one way or the other.

$iljanus · Post by **$iljanus** » Fri Oct 17, 2014 1:58 pm

I'm baffled why they just didn't appoint the current Surgeon General as "The Czar". He certainly has the background for it and he's the head of the Public Health Service.

Background:

Lushniak spent 16 years with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While there, he worked on assignments in Russia, Kosovo and Bangladesh. He also worked at the World Trade Center site and with the CDC anthrax team. Lushniak joined the Food and Drug Administration in 2004. He served as the Chief Medical Officer, Office of Counter-terrorism Policy and Planning in the Office of the Commissioner before being named FDA Assistant Commissioner, Counterterrorism Policy and Director of the Office of Counterterrorism and Emerging Threats within the Office of the Commissioner, the following year. He was promoted to Rear Admiral (Upper Half) and named Deputy Surgeon General in 2010.[2]

And some of what the Surgeon General does:

The Surgeon General reports to the Assistant Secretary for Health (ASH), who may be a four-star admiral in the United States Public Health Service, Commissioned Corps (PHSCC), and who serves as the principal adviser to the Secretary of Health and Human Services on public health and scientific issues. The Surgeon General is the overall head of the Commissioned Corps, a 6,500-member cadre of health professionals who are on call 24 hours a day, and can be dispatched by the Secretary of HHS or the Assistant Secretary for Health in the event of a public health emergency.

I guess Obama chose a former VP chief of staff for his experience with working with a wide variety of agencies in order to cut through the red tape, etc. If Anthony Fauci wasn't already wearing his head of NIAID hat he would have been my pick.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Fri Oct 17, 2014 2:03 pm

LawBeefaroni wrote:That it went to a favored political operative is disappointing but not suprising. He's going to be doing spin and possibly some motivational speaking. And it doesn't change my confidence level one way or the other.

Picking Slim Goodbody would have made more sense. The eyes of the nation are on you and you pick a lawyer with exactly zero medical or public health experience? It boggles the mind.

malchior · Post by **malchior** » Fri Oct 17, 2014 2:11 pm

I'm guessing the venn diagram of people with skills dealing with the endless depths of DC bureaucracy and virulent response is two circles not overlapping and that heavily guided the decision.

Jeff V · Post by **Jeff V** » Fri Oct 17, 2014 2:32 pm

J.D. wrote:I know it's easy to forget through all the HYSTERIA and noise but the only cases in North America are still those that caught it while in Africa, or caught it treating patients from Africa.

That's only because the rest of us have been industriously avoiding toilet seats.

LawBeefaroni · Post by **LawBeefaroni** » Fri Oct 17, 2014 2:36 pm

Smoove_B wrote:
LawBeefaroni wrote:That it went to a favored political operative is disappointing but not suprising. He's going to be doing spin and possibly some motivational speaking. And it doesn't change my confidence level one way or the other.
Picking Slim Goodbody would have made more sense. The eyes of the nation are on you and you pick a lawyer with exactly zero medical or public health experience? It boggles the mind.

He's a lawyer with political experience (and connections). Doesn't boggle me too much.

RunningMn9 · Post by **RunningMn9** » Fri Oct 17, 2014 3:10 pm

Smoove_B wrote:The eyes of the nation are on you and you pick a lawyer with exactly zero medical or public health experience? It boggles the mind.

I guess I'm confused about what you think this Ebola czar is going to do?

I'm far more critical of the notion that we even have an Ebola czar. I don't care who it is. It's stupid. Swine Flu killed about 12,000 Americans, and somehow we made it through without a Swine Flu czar. SARS terrified everyone - and yet not only did we not institute a travel ban coming from China - we didn't even implement a SARS screening process on people coming from China.

This entire fiasco is preposterous.

Rip · Post by **Rip** » Fri Oct 17, 2014 3:13 pm

LawBeefaroni wrote:
Smoove_B wrote:Yeah, I guess judge supervisors for Arabian horse shows are hard to come by. I really have no idea why you'd pick someone with exactly zero background to be the face for Ebola response. Scratch that....I understand why he was picked. I can't believe anyone thought it would be a good idea.
It's a PR position. I'd rather have an actor or lawyer or celebrity in the job than someone who would be effective at an ebola response. The experienced ebola fighter should be working on solutions and response rather than dicking around DC doing press conferences.

That it went to a favored political operative is disappointing but not suprising. He's going to be doing spin and possibly some motivational speaking. And it doesn't change my confidence level one way or the other.

Spin is what turned this into such a mess in the first place.

RunningMn9 · Post by **RunningMn9** » Fri Oct 17, 2014 3:16 pm

Rip wrote:Spin is what turned this into such a mess in the first place.

But there is no actual mess...

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Fri Oct 17, 2014 3:21 pm

RunningMn9 wrote:
Smoove_B wrote:The eyes of the nation are on you and you pick a lawyer with exactly zero medical or public health experience? It boggles the mind.
I guess I'm confused about what you think this Ebola czar is going to do?

Rule ebola with an iron fist until the ebola Bolsheviks overthrow him?

RunningMn9 · Post by **RunningMn9** » Fri Oct 17, 2014 3:22 pm

Blackhawk wrote:Rule ebola with an iron fist until the ebola Bolsheviks overthrow him?

That would make as much sense. This is a completely fabricated panic. It's insanity.

Rip · Post by **Rip** » Fri Oct 17, 2014 3:28 pm

RunningMn9 wrote:
Rip wrote:Spin is what turned this into such a mess in the first place.
But there is no actual mess...

Sure there is. There have been ebola patients that were treated without a functioning protocol in place. There have been cases of the CDC letting a patient fly on a plane after she started showing symptoms.

We have a POTUS that said ebola spreading here was near impossible just days before it did. Then downplaying the threat of any spread because we got our shit together and know exactly what to do. Right before it became obvious they really didn't know what to do and could hardly be further from having their shit together.

The ebola itself isn't half the threat that the handling of it has turned it into. At this point it doesn't matter what type of slick fast talking full of bullshit lawyer you put out there in front of it, few have any faith in any assurances they are given at this point.

Rip · Post by **Rip** » Fri Oct 17, 2014 3:31 pm

RunningMn9 wrote:
Blackhawk wrote:Rule ebola with an iron fist until the ebola Bolsheviks overthrow him?
That would make as much sense. This is a completely fabricated panic. It's insanity.

The panic is pretty real, because the assurances about how small of a threat it was were fabricated.

If more realistic expectations had been set and more attention was put into combating and dealing with it the panic would be far smaller.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Fri Oct 17, 2014 3:32 pm

BH, how did you miss the opportunity to coin the term "ebolshaviks"?

J.D. · Post by **J.D.** » Fri Oct 17, 2014 3:32 pm

Rip wrote:
RunningMn9 wrote:
Rip wrote:Spin is what turned this into such a mess in the first place.
But there is no actual mess...
Sure there is. There have been ebola patients that were treated without a functioning protocol in place. There have been cases of the CDC letting a patient fly on a plane after she started showing symptoms.

We have a POTUS that said ebola spreading here was near impossible just days before it did. Then downplaying the threat of any spread because we got our shit together and know exactly what to do. Right before it became obvious they really didn't know what to do and could hardly be further from having their shit together.

The ebola itself isn't half the threat that the handling of it has turned it into. At this point it doesn't matter what type of slick fast talking full of bullshit lawyer you put out there in front of it, few have any faith in any assurances they are given at this point.

But, but, but no one in the US has caught the virus from someone that doesn't have an immediate history with West Africa. Duncan's family lived in his contaminated apartment for days while he was symptomatic and are fine. Despite the fever (and the incredible stupidity of boarding that plane, even just from an optics perspective) the passenger are at EXTEMELY low risk. This could all be over in less than three weeks. Which means there really is no mess, other than the two nurses who are victims of bad protocols. I feel really badly for them, but if this is the only fallout, I'd say everything turned out ok as a whole.

J.D. · Post by **J.D.** » Fri Oct 17, 2014 3:33 pm

Rip wrote:
RunningMn9 wrote:
Blackhawk wrote:Rule ebola with an iron fist until the ebola Bolsheviks overthrow him?
That would make as much sense. This is a completely fabricated panic. It's insanity.
The panic is pretty real, because the assurances about how small of a threat it was were fabricated.

What has changed that has made this a large threat?

RunningMn9 · Post by **RunningMn9** » Fri Oct 17, 2014 3:33 pm

Rip. Are you even a real person?

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Fri Oct 17, 2014 3:35 pm

RunningMn9 wrote:This is a completely fabricated panic. It's insanity.

That's would I would expect an Ebola Czar to come out and say. Repeatedly. To news organizations. On TV. On the Twitter. And the people would say, "Oh, ok - here's a person that has experience and I can trust them." Instead we have a guy that looks like a used car salesman apparently ready to slice and dice red-tape or chauffeur Congress back to work. I've been saying for years that public health has a MAJOR public relations problem. This isn't helping.

Zarathud · Post by **Zarathud** » Fri Oct 17, 2014 3:37 pm

In other words, it's election season and the President needs someone who knows how to handle the inevitable Republican hearings to get to the bottom of yet another made up controversy.

Sorry you're missing all the fun, Smoove. Handling ebola makes you less than qualified to deal with this latest outbreak in Washington. It's that contagious.

LawBeefaroni · Post by **LawBeefaroni** » Fri Oct 17, 2014 3:43 pm

RunningMn9 wrote:
Rip wrote:Spin is what turned this into such a mess in the first place.
But there is no actual mess...

Where there's a political will, there's a way.

Would a mess hurt one side, politically? Yes. Then both sides must fight it out, full fisticuffs. Because that's what it's all about.

RunningMn9 wrote:
Smoove_B wrote:The eyes of the nation are on you and you pick a lawyer with exactly zero medical or public health experience? It boggles the mind.
I guess I'm confused about what you think this Ebola czar is going to do?

I'm far more critical of the notion that we even have an Ebola czar. I don't care who it is. It's stupid. Swine Flu killed about 12,000 Americans, and somehow we made it through without a Swine Flu czar. SARS terrified everyone - and yet not only did we not institute a travel ban coming from China - we didn't even implement a SARS screening process on people coming from China.

This entire fiasco is preposterous.

Exactly. We have a failing at a local hospital. It is essentially no different than poor handwashing protocols leading to the spread of MRSA. It is a severe problem but would that ever be a federal issue (aside from Medicare dockging pay for re-admission)? No. Yet suddenly two nurses get ebola and we want the CDC running all our hospitals.

We want our borders locked down and a thermometer in the mouth of every person that walks into an airport. But requiring a flu shot is an infraction of basic human rights.

I also find it awsome that among Rip's chief complaints is that a federal agency didn't tell a citizen that they couldn't do something and moreso, didn't use force to stop her.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Fri Oct 17, 2014 3:47 pm

Rip is right. Enough of this rationality and common sense. I'm going to panic instead.

The cool thing about disease-panic is that you don't leave the house to do it. Quite the opposite. That suits me just fine.

Kraken · Post by **Kraken** » Fri Oct 17, 2014 3:50 pm

RunningMn9 wrote:
Smoove_B wrote:The eyes of the nation are on you and you pick a lawyer with exactly zero medical or public health experience? It boggles the mind.
I guess I'm confused about what you think this Ebola czar is going to do?

I'm far more critical of the notion that we even have an Ebola czar. I don't care who it is. It's stupid. Swine Flu killed about 12,000 Americans, and somehow we made it through without a Swine Flu czar. SARS terrified everyone - and yet not only did we not institute a travel ban coming from China - we didn't even implement a SARS screening process on people coming from China.

This entire fiasco is preposterous.

Siljanus beat me to it, but since this is just political posturing anyway, Obama should have agitated for confirmation of his surgeon general. "Confirm this guy or America dies!"

RunningMn9 · Post by **RunningMn9** » Fri Oct 17, 2014 3:50 pm

Smoove_B wrote:That's would I would expect an Ebola Czar to come out and say. Repeatedly. To news organizations. On TV. On the Twitter. And the people would say, "Oh, ok - here's a person that has experience and I can trust them." Instead we have a guy that looks like a used car salesman apparently ready to slice and dice red-tape or chauffeur Congress back to work. I've been saying for years that public health has a MAJOR public relations problem. This isn't helping.

I can accept your disappointment in this - but I still maintain that it's ridiculous to even have such a position in the first place.

Captain Caveman · Post by **Captain Caveman** » Fri Oct 17, 2014 3:50 pm

Blackhawk wrote:Rip is right. Enough of this rationality and common sense. I'm going to panic instead.

The cool thing about disease-panic is that you don't leave the house to do it. Quite the opposite. That suits me just fine.

Ebola outbreak = more time for gaming? Blackhawk is right. Who's emphasizing the positives in all this? I'm going to start an Oprah-inspired Ebola appreciation diary.