US steps up response as Ebola worries grow

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

By JIM KUHNHENN

WASHINGTON (AP) — The revelation that a second Dallas nurse who is ill with Ebola was cleared to fly the day before her diagnosis raised new alarms as leaders of the nation's public health system prepared to defend their efforts to contain the deadly virus before a congressional hearing Thursday.

President Barack Obama directed his administration to respond in a "much more aggressive way" to oversee the Dallas cases and ensure the lessons learned there are transmitted to hospitals and clinics across the country. For the second day in a row he canceled out-of-town trips Thursday to stay in Washington and monitor the Ebola response.

Federal health officials who say they know how to shut down the disease within the U.S. were being called to testify in what was looming as a combative hearing by a House oversight panel on Capitol Hill.

In prepared testimony, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of NIH, said that the death of a Liberian man in Dallas and the subsequent infections of the two Dallas nurses as well as an Ebola diagnosis of a nursing assistant in Spain "intensify our concerns about this global health threat." He said two Ebola vaccine candidates were undergoing a first phase of human clinical testing this fall. But he cautioned that scientists were still in the early stages of understanding how Ebola infection can be treated and prevented.

FULL story at link.



President Barack Obama, right, next to Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell, speaks to the media about Ebola during a meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2014, with members of his team coordinating the government{2019}s response to the Ebola outbreak. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20141016/ebola-cb21d7ead1.html

[Demeter]

1. Better late than never, I suppose

Thank god we are spared more of that "don't worry, be happy" propaganda out of the White House. It would induce vomiting even without germs.

[candelista]

2. The question is: can the federal government handle this?

The track record so far is not promising.

[kestrel91316]

3. They are far better equipped to handle it than private industry, right?

What do they call the private industry version of our state and federal public health infrastructure?

They don't call it anything. It doesn't exist.

"Go shopping, Americans!" is not an infectious disease control plan.

Our track record on TB, Measles, Polio, HIV, and myriad other infectious diseases over the past 100+ years has been outstanding.

But I realize they don't teach history anymore and that your google finger is probably broken so I'll excuse your complete ignorance on the matter.

[candelista]

4. I wasn't asking for a comparison.

Do you see right-wing intent in every post that raises a question about the capability of the federal government?

[Kelvin Mace]

5. Probably not since the

GOP sees this as an opportunity to advance their "big government" doesn't work" narrative. They are using this for political gain and if lots of people have to die, well, they are probably Democratic voters anyway, so no harm, no foul.

[candelista]

6. So the CDC's bumbling is the Republicans' fault?

I don't think so. The US government can screw up all by itself without the extra added difficulties caused by Republicans.

[Kelvin Mace]

7. The CDC's budget has been in decline for over a decade

and who has been doing the cutting? Yes, it appears the CDC is now run by a "Heckuva job, Brownie" clone, but the relevant budget at the CDC has been cut over 60% since 2002. When government is run by people who hate government, failure is a feature, not a bug.

The GOP and and deficit hawk Dems are totally responsible for this, just as they were responsible for Katrina's aftermath.

[candelista]

8. Did that cause the CDC to advise the second nurse to fly?

Even though she told them she had been treating ebola and had a fever?

I don't think so.

[Yo_Mama]

12. The GOP is not in control of the CDC and has not been for some years.

Come on now.

[Kelvin Mace]

13. The GOP has controlled funding of the CDC

from 2001-2008, and 2011-2014, either through control of the presidency or the House. During that time, the budget for the CDC's Public Health Emergency Preparedness, increased once in 2006, which if memory serves, was when we had the first out break of "bird flu". It then declined until the 2009-2010, when it leveled off (under Dem control of the White House and Congress), before continuing to drop to its current level.



Adjusted for inflation, the 2002 budget would be $1.32 billion in today's dollars, but the budget sits at $585 million for last year.

The one major thing the CDC did screw up on was letting an Ebola patient be treated in Texas, a state hostile to rules, regulations and protocols.

[TwilightGardener]

9. Chain of errors, one after another. First error--allowing Liberian/West African visa holders

into this country when the disease is rampant there. Second error--assuming that even if an ebola-infected individual sneaked into the country, our regular hospitals could contain it without putting its staff and other patients at grave risk. Third error--the cleanup/quarantine of the original Duncan environs and contacts--that was a giant "WTF, Dallas!". Fourth error--not telling staff in direct contact with Duncan to stick around Dallas, and oh yeah, don't stay at your Grandma's house or have sex with your partners or hold a children's birthday party at your house, etc. until the danger period of incubation has passed. Fifth error--letting this ebola gal fly home when she called before getting on the plane. Sixth error--allowing Texas Presbyterian to continue to treat an ebola patient--REALLY? (they finally moved her)

[candelista]

10. Yes.

[Baitball Blogger]

11. Now that's what I'm talking about.

Keep it coming. We're moving in the correct direction.