What will you do if/when Ebola gets here?

[MarkP]

There are many reasons why people believe things. One of them is that the things in question may be true. Other reasons do include that it is entertaining or otherwise satisfying on some level.

[missydog1]

quote:

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Originally posted by PunaMauka2

does it not seem there are those who relish the prospect of hysteria? that's entertainment i suppose.

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Not at all on my part (some may be entertained by horrors, I'm not). There will be hysteria in plenty if complacency and denial allow for this thing to become a global plague, so promoting awareness is done in service of prevention.

If you read the article I linked, the CDC official is in the camp that all these people are dying now because the threat wasn't taken seriously enough and the response was "plodding."

Now they are playing catch-up and shooting at a moving target, thanks to people who resisted the idea it is a huge threat.

Kathy

[justthefacts]

there is another suspected case of ebola in boston . no one is really sure how this illness is spread , but it is expanding its boarders .

[PaulW]

If a messed-up place like Nigeria can beat Ebola then there's certainly no need for hysteria:
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014...-ebola-cdc
They even had to deal with a rogue doctor!

That one guy coming to the US has helped the world a lot. Hopefully the US hospitals will smarten up quickly.

[PunaMauka2]

quote:

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Originally posted by MarkP

There are many reasons why people believe things. One of them is that the things in question may be true. Other reasons do include that it is entertaining or otherwise satisfying on some level.

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Mark, i wholeheartedly agree, thanks for that input. didn't intend to lump rational concern or alarm with other less genuine reasons.

edit addition note: "that's entertainment i suppose" was not limited to my impression here, but even more so elsewhere. comments sections of articles on the topic today have gone completely off the deep end in a hysterical ugly way.

[bananahead]

common sense says there are NOT nonstop flights from Africa to Hawaii....

= thus a very very very very very very very low risk to get here

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save our indigenous and endemic Hawaiian Plants... learn about them, grow them, and plant them on your property, ....instead of all that invasive non-native garbage I see in most yards... aloha

[missydog1]

quote:

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Originally posted by bananahead

common sense says there are NOT nonstop flights from Africa to Hawaii....

= thus a very very very very very very very low risk to get here

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Good lord, read the article I linked that states the long incubation time. The window to catch connecting flights is certainly there, even a layover would not preclude it getting here.

Point of fact: the first US fatality managed to get here with the disease, even though he did not fly non-stop. AND he passed it on before he passed on.

The lack of non-stop flights makes it easier to bring in the virus, because screeners pay less attention to a passenger arriving from Europe, say, than from Liberia.

Kathy

[PaulW]

We don't get that many tourists from Africa. You'll have to find something else to worry about.

[csgray]

There are tens of thousands of people in this country who die from the influenza every year. Some children are dying from enterovirus D68 in a rapidly increasing number of states, and others are suffering from paralysis from that virus. I wish people would take those diseases seriously and do simply things like not go to work or school when you are sick, wash your hands, or even cough correctly, to prevent the spread of potentially lethal diseases that are currently a much greater risk to Hawaii than ebola. These diseases may not be as exotic, and they do not have the attention of all those TV talking heads, but all of us are far more likely to die from the flu than ebola.

Carol

Every time you feel yourself getting pulled into other people's nonsense, repeat these words: Not my circus, not my monkeys.
Polish Proverb

[missydog1]

I'm more likely to die of a lot of things rather than Ebola, mad cow, shark attack, jetliner plummeting to earth. Nevertheless, those are on my list of things I really really don't want as the way I go out.

My gr-grandmother died of the Spanish flu, so I am very well aware that the flu can kill, but the flu doesn't kill as quickly as Ebola, doesn't go straight for multiple organ failure.

My friends who are working RNs in Hawai'i say we should be concerned about Ebola.
One reason to be concerned about Ebola, if you read that article, is that a lot of health care workers will just walk away. They will deal with a lot of things but they fear Ebola in a different way, and it will get worse after it becomes apparent that health care workers will be infected the most, as is already happening.

The hospitals we are so proud of depend on having full staff. They aren't prepared for a sick out or mass resignation.

I have seen people with serious medical emergencies go completely ignored at Hilo Medical Center for over an hour because they had one doctor in the place and a car accident came in. This does not inspire my confidence in their ability to handle any kind of overload.

Kathy