U.S. to Commit Up to 3,000 Troops to Fight Ebola in Africa

[kehills 217]

We will send you in with all the antibiotics you want to fight the virus ... Sounds like you are a top of the line virologist .....

Antibiotics are completely ineffective in the treatment of viral pathologies.

Except that mostly, what kills in Ebola are secondary issues that crop up as the virus is raging through the immune system. So antibiotics actually are part of the standard of care for treating Ebola patients (as are fluids to maintain hydration, and IV nutrition).

And sending in support staff isn't an issue, lostinblue. For one, a good number will be doing the air supply line in Senegal. Senegal? No Ebola (yet, anyhow). As for the boots on the ground in Liberia, it's very rare for properly staffed medical support personnel to contract Ebola. (Take a look at MSFs numbers for a good idea of how often that happens. ...hint: they haven't had a single infected health care worker.) While Ebola does take a hard toll on health care workers, that's largely because they are infected prior to an outbreak being identified (in previous cases). In the case of the current epidemic, health care workers have opted to work without personal protective equipment, because they have a heroic level of dedication to their occupation and the sick people around them.

The US isn't going to drop medical personal, military or otherwise, into the middle of the Sierra Leone, Liberia, or anywhere else, without a full compliment of PPE - probably, given the level of involvement Obama was discussing, air conditioned bunny suits, which will make a huge difference (since as is, MSF health care workers can only work for 40 minutes at a time before changing out of their PPE, meaning that the PPE is disposed of every 40 minutes).

And as multiple people have pointed out (not just Obama), the grave issue here isn't necessarily the spread of the Ebola outbreak, but the deterioration of the economies of the various involved countries. Even if an economic breakdown doesn't infect us, it still affects us.

[Karee 4,191]

+1 for trying.

-10 for you not getting it.

[OnMyWayID 1,489]

Sweet!

Ever notice how the drudgereport at least once a day says "Stocks spooked after hitting new highs!"

It did it today and the link was to a six month old stock report.. I think it is the default setting between stories or something.

[GandD 5,966]

~~Duplicate post removed at request of poster~~

[GBCW 397]

Drudge is a dramatic genius.

[OnMyWayID 1,489]

Whats killed more Americans? Ebola or other Americans?

Yet we keep talking about Ebola.

Now everybody sing!

Edited September 19, 2014 by OnMyWayID

[We Keep Receipts 9,238]

Whats killed more Americans? Ebola or other Americans?

Yet we keep talking about Ebola.

Now everybody sing!

I guess when you can't blame someone else for death, any port in a storm...

[Robby999 1,024]

Is our military not being decimated fast enough for his liking? Why in the world would you allow 3,000 of your soldiers be exposed to this deadly virus? It got me to thinking though, and the only logical conclusion I came up with is the need for a large number of guinea pigs were needed to test the new experimental Ebola vaccine on a large scale and guess who volunteered our troops for the lab experiment. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to learn that all the deploying soldiers will receive the experimental vaccine before deployment. This is the perfect scenario for collecting accurate results on large numbers of subjects over a set period of time and better yet have complete control of all the communication and travel of the test subjects. Another plus is that when things don't go well you can always send the test subjects into any nearby war-zone to cover-up the reason for their demise.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

[Robby999 1,024]

? http://www.gulfwarvets.com/winds.htm

[rlogan 2,036]

WTG America!

Hip hip hooray!

As your veterans die on waiting lists for health care. Nothing is free, and that's why yes, even this deserves scrutiny. It is not clear to me that foreign lives have priority over ours, and the veterans are but one tiny class of people dying of things that could use resources.

When it was made public how much more serious it was with veterans dying on waiting lists at VA Hospitals, nobody rushed troops in or dumped a billion dollars on a regional hospital or something like that. This image as the benevolent world superpower is really important - yeah I see that. But the very soldiers going over there are guaranteed to be hosed on their health care just like the ones today, and from previous wars. If past behavior is any guide, they'll deny Ebola exists when the soldiers who got it from being deployed there ask to be treated for it.

PTSD, agent orange, Gulf War Syndrome - isn't it bizarre how the government fought to deny even the existence of them for our own people. I think this has more to do with cynical political calculations than it does with best allocation of scarce resources.

[kehills 217]

Is our military not being decimated fast enough for his liking? Why in the world would you allow 3,000 of your soldiers be exposed to this deadly virus? It got me to thinking though, and the only logical conclusion I came up with is the need for a large number of guinea pigs were needed to test the new experimental Ebola vaccine on a large scale and guess who volunteered our troops for the lab experiment. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to learn that all the deploying soldiers will receive the experimental vaccine before deployment. This is the perfect scenario for collecting accurate results on large numbers of subjects over a set period of time and better yet have complete control of all the communication and travel of the test subjects. Another plus is that when things don't go well you can always send the test subjects into any nearby war-zone to cover-up the reason for their demise.

*eyeroll*

The vaccines are being tested per FDA and EU protocols. In fact, it's being done so publicly you can read AMAs from the folks receiving the vaccines - including how much they're being paid and when/where they're getting shots. There are NOT enough vaccines for 3,000 soldiers; if there were, they wouldn't be used on the soldiers, they would be used on sick patients - as everything possibly available with any safety clearance has been used so far (like ZMapp and the Canadian sAVB).

Seriously, get a better conspiracy theory. Or better yet, go take some logic courses. Because your idea of logic is laughably bad - after all, if a "large number of guinea pigs were needed" why wouldn't someone just go guinea pig the Africans? After all, America has a stellar history of doing just that.

The military is going because, I know this will be a shock so you might want to sit down, this is actually what our military trains for: mass casualty and disaster response. They're ideal at doing this sort of work; highly efficient, well-trained, and unlikely to get sick because they have state of the art equipment.

Ebola is a disease of poverty and poor health. You can say a lot of things about the American military, but it is not a military machine of poverty and poor health. (And before anyone starts in on low pay - yes, but that's not the sort of poverty we're talking about here. We're talking about "hospitals don't have running water or electricity" levels of poverty, which is not something the US military will be facing).

And if you cannot possibly comprehend why it's necessary to stop this outbreak before it continues to scale exponentially, regardless of threat to America (or other non-African countries), consider this: if it spreads to the very nearby Ivory Coast, over 40% of the wold's chocolate supply will be directly and negatively impacted. (And coffee supplies will be right behind that.)

Be self-interested, if nothing else.

[Rob L 3,811]

Hip hip hooray!

As your veterans die on waiting lists for health care. Nothing is free, and that's why yes, even this deserves scrutiny. It is not clear to me that foreign lives have priority over ours, and the veterans are but one tiny class of people dying of things that could use resources.

When it was made public how much more serious it was with veterans dying on waiting lists at VA Hospitals, nobody rushed troops in or dumped a billion dollars on a regional hospital or something like that. This image as the benevolent world superpower is really important - yeah I see that. But the very soldiers going over there are guaranteed to be hosed on their health care just like the ones today, and from previous wars. If past behavior is any guide, they'll deny Ebola exists when the soldiers who got it from being deployed there ask to be treated for it.

Nobody is advocating prioritizing the interests of any group over the veterans. Just like walking and chewing bubble gum....you can do both with a little effort.

[Dan and Judy 614]

1 - It is TRUE that Ft. Riley KS was ground zero for the 1918 outbreak of Spanish Flu.

rrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Edited September 20, 2014 by Dan and Judy

[Rob L 3,811]

Yeah, that's why they call it the "Spanish Flu"

Not sure what is funny, you find irony in the phrase "Spanish Flu"?

https://virus.stanford.edu/uda/

The origins of this influenza variant is not precisely known. It is thought to have originated in China in a rare genetic shift of the influenza virus. The recombination of its surface proteins created a virus novel to almost everyone and a loss of herd immunity. Recently the virus has been reconstructed from the tissue of a dead soldier and is now being genetically characterized. The name of Spanish Flu came from the early affliction and large mortalities in Spain (BMJ,10/19/1918) where it allegedly killed 8 million in May (BMJ, 7/13/1918). However, a first wave of influenza appeared early in the spring of 1918 in Kansas and in military camps throughout the US. Few noticed the epidemic in the midst of the war. Wilson had just given his 14 point address. There was virtually no response or acknowledgment to the epidemics in March and April in the military camps. It was unfortunate that no steps were taken to prepare for the usual recrudescence of the virulent influenza strain in the winter. The lack of action was later criticized when the epidemic could not be ignored in the winter of 1918 (BMJ, 1918). These first epidemics at training camps were a sign of what was coming in greater magnitude in the fall and winter of 1918 to the entire world