Islamic State of Ebola pushes hysteria to a new level

[Rob L 3,811]

My beloved country is loosing its friggin mind

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/389678/weird-science-cnn-calls-ebola-isis-bio-agents-tim-cavanaugh

The day after a highly self-aggrandizing CNN clip accused Fox News of trafficking in unscientific hysteria over the rash of hemorrhagic fever cases in the United States and Africa, the Most Trusted Name In News terrified its several viewers by calling Ebola the “ISIS of biological agents.”

CNN’s Legal View hostess Ashleigh Banfield Monday gave heavy chyron rotation to a former Homeland Security official’s designation of the virus as a terrorist organization — a designation that is nonexistent from a medical standpoint and of extremely doubtful applicability from the legal point of view Banfield is presumably familiar with. The Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL) is a Sunni Islamist terrorist army operating in Iraq and Syria, while Ebola is a highly destructive virus originating in Africa.

The epithet originated in a New York Times contribution from Alexander Garza, former chief medical officer of the Department of Homeland Security, who wrote that the virus “is no ordinary communicable disease. It is the ISIS of biological agents. The response should mirror antiterrorism efforts.”

Nevertheless, Garza merely advocated enhanced health screenings of international arrivals, scrutiny of flight manifests to determine which travelers have visited West African countries impacted by Ebola and related viruses, and more spending on medical personnel. He wrote that a set of pertinent questions would have led to the quarantine of the first Ebola patient diagnosed in the United States, “assuming that the patient in Dallas would have answered this question truthfully.”

In fact, Eric Duncan, a Liberian national, is suspected to have lied on a questionnaire September 19, prior to boarding a United Airlines flight from Liberia to Brussels. According to Associated Press, Duncan answered “No” to a question about whether he had been in contact with anybody suffering from Ebola, though he had previously helped carry a woman suffering from the virus on her way to a hospital. He later connected through Dulles International Airport to Texas and was hospitalized with the lethal virus last week.

The news network ran with Garza’s hyperbolic phrase just a day after scoring a viral video in which one of its hosts and a former anchorman decried “irresponsible” reporting on Ebola. CNN singled out Fox News’ Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Andrea Tantaros for saying, among other things, that Ebola exists in the United States.

“It’s technically true, there is Ebola here in America,” Reliable Sources host Brian Stelter conceded. “But to say ‘Ebola is here’ — doesn’t that sort of inflame people’s fears?”

Former CNN reporter Miles O’Brien agreed, condemning reporters who “should know better” and are “embarrassing our brethren in journalism” by “hyping up this threat.” O’Brien, who now works as a science correspondent for taxpayer-funded PBS, also bemoaned the “very competitive business” of trying to report news that people are interested in. Stelter and O’Brien went on to blow several metric tons of smoke about CNN’s own coverage, which they took great pains to posit as the Gallant to Fox’s Goofus.

“It reflects a level of ignorance that we should not allow in our media or in our discourse,” O’Brien advised of the network that routinely beats CNN in ratings. The Stelter/O’Brien clip received wide distribution Sunday. (Warning: Viewing it may cause you to loathe friends and family who happily retweeted and reposted the network’s Valentine to itself.)

Warming to the Islamic State/Ebola threat Monday, Banfield brought in NYU medical professor Amar Safdar to address the possibility that the Islamic State might send suicide carriers of the disease onto “mass transit.” Safdar shot down this suggestion by explaining that Ebola’s avenues of transmission are not ideal for bioterror efforts.

[spookyturtle 9,465]

Ebola

[Rob L 3,811]

Turns out CNN thinks this is a false alarm

CNN concedes Ebola is not in fact 'ISIS of biological agents.'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrovH26DlbA#t=34

[Operator 1,927]

Tim Tebowla

Edited October 6, 2014 by Operator