Viruses and the Spreading of Fear

"AN OBSERVATION," by Infidel753.



UPDATE BELOW



Oct 12 (Reuters) - "A man in Massachusetts who was being evaluated at a Boston hospital for a possible Ebola infection does not appear to have the deadly disease, officials at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center said on Sunday night.

The patient, who recently returned from Liberia, had complained of headache and muscle aches, prompting his admittance to an isolation ward with close monitoring, the hospital said. 'This patient does not appear to meet CDC criteria to be considered someone at high risk for Ebola and the likelihood of Ebola Virus Disease is extremely low,' the hospital said in a statement emailed to Reuters. Even so, the patient will remain in isolation, the hospital said."

 [skip]

 "On Sunday, a United Airlines flight from John F. Kennedy Airport in New York landed at an isolated terminal at Los Angeles International Airport after a passenger who had recently visited Africa began vomiting and running a fever, officials said. However, it turned out that the woman had visited South Africa, which is not an area of concern for Ebola.

 The Massachusetts patient first reported to the Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates hospital in Braintree, Massachusetts, and was then transferred to Beth Israel, said Ben Kruskal, a physician and chief of infectious disease at Vanguard, in a statement. Kruskal said the Braintree building was closed briefly but reopened."




The internet is in full panic and fear mode since the first case of Ebola in Texas was reported.  All one has to do is visit some of the far right blogs to see the hysteria and just plain idiotic finger-pointing -- the more red in tooth and claw bloggers and shock radio idiots are blaming President Obama for the Ebola outbreak and even accusing the president of deliberately spreading the virus for political reasons:  



From a red in tooth and claw blog:

"Let us consider this: never let a good crisis go to waste, and if there is not a crisis, then create one. So we had Valarie Jarrett telling everyone, 'There will be payback,' and now we have Ebola here in America. What an amazing coincidence!" 

"... my thoughts exactly- import the disease- create a crisis- a set up – for sure– "

" If obama would have had a son, it may have been Ebola."





Robert Fisk, writing about fear mongering attitudes from the crazed right on the subject of ISIS or ISIL had this to say about those who give into their deepest fears and hatreds (and it applies to the Ebola issue as well):



At its most basic, you have only to read the viciousness of internet chatrooms. Major newspapers – hopelessly late – have only now started to realise that chatrooms are not a new technical version of “Letters to the Editor” but a dangerous forum for people to let loose their most-disturbing characteristics. Thus a major political shift in the Middle East, transferred to the internet, takes on cataclysmic proportions.



We now have far right Americans actually believing that President Obama deliberately spread the ebola virus for some obscure political reason.  And the people who sincerely believe this want their party and the people they approve of and vote for to take control of our government.  

This is massive ignorance and sickening paranoia on display.  Just as dangerous to the US as a deadly virus.

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself and right wing fear mongers.



UPDATE (What you won't read on the fear-mongering and Obama slandering blogs):


CHART: Public Health Emergency Funding Has Taken Major Hit

"A writer for Scientific American recently pointed out that funding for the Center for Disease Control's funding for public health preparedness has taken serious hits over the course of the past decade. 

 According to funding data analyzed by Judy Stone, annual funding for preparedness efforts have fallen by $1 billion between 2002 and 2013."



Ebola Vaccine Would Likely Have Been Found By Now If Not For Budget Cuts: NIH Director




Who controls the purse strings for funding?