OT: Funding for Ebola

Blimey it is almost as bad as eCat. If he is seeing anything at all it is contamination due to not using proper clean room and ultratrace handling techniques. IOW bad experimental technique.

Nobel laureates do go off the rails sometimes. Endorsing homeopathy really takes the biscuit. Nelson's pee is in water everywhere today. (so is Napoleons - but not as well mixed)

Well before this present outbreak of ebola I got curious about this disease and read as much as possible about it that I could understand. I have also read a bunch about how the AIDS virus is transmitted. Publications like Science and Science News, CDC reports and the like. Though I'm not a scientist I can read and understand much of what has been published about ebola and Aids. From what I have read it looks like ebola is only transmitted by contact with bodily fluids and that the fluids must come into contact with tissues like mucous membranes, open sores, and the like. A crack in the skin is probably enough to let the virus in. Inhaling tiny droplets may also be enough to become infected. Though getting the virus containing fluids in the outer portions of the nasal passages may not lead to infection because of natural protections that exist there. There have been cases of ebola infections where people became infected without any contact or even any close proximity, within less than a mile, to any known sources of infection. Though a virus similar to ebola that infects monkeys appears to be able to infect animals through the air there are so far no known cases of people becoming infected with ebola through some airborn vector. The AIDS virus also has no known cases of airborn infection. Nor have there been any known cases of transmission by mosquitos. Even though it appears at this time that ebola is not being transmitted through the air at this time it does not mean that this situation will continue. The virus can and will mutate, just like any other living or quasi living organism. (There is some question about whether viri are actually living in the same sense that higher organism live. For instance, they replicate by making the cells they infect produce more copies of the virus, unlike us where our cells divide to make more copies.) The reason we need a new flu vaccine every year is because of the mutation of the flu viri. If ebola or the AIDS virus were to become as infective as the common cold or the flu we would be in real trouble. If the flu virus mutates again into a type that is as deadly as the 1918 flu we would again be in real trouble. Especially since the 1918 flu seemed to kill mostly healthy young adults. Apparently the immune response to the 1918 flu from healthy people was so great it caused more harm than good and it was this over the top immune system response that was killing so many people. Beacuse these microorganisms mutate so fast we must be on our guard against them. We must also work as fast as possible to develop vaccines against them. The USA should also send as many people, supplies, and equipment as needed to the places in the world where the source(s) of the present eboa infection is and stop it there. Once it gets out in the world in general, as is happening now, it becomes much, much more expensive to stop. And we should be guided by SCIENCE and the SCIENTIFIC METHOD and not EMOTION, in our dealings with these terrible diseases. Eric

in 1983 he disgraced Gallo by accidently sending a 'contaminated' sample to Gallo's crew. [wiki article] That should have raised some alarms. However, the premise is interesting. Weird, but interesting.

interesting, didn't know about the size. Doesn't large usually translate to fragile?

dilute bleach huh? That explains why the move to remove bleach from our stores. First take away guns, then take away antiseptic. What line of defense is left?

We've all breathed the same air that Caesar breathed.

Perhaps you've all breathed the air that I've breathed... heavens >:-} ...Jim Thompson

No more so than a house fly. Mosquitoes are not hypodermics. They may draw blood, but that blood is digested before they touch another human. They also aren't honey bees flitting from flower to flower spreading pollen.

People are infected by coming into contact with infected blood or bodily fluids. How would a mosquito bite carry any of that from one victim to the next? If so why wouldn't many other diseases be transmitted by mosquito?

Are you aware that Ebola is just one of a family of hemorrhagic diseases which can kill their hosts? Lassa fever, dengue, yellow fever, tick-borne encephalitis and a whole Hantavirus genus. All very nasty diseases.

The virus that causes Ebola can only live outside the body for a few hours... from a CNN article...

'Studies done in Ebola Treatment Units in Africa, CDC spokeswoman Abbigail Tumpey says, show the virus can live on surfaces for a few hours at most.

"Ebola is a vicious virus inside the body, but it dies very quickly on surfaces," she said. "It' s not a hardy virus. It's a very wimpy virus."

Ebola is easily destroyed outside of the body, experts say. UV light, heat and exposure to oxygen all deactivate the virus over time.

CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden said that while it's theoretically possible for someone to catch Ebola by touching a surface that an infected patient sneezed on, for example, past outbreaks have shown that direct contact with a patient's bodily fluids is the way the virus is spread.'

I would be more worried about many other things than Ebola, MRSA is a good one to start with. Actually diabetes is a much more likely killer or obesity. Ebola is getting all the news, but we already have several health crises in the US and no one pays much attention. There's not much you can do about Ebola other than sweat. A lot can be done about our other health problems.

Yep. Wiping out all liberals would improve the health of the United States immensely >:-} ...Jim Thompson

I copied the text into my browser without the .pdf and it worked just fine.

It (in fact the whole family) is unusually big and stringlike for a virus. The original name virus came from non-filterable infective agent taking its Latin name from "poison". Tobacco mosaic virus the prototype.

BTW avoid handling plants with Latin names ending virosa... (unless you like living dangerously or really know what you are doing)

What are you talking about?

Good news! We now have an Ebola Tzar to straighten everything out.

He's a lawyer and political operative with no medical or public health experience. And he reports to two people!

Well, a perfect fit...after all, it IS a government job. Do not want anyone competent.

Well, you want someone competent but you have a point. The competent wouldn't want a government job.

Make that a second Ebola czar. This new one is a spin doctor.

?-)

What do we have a Surgeon General for?

To put warning labels on everything in sight.

lIKE THIS?

Warning: VOTING DEMOCRAT IS HAZARDOUS TO THE HEALTH OF YOUR COUNTRY.

More Americans killed by terrorists under GOP presidents:

-- Ronald Reagan 1981-1989 - Total deaths = 675; per month = 7.4

-- George HW Bush 1989-1993 - Total death = 0

-- Bill Clinton 1993-2001 - Total deaths = 444; per month = 4.6

-- George W. Bush 2001-2009 - Total deaths = 3,075 plus the terror attacks in Afghanistan and Iraq. Count civilian deaths and Bush43's numbers get to more than 100 a month.

-- Barack Obama 2009-2014 - Total deaths = 7; per month = 0.1

I think Clinton's total includes Oklahoma City, perpetrated by the militia precursors to the Tea Party.

To waste more of your tax dollars..

W A R N I N G this label is dangerous to your eyes!