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posted by LaminatorX on Saturday October 11 2014, @09:39AM   Printer-friendly
from the this-porage-is-just-right dept.

Russell Berman writes in the Atlantic that the Obama administration is trying to navigate a tricky course: Can officials increase public vigilance about the deadly virus without inciting a panic? "Ebola is scary. It's a deadly disease. But we know how to stop it," says Dr. Thomas Frieden, the CDC director speaking "calmly and clearly, sticking to an even pitch and avoiding the familiar political image of the whip-smart fast-talker." International groups wanted the US to step in sooner to help fight the outbreak in west Africa, while more recently some Republicans have called on the administration to ban travel from the most affected countries but Frieden and other officials say such a move would be counterproductive, citing lessons learned from the SARS outbreak a decade ago. "The SARS outbreak cost the world more than $40 billion, but it wasn't to control the outbreak," says Frieden. "Those were costs from unnecessary and ineffective travel restrictions and trade changes that could have been avoided." The government announced Wednesday that it was stepping up protective measures at five airports, where authorities will screen travelers from Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea with targeted questions and fever checks, an action, officials acknowledge that was taken not only to stop the spread of the disease but simply to make people feel safer. According to Berman the message, it seems to be, is this: Be afraid of Ebola. Just not too afraid.

 
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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by FatPhil on Saturday October 11 2014, @09:56PM

    by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Saturday October 11 2014, @09:56PM (#104880) Homepage
    Using 'yanks', as 'americans' didn't fit in the subject due to crazy site restrictions, no offence intended. (This time ;-) )

    It'll only spread within the country once it's got inside the country. It's far easier to manage the borders than it is the entire interior. However, at the moment, they appear to think that signing a piece of paper saying "I'm not infected, honest" is a workable protection mechanism. Therefore, they will fail again.
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  • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Monday October 13 2014, @07:56AM

    by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Monday October 13 2014, @07:56AM (#105453) Homepage
    The funny thing is that within a day of posting my prediction comes the first story of their failure, down in Texas. A "breach of protocol", they think, occured, but they aren't even sure what protocol has been breached yet. However, sending a guy with a fever who's just come over from west Africa home with a few pills might be considered a bit of a fuck-up in early october 2014. Well done backward US health-care system, I'm glad to see you didn't let me down.

    Oh - and will the "there are way bigger killers" poster on SN who was saying that there's nothing to be worried about regarding this current outbreak, when the death toll was measured in hundreds, and off whom I asked for a prediction of what the death-toll would top out at, please actually like to answer that question? Even now I'm interested why he thinks the outbreak isn't worth worrying about, and I'll let him reevaluate his estimate.
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    Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves