Editor, Manteca Bulletin,
Once again the fear mongers have been turned loose on the American public, taking advantage of the baseless hysteria over the African based Ebola virus. Leading the charge locally is our own expert on the science of spreading the “Fear Flavor of The Month”, doing his best to frighten the uninformed and the easily manipulated, in his latest Twisty-the-Clown impression.
At least that is who I thought of after reading his fear packed letter Administration botches Ebola response Oct. 20, filled to the brim with non-facts and blogger opinions based on media hysteria.
He excitedly explains how thousands have died but fails to mention that those thousands have been Africans, mainly West Africans living in less than a healthy environment. He also warns how it could climb to 1.4 million by January. This could be true, if nothing is done to prevent it, but something is being done. In fact just today, it was announced, two African countries have been declared as Ebola free, Nigeria and Senegal. He then turns up the heat to warn that 90% of the earth’s population could be eliminated because the virus is “airborne”. This is of course, not true. It is not “airborne” and is only transmitted at the height of an infected person, and only by the exchange of body fluids and excretions. Maybe “Twisty” can explain how of the thousands of people who have been in close proximity of known infected individuals have not caught the virus. In fact of the 48 health care workers who were involved with the one (and only) Ebola fatality in a Texas hospital, 44 have been cleared with the other four still having a few days in quarantine. Even the immediate family of the victim has been cleared. How would that be possible if it were “airborne”? Of course the “three foot danger zone” is a farce, unless the contaminated victim is experiencing projectile vomiting, a la “The Exorcist”.
But let’s get down to the real reason for this latest Fear Factor episode shall we, and that is “How to blame this whole thing on President Obama”. “Twisty” does this by blaming the President for not restricting flights from the affected West African countries. This brings up a couple of questions most logical people would bring up.
1. What would keep people from first flying to some other country like Amsterdam then catching a flight to the U.S. from there? All flyers who originate from the target zone are being routed to one of five U.S. airports where extensive medical screening is available. This involves just over one hundred flyers a day. There are no commercial direct flights from the target zone.
2. How about the hundreds, maybe thousands of flights that have already originated in West Africa since 1976? Of these countless flights, only one passenger has been an Ebola infected flyer. Oh, and getting back to that silly “airborne” assertion, why weren’t any of the other passengers on that flight infected on such a long, long journey? Surely there were more than a few who wandered into the “three foot” danger zone during that long, long flight, right?
Now about the “protocol” followed in the Texas hospital. The problem wasn’t in the protocol, as I understand it the protective gear was not exactly up to CDC specs having some skin exposed. Now why was the protective gear not up to par? According to hospital staff, the more effective protective gear was back-ordered. And why was that? Could it be a funding issue? Did “Twisty” fail to mention how the Republicans cut funding to the CDC by more than 50% since 2006? Yeah, I thought so..
“Twisty” then brings up the appointment of the Ebola coordinator appointed by the President who has no medical training. Do you really think that person needs medical training to coordinate the disbursement of CDC resources? Does the manager of a drug store need to have a medical degree? And why do you think there isn’t a medical person in charge? It would be nice to have a Surgeon General right about now right? But guess what, Republicans have been blocking the appointment of Dr. Vivek Murthy now for well over a year. And why do you think the reason is? Could it be as Ted Cruz (R-TX) stated on Sunday who accused President Barack Obama’s pick for surgeon general of not being a “health care professional” because the doctor had backed a ban on military-style assault rifles.
It would be a better idea to warn about getting your flu shot. Thousands die from the flu every year, thousands! That’s exactly why I got mine early in the flu season, so should you.
Larry Baca
Manteca
