What's new
USCHO Fan Forum

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

  • The USCHO Fan Forum has migrated to a new plaform, xenForo. Most of the function of the forum should work in familiar ways. Please note that you can switch between light and dark modes by clicking on the gear icon in the upper right of the main menu bar. We are hoping that this new platform will prove to be faster and more reliable. Please feel free to explore its features.

Ebola - all or nothing?

Re: Ebola - all or nothing?

I'm just worried about it mutating. But I just read an article that was a Q&A with a top scientist who said that when the flu becomes more airborne it actually becomes less virulent, so it's actually less potent because the viral concentration is lower, so mutating to become airborne may not be the end of the world.

This one seems odd, too. More than once, Ebola has had an outbreak in Africa in my lifetime. Each time we are told that this is not transmitted like a cold or flu- which we all know that it can be transmitted via coughing, sneezing, people leaving infected mucus on things we touch, etc. Other than swapping spit with someone, that's how the cold and flu are transmitted.

Which is to say that the cold/flu virus shows up in your saliva and mucus, and that it also has an ability to "hibernate" on a surface that appears dry.

So the times that Ebola has come and gone, it's been really fast- devastating, just like now, but fast. Fast enough to illustrate that it's not the easiest thing to transmit.

This time, we are being warmed that all body fluids are to be avoided. All of them, including saliva and mucus.

But I thought this wasn't transmitted like a cold.

If it can't be tranmitted via an aerosol of mucus and saliva- then it's not there. How does a tiny little virus become less effective through the air? A drop is a drop is a drop. Be it 1ml, 0.1ml, or 0.01ml- the size of the virus is containable in that drop. Is it the exposure to air that causes it to be less? Which would say that dry door knobs and whatnot are ok. What is it about being airborn that lesses what it can do? And why are we told to be worried about that anyway?

So can it or can't it be transmitted like a cold/flu?

The other bodily fluids does make sense- both stool and vomit have a high probabiluty of containing blood, since bleeding through your internal organs is an effect of the virus.
 
Re: Ebola - all or nothing?

The glee with which the far right is actively rooting for a public health disaster is amazing. Anything in the service of your politics. People die? So what -- it will help with the midterms.
This is what I love most about you guys. It's the clear-eyed goodwill, trust, and harmony you instill among all God's creatures. (I know what you're saying though, I'm just messing with you about the tone of it.)
 
Last edited:
Re: Ebola - all or nothing?

This is what I love most about you guys. It's the clear-eyed goodwill, trust, and harmony you instill among all God's creatures. (I know what you're saying though, I'm just messing with you about the tone of it.)

To be fair, geezer, God's creatures are all liberals.
 
Re: Ebola - all or nothing?

Does anyone really believe that there aren't political strategists looking to turn this to their advantage?

Just watch...
 
Re: Ebola - all or nothing?

Does anyone really believe that there aren't political strategists looking to turn this to their advantage?

Just watch...

You said it wrong, it's not "political strategists", it's "the eeeeeeeevil half of America, a.k.a. the other political party from the one to which I belong heart and soul." They're all sociopathic killers.
 
Re: Ebola - all or nothing?

Ugh, that reminds me of something I saw yesterday. Someone tweeted that Ebola was a "hoaks" and that it shouldn't be wasting air time on the news. Then someone else commented that they believed it and they had even read articles that said the government knows how to cure cancer but won't release it because they make too much money.

How the eff do people live like this? So 40 years ago the government started a worldwide conspiracy to invent and research a fake disease so in 2014 they could create a fake outbreak?
Believing conspiracy theories is easier for some people that dealing with the realities of real life.

The scary thing about the whole Ebola situation is that people have generally seemed to always be a step behind on what needs to happen. If we had sent the military over to Liberia to set up a bunch of treatment centers a few months earlier, they might have had a real impact. You read stories of what's going on over there now, with no one really even knowing how many people have Ebola, as all the treatment centers are overflowing and people are turned away left and right, this thing could easily reach a size where it would be very hard in west Africa to have enough medical personnel, etc. to deal with the number of cases. Having spent time in west Africa myself and knowing folks there, I hate to see what's happening there.
 
Re: Ebola - all or nothing?

Is there opportunity to improve the way we handle anything. Yeah. And I would say King's questions are valid, but the GOP/right wing takes every opportunity to criticize anyone to make themselves look good. Yet again, we need all hands on deck to fix this.
 
Re: Ebola - all or nothing?

Believing conspiracy theories is easier for some people that dealing with the realities of real life.

The scary thing about the whole Ebola situation is that people have generally seemed to always be a step behind on what needs to happen. If we had sent the military over to Liberia to set up a bunch of treatment centers a few months earlier, they might have had a real impact.

The whole thing is tough. We just had a couple of nurses get infected...and they're requiring massive amounts of care. Now you're going to expose thousands of troops to the same situation? But on the other hand countless lives are at stake. Extremely tough situation.
 
Re: Ebola - all or nothing?

The cable news networks are really getting a workout over this, anyway.

Dissertations will be written about the effect of media saturation on mass panic. Do CNN and FNC fuel panic or does it get to the point that everybody looks at their "news" like we look at internet clickbait -- "One weird trick for beating Ebola!"

Here's a stab at rationality, anyway.
 
Re: Ebola - all or nothing?

Too bad it isn't stupid to women. But I'm sure you can mansplain to them why they've been "taken in" by the Dems...
There are plenty of other political threads to continue spouting your conspiracy theories. Have anything to say about Ebola? Or are you avoiding all subjects that don't play into your political agendas?
 
Re: Ebola - all or nothing?

The whole thing is tough. We just had a couple of nurses get infected...and they're requiring massive amounts of care. Now you're going to expose thousands of troops to the same situation? But on the other hand countless lives are at stake. Extremely tough situation.
I would not want to be one of those soldiers sent to Liberia to set up the treatment centers, etc. If we struggle to keep nurses safe in major medical facilities in the States, being in Liberia seems more than a little risky. If some of the soldiers start coming down with this, the level of concern over this will ramp up significantly.
 
Re: Ebola - all or nothing?

Of the people calling for a ban on flights from West Africa, I'm wondering how many of them realize that the plane that brought this here didn't even originate from West Africa.
 
Of the people calling for a ban on flights from West Africa, I'm wondering how many of them realize that the plane that brought this here didn't even originate from West Africa.

Africa -> Belgium -> Dulles -> Dallas. If I was on one of the flights with the late Mr. Duncan, I would be seeing my doctor for a quick blood test.
 
Back
Top