Can't wall our country off to keep contagious diseases at bay. I just read an article on Nipah virus from my grandson in India and the source material is found easily on CDC web page.
Scientific knowledge vaccinates people against ignorance. Institutions like CDC ought to be funded fully to obtain by many means and find preventive measures, treatments and cures and to educate us all. Our president's family travels world over for various reasons and causes and are vulnerable to infections like anyone else. In matters of health, America has to be a leader and beacon of hope!
"The U.S. cannot allow EBOLA infected people back. People that go to far away places to help out are great-but must suffer the consequences!"
Americans saw this since August 2014, yet they still went and installed this man in office?
The old maxim really is true, then: nothing is ever so bad that you cannot make it worse.
How much worse do you suppose it will get?
1
I just hope Mr. Trump has a chance to experience and appreciate even some mercy and kindness he so generously extended to others.
I really do not understand why people still act surprised by Trump. I think by now, it should be clear even to the most hopeless romantic that the United States has a degenerate for a president. A pig is a pig no matter how much lipstick is applied.
To me, what is surprising is that there are still people who believe in Trump. That is a truly sad realization.
Regarding Obama, contrary to perceptions, he didn’t do much for Africa. As a matter of fact, he went out of his way not to be seen as particularly close to Africa.
People might be surprised to learn that George Bush Junior did more for Africa in the material sense. Obama (the son of Africa) was a disappointment in Africa.
2
Ebola is country agnostic. With the outbreak now in urban areas (meaning it can travel faster), I am dumbfounded that the USA response is to cut back on our preparedness. This isn't a political issue, it's a public health issue. #remember2014
5
What do you expect?? The only thing Trump and Republicans are proactive about is pumping money at the rich.
1
I have two university degrees in biology plus worked in a virus lab for 4 years and Trump was absolutely correct - reason and logic should have been followed and those with Ebola not allowed into the USA during the last pandemic! Isolation is the only way to stop the spread of an emergent disease and unless the emotion driven PC idiots and greedy free trade Robber Barons that now run our world learn that if our elites are not willing to "lose some money" due to border closings when a pandemic starts it is almost certain that global pandemic of some highly lethal emergent disease will kill billions in the coming decades.
2
@winthrop staples Thank you for a reasonable post. I agree with you. I notice, also that western countries are again being asked to fork over large amounts of money to fight another ebola outbreak in Africa, but apparently no one dares to suggest that maybe the Africans shouldn't be eating bush meat/monkeys, since it's thought that that's how the virus spread to humans in the first place.
1
Don't you know? Anything Obama did is to be reversed.
1
When will we have a national values clarification debate? All the opportunistic pseudo-policy, totally unreliable tweeting, posing as"leadership" will destroy our once great nation. Why do we want to be Americans? I truly believe we can agree on American values & elect truthful committed representatives to strive toward our COMMON good. Pursue education, infrastructure securely & send the greedy draft dodging liars to autocracies. We certainly have enough of them.
1
Would it be culturally insensitive for WHO, Medicins Sans Frontieres and Red Cross to require that countries receiving ebola assistance ban the eating of "bush meat"?
2
Sure, but do remember that once the virus is out there and a variant of it has already infected humans, that another mutation can enable the virus to infect people even if they _don't_ eat bush meat. Not much you will be able to do about it then. Remember Bird Flu and SARS?
You mean spending over $20 billion on a wall won't keep the disease out?
5
This reminds me of a song:
“Where have all the flowers gone?
...
When will they ever learn? When will they e v e r learn?”
..... (Trump amnesia syndrome... )
1
Trump might care more about Ebola if it was a venereal disease. Maybe rename it HEV (human ebola virus) and have someone explain it's been around since the New York club scene of the 70's.
He's already aware of HIV and HPV but curiously confused about the difference between them. Play off the fears of someone who was a very bad boy in his younger days and not very careful well into his dotage.
2
Libertarians think the world works best if each individual is maximally responsible for their own fate. Government shouldn't be the nanny there to catch the unfortunate.
Unfortunately, public health issues can affect anyone at any time, and cost-effective remedies require money for an infrastructure and reasonable preparations. It's foolish to worship an ideology over prudent public health investments that save lives and money. And that includes international commitments in a highly mobile and interconnected world.
Donald Trump doesn't have an ideology beyond self promotion, self aggrandizement, and self preservation (plus more than a tinge of racism). Pandering to an uninformed base may get him votes and raucous rallies, but it produces bad public policy. It's worse that the Koch brothers via Mike Pence and the Freedom caucus help steer Trump their way.
If it's short history is any clue, the Trump administration is far more likely to triple down before it considers better options. Since a Trump peace prize is likely out of reach, maybe the Nobel committee should offer a gold medal for public health achievement.
1
Just to give context to Trump's tweet.
What he did not say but what he probably meant was that those Florence Nightingale Americans who may have been exposed to Ebola, should be quarantined until the incubation period is over, so that the epidemic has no chance to spread.
This is what happened to the nurse who returned to the US via Newark and was under quarantine first in Newark (when she had a slightly elevated body temp) and then at home in Maine. Thankfully she was not infected.
There was also that very well reported case of the man from Liberia had filled out a form in which he had falsely stated he had not come into contact with an Ebola case, and he did not disclose that either to the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital. The hospital mishandled and misdiagnosed his sadly fatal case - Ebola was not on the hospital's radar.
This man was a US visa lottery winner; instead of temporarily suspending the US visa lottery program until the epidemic subsided, the Obama adm continued with it, and exposed Americans to risk. 2 nurses treating this patient actually contracted Ebola, they thankfully recovered but what trauma they both had to endure, all because of the visa lottery program. This was a bad call by Obama, and Trump is right to challenge this program!
Do not take his tweets too seriously!
3
I don't take anything Trump says seriously or truthfully. Most citizens of this great nation have sadly already learned that.
1
I recently heard from a physician who worked in Sierra Leone in managing the Ebola outbreak. It is true that US aid went a long way in helping establish treatment centers across many countries in Africa. However, she lamented, at the end of three years she said the money barely helped in building anything permanent. After Ebola was controlled they were left with some of the highest rates of HIV and TB and not a very effective system to combat them. And Sierra Leone has some one of the richest diamonds mines in the world along with Iron and Natural gas fields. So where is all that money going! While there is no doubt US aid is irreplaceable but we should set up similar demands as the Gates Foundation before money is distributed. Aid comes with responsibility and accountability. Aid has to lead to change in governance.
4
The state of the country under Republican rule, full of false patriotism and ruthless selfishness, just leaves me sad and despairing. They're delusional ... but they're in charge.
Every article and commentary that blames it on Trump only gives the party and, most importantly, its voters an unwarranted moral pass.
6
Trump and this shameful administration, in their arrogance, forget that being a plutocrat is not an inoculation against illness or disease.
4
It is way past time for countries like Russia, China, Saudi Arabia,and on and on to do their part. Let them show how they care about humanity and contribute to this worldwide cause.
This should not be our burden alone.
8
Look you are right, but you cannot abdicate either.
When it comes to skimming cream , China and Russia is always eager to run head to head with USA, but in thsi effort they should show some activity.
I do not know why you are adressing Saudi's those guys doesn't have anything to do beneficiary for poor people.
1
That's it, Rob.
St. Peter will lap that argument up.
'I would'a done the right thing, just after everybody else.'
You make the flag proud to wave over you.
3
You are right! I repent! I am willing to spend your entire net worth on this!
Thank you!
St Peter will be proud of you!
Quarantine is not a "crude tool". It is highly effective in preventing infection transmission, and has been used successfully for centuries.
6
We are lucky that the two most recent epidemics that received large-scale attention worldwide, Ebola and Zika, were some of the diseases that put the least pressure on our infrastructure (and look how much chaos ensued). Ebola is not easily spread in a country like the US (with good health infrastructure and epidemiological monitoring) because it is only spread via contaminated bodily fluids (not airborne or droplet spread). This limits some of the damage it does in countries with poor health infrastructure. The mosquito vectors of Zika are not present in about half the country, Zika itself wasn't present in the vast majority of these mosquitoes, and the main effect of Zika infection only affected the fetuses of pregnant women. Imagine how much panic just here in the US would ensue if we faced an outbreak of drug-resistant tuberculosis, an especially virulent form of influenza, or other more severe public health threats than what Ebola and Zika presented? Setting aside our responsibility in global health (of which the isolationist Trump administration has shown no appetite to be a force for good around the world in any realm), how chaotic will the next challenge be with these incompetent or excessively partisan people at the helm of our governmental agencies?
7
Not funding international help plays to Trump's base. That is all that is important.
6
To be in denial of the very real possibility of the next pan-epidemic is madness. How long does it take to fly around the world? An infected person walks through an airport and everyone he infects flies to another country. It would be around the world in a few days.
9
That's why some suggested a quarantine.
2
The CDC was not 'taped out' as the article states. The CDC has an enormous budget that must be spent annually if it is to hit its goal - more budget money for the next year. More importantly, and yet no one talks about it, is the fact that they had money in their budget that could have been used for Ebola, but they would not re-direct it. Based on zero-sum budgeting, something no responsible company would use, they keep monies in their silo'd departments. Perhaps this year we can take the swine flu budget and use it towards the outbreak in Africa? Or, maybe we limit the budget to WHO and get some other countries to pony up, starting with the African leaders that have stolen money from their country's coffers?
4
Simply not true. And chopping research budgets is precisely the sort of penny wise, pound foolish stupidity that this editorial rightly condemns.
Of course, when one of these diseases breaks though (since you haven't bothered to notice Zika, Lyme and the rest) you will of course be screaming your head off, yelling the NIH, CDC and USAMRIID should have Done something.
6
Maybe a wall will keep out contagious diseases. One more example of the short-sightedness of this administration.
13
The man is an obsessive germaphobe, yet his administration will cripple US ability to combat serious, infectious disease. It won't support global health efforts, it is calling into question vaccination in general, and it is working as hard as it can to increase global warming, which will cause major shifts in the distribution and prevalence of insect borne diseases, like Ebola.
9
What's wrong with being a germaphobe? If the Congolese were more germaphobic, maybe this wouldn't have happened.
May 23, 2018
Either Mr Donald J. Trump is going stand up as the leader of an Advance country the U.S. of A. or he will refuse to embrace the knowledge base our enlighten historic efforts collectively both at home and on world stage. The job of Chief Executive is over his pay grade and what we the healthy people of our electorate must do in self inoculation form political amnesia that is systemic to his persistent - let's remind one of his extreme narcissistic disorder - and his having playmates over the years only resulted in how he stands up to beauty of America's democracy.
jja Manhattan, N.Y.
6
"People who go to far away places to help out are great-but must suffer the consequences!"
That Trump can broadcast comments like that is all we need to know about who he is.
21
Donny is sure fond of saying everyone should “suffer the consequences” of their actions and beliefs. What else can you expect from a man and an administration that treat public funds as their own to do with as they want? This is governance by tweet: impulsive, fleeting, confrontational, and uncaring of facts. And it won’t stop until Trump and the GOP suffer some consequences of their own.
44
Ebola, like other viruses, are never confined to one small region. With all the international contacts, they spread world-wide. Remember, we had several Ebola cases here in our country last time. Forget that, stop international funding, close out funds to spend on Ebola, and we could be faced with a full-out Ebola problem in our own country.
4
Weren't the Ebola cases in the US all people who had been in the ebola infected area? They contracted the disease there and brought it here. So, its presence here depended on an infected person importing it, which shows why some sort of travel restriction might make sense.
If Obama did it then it must be bad. This type of small minded thinking that Trump embraces is going to get people unnecessarily killed. Sometimes it's better to spend money abroad to keep the crisis from reaching our shores. Trump just doesn't get that it's better to be proactive then reactive.
The GOP has adopted this small minded government is bad mentality. Individual responsibility is all well and good but when it comes to national disasters only the government is capable of organizing a fast response. Earthquakes, hurricanes, pandemics, tornadoes, and volcanic eruptions all devastate the local community and it's the preparation of FEMA and aid organizations like the Red Cross who have the infrastructure in place to step in to bring in the resources needed to give the local community time to recover and decide how to rebuild. Collective action saves lives. But only if the agencies with the needed expertise are already in place.
6
I guess Trump doesn't have any real estate holdings in peril in Africa, where we already know he thinks everyone lives in huts. And apparently no contractors in Africa offered to help his campaign influence the outcome of the election. Don't expect his evangelical politician class to lift a finger--they're pleased with Trump's, um, pro-life policies (which, apparently, don't include irony).
14
I am afraid this is just one more example of Mr. Trump's pathological need to reverse anything accomplished by the Obama administration. It is, by now, pathetically predictable.
11
According to Dismal Donnie he is on 5th avenue with a gun and he has shot 2 people and nobody does anything- Oh wait a minute it is not 5th avenue - it is the world and disease and global warming are affecting billions and still nothing but hot air and baloney.
9
I have given up attempting constructive dialogue with some of Trump's most ardent supporters. It is exhausting reiterating fact, after fact, when all they do is spout lies and venomous vitriol. I am surrounded by these people where I work and they started talking about this latest Ebola outbreak. Their first words, and serious words were: nuke the place and it'll eradicate two of our problems. Yes, they said those words. They have said these sort of comments all year about one topic or another. They are more concerned with telling women what they can and cannot do with their own bodies, butting their nose into other people's lives (even though they do not want you doing the same), chastising NFL athletes, and on and on, to actually comprehend what global heath means and why it is a national security issue. I always say, I wish I could dictate and choose what my tax dollars fund because there are far more important things to fund than building that wall that he lied about using my tax dollars to fund.
9
Trump is making America far less great + further removed from humanitarianism again. Pandemics of no concern--- only that billionaires + corporations enjoy their gigantic perpetual tax cuts + subsidies.
This is as Trump focuses what's left of his attention deficit on degrading the DOJ and Bob Mueller.
Even conservative outlets reported months ago that without more funding, the C.D.C. would have to cut its health security fieldwork by 80 %. At the time, a southern GOP senator claimed additional funding “doesn’t seem... a wise use of resources."
The CDC--- forced to scale back epidemic prevention work, said money is running out. Here we are with summer.
As epidemics world-wide become deadly. Was allowing diseases to spread worldwide part of burning down the administrative state? Those countries he called holes?
5
If Ebola breaks out, it will get here - we're too connected to avoid it. So, yes, we're involved in public health in far-flung countries, because they are not far-flung any more. The list of foreign-origin diseases dates back nearly forever.
So our president takes the following pose: go help out and show the kind face of the richest country in the world, and protect us from contagion that we really can't avoid. But if you get sick or in trouble you're on your own.
3
This editorial is profoundly misleading. Sometime around January, Trump prepared an aspirational budget reflecting his desire to cut spending. It included proposed cuts that he knew were dead in the water. Among those were the CDC cuts referenced here.
In late March Congress rejected Trump’s dead-in-the-water cuts and substantially increased CDC funding. Trump signed the funding increase right away.
The Board pretends that obsolete and aspirational funding cuts are a present threat to an agency that is actually well funded. This simply isn’t true. The editorial ignores standard budgeting practice and a definitive enactment of generous funding. It falsely pleads poverty where it does not exist.
4
If we hadn't welcomed back brave WHO doctor Ian Crozier to the US for treatment after contracting Ebola while treating victims in Sierra Leone, we would have never learned about the after-effects of Ebola on the eye and how to potentially treat it.
5
GET YOUR PRIORITIES STRAIGHT PEOPLE! The people that matter are just fine, enjoying their massive tax cuts. If that means CDC and other funds for public health have to be cut, who cares? None of the people with incomes big enough to really benefit substantially from the tax cut, and big enough to really matter, are going to get ebola.
None of those 11,300 people, or those 26 people, or those still destined to die, matter. Any more than John McCain matters. You don't matter. I don't matter. But we can be content knowing that those who do are a little better off. So we, just like they and their Republican benefactors, can ignore ebola along with anything else that afflicts the poor and the powerless. Whenever you start to feel empathy, just remember to tell yourself: they don't matter.
7
Mr.Trump ignores global health security at his peril.Ebola and other highly contagious diseases strike suddenly and are frightening.The American people understand that and expect the highest vigilance and protection.If this administration does not spend money to prevent these diseases from coming here their poll numbers will sink Ike a rock!Voters do not want to face an Ebola epidemic.- they will hold the government responsible.
16
This man is sick and heartless: "@The U.S. cannot allow EBOLA infected people back. People that go to far away places to help out are great-but must suffer the consequences!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 2, 2014"
His ignorance is incomprehensible. This disease, which has been contained by international humanitarian health efforts, could arrive by contaminated cargo or sea bird on our shores. Why would any thinking nation not fight the spread of Ebola, while its footprint is small.
Donald Trump's personal Vietnam was the avoidance of std; how sick is that. This nation is at risk, not only constitutionally, but also, from a public health standpoint. STD Don has never seen reality beyond 2 inches from his Manhattan/Really Queens nose. I want Ebola contained locally at all costs. MAGA really?
8
So this paper is just awakening to the reality of a dictator in the White House. American democracy officially perished on November 6, 2016 and once the tangerine toupe ascended, it was officially a fascist state. How useful the threat of ebola would be to a dictator...just have some government agency put it out there the way the first President Bush enabled crack cocaine to go out to the black community as a form of genocide in an equally sinister gesture. Trump hates large segments of the population he is ruling over in a shambolic system. He will use the threat of ebola and other horrible diseases to leverage concessions from the hapless population.
4
That person in the White House doesn't care about anyone or anything that doesn't concern him personally He's just a self-centered egotistical maniac. Maybe we should get inoculated against him and his despicable, incoherent tweets.
6
As with attempted repeal of Obamacare, Trump has a perverse desire to kill people.
8
When disaster strikes please understand that we're on our own with this "so called" president. The only people that may wake up when something like Ebola hits home is the fools that support him as their healthcare simply won't be enough to cover care expenses for the illness, if they even have some overpriced policy that they were sold by some greedy health insurance company. These idiots are concerned with abortion, not saving lives.
Perhaps the evangelicals can offer their thoughts and prayers to those impacted by a pandemic. They blindly support Trump so that should work out real well for them.
Everything Trump and the Republican party touches is either defunded or destroyed.
All this winning is killing us.
6
Ebola Redux? Thanks, President Trump - here's your Tweet from 2014. Who will suffer the consequences?
Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
The U.S. cannot allow EBOLA infected people back. People that go to far away places to help out are great-
but must suffer the consequences!
9:22 PM - Aug 1, 2014
2
Trump is clearly an idiot. I know he doesn't understand anything, but surely other republicans around him know that if an Ebola (or other disease outbreak) were to get out of hand abroad that it could eventually spread across the whole world?
The great flu pandemic of 1918 killed 10% of the world's population and that was before airplanes could fly a person from one end of the world to another within a day!
How did so much of our country become so stupid?!
9
The actions of this monster president and his minions since his election are horrifying in the extreme. With each new bit of information, we say, "Can this president and our country sink any lower?" And then something else comes along to prove his and his supporters' utter disdain for human life everywhere.
5
How on earth did the American people elect this misanthrope? A man whose vision reaches no further than his own best interests. The gullibility of great swaths of the voting public is beyond my comprehension.
4
But wait! The primary concern should be: can Donald Trump make money off this?? Well then, there's your answer.
3
If there were some way for Trump or his circle to directly profit from the Ebola response, then the USA would be all over this crisis.
4
I remember a lot of huffing and puffing over what some perceived as the Obama's lack of a proper response to Ebola in 2014, especially when a sick man wound up in the US and two of his nurses became ill, too.. Those people didn't say much later, when it appeared that the CDC did know what it was doing and had handled the situation well. I hope they'll speak up now.
3
"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" -- Ben Franklin
Mr. Trump's failure to maintain a posture of readiness to respond to disease outbreaks is worse than amnesia. He is the child shoving his fingers in his ears, screaming "Na, na, na--I can't hear you!" when a parent makes a demand.
Parents may be malleable but Nature is not. Ebola today or the next pandemic tomorrow will come. Mr. Trump does not see a threat from infectious disease in his gilded towers. Now, if a blight could be found which selective killed golf course turf grasses, he might think differently. Ebola, Marburg disease, Nipah disease and all their brethren only kill people and he only cares about them when they can be a source of money for his family. The "little people"--like us--do not count to him.
2
The danger from a flu pandemic is much higher than Ebola, but the CDC funds for fighting global disease have been drastically cut by this Administration and its enablers. See: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2018/02/01/cdc-to-...
Pathogens don't have passports, and they travel a lot. These so-called leaders are putting us all at daily risk. We need to vote them out ASAP.
4
There was sufficient money available to fund the crisis, Obama pulled one of his famous dramatic events, pretending that the Republicans in Congress were stymying the fight of the crisis.
Strange that he was able to come up with money that had never been appropriated to pay his crony friends the insurance companies and was also able to pony up a donation to the UN that had never been appropriated, but dragged his feet at a moment when leadership was required.
It is also true that under his inept leadership, the CDCs sent incorrect information to hospitals that resulted in two American nurses being unnecessarily exposed. That's what happened when you have a President with no executive experience who lacks the ability to learn.
3
Trump does not care one bit what happens to anyone else in the world. They are not our problem. But I hope Trump supporters recognize that the guy they embrace isn't a really caring, empathic guy who just isn't that way to foreigners. He is that guy period. And, for one second, I would like all the religious right to life folks out there: for every fetus you are saving, how many others are dying terrible, painful deaths as a result of the policies you so embrace? I don't see you out marching to protect them. Why is that? Could it be that not all lives are equally worthy?
2
Perhaps someone should tell Mr. Trump that some young people from Africa come to America to attend college. And I’m not just talking about South Africa. Also, some Americans are missionaries in Africa and periodically come back to America.
Apparently because of a reorganization by John Bolton we no longer have a pandemic response team. This is especially bad because of the new Ebola cases. I imagine that John Bolton is not focused on pandemics because his attention is on potential problems with Iran, North Korea and elsewhere.
I remember fighting with my husband over the money being thrown at AIDS - money spent globally that could attack cancer or other scourges.
And I argued that AIDS was a greater threat because it was transmissible - it is petty hard to catch cancer from someone, and very easy to get the HIV virus.
Then, it became clear that it wasn't a homosexual disease, although it killed so very many; it was a human disease, and we were all at risk. THEN there was a lot less argument about finding a cure.
Ebola is not on the radar until it threatens to be a human disease and not an African disease. Sadly, a lot of people have to die for it to become obvious that no scourge stays in a remote population for long.
2
"The Great Influenza" by John Barry details the mistakes made as the country, indeed the world, battled the flu in 1918. Though the times were different and medical science has advanced greatly, the pitfalls in attempts to arrest the spread were largely those made by politicians or those kowtowing to will of then president Woodrow Wilson. The advice of medical and public health professionals at the time were ignored and as a result literally millions more died than necessary. Politicians should heed the science. Now not only for threats like disease but also for threats to the environment.
2
Trump has already asserted his thoughts on African countries. I don't expect that the threat of an Ebola epidemic will change his mind, or bring him to understand that the disease could actually spread world wide. His mind cannot connect the dots. In his processing, it is only those "other" people who will be harmed; not good, solid white folks, so there is no problem.
29
Again those Evangelicals who support Trump are faced with a question of acting on their values or supporting a man who directly opposes their values in his words and actions. The Evangelical communities present themselves poorly to the rest of the US and to the world when their leadership is allowed to pander to Trump so its male leadership can control female reproduction by banning contraception and abortion funding in the US and its foreign aid programs.
@realDonaldTrump 81/2014
"The US cannot allow EBOLA infected people back." .."go to far away places to help out are great-but must face consequences!"
2
It would be a difficult task to select Trump's most despicable tweet--but surely this ranks at or near the top.
I remember it well, as it was the same time both NJ and NY governors also came out against allowing infected aid workers to return for medical care in the U.S. (Thanks to Paul Allen who purchased a company that provided isolation flights for aid workers.)
First, there is the hate and ignorance-driven fear of calling on America's sons and daughters to "suffer the consequences" of having not only gone out to help people in desperate need--but to stave off a far worse crisis: a pandemic that could have killed untold numbers of people and wreaked global economic havoc.
Not only did aid workers help West Africans establish treatment centers, they helped them create a massive public information campaign that helped to bend the curve and end the crisis.
Second it denied advanced healthcare available in the US that proved lifesaving in the majority of cases. Was Trump also referring to the thousands of US soldiers that responded. Where we to leave them as well?
A true profile in courage during the Ebola crisis (and there were many) was President Obama. He was laser focused on the crisis and kept a cool head even when Trump, Cuomo and Christie were panicking and pandering. President Obama understood the science and resisted political pressure to ensure that aid workers were encouraged to respond as they were key to avoiding a worst case scenario.
30
Please explain why you consider it "despicable" for either governors or Presidents to try to protect their constituents.
2
Why is it wrong for governors to put their own constituents first? Isn't that their job?
2
I think you missed the point of my comment. It is despicable to pander to the irrational/unscientific fears of constituents when it should be your job to protect their best interests.
President Obama understood that if the Ebola crisis went worse case it would inevitably make its way to the U.S. in much more dangerous ways (like the individual in Texas) than aid workers who were carefully monitored. He correctly assessed that the chances of the virus having a major impact on the U.S. would be far less if it was stopped within the 3 West African countries and that aid workers, resources, even the military were essential to ensure success. If aid workers were told before leaving as Trump suggested, `were not going to help you if you get infected--it's the price you pay for helping non Americans,' far fewer would have been willing to go--which would not have been in the best interests of Americans like you.
Feel free to ask any expert on this crisis or anyone who was in the Situation Room discussing worst case scenarios and best options.
Good opinion, but I resent your characterization of "Hospice Care" as crude, but it is also inaccurate in this instance. Patients dying from Ebola presented a horrible end of life, isolated from the human touch of a loved one or anyone- with painful symptoms. So many medical workers suffered knowing they were suffering.... many tried their best in what was an overwhelming situation. The idea of delivering hospice care (as we know it) is unsatisfying; At the very least, Palliative Care would be a better description of what we tried to deliver to patients....
13
Sadly, the microscopic world will fail to honor our national borders. There is an alarming increase in new disease pathogens that will strain our public healthy systems and challenge our ability to diagnose quickly. This is being seriously ignored by mainstream media. There is legitimate concern by some that Lyme may also be transmitted by mosquito. Is this worth knowing? Would this represent the evolution of this particular disease? Ask if the average physician in an average ER is able to diagnose EBOLA fast enough to prevents its spread? The globalization of poverty and the globalization of disease, like the global economy, can be difficult to control without robust public health measures, local and international. This is not the time to close down national and international initiatives. Diseases like Dengue and West Nile can be too easily transmitted from place to place, but too many in this administration are clueless about the effects of environmental degradation on the microscopic world. Even Trump's own grandchildren could be changed by the bite of an infected mosquito, even at Mar-a-Largo.
13
Stamping out Ebola will take more than a vaccine. Like eliminating small pox and (hopefully) polio, the effort only begins there.
Vaccines need to be distributed and administered. That seems simple to Americans sitting at home near an interstate highway. When it takes days of determined effort over rough (or non-existent) roads to even reach people in need, the logistical challenges grow exponentially. Add to that the need to refrigerate many pharmaceuticals, especially vaccines, from daily temperatures well above 100-degrees F, and the challenges zoom again. All this in areas without reliable, much less plentiful, electricity.
The final hurdle is the lack of health care workers who can immunize and treat people. WHO estimates the global shortage of health care workers at 7 million, set to grow to over 18 million by 2030. We do not have enough people in the training pipeline to address such a shortfall. These are the front line of disease prevention and treatment. We lack the troops.
Eliminating funding for emergency response and organizational preparation by the US is both irresponsible and unwise. Remember, Ebola is only the most dramatic infectious disease in this moment. There are nastier things lurking, such as antibiotic resistant bacteria, that cloud our horizon.
We live on the edge of the abyss of known and unknown diseases. The only thing that stands between us and disaster is a frail global health care system and its too-thin line of workers.
16
Shortsighted, indeed. One would think that a germaphobe like Mr. Trump would be eager to do all he could to help stop such a virulent an deadly bug. Maybe he would rather build his wall taller, run it right up the east & west coast, and quarantine all Americans coming back from abroad. Someone ought to tell our reality and compassion challenged "leader" that germs do not respect barriers or national boundaries.
18
Donald Trump is not the least interested in American public health, American high school students facing their armed fellow citizens. Therefore there is no point in writing about him as concerns saving the lives of people in foreign countries.
All writing about the present Ebola outbreaks had best be focused on efforts on the ground, on international contributions to those efforts, and on research including, but not restricted to, research by Americans.
Readers can do more by contributing now to MSF than by writing another 500 or more characters here.
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
Dual citizen US SE
21
@ myself LL - Made my contribution to MSF - in Swedish läkare utan gränser - using Swedish all-electronic banking. Took 90 seconds. I mention this because as an American as well as a Swede, I will shortly be over there where none of my 3 American Banks have anything remotely as good as my Swedish bank. Wonder why, maybe just because US is so big.
The WHO, especially the African branch was riddled with corruption and nepotism when the epidemic struck in 2014. Its response to Ebola/2014 was a case study in incompetence and how not to respond to an epidemic like Ebola. Considering how contagious this disease is and that it has already reached a populous port city by the Congo river, it is worrisome that it has not been designated a public health emergency of international concern yet.
MSF in contrast was exemplary and in the front lines during the 2014 epidemic as well as now.
The proven approach for intervention applied by MSF consist of:
--Early treatment and isolation of people who are sick
--Tracing and following up contacts
--Informing people about the disease, how to prevent it and
where to seek care
---Supporting existing healthcare
---Temporarily changing cultural behavior around funerals
Vaccination is a new tool that wasn't readily available in 2014. And even now it may not be available for everyone. Tragically, the victims of this disease in 2014 were brave and courageous doctors and health care providers.
25
Part of the National Institutes of Health is a tiny unit called the Fogarty International Center. Fogarty trained medical personnel in Africa were instrumental in organizing the ebola effort on the ground last time around.
You won't be surprised that the Trump budget zeroed out FIC. But Congress increased their budget reasoning that such diseases as ebola are better as international problems than domestic problems. The Trump people still haven't figured this out.
54
The Trump White House, however, appears to be uniquely amnesiac. On the same day that officials in the Democratic Republic of Congo reported the new Ebola cases, the administration sought to rescind $252 million in Ebola response funds left over from the earlier epidemic.
Timing is everything. Of course unbounded greed aided and abetted by deliberately uncorrected shortsightedness has defined the GOP (nothing like a Good Old Pandemic) approach to their civic duty in recent decades.
20
It is not enough to say you are part of the world community. We have the resources, medical expertise and experience to make a difference. What we lack is a compassionate leader who is capable of acting outside of his own self interest.
46
Humanitarian reasons aside, let's consider simple self-interest. Air travel alone makes it vital we respond at full tilt to even the smallest outbreak.
59
But, Susan, Ivanka does not travel on public carriers, and the Trump family avoids the germy parts of the public! No worries!
1
The CDC needs $1 from every American this year to replenish its funding to help contain the recent Ebola outbreak. Unfortunately, Congress says all the money has been spent on other priorities. Yet Congress also gave $180 for each taxpaying citizen ($60 Billion overall) to the U.S. War Machine -- and The DOD didn't even ask for this money -- Congress gave it to them so that defense contractors would generously fund representatives and senators reelection campaigns generously. Think about that -- our senators and representatives gave 200 times as much money -- unasked -- to defense because they prefer to make it easier for themselves to get easily than they do to help prevent people die from Ebola.
It's not all Trump's fault.
65
"Fewer entanglements abroad" to avoid spending money on health care in Africa. A dumbfounding myopic view of Trump and most Republicans. If we are so heartless that we don't consider the human aspects of assisting in the Ebola battle, at the very least, stopping Ebola outbreaks is self defense. It is self defense in the same real sense that we went into Afghanistan to destroy the training camps that were the birthplace of the 9/11 attacks.
Ebola came to America before and it will again. America is one of the few countries with the resources to develop a vaccine. No one else is going to do it and we must defend ourselves.
The Trump administration just plain can't see into the future far enough to recognize that there is more to life than just making Trump rich and feel important.
Yet again, I'm disgusted at the Trump introspective and narcissistic attitude that is interpreted internationally as representing me as an American.
51
How like an American to say "no one else is going to do it". The vaccine is Canadian.
5
Why does everything have to be about Trump? What does the Ebola outbreak in 2014 have to be about Trump just because he tweeted as a private citizen what he thought was appropriate.
If 11,300 people died in 2014 due to Ebola it was a devastating failure of the WHO to recognize that there were other ways that many of these lives could have been saved by not waiting for the vaccine in sufficient doses that did not arrive on time then.
Even now if the vaccine is not available or not 100% protective there could be deaths as is already happening in recent outbreak.
What other options are available to those who could be exposed and vaccine may not be available to them? In 2014, I had suggested the deployment of pomegranate juice based on its broad spectrum antiviral activity (now published in Future Virology in April 2018) to those who were just exposed to Ebola patients but had not had the full blown disease and that was not considered and an opportunity to save lives was lost.
I hope now that the vaccine is available for all those in the areas surrounding the Ebola patients if not it is time to have a rapid back up plan for every person in the vicinity of an Ebola virus infected person and those health care workers who have not been given the anti-Ebola vaccine.
Also in 2014 several 1000 US troops in W Africa were deployed and the same may be considered. This new outbreak needs to nipped in the bud with a multi-pronged attack on Ebola so that the deaths are far less.
7
It’s because what he tweeted was inappropriate and un-American. A bit like using pomegranate juice to put out a wildfire.
2
We're only one major disaster away from Trump and cronies completely losing their legitimacy with the American public. (Actually, they should have lost it with their unforgivable abandonment of Puerto Rico). How many people have to die before his supporters see behind his charades and lies?
67
Or, one disaster away from a "state of emergency " that requires special "temporary" powers.
4
@ Herman Brass A partial answer to your question is that as long as the dying are not members of his family he will do nothing. And when some future family member needs advanced care who will give in a by then 3d world America.
Better yet as I note in my comment just accepted @ 03:45 EDT do not NYT place the name Trump in any article about health.
Only-NeverIn Sweden.Blogspot.com
Citizen US SE
Probably millions. Really, they don't care. If they don't care about American children being killed in their classrooms why would they care about foreigners?
3
Any crisis at all will be a disaster. Trump can barely keep things going when everything has been working good.
16
"Experts blamed the slow, uncoordinated response for the high death toll and steep price tag". The W.H.O. is the directing and coordinating authority on international health within the United Nations’ system, and lessons learned is taking care of current crisis at an early stage.
The good solution is to increase the United States contribution to the W.H.O. The bad solution is to ignore the United Nations and the W.H.O. and do whatever crosses your mind.
16
Then there are those in the 1% who prefer the planet's population to be decimated and less than half of the current number. Some wish that a disease or contagion would roar across Africa and Asia to drastically decrease the swelling overpopulation of humans. It may also mean no incoming flights or people from the contaminated region(s) into the US. There could be a variety of outcomes or drastic measures taken if this latest Ebola outbreak is not quelled. Worse than any fictional novel or film.
14
"People that go to far away places to help out are great-but must suffer the consequences!" And we went on to elect this man president 3 years later. That breaks my heart.
139
This is the first time I saw that tweet; who cared about the opinions of some blowhard NY real estate person? But that one should have been headlines when he became candidate Trump. By his measure, Mother Teresa herself would not be allowed in the country. It doesn't break my heart. It just makes me angrier that we have an electorate stupid enough to vote for this creature and his Republican enablers.
7
Your President is all for other people suffering consequences. Too bad he can dish it out but can't take it. What a baby.
7
Ebola in DC. Maybe that will FINALLY get the GOP's attention!
25
Besides the GOP, I am also in DC every day.
Sorry, the GOP can go to Congo.
18
The Congo has enough problems. However, given the popularity of Trump and his s-h comments in Africa, perhaps sending them all to the Congo might be good way to get rid of ‘em.
Problem is Ebola is now confined to Africa. However, the world is globalized. Americans travel to Africa and back.
He is not only allowing people in Congo to die, he is risking American lives as well, here and overseas.
Life on both sides of the world have the risks and have the same value, despite his own value scale.
16
Trump is clueless. He doesn't know ANYTHING about human health or diseases.
And the people Trump has appointed to important posts are all quacks and charlatans.
42
Humanity's ancient and formidable enemy is disease. Immense death tolls changed the course of our history. The recent victories that antibiotics have won over this enemy have dulled our memories at the same time we fritter away their effectiveness by their promiscuous use. Past climate stresses have allied with existing disease to increase their lethality. The Tambora eruption in 1815 and its resulting climatic conditions caused the mutation of cholera from a disease endemic to the Bay of Bengal to a planet wide scourge. We are poised to magnify effects such as these with a new set of climate stresses. When we should be preparing for the inevitable by ramping up our scientific infrastructure, the Trump administration stages " The Masque of the Red Death."
52
"The U.S. cannot allow EBOLA infected people back. People that go to far away places to help out are great-but must suffer the consequences!"
Mr. Commander in Chief, does that go for military personnel, or just for people of good will? How about a program to send convicted corrupt politicians, liars and gangsters to "help out" instead?
98
great idea. Start with the GOP.
5
Let's hope nothing else, and I do mean NOTHING Barack Obama had anything to do with, ever happens again. Here at home or anywhere else in the world. DJT is sure to act against what Obama did.
Never a patriot, DJT will spare no effort to dismantle Mr Obama's legacy of push for equality, and empathy for all, at home and abroad, while displaying intellect, calm, grace, and humanity.
DJT will never know how to inspire the world and continue the traditional US role - leader of the free world.
63
Ah. Wonder how Dr. Craig Spencer, a New Yorker who was treated for Ebola at Bellevue, after serving with Doctors Without Borders, feels about fellow New Yorker Donald Trump’s compassion (not) for those Americans with Ebola - and not allowing them back in the country.
Do you think Trump keeps his fingers crossed/prays that Donnie Jr. and Eric don’t ever contract Ebola while they’re blowing the heads off all those lions, tigers, and whatever else they kill in Africa? You know......they just couldn’t come back to the USA. Darn!
87
Trump would be happy to see an outbreak of the Ebola virus, because the news such outbreak will generate will be a welcomed distraction for him from the Russia inquiry.
21
It would also give him an excuse to prevent any immigrants from entering the country under any circumstances. (And immigrants scare him more than pandemics.)
16
Really ?? Forrest Trump can't differentiate HIV from HPV. THIS is exactly why we need qualified professionals in Government Positions, not His
" best " people. Seriously. Thanks, GOP. November.
48
Don is the disease
It's only Fox he can please
Ignorance is the religion
of Republicanism
Nothing but money is
the only thing that will please
these idiots...
32
Trump is busy making America great (grate) again. He can't be bothered with small details like an Ebola outbreak in Africa. He can't even pronounce the names of half the countries there. And Ebola's a stupid name for an illness. Why not call it Killer Fever or something a red-blooded American like Trump can understand?
On a more serious note, I'm very glad that Trump was nowhere near the White House when AIDS made its appearance. Reagan didn't too many things right but when he appointed Dr. Koop as the Surgeon General we got our money's worth. Koop didn't let his religious beliefs interfere with science. He understood that religion and science can coexist. Trump doesn't understand the first thing about science. And he doesn't care which is why he and the GOP have no problem rescinding money set aside for medical issues or making ignorant statements about medical issues.
89
"Why not call it Killer Fever or something a red-blooded American like Trump can understand?"
We should work on this. Blood-gush fever?
3
Our POTUS a noted non-reader
Would find Ebola a non-feeder,
The word cooperate
Is one he does hate
It's profits for which he's a pay heeder.
He hasn't a Science Advisor,
One who'd make him just a tad wiser,
Barren on detail,
Nonsense without fail,
And runs our Nation like a Kaiser.
43
The majority of Americans, that excludes Trump's 95% (ers), must accept the following facts. The Trump administration is focused on two points: eliminate anything president Obama put in place and rake in as much business as possible for Trump Enterprises and those of his loyalists. That's it! Everything else is handled in an amateurish, ill executed, vindictive manner which is why Trump's administration is always chasing its tail.
143
Any fool should know that rescinding the Biosecurity section of the NSC is tantamount to treason in this day and age, where people are doing genetic engineering in their garages with kits purchased off the internet. People, we're going down, and the idiotic president is leading the way.
92
There is a book that paints the Trump administration actions as the precursor to World War III. It is War 2020 by Ralph Peters. It was written as a fantasy but it is scarily prophetic in the terror of biological, information, electronic and nuclear warfare starting with Iran/Iraq attacking Russia while USA is recovering from 50% lethality from a biological attack.
14
Every day we see a new example of the ways in which Donald Trump privileges his seething, overwhelming jealousy of his predecessor over the good of the American people and the good of the world.
119
Let me guess, if Trump had immediately leaped into action on this latest outbreak of Ebola the NYT would have criticized him for acting hastily and without sufficient information.
Here are the obvious operative "journalistic" guidelines: If Trump does something, criticize him for doing it. If he doesn't do something, criticize him for not doing it.
Enough with all the bashing. It is time to recognize that there are intelligent people in fly-over land (and elsewhere) who can see through the endless criticism of President Trump, his family and his staff.
If we Democrats are to prevail in the mid-terms, and again in 2020, we must offer strong and appealing candidates and a positive platform that responds to the needs and concerns of all Americans, not just the preconceived notions of coastal elites.
And, by the way, the CDC has been involved in responding to this latest Ebola outbreak since its beginning.
"Not ignorance, but ignorance of ignorance," observed Alfred North Whitehead, "is the death of knowledge."
"The truest characters of ignorance," noted Samuel Butler, "are vanity and pride and arrogance."
Sound familiar? What we're seeing is nothing new.
Donald Trump isn't the first charismatic, despotic, narcissistic, and delusional political leader swept onto the public stage in a wave of reactionary ignorance, and he won't be the last.
Vanity. Pride. Arrogance. Yes, Mr. Butler, that pretty much sums him up.
Donald Trump isn't suffering from "amnesia" because you can't forget what you never knew in the first place.
He's just ignorant.
208
A very good statement, thank you.
19
Donald Trump is concerned with Donald Trump, no one else.
118
This is EXACTLY where the clown show of incompetence, greed, lying, and malicious mismanagement of the government by current administration officials leads to devastating real-world effects.
160
You are so correct. This is the kind of thing that deserves our outrage and not the Stormy Daniels stuff, disgraceful as it is. We must work to replace the willful ignorance of the opposition in 2018 and 2020!
3