Peter Piot co-discoverer of the ebola virus is not concerned about outbreak in western europe.

I saw this interview this morning at work.



Yes it is a horrid virus and yes we need to help the places which are suffering and monitor people traveling from the places effected but like he says he is not concerned about an outbreak but the highest risk is to the staff looking after them.
Many here are acting like this is the last plague and we will all die from it.
Get a grip.
We have the best medical professionals in the world and we can stop it coming over and will.
We do have to globally mobilize to stop it to help those poor people over there but like he says it spread because they have less then 1 Doctor per 100 thousand people.

Cool, he also said this:

“And it should be clear to all of us: This isn’t an epidemic anymore. This is a humanitarian catastrophe. We don’t just need care personnel, but also logistics experts, trucks, keeps and foodstuffs. Such an epidemic can destabilize entire regions. I can only hope that we will be able to get it under control. I really never thought that it could get this bad.”

link

a reply to: Indigent

He is right it is a catastrophe over there, in a place which has been war torn and many do not trust modern medicine and like I said 1 doctor for 100,000 people of course it will spread.
Over here and the states it is much different.

People are falling for all the doom porn that the MSM is putting out about the virus. As long as people can refrain from having sex or exchanging bodily fluids with people that have the disease then they are safe. Right now FOX is leading the way with the doom porn with CNN coming in at a close second.

CDC insists Ebola under control even as stricken man's relatives quarantined, home awaits scrubdown

Federal health officials rushed Friday to assure a frightened public that Ebola does not pose a serious threat in the U.S., even as the first — and thus far only — diagnosis on American soil exposed potential flaws in border screening, treatment and disposal of contaminated items. As Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan, who showed symptoms of the often-fatal disease shortly after arriving from Liberia, was in serious condition and being treated in isolation at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, relatives in Dallas resisted a quarantine amid reports that cleanup specialists were balking at disinfecting their home.

a reply to: buster2010

I bet the Spanish nurse had sex with the missionary, time will tell

a reply to: buster2010

Only sex or exchanging bodily fluids? Let me put before you, once again, this article from the LA Times. You didn't comment on it before, would you care to do so now?

Ebola has been around for a long time and still has not mutated to the point to where people can get infected just by being the same room with someone who has it.

Well, we're not quite as sure of that as you suggest. There's an interesting story in [I]The Los Angeles Times[/I] that presents a variety of opinions on the subject. Here's one:

Finally, some also question the official assertion that Ebola cannot be transmitted through the air. In late 1989, virus researcher Charles L. Bailey supervised the government's response to an outbreak of Ebola among several dozen rhesus monkeys housed for research in Reston, Va., a suburb of Washington.

What Bailey learned from the episode informs his suspicion that the current strain of Ebola afflicting humans might be spread through tiny liquid droplets propelled into the air by coughing or sneezing.

"We know for a fact that the virus occurs in sputum and no one has ever done a study [disproving that] coughing or sneezing is a viable means of transmitting," he said. Unqualified assurances that Ebola is not spread through the air, Bailey said, are "misleading."

a reply to: boymonkey74

agree.

Ebola is a big name, and it will be leveraged for cash flow. Other than that....think "Swine Flu" (i.e., the great pandemic that never really happened).

a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan

Reading ATS and the ebola threads prove to me one thing some folk want it to happen...they are gnashing their teeth wanting it to happen.

a reply to: charles1952

If i may comment on that:

- "some also question" is akin to #sourcessay. Yes, i know there are likely real people behind those names. But if those real people are folks like Joe Biden, "some" really means "none". It is nothing more than media jargon used to create dispute and drive engagement in the storyline. Because now we are all talking about airborn ebola (and ebola in general)
- if ebola lives in sputum and mucous, then yes....droplets can be sprayed into the air. That said....is that what we are seeing? The exponential growth that you would expect in an airborne illness such as the flu?
- "airborn" vs "droplet"....they aren't the same thing. Although, in full disclosure, it is seeming as if flu is more airborn and less droplet

If i see ebola exhibit exponential growth in its native land, I could entertain ideas of apocolypse. But it seems reticent to really infect even in it native area along the Ebola river.

Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea have taken a beating. Well....they have combined for about 10k infections. However, Nigeria, which should be a good fit for a densely packed center of hosts (with 22mil crammed into their capital city) has barely been touched. And the medical environment (along with some cultural things) certainly doesn't help their cause.

In the west, we don't have the same culture. And we don't have the same climate/environment.

a reply to: boymonkey74

i just finished the book the 'the hot zone' which is all about ebola, marburg etc and the book has a slightly different take...many of the people in it have worked most of their adult lives level 4 viruses etc..

from what i gathered from the book anyone who works with that stuff thinks its a big deal...

in the book an entire building of monkeys becomes infected with ebola..too include monkeys in different rooms and separate cages. they mention how the virus can be airborne through things like sneezing etc.

my point is it spread all over the building with them even trying to prevent that...luckily this particular strand didn't effect humans but they warned about a strand that some day would and how devastating it can be as the virus is almost "aware" that it needs to get through the lungs. many years later...here we are

it is a great read and really can adapt to what we are going through today...one mutation and there will be a lot less threads around here

another thing touched on is the other variables at play...attorneys getting invovled...media, the power and control between cdc/who and the military...we ourselves could make it an epidemic just because of our arrogance

a reply to: boymonkey74

and if it isnt contained there we will have the occassional case pop up here...causing millions of dollars to be wasted on treating, monitoring and cleaning up after each one that sneaks in...shutting down the airports would help but if we do that we lose out on other economic areas..

the economy is rocky as it is...ebola could help push it down further...its just another major problem to the list of problems

a reply to: boymonkey74

one more point...he said in 38 years 1500 have died from ebola....don't you think it is interesting that we have more than double that dead in a few months? Isn't that reason enough to say wtf is this strand a little more contagious than we thought?

a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan

Dear bigfatfurrytexan,

Just a quick stop. The name used in the article should serve as a representative of however many people might be in the group of "some."

In late 1989, virus researcher Charles L. Bailey supervised the government's response to an outbreak of Ebola among several dozen rhesus monkeys housed for research in Reston, Va., a suburb of Washington.

I could be wildly wrong, but he sounds legitimate to me.

You're right that we don't have the same culture. I think some of that benefits us, and some doesn't. The medical researchers are the best (of course, they don't have a cure yet, just like the Africans). I don't know how well a quarantine would work in a major American city. Would Obama be willing to send in troops to enforce it? The police alone wouldn't stand a chance.

And some portions of our cities, as I believe another poster has pointed out, have rats, sanitation problems, and crowded homeless shelters.

In sum, I don't know how we'd fare if New York or Los Angeles turned up with 100 cases. Maybe better, maybe worse. I'm not sure we have enough information yet. Some are trying to get information out, some are trying to withhold or deny it. All with the best motives, I'm sure, but it is getting worrisome.

With respect,
Charles1952