HazMat team empties Ebola doctor's apartment WITHOUT gloves, face masks or any protective gear

a reply to: intrptr

Glad i could lighten up your day .

originally posted by: loam
PICS.

The preparedness of New York City officials and workers to deal with Ebola has once again left much to be desired as a HazMat team sent in to decontaminate the apartment of Craig Spencer, the first person to contract the deadly virus in the city, was seen leaving his apartment with sealed barrels, but wearing no protective gear.



The men were photographed exiting the apartment without gloves, face masks, or anything else to protect them as they loaded the barrels with possibly contaminated goods into the back of a truck.





Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk... 86P

Seems some lessons need to be learned slowly.



Good grief.





ETA:



I also wonder how many of the doctor's things will wind up in some private contractor's home. I hate to be cynical, but pause and think about that for a moment.



'nough said.

So the doctors and government officials during the press conference said "This is not Dallas."

Sorry, but this is exactly like Dallas.

***Gotta love the guy with the cigarette dangling out of his mouth. Classy.

originally posted by: badgerprints
Aaayyy!

Dis iz New Yawk.



Ebola?



Fuggedaboutit...

LOVE this. Thanks for making me laugh. (and I bet this is exactly what these guys are thinking!)

I guess cleaners are somewhat safe, we see guys only from outside the apt we don´t see how people who have filled those containers have dressed.

SURVIVAL OUTSIDE HOST: Filoviruses have been reported capable to survive for weeks in blood and can also survive on contaminated surfaces, particularly at low temperatures (4°C) .

One study could not recover any Ebolavirus from experimentally contaminated surfaces (plastic, metal or glass) at room temperature.

In another study, Ebolavirus dried onto glass, polymeric silicone rubber, or painted aluminum alloy is able to survive in the dark for several hours under ambient conditions (between 20°C and 25°C and 30–40% relative humidity) (amount of virus reduced to 37% after 15.4 hours), but is less stable than some other viral hemorrhagic fevers (Lassa) .

When dried in tissue culture media onto glass and stored at 4 °C, Zaire ebolavirus survived for over 50 days. This information is based on experimental findings only and not based on observations in nature.

This information is intended to be used to support local risk assessments in a laboratory setting. A study on transmission of ebolavirus from fomites in an isolation ward concludes that the risk of transmission is low when recommended infection control guidelines for viral hemorrhagic fevers are followed Footnote 64. Infection control protocols included decontamination of floors with 0.5% bleach daily and decontamination of visibly contaminated surfaces with 0.05% bleach as necessary.

LINK

Even so they should be more cautious !

originally posted by: miniatus
I've replied to several of these topics, and before the "you can't get it unless you are in direct contact with bodily fluid" crowd chimes in ..

That's FALSE..

No, as far as we know that is the truth but it doesn't make this virus any less terrifying. One thing that crowd is overlooking is how influenza is spread:

How Is the Flu Virus Spread?

The flu is a highly contagious disease. The flu virus is spread when you either inhale infected droplets in the air (spread when an infected person coughs or sneezes) or when you come in direct contact with an infected person's secretions (by kissing, touching, sharing objects such as spoons and forks). You can also transfer the flu virus to your hands by touching smooth surfaces such as doorknobs, handles, television remotes, computer keyboards, and telephones. Then when you touch your hands to your nose, eyes, or mouth, the flu virus gets absorbed.

www.webmd.com...

Exactly the same way as Ebola yet it takes less of the Ebola virus to infect a person than it does with the flu. Ebola is more contagious and easier to catch than the flu.

It's nothing to worry about . If they'd have got into the truck with the full gear on , they would have contaminated the seats , the wheel , the pedals, the keys, the sticks , the door handles ...
At some point Hazmat suits become the hazardous material , but they're in the barrels .

There is however a good case for mandatory quarantine of med staff returning from affected countries.

I suspect this is actually a bit of a non-story. You wouldn't be able to wear the hazmats used inside the apartment outside the plastic decontamination airlock, so I'd imagine the barrels are filled inside the apartment, decontaminated in the airlock and then removed to be destroyed.

I'm a little surprised they're not wearing some kind of protective suit - but maybe it's not strictly necessary if the barrels and airlock have been properly decontaminated. Obviously the people actually sterilising the apartment will have to put their suits into barrels and be decontaminated themselves.

Ebola is obviously very dangerous, but humans have been successfully decontaminating virally compromised places for decades. Ebola isn't any more resistant to those processes than any other virus.

Here's an interesting video showing photos of the home of an Ebola sufferer being decontaminated...

Basically, they strip the apartment right down. Can't imagine that's nice to come home to after you've been sick!

a reply to: ZIPMATT

At some point Hazmat suits become the hazardous material , but they're in the barrels .

All the barrels? Or just the last one? Think about that.

a reply to: KingIcarus

I would fervently hope so.It's the only explanation that makes sense-otherwise i have to think that the authorities coud'nt give a rat's ass if ebola spreads in NY city,and beyond.

Did I miss the story where anyone got Ebola in Texas that didn't have direct contact with a deathly ill Thomas Eric Duncan? Last time I saw anything about Ebola in Dallas only those two nurses who were improperly protected and cared for Duncan at his worst actually caught the disease.
How many stories of no one getting a case of Ebola from anywhere but direct contact with a patient will it take before folks stop thinking it's gonna jump on them ? I'll bet the doctor didn't puke and crap all over his apartment before calling for transport to a hospital.
Remember Amber Vinson had an elevated tempretures when she flew to Akron but no one got sick anywhere along the way. Duncan's family spent time with him and none of them got it. Nor did anyone who lived at the apartment complex where he lived even though folks were sure that the power washers were wspreading Ebola in the air and into the ground water.
Dr. Brantley and Nancy Writebol didn't spread it to anyone either though again people were up in arms over them being transported to the USA.
These guys are carrying sealed containers. They probably never came in direct contact with anything in the doctors apartment.

It's not spread exactly like the flu which is an airborne disease. Just for perspective in a fort in Kentucky in 1918 when the Spanish flu hit the USA one man got sick in early March. The very next week 100 people had it. In one single week. In a year millions had gotten sick and a lot of people died. While Ebola has not reached any where near even 20 thousand and its been going since last Dec according to some sources. So no sorry but the facts speak for themselves.

reply to: LordAhriman

originally posted by: ZIPMATT
It's nothing to worry about . If they'd have got into the truck with the full gear on , they would have contaminated the seats , the wheel , the pedals, the keys, the sticks , the door handles ...
At some point Hazmat suits become the hazardous material , but they're in the barrels .

There is however a good case for mandatory quarantine of med staff returning from affected countries.

And anyone coming to this country from any of the infected countries now have to enter from one of only five airports where screening of those passengers will be more rigorous.

a reply to: LordAhriman

...Ebola is more contagious and easier to catch than the flu.

Can you explain why the 2009 Swine Flu Pandemic took about 3 months to spread round the world but after 11 months the Ebola epidemic still remains relatively contained to West Africa?

originally posted by: AutumnWitch657
It's not spread exactly like the flu which is an airborne disease. Just for perspective in a fort in Kentucky in 1918 when the Spanish flu hit the USA one man got sick in early March. The very next week 100 people had it. In one single week. In a year millions had gotten sick and a lot of people died. While Ebola has not reached any where near even 20 thousand and its been going since last Dec according to some sources. So no sorry but the facts speak for themselves.

reply to: LordAhriman

Are you just ignoring the facts I posted? THE FLU IS NOT AIRBORNE, IT'S TRANSMITTED THROUGH DIRECT CONTACT WITH BODILY FLUIDS.

Influenza can be spread in three main ways:[4][5]

by direct transmission (when an infected person sneezes mucus directly into the eyes, nose or mouth of another person);
the airborne route (when someone inhales the aerosols produced by an infected person coughing, sneezing or spitting);
through hand-to-eye, hand-to-nose, or hand-to-mouth transmission,[6] either from contaminated surfaces or from direct personal contact such as a hand-shake.

Here's another source for you to act like I didn't post!

en.m.wikipedia.org...

a reply to: loam

I think we should be glad these guys did not wear their contaminated suits into the street. But then again, the DailyMail needs their headlines.

a reply to: loam

I hate to play devils advocate here, but I thing that this people do not have anything to fear from the infestation, do to the fact that the doctor is in the earlier stages of infection, his apartment would not be that infected anyway.

a reply to: loam

I guess you can't get infected when there's nothing to get infected with.

I don't think that those 'professionals' don't know how to do their job. At first I thought that they just incompetent. But on second thought, they might know more then we do. That those are all fake cases

originally posted by: soficrow
a reply to: LordAhriman

...Ebola is more contagious and easier to catch than the flu.

Can you explain why the 2009 Swine Flu Pandemic took about 3 months to spread round the world but after 11 months the Ebola epidemic still remains relatively contained to West Africa?

Simple. The swine flu attacks the respiratory system so the droplet factor of people sneezing and coughing was much higher. Ebola doesn't cause sneezing or coughing hence the slower spread. Now that we're moving into cold season though, things could get a lot worse as nearly everybody will be sneezing and coughing at some point in time. If one has Ebola and a cold simultaneously, i believe we could see it spread as fast or faster than the flu.

originally posted by: LordAhriman

originally posted by: soficrow
a reply to: LordAhriman

...Ebola is more contagious and easier to catch than the flu.

Can you explain why the 2009 Swine Flu Pandemic took about 3 months to spread round the world but after 11 months the Ebola epidemic still remains relatively contained to West Africa?

Simple. The swine flu attacks the respiratory system so the droplet factor of people sneezing and coughing was much higher. Ebola doesn't cause sneezing or coughing hence the slower spread. Now that we're moving into cold season though, things could get a lot worse as nearly everybody will be sneezing and coughing at some point in time. If one has Ebola and a cold simultaneously, i believe we could see it spread as fast or faster than the flu.

You originally said "Ebola is more contagious and easier to catch than the flu." I agree we should not dismiss Ebola's dangers or the importance of the epidemic in West Africa. At the same time, we should not overstate the immediate dangers either. That said, the Ebola-flu comparison is interesting. Historically, flu spread more efficiently in low humidity - but the new flus are spreading off-season (for example, the 2009 pandemic started around May, after flu season was over, and during a period of relatively high humidity). [You might be interested in this thread.] ....The coughing issue aside, we need to know how humidity affects Ebola's spread, a question I first asked a few months ago.

LordAhriman: ...Ebola is more contagious and easier to catch than the flu.