Shortly after the humorless brigade arrived.
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Check your humor privilege, whitebread. Mine was removed at knifepoint by a roving gang of Southern Baptists.
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I am Jackâs Inflamed Sense Of Rejection
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Iâm assuming Xeni was referring to hysteria about the disease spreading outside of West Africa and the possibility it could mutate into something even worse if allowed to persist in human populations for longâŚlike this article for instance.
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Follow the cites listed in the below WIkipedia article, almost all of the fatalities at this point related to the Chernobyl reactor meltdown are mental health and alcohol related by people afraid that their health might be affected by the radiation. In European countries the abortion rate spiked by thousands even in places which would have no expectation of any effect due to fearful mothers. This comic flow chart seems to be an entertainment version of Keep Calm and Carry On.
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Ebola is obviously not an immediate threat to anyone in the USA. But it is out of control in West Africa. And a major impediment to squashing its spread there are religious quacks spreading rumors that Health Care workers are the cause of the disease.
All it takes is a few people who have the disease there getting on the plane and hitting some perfect storm scenarios. We donât know how it could mutate and we have plenty of religious quacks in (and running) our country.`
Its not at all impossible for this to quickly go from something that could not effect us here, to a rampant pandemic.
Is it a high probability? No. But the lack of action dealing with the spread in West Africa doesnât bode well for this or future real pandemics.
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I donât see any hysteria in that article.
Did you bring it in with you?
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Hey we all have our own tolerance for riskâŚ
My personal rule of thumb is I only worry about those things more likely than being attacked by pirates.
Risk of pirate attack > risk of Ebola.
And of course thereâs the fate of 250 million orphans worldwide⌠Who all end up dead or in jail for the most part by the age of 18
Plight of orphans > pretty much every other goddamn bad thing put together.
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And then there is influenze; not currently killing more than a few tens of thousands per year (in the US alone); but capable of so much more.
Then what are they up to behind the high walls of Phaz-Bukh Institute for Research and Applied Trolling?
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Growing concerns over âin the airâ transmission of Ebola
research from a few years ago
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A very helpful chart with which to manage the outbreak of Ebola panic on social media.
A very helpful chart with which to manage the outbreak of Ebola panic on social media.
or put another wayâŚ
A very helpful chart with which to manage the outbreak of Ebola panic on social media.
and in case you missed it!
A very helpful chart with which to manage the outbreak of Ebola panic on social media.
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I always assumed trolling required a modicum of self awareness.
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If there is no hysteria in that article, then Iâm not sure why people concerned about bringing two Ebola patients to the US is, in turn, hysteria.
The claim is that the odds that bringing two patients infected with ebola to the United States for treatment creates an almost-negligible risk that ebola would escape containment in the United States. After all the CDC and Emory University are on top of things with a special isolation room, etc.
On the risk side, the public has just been hit with news that CDC and other govt agenciesâ containment of dangerous pathogens is not always up to par. Even with top-notch hospitals, weâve seen hospitals fail at containing dangerous outbreaksâŚfor example see Frontlineâs report on antibiotic resistance on the NIH trying to track down a KPC outbreak at its clinical facility in New York.
Finally, whatâs missing in most of the online âstop being hystericalâ line of thinking is that while the risk from bringing the ebola patients to the United States is extremely low, so is the potential benefit.
We know that humans are very bad at effectively balancing these sorts of costs vs. benefits, so Iâm assuming that my drive to get coffee this morning put me at many millions of times more risk of dying than did the transfer of these ebola patients, but I fail to see how telling people to âShut the fuck upâ because they miscalculate improves their understanding.
If I could suggest an alternative response to this sort of fear: if youâre worried about the risk of ebola spreading to the United States, then the best thing you could do is call your Representative or Senator and urge them to do more to increase the global response to the ebola outbreak in West Africa. As World Health Organization officials have noted, the international communityâs response to the outbreak has been woefully inadequate. The greatest risk to the United States and other countries is not a couple Americans in special isolation units, but the ongoing failure to contain the ebola outbreak in West Africa.
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Apparently it is. I was concerned about Ebola, not as a threat to me personally, but more along the lines of the general human race or specific portions thereof, particularly those located in Africa. My thoughts were trending along the lines of, âwhat charitable medical organizations can I donate some money to?â but now that Iâve received this useful advice, Iâll just shut up and forget about it.
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I fail to see how saying anything else gets them to be more angry than afraid. At least theyâre not afraid anymore.
If the ego threat from an infographic > Ebola threat, then Ebola would seem to be another foil, used by the finger-wagging brigade. And being that way, they do more harm than good to the cause the posture in front of. Ainât nobody got time for that.
Donât let ego and fear get involved in public health matters, because it sounds dumb and it makes people want to swear at the idiocy, and the idiots.
We need to have more faith in our CDC. Sure, they left some live smallpox lying around in an unsecured lab, exposed their own people to anthrax, and then sent some bird flu to the Dept of Ag by mistake, but otherwise, theyâre all over this. They have top men working on it right now.
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Hey, cut that out; weâre looking forward, not backward!
It seems like we need a helpful chart for the helpful chart.
Were you being concerned for your personal safety regarding the story of Ebola patients being transported to the US prior to reading this chart and you are not working as a medical staff member in close contact with said patients?
If yes, follow the instructions in the chart.
If no:
Are you vaguely, severely, or to any other degree concerned about the humanitarian crisis revolving around the recent or any pre-existing or any potential disease outbreak?
If yes, this chart doesnât apply to you. Donât be or pretend to be offended. Find a worthwhile charitable organization to donate to instead of attacking strawmen and windmills. Nobody was telling you to stop caring about other human beings.
If no, find a worthwhile charitable organization to donate to anyway.
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Truly. That is a lot more likely to be contagious.
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