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Originally Posted by gomoho
After thinking about "the Ebola scare" I believe the main thing that fueled the fear was the lack of trust in our government to a)tell us the truth and b)handle it correctly. We will never know if we got the truth; but it appears in spite of their screw ups things are working out well.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by janmcn
What "screw ups" can be blamed on the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta or the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, MD ? It seems that these government institutions cleaned up errors made by the hospital in Dallas and saved lives in the process.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Rags123
"A laboratory mistake at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta may have exposed a technician to the deadly Ebola virus, federal officials said on Wednesday. The technician will be monitored for signs of infection for 21 days, the incubation period of the disease."
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/25/he...irus.html?_r=0
"For weeks, health officials reassured the public about Ebola, saying the nation's health care system would contain the virus.
But now, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is admitting that mistakes were made, reports CBS News correspondent Mark Strassmann."
Ebola virus response in Dallas had mistakes admits CDC - CBS News
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I appreciate the attempt to answer Janmcn's question which was a reply to Gomoho's accusation that the ebola scare was partly because the CDC has screwed up.
Your two citations don't support the position Gomoho took that CDC screw ups produced the Ebola scare. The story of the mishandled lab sample of course occurred well after the scare ended and involved no risk to anyone outside the lab. Your second reference with the title including CDC and mistakes when actually read simply says that the CDC :
"The agency now admits a mistake. Its rapid-response team should have been mobilized to Dallas right away to help train the staff caring for Duncan, something the agency said it will do from now on."
Thus the examples of screw ups by the CDC were
1. A mishandling of a lab sample internally which posed no risk to the public
2. Not sending a rapid response team quickly enough because they thought the local hospital would be able to manage the required isolation
Of course if the CDC is incompetent why would you want their team to come help? In fact the CDC gave advise on the proper handling of patients, the lack of need to isolate non-ill persons, the complete picture of how the disease spreads, when persons become contagious, how to monitor while both protecting the public and not stripping people of their rights.
And the lack of trust in government might have been engendered by people saying completely false things like immigrants and terrorists were being infected with Ebola and sent across our borders to get us.
Ebola fears spark backlash against Latino immigrants - CNN.com
http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczyn...a-a#.xmXbqovmE
» Next Phase of the Ebola Crisis: Terrorism Alex Jones' Infowars: There's a war on for your mind!
And that Ebola was easy to catch,
Is the Ebola virus 'incredibly contagious' and 'easy to catch,' like Rand Paul says? | PolitiFact
So perhaps there were some who felt that making it appear that the CDC and the government in general is incompetent was all part of a political philosophy to create and benefit from the Ebola scare. And those who still feel that we only escaped a massive epidemic because we got lucky or "in spite" of the CDC and our response are unaware of how the CDC got it right, nearly completely right.