Ebola Odds and Ends

Israel has apparently opted for quiet common sense, and just said no to Ebolaville:

Israel secretly bans citizens of Ebola-stricken West Africa from visiting country

In extremely irregular move, Foreign Ministry sends classified telegram instructing Israeli missions not to issue visas for citizens of Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea; missions warned to keep instructions secret.

Pity that President Obola isn't as bright as Bibi.


And now the first military false alarm let them practice all the procedures:

CHARLESTON, SC (WCSC) - A pilot with the 437th Airlift Wing who flew a mission to West Africa on Oct. 23 and began experiencing "flu-like symptoms" this week has been downgraded from being "low risk" to "no risk," according to MUSC. "In consultation with DHEC, CDC and the Department of Defense, it has been confirmed the patient had no contact with anyone in Liberia, and based on this information, he has been determined to have no risk for Ebola. The patient will be removed from Ebola precautions, and no quarantine will be required," MUSC spokesman Tony Ciuffo said.

The serviceman, who lives off-base, began experiencing the symptoms on Wednesday, and was transported to MUSC Friday morning after Joint Base Charleston coordinated with the state's Department of Health and Environmental Control to exercise "the appropriate protocols and an abundance of caution," according to Staff Sgt. Anthony Hyatt.

The patient recently returned from a three hour stay in Liberia during which time he did not leave the plane, according to Mark Plowden, Communications Director for DHEC. The hospital activated their Ebola protocols after it was contacted Thursday night by DHEC.

"Late yesterday evening, we got a patient who required an Ebola medical screening," MUSC spokesperson Heather Woolwine said.

MUSC brought the patient to the hospital using what they call an "isolation pod" to keep the risk of spreading any possible infection between the patient and attending medical staff to a minimum.

Note that what the military did not do was immediately begin issuing a bunch of carefully parsed statements trying to convince anyone this could not possibly be Ebola, and that the USAF officer involved did not wet his pants, scrape poo out of his diaper, begin flinging it about the area, and call his congressman over all these outrageous violations of his civil rights, unlike certain jackassical alleged nursing professionals who are employed by the CDC.

There may be a lesson or twelve there.

Not all government employees are unredeemed jackholes, and surprising no one, that would the ones who draw their paychecks from the military active duty budget.

And lastly, 40 days (funny how that number keeps cropping up with regard to contagious outbreaks) after Thomas Duncan was admitted with the first domestic Ebola case, the TX Department of State health Services has tweeted:

It's official. This evening's final monitoring check is done. No symptoms. We are happy to close this Ebola chapter with Dallas tonight.

According to Doc Grouch, the current patient census for THP-Dallas, a 968-bed hospital, is running in the single digits, which is to say they're going to financially crash and burn long before they have a chance to be sued out of existence. So thank heavens one unemployed Liberian box-tosser will only cost Dallas a multi-million dollar medical center. But it's a good thing he was able to get $500K worth of free medical care, courtesy of the fine taxpayers of the state of TX, after contributing the sort of thing to the American experience that in sane countries would result in air strikes.

This is from one patient.
So tell me again how this Ebola thing is "no big deal", or just some sort of tinfoil-propeller hat ruse.