Obama: Not to worry, Ebola is the JV of viruses

Two weeks ago Obama said that an outbreak of Ebola was unlikely here:

First and foremost, I want the American people to know that our experts, here at the CDC and across our government, agree that the chances of an Ebola outbreak here in the United States are extremely low. We’ve been taking the necessary precautions, including working with countries in West Africa to increase screening at airports so that someone with the virus doesn’t get on a plane for the United States. In the unlikely event that someone with Ebola does reach our shores, we’ve taken new measures so that we’re prepared here at home. We’re working to help flight crews identify people who are sick, and more labs across our country now have the capacity to quickly test for the virus. We’re working with hospitals to make sure that they are prepared, and to ensure that our doctors, our nurses and our medical staff are trained, are ready, and are able to deal with a possible case safely.

Left wing flack Chris Matthews found himself with a different kind of tingle up his leg:

CHRIS MATTHEWS: I’m just trying to follow the logic here. Everybody’s being told, don’t worry unless they have the infectious symptoms, you can see them, that you don’t have to worry about catching them. Yet, this guy picked up the disease apparently from somebody who did not have the infectious symptoms.

DR. EZEKIEL EMANUEL: Again, don’t hypothesize because we just don’t know. We have no idea what he did or didn’t do and how he got it. I’m sure that’s going to be vital information to try to understand the transmission, but the idea that there’s going to be a widespread outbreak here, I think is just, again, it’s a bit of fear mongering. We have a single case. This is not a big, widespread —

MATTHEWS: Yeah, yeah, but I’m just going back to the president’s statement, doctor, and that is that the president said it would be unlikely if we had a case in this country. Unlikely to even have one case. You want to see the tape again?

EMANUEL: He said there wouldn’t be an Ebola outbreak.

MATTHEWS: No, and in the second part of his sentence he said in the unlikely case someone brings it here. In the unlikely case someone brings it here. Well, they’ve done it. We’re living in the world of the unlikely already. That’s all I’m saying. I’m not fear mongering. I’m stating the facts and I wonder if everybody else is.

David Sanders, American Cancer Society Research Scholar:

Sanders, also an American Cancer Society research scholar, said the risk for travelers contracting and spreading the disease exists — but can be dealt with.

“It could certainly happen that we do have people who are exposed and they don’t know it and they can potentially spread it to other people,” he said.

“We can identify those people very rapidly and we can also make sure that it doesn’t spread. It turns out that one of the things about Ebola is it doesn’t spread until you have visible symptoms.”

Is that possible? Oh yes.

A man with Ebola in Dallas was initially sent home from the hospital with antibiotics after seeking treatment for an unknown illness, officials said.

As Obama might say:

“I think the analogy we use around here sometimes, and I think is accurate, is if a JV team puts on a Yersinia pestis capsid, that doesn’t make them Bubonic Plague.”

UPDATE

There is a second possible case of Ebola

Ebola victim had contact with several children

More will be infected

The news just keeps on getting better.

DrJohn

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