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Oct. 2, 2014 - Freedomain Radio - Stefan Molyneux
27:09
2809 Ebola in the United States: Everything You Need To Know!
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Hi everybody, it's Stefan Molyneux from Free Domain Radio.
So, an update on Ebola landed now in the United States where up to 100 people may have been exposed to the virus.
Let's do a little bit of a background.
Of course, Ebola originated in Africa for horrifying culinary reasons we'll get to in a moment.
People are only infectious, apparently, according to authorities.
If they have symptoms of Ebola, there's no risk of transmission from people who have been exposed to the virus but are not yet showing symptoms.
Obviously, there's a gray area where that progresses.
You're not likely to catch Ebola.
Just by being in the proximity of someone who has the virus, it's not spread through the air like flu or other respiratory viruses like SARS.
So, Ebola spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids.
So if an infected person's blood or vomit gets in another person's eyes or nose or mouth, the infection may be transmitted.
In the current outbreak, most new cases are occurring among people who've been taking care of sick relatives or who have prepared an infected body for burial.
The virus can survive on various surfaces, of course, so any object that's been contaminated with bodily fluids like a latex glove or a hypodermic needle may spread the disease.
Local superstitions and the aforementioned culinary habits are causing big problems in dealing with it and In parts of West Africa, there's a belief that simply saying the word Ebola aloud makes the disease appear, sort of like Voldemort, which I guess makes it difficult to treat.
Let us see if you have the disease whose name we dare not speak.
And some people, of course, in West Africa have blamed doctors and other healthcare workers for spreading the virus.
And they turn to witch doctors for treatment instead.
Well, at least they're not psychiatrists.
And eight aid workers were recently murdered and chopped up with knives and thrown into the septic tank in Guinea, I think.
So, if you've contracted Ebola, you will usually start to show symptoms about 8 to 10 days after exposure, but it can be almost 3 weeks, up to 21 days after exposure, that you begin showing your symptoms, according to the Center for Disease Control.
It first shows up like the flu, a headache, fever, aches and pains.
Sometimes there's also a rash and diarrhea.
And vomiting follow.
Then in about half the cases, Ebola takes a severe turn, causing victims to hemorrhage.
They may vomit blood or pass blood in their urine or bleed under the skin or from their eyes or mouths.
But it's not usually the bleeding that kills the patients.
What happens?
The blood vessels deepen the body, begin leaking fluid, and this causes blood pressure to plummet.
And it plummets so low that heart, kidneys, liver, and other organs...
Begin to fail.
And it is tragic.
Previous incarnations of Ebola, which has first popped up around 1973, previous incarnations had an up to 90% casualty rate.
It seems to be hovering around 50% in the current outbreak.
Originally, it was thought that gorillas were the source of the virus, but that's been discarded because...
Gorillas die even quicker when they get Ebola than people do.
So now it is believed that if you eat a bat or you eat food that bats have drooled on or defecated on, then you have a problem.
Or if you come in contact with surfaces covered in infected bat droppings and then you touch your eyes or your mouth, that can be how the virus works.
Gets transmitted.
The current outbreak seems to have started in a village near Goethego, Guinea, where bat hunting is common.
So, healthcare workers say that you can communicate everything that you need to keep yourself mostly safe from Ebola in about 15 seconds.
One of the things that I would suggest as a distant and obviously amateur observer is if your food is covered in bat shit or bat drool, Maybe don't eat it.
And maybe not so much with the eating of the bats.
Now, Sarfila Leno, who lives in the Rangoha village in Guinea, says, Life is not easy here in the village.
They, authorities and aid groups, want to ban our traditions that we have observed for generations.
Animal husbandry, i.e.
livestock farming, is not widespread here because bushmeat is easily available.
Banning bushmeat means a new way of life, which is unrealistic.
Now it's true that capturing bats and eating them It's easier, perhaps, than having a cow, goats, chickens, and so on.
It's a little less work.
On the plus side, they don't usually transmit deadly diseases to human beings.
Balance these things out.
Have your traditions if you want, just try not to be suicidal about them.
Of course, it's not the first time the traditions have caused massive problems in human society.
Promoters of health messages such as Mariam Bayo in Guinea have been threatened with death in the villages where residents strongly oppose aid workers.
She said, in Nongoja, we were told that if we don't leave, we would be cut into pieces and our flesh thrown into the water, where I'm sure that downstream some people would probably want to eat it.
And of course, there are those, the health minister, Colonel Remy Lama, has said there are those who go even as far as saying that the government and the president have invented Ebola and that it is meant to avoid holding elections.
Domestically, the highly noble and reverend Louis Farrakhan, head of the Nation of Islam, has also put forward a theory that Ebola has been invented by white people to kill black people.
So, medics say avoiding Ebola should be quite easy.
If you follow these five simple steps, wash your hands regularly with soap and clean water.
If you suspect someone of having Ebola, do not touch them.
If you think someone has died from Ebola, do not touch their body.
Avoid hunting, touching, and eating bushmeat.
And don't panic or spread rumors.
So, Thomas E. Duncan.
Patient Zero, the first identified case of an Ebola patient in America.
What's his backstory?
Well, Henry Brunson, general manager of Safeway Cargo in Monrovia, Liberia, told American reporters that Duncan was his personal driver for 14 months until September the 4th, when Duncan left the keys to the car immediately.
On a desk in the company's office at about 3pm as he typically did when leaving for the day.
But Duncan never returned and Brunson never heard from him again.
Then his former chauffeur turns up on CNN and Brunson heard from the Ministry of Health confirming that Duncan was sick with Ebola in Dallas, Texas.
His boss said he didn't inform me he was quitting the job.
He walked away from the job September 4th.
So, Liberia is the country with the Largest by far outbreak of Ebola and the largest death count, of course, proportionately.
So my guess is, this is all supposition and so on, but this Thomas fellow probably looked around and said, hmm, I have a son in America.
I assume he had a visa.
Thousands of visas have been issued, according to estimates to people living in countries infected with Ebola.
Yay, immigration.
So he probably said, I have a son in...
So I'm going to go and go to America.
So he just walked off his job and probably was making plans to leave.
The person who's currently in quarantine in Dallas probably became infected in Monrovia where he lived on September 15th.
So he rented a room in a little house in Monrovia and I guess his landlord knocked on his door and said, my pregnant daughter is dying of Ebola or is convulsing with Ebola.
We need to get her to a clinic.
And so...
He did.
He helped with a couple of other people.
They put this poor young woman into a cab.
They drove her to a clinic.
The clinic said, I'm sorry, we're full.
We can't help you.
And then he was carrying her legs.
This Thomas fellow, he was carrying her legs as she's convulsing and spitting and blooding and dying of Ebola and in the cab and all kinds of stuff.
And she didn't do very well.
So this is four days before he left to the United States.
He had direct contact with a woman stricken by Ebola.
So they couldn't get an ambulance, so they took her to a hospital in, as I mentioned, a cab.
She was convulsing, seven months pregnant.
So because the hospital turned her away for lack of space in its Ebola treatment ward, the family said that they all took this woman back home in the evening.
She died hours later at around 3 a.m.
So, he rode in the taxi in the front passenger seat while the woman, her father and her brother, whose name was Sonny Boy, shared the back seat.
Mr.
Duncan then helped carry Miss Williams, who wasn't able to walk back to the family home that evening.
The landlord's son and three neighbors who came in contact with the woman also died.
Soon afterwards.
Aaron Sayu, who witnessed the scene and occupies the room next to Mr.
Duncan, said, He, Thomas, was holding her by the legs, the pa was holding her arms, and Sonny Boy was holding her back.
I am an empathetic and kind person, but frankly, if my landlord, who I really just have a business relationship with, comes and says, my daughter is convulsing and dying from Ebola, come hold her legs, I think that I would probably take a bit of a pass on that.
So Thomas went to the airport in Monrovia on September 19th to board a flight to Brussels and then on to the United States.
From Brussels, Thomas then flew to Dallas International Airport near Washington on September 20th on United Flight 951 and then on to a Dallas-Fort Worth on Flight 822.
This has been apparently confirmed by the airline.
So, as he was preparing to leave Liberia for Dallas two weeks ago, Thomas was checked at the airport for signs of the disease.
He was determined to have no fever and allowed to board his flight, American officials say.
So, what is the protocol in Liberia?
In early August, the CDC sent medical workers to the region to train local government officials and airport workers on Ebola screening, according to Dr.
Nicole Cohen.
An infectious disease specialist with the agency's Division of Migration and Quarantine.
As part of that process, the agency advises that airport workers ask travelers if they have been exposed to Ebola in the last 21 days.
Do they have a fever?
Have they had any symptoms including severe headache, muscle ache, abdominal pain, unusual bruising or bleeding, vomiting or diarrhea?
The screener is expected to use a handheld non-contact temperature monitor a few inches from the traveler's forehead, To check for fever.
Now, if I were Thomas, this is all supposition, but if I were Thomas, I would want to, of course, get out of Liberia and go to the States.
Now, if I was Thomas, and asking for this level of altruism may be a bit beyond the normal human condition, if I was Thomas and I had been exposed to Ebola through my landlord's dying daughter, And if that dying daughter had been refused help from a hospital which had no room in its Ebola clinic, I would know that I would have to get to the United States as quickly as possible in order to not end up like my landlord's daughter, right?
This is just basic...
Lizard brain survival calculations, which we're all prone to.
If I stay here, he thinks, look, I just got exposed to Ebola.
Everyone else who was exposed to Ebola is dead.
I don't know if they were dead by the time he left, but I've just been exposed to Ebola.
If I stay in Liberia, I'm going to end up like my landlord's daughter.
So I'm going to try and get to the United States.
So my guess is that he did not say, oh yeah, four days ago, I held the legs of a woman throwing up, bleeding and dying from Ebola, and spent time in a cab, and maybe he was there while she was dying until 3 o'clock in the morning.
He probably wouldn't say that.
He'd say, nope, no exposure to Ebola.
And he's not showing any symptoms yet, so off he goes.
So then he gets to America and stays with relatives, and then he gets sick.
Now, initially, federal authorities said that Thomas first sought treatment at the hospital last Friday, September 26.
But that account has since been changed.
The hospital issued a statement saying that the patient went there after 10 p.m.
September 25, when he was examined and sent home.
So Thomas told, when he went to this hospital, he told the nurse that he traveled from Liberia to Texas.
But, according to the executive vice president of the healthcare system, that includes Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, which was the facility treating the man, he says, well, this detail was not shared with everyone who was treating with him.
So he tells the nurse, listen, I just came from Liberia.
If I was this guy too, I would certainly tell the nurse that I'd been exposed to Ebola.
Because now I'm in America, so now I'm going to get treatment for this disease, which I just saw a woman die of, which I've seen lots of people dying of, which is probably the reason why I left Liberia in the first place.
If I get to America, again, assuming...
And not overabundance of conscience.
I would then say, you guys got to treat me for Ebola.
I was exposed to Ebola.
Now I'm showing all the same symptoms of everyone around I've seen who started dying of Ebola.
So my guess is, in the most logical explanation, not a proof, the most logical explanation is, he got to the hospital.
He said, I'm from Liberia.
I've been exposed to Ebola.
God and doctors help me.
Now, Mark Lester is not a doctor.
Mark Lester, who's the EVP of the healthcare system, says, this detail was not shared with everyone.
I don't think that I would characterize that as a detail.
It's kind of important.
Now, He said during a news conference on Wednesday, he said, regretfully, that information was not fully communicated throughout the full team.
As a result, the full import of that information wasn't factored into the clinical decision making.
Not the full import, any import.
So, two pieces of information that probably got transmitted from Thomas to the nurse.
Number one, I'm from Liberia.
Number two, I've been exposed to Ebola.
Now, is she required to write this down?
If she's required to write it down, then people see it on the chart and they're then fully responsible.
Does she just tell people verbally?
Is that how the system works?
Well, that makes it a completely unverifiable system where anyone can deny that they heard anything.
Now, if the doctors did know that this guy came from Liberia and had been exposed to Ebola...
Then they're pretty liable.
Now, are the doctors then saying, well, she never told me.
Who knows?
It's unverifiable.
The whole point of the system is supposed to be verifiable.
It's supposed to write things down.
Where's the chart?
So, September 26, he seeks treatment at the hospital, but he's sent back to the northeast Dallas apartment complex where he was staying.
But it's okay, folks.
They gave him a prescription of antibiotics.
So, good job!
Duncan's sister, Mai Wooda, said he notified healthcare workers that he was visiting from Liberia when they asked for his social security number.
And he told them he didn't have one.
Right?
So they say, what's your social security number?
I assume because that's how they get paid, the hospital.
And he said, well, I don't have one.
I'm visiting from Liberia.
Right?
And so...
What's the financial incentive for the hospital?
Well, he's got no social security number.
I assume he's got no health insurance.
I don't think you can get a lot of health insurance if you're traveling from Liberia these days.
So the hospital, of course, has the financial incentive to send him home.
I'm not saying that was their motive.
I don't know.
I'm just saying there is one because if they bring him in and test him for Ebola, it's going to be very expensive, quarantine, isolation, and there's no way for them to get paid, to my knowledge.
I'm not an expert in this area.
So, he's been sent home.
He gets sent home under the mistaken belief he has only a mild fever, because he shows up with fever, pain, abdominal pain, and so on.
The information that he traveled from Liberia, really the most prevalent country of the Ebola outbreak, was overlooked.
Now, he returns to the hospital on September 28th.
This time he is sped there in an ambulance.
Before he gets into the ambulance, there's a resident named Mesud Osmanovich.
He described the chaotic scene before Thomas was admitted to the hospital.
He said his whole family was screaming.
Thomas got outside and he was throwing up all over the place.
Of course, his vomit would contain, I would assume, the Ebola virus.
So infectious disease experts said that the time gap between his first visit to the hospital and then when he was taken to the hospital in an ambulance represented a critical missed opportunity that may have led others to be exposed to the virus.
It is an abominable tragedy and a catastrophic missed opportunity to prevent other people, including currently five children, from being exposed potentially to this virus.
So on Thursday, Mr.
Duncan's nephew said that even after Thomas was rushed to the hospital three days after his initial visit, vomiting and gravely ill, he did not feel they were acting with enough urgency and he called federal authorities himself to alert them to the situation.
So put this in perspective.
Billions of dollars is spent communicating, informing, putting processes and procedures in place for just this kind of emergency.
What does it come down to?
The doctors?
No.
Government officials?
No.
Hospital administrators, no.
Healthcare workers, no.
What does it come down to?
Thomas' nephew has to call and say, Dudes, this guy came from Liberia.
He had exposure to Ebola.
He's displaying all the symptoms of Ebola.
The antibiotics didn't work.
Please do something!
So the nephew, whose name is Josephus Weeks, I called the CDC to get some actions taken because I was concerned for his life and he was not getting the appropriate care.
And I feared that other people might get infected if he was not taken care of.
Dr.
Anthony S. Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Health, acknowledged that things could have been handled better, but said he was confident the measures being taken would prevent any outbreak of the disease.
Well, I'm really great and happy that you're confident.
I tend to be a little bit more empirical than simply relying on people's confidence.
I'm confident I'm a woman!
So he said, Dr.
Fauci said, it is regrettable that there wasn't the connecting of the dots.
Okay, okay, doctor, this isn't the goddamn Da Vinci Code.
Man presents from Liberia with fever abdominal pain.
I assume he said I've been exposed to Ebola because that's the way he's going to get the best possible care.
And that's what he wants.
That's probably why he came to America.
That's probably why he didn't say he'd been exposed to Ebola when he was leaving Liberia.
This is not a bunch of dots you need to connect.
This is not...
It's one dot.
Liberia.
Exposure.
Fever.
Abdominal pains.
So he said, because of the attention that has been paid to this situation in Dallas, people will be very much aware of paying attention to the travel history.
Are you saying that they weren't paying attention to the travel history before?
This is the worst outbreak of an incredibly deadly disease called Ebola, and thousands of people have visas to travel to the United States.
Lots of airlines have stopped flying to these countries.
Are you saying that people weren't at all concerned with history before?
Health officials said, to think of the contact tracing, right?
So you've got to find, now that this guy's tested positive for Ebola, you've got to find everyone he's been in contact with, particularly since he began showing the symptoms.
Health officials said, to think of the contact tracing as moving in concentric circles.
Health officials focused first on those who had the closest and most intimate contact, but Thomas, after he became symptomatic, because they are at the greatest risk of infection.
And remember, everything he touched carries the virus.
You touch it, you touch your eye, you touch it, you touch your mouth, you touch it, you put your finger in your ear or up your nose, and bingo, bango, bongo, your chance for infection goes up significantly.
So this group includes at least four family members and three medics who are being isolated.
So the next group includes those who had more casual contact with Mr.
Duncan after he grew sick.
More than a dozen people in this category will be monitored by the authorities for 21 days, which is the longest documented time it's taken for this strain of Ebola to begin to cause illness.
So these people who've had more casual contact with this patient zero in the US are going to have their temperatures checked daily, but are free to go about their daily routines unless they begin to show symptoms.
Right.
Right.
I think that's insane.
I truly think that's insane.
Pay these people half a million dollars to go sit in isolation for 21 days.
Give them Xboxes and then burn them.
Give them TV and then burn them.
Not the people.
The Xboxes and the TV. I just want to make sure people...
But this idea that they're going about their daily routines until they begin to show symptoms?
Again, I'm not a doctor.
I'm not a healthcare professional in any way, shape, or form.
I'm also not an idiot.
So, Texas says that up to 100 people are at risk of Ebola exposure.
So, there are five school-age children who have also been exposed.
And one of the challenges...
Is that officials say they plan to have counselors and translators reaching out to parents and students.
This could be a bit of a challenge.
Because at Conrad High School, which is where one of these children's exposures or more may have occurred, 32 languages are spoken.
32 languages are spoken at this high school.
So they need translators to say, Man sick!
Wash hands!
Because diversity is our strength, people!
It also raises the question of if they need translators to tell people about an illness, how on earth are they teaching them math and geography and English and science and history and how well?
That way madness lies!
So the Texas Health Commissioner, Dr.
David Lakey, said Thursday that four members of Mr.
Duncan's family had been told to remain home and not have visitors.
The five children who came in contact with Mr.
Duncan are being kept home from school and local officials tried to reassure parents at the four different schools that they attended that the facilities were thoroughly cleaned and that children are safe.
There were reports that some parents were keeping their children home.
Well, duh.
Senator Rand Paul has criticized President Obama's response to the crisis, noting that during the...
H1N1 flu outbreak in 2009, Obama issued advice to the public to help prevent a pandemic by sneezing into their elbows and sleeves.
Rand Paul said, I can't believe that you didn't think, that you don't think it's enough of a plan to prevent worldwide pandemic to cough into your elbow, he said sarcastically.
If you just bring your elbow up to your mouth and cough into it, surely that will stop a worldwide pandemic.
I mean, what does he know?
He's only an eye doctor and his father is a doctor.
Why would you listen to him?
Senator Rand also criticized President Obama's decision to send troops to West Africa to help contain the disease.
Where is disease most transmittable, he asked, when you are confined on a ship.
Has he never seen Star Trek?
He said, when you are in a very close confines on a ship, we all know about cruisers and how they get these diarrhea viruses that are transmitted very easily.
Can you imagine if a whole ship full of our soldiers catch Ebola?
It's a big mistake, he says, to downplay and act as if, oh, this is not a big deal.
We can control all this.
This could get beyond our control.
So, according to Airlines for America, the Trade Association of American Carriers, more than 10,000 people flew to the United States from Sierra Leone from April 2013 to March 2014, and more than 17,000 flew from Liberia in the same period.
These figures only include passengers who flew on itineraries involving an American carrier.
According to RT, thousands of U.S. visas have been issued to residents in Ebola-stricken countries.
Jessica Vaughan, a policy director at CIS, said, using 2013 non-immigrant visa issuance statistics and information on visa validity and periods, I estimate that there are about 5,000 people from Sierra Leone, 5,000 people from Guinea and 3,500 people from Liberia who have valid non-immigrant visas to enter people from Liberia who have valid non-immigrant visas to enter the United States.
I'm not sure really what conclusions to offer you.
So far, the greatest hero has been Thomas' nephew, who has raised the specter of Ebola that everyone was supposed to be on the lookout by calling the CDC when his uncle was not getting the treatment that was necessary.
So, I hope that, obviously, this remains contained.
I think there's good reasons to believe that it will be.
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