Is the US having an omnishambles over Ebola?

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Omnishambles entered the English lexicon a couple years back, originally used in the hit political satire The Thick of It. I means a total f**k up from start to finish.

With the UK and Canada leading the race to provide a vaccine, and together with French agencies doing much of the set up of field hospital in West Africa.

The US is in a state of hysteria, running around like a headless chicken.

Also many countries appear to be handling the domestic programs a lot better. It is far to mixed up in domestic politics they aren't listening to epidemiologist or doctors who are experienced with Ebola.

Some states are devising policies not backed by science, which focuses far too much on that one rouge. Epidemiologist would say if you don't control the epicenters, and have a bigger picture approach, then such populist policies like this would be academic.

One of the myths is policy based on "abundance of caution" can't hurt. This is not the case, especially if the overall policy is flawed. For one it can drain resources and manpower, rather than directing it where it is needed. It is not simply discouraging people from helping, there are practical reasons why such policy can directly impede the setup of hospital in West Africa.

The worst thing in a crisis like this is hysteria, it really doesn't help at all.

The effort in the West Africa is what is protecting you all, not simply an isolationist policy, which would never prevent an outbreak at home, if the whole situation become a global pandemic.

That's the first time I encountered the word omnishambles but it fits.

I think what really scrambled peoples' brains is how it can have low infectivity at one point (prior to symptoms) but terrifyingly high infectivity later in the disease course (near death, when umpty bazillion virus particles are shooting out of the unfortunate person per minute). People saw hazmat suits in on-site photos and couldn't reconcile that with the pre-fever Dr. Spencer going bowling and on the subway. Thus the national freakout.

The national fever seems to have subsided and- weirdly- nobody seems to have noticed that Dr. Salia arrived at Nebraska Medical Center (an appropriate Level 4 hospital) this Saturday and died today of ebola. Sadly for him, the virus had gone too far to save him. This is in the news but barely being noted.

This can't be stopped anywhere but at its' epicenter. You are absolutely right about that.

There hysteria is alive on the many of the syndicate media, comment boards, etc. We have seen how is affects state politics.



In the satire Malcolm Tucker character is the epitome of the worst government Spin doctors. He says to one of the ministers who made a PR boob, "Jesus Christ, see you, you're a f*****g omnishambles, that's what you are. You're like that coffee machine, you know: from bean to cup, you f**k up.". I recommend watching the series it is related to Veep through one of the writers, but better.

Ebola is primarily an Africa problem and since just a hand ful of people have the case of ebola in the US it causes them to freak out like its a pandemic its no different from the bird flu scare and pig flu care epidemic.

How not to start an Ebola outbreak: Don't eat bushmeat.

How not to catch Ebola during an outbreak: Avoid contact with the bodily fluids, such as blood or semen, of a person who is infected with Ebola.

Why the US doesn't seem serious about trying to create a vaccine for it: You don't like paying taxes, so the government has had to make several budget cuts.

We could resolve the matter entirely by simply shipping all of the Republicans to west Africa and letting them all die of Ebola.

I had to check the date of this thread. What panic are you talking about? The only hysteria was the conservatives equating their feelings of Obama's incompetence with a few initial missteps in treating Ebola. People are barely talking about it now.

There has been a huge amount of hysteria especially in NJ and Maine.

The common link between NJ and Maine being Nurse Hickox and the attempt to make her a quarantine example. Yes, that was definately pretty shameful. The crowd got out the pitchforks. I'm glad it's over (but not as glad as her). Countless medical personnel had come back from treating ebola patients prior to her but she had the bad luck to step off a plane right after Dr. Spencer fell ill.

When I said I thought the hysteria was dying down, I meant that in the wake of Dr. Salia's arrival, I went back to the same media outlets where Hickox got flak and expected an outpouring of "not another one! close the borders!". But instead there was just concern about his condition and then yesterday condolences for his death. People reacted normally. I have no doubt that there are still pockets of hysteria. But the "close the borders" reactions that were happening a month ago nearly everywhere seemed to have retreated back to little media corners. Now it's just small angry pockets of people instead of hysterical state governors. And the 20 point type headlines have been retired too.

I think the American public has for the most part shifted its focus away from Ebola, ISIS and the fallout from the election are more of the front page news and I imagine Ferguson will find its way back too.

Nurse Hickox was totally unprofessional in breaking quarantine and how that Dallas hospital handled their Ebola patient was a big reason for concern. I don't think shutting down travel between here and the infected zone is that much of a stretch. Nobody in America should be put at threat of this disease.

She acted completely professionally- following the guidelines of her organization as all returning doctors and nurses before her had done (yes, including Dr. Spencer). She should not have been quarantined in the first place. Her quarantine was done for political, not medical reasons. Not one single health care provider returning from Africa had been quarantined until she stepped off that plane. She just had bad luck of timing. A judge ruled that she should not be quarantined, merely observe a 3 foot buffer with the public and stay out of crowded spaces- which she did.


yes it was. He should not have been sent home with that fever. And once it was found out he had ebola, he should have been moved to one of the 4 level 4 hospitals in the US.



It is absolutely a stretch. The only Americans being put in danger by this disease are the health care workers caring for an ebola patient. That can be mitigated by either moving all patients to level 4 hospitals or training and outfitting special teams at designated level 3 hospitals as was done at Bellevue. There need never be another staff infection as there was of Pham and Vinson. They were not outfitted properly. That has been set right. Joe Public is in no danger, as should be clear from the absolute lack of any spread to anyone in the U.S. except those 2 nurses. Nobody on Vinson's plane or , or Duncan's apartment. Not the ambulance drivers who took him to the hospital nor anybody who sat with him in the ER. Nobody in NYC either despite how tightly packed it is and how Spencer went bowling.

The real danger is it not being stopped in Africa and spreading to another part of the globe with worse health care than the U.S. and a much greater population density. Bringing infected doctors here for treatment does not endanger Americans. Closing the borders so people travel on the down low untrackably does. Discouraging doctors and nurses from treating at the epicenter by making them do an uneccesary house-bound quarantine or worse yet threatening to not let them come back here will encourage the spread to other parts of the globe. It must not be allowed to get into new animal reservoirs outside Africa.

I don't care too much about bringing doctors here for treatment, we know what we're dealing with then. Thomas Duncan is different tho and could of easily spread the disease as he eventually did, you can lose track of things very quickly. The free travel between here and the infected zone is the issue, I don't see any upside in allowing it while there could be significant risk. If I were a country like India or the like then I would think it would be wise if they shut down travel between them and the infected zone as well. If you go out of your way to visit these areas then I don't think it is too much to ask to honor your quarantine. 21 days isn't that long of a time. I don't think it is wrong that precautions are taken to ensure no one here in this country is at any risk no matter how small that risk may be.

Nurse Hickox was not unprofessional.

First if there was medical grounds to keep her in NJ in a tent in a car park, she would have been interned there period/full stop. This is absolutely crystal CLEAR.

The only reason why she was able to leave was because there was no ground to to this. All the hoopla conveniently masks this.

There are public health law to enable it and it didn't pass muster.

Secondly she did not refuse quarantine. She always was going to self quarantine in Maine. This was always the plan. If anything they made a hash of it.

Mayor Christie has no medical training, he is not an epidemiologist. He is not listening to the overall scientific consensus on this, and he is stoking populist fear, at the detriment to the fight against Ebola.

I reiterate my point about the "abundance of caution" not being a harmless action away. Base logic comes to such conclusions, however base logic is not sufficiently deep in its analysis. What you do matters.

Now you say her action were provocative, maybe but there is purpose. Those setting up hospital, and serving out in West Africa, as a critical turn around which is being directly undermined by such policy. It is also draining resource and manpower. So she has a responsibility to them, and she she took the fall even though it made her a pariah.

BTW this is party neutral point, becuase I don't give a s**t about any of the the parties involved. This is about having an intelligent approach.