Ebola outbreak

[Targan]

Ebola can be much more safely dealt with in developed countries than in the under-developed parts of Africa where it comes from. It's not much consolation for the 90% of patients who die after contracting Ebola, but the rest of the population can easily be protected by quarantines and containment.

Now, if Ebola mutated in two specific ways, becoming contagious during the incubation phase and becoming easier to transmit coughing/breathing in the resulting aerosol, we could all be in a great deal of trouble.

[kato13]

I would feel better about the work of the CDC on this if they didn't have 3 serious breaches of containment discovered in the past three months. Most seriously in my opinion being the discovery of "misplaced" small pox samples from decades ago. Given we were repeatedly given 100% assurances that the only remaining virus were in well protected labs. (The fact that the samples were almost assuredly nonviable makes me feel a little better but does not excuse it)

I agree that having the US take care of its sick citizens is comparable to having a ballerina who was raised in a acrobat family carry your coffee (the highest dexterity you can imagine). However safe it probably is, a spill is still possible. We have all rolled 00 at some point in our lives.

edit: I guess the small pox was viable
http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/11/health...und-nih-alive/

[stormlion1]

They should be brought to a place where it can be contained not a populated city like Atlanta. The CDC has an island for things like this off New York! I fully believe it will be something like this that will be the doom of mankind.

[bobcat]

all things considered i'm fairly sure the boys with their plastic beakers aren't going to be dumb enough to allow anyone in contact with the patients without proper protective gear. not to mention most modern hospitals have their own quarantine wards and CBRN rated air filters on all ducting. heck even my backwater town hospital has all that. so if there was a major outbreak in the US i doubt it would start in Georgia.(please don't ask me to explain my exact reasoning. if the other team hasn't thought of it i don't want to give them ideas.)

[kato13]

Originally Posted by bobcat

so if there was a major outbreak in the US i doubt it would start in Georgia.

Until your post got me thinking I had forgotten that Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport (serving Atlanta) is the busiest airport in the World (We in Chicago are in denial about that). I truly think the chances of an outbreak are miniscule, but that is another reason to possibly question if Atlanta is the best place for this.

[raketenjagdpanzer]

And of course now that it's known we have a "cure" (really a sort of "Well...maybe this'll work" experiment we did on the two US doctors), how many infected people will be trying to sneak into the US because "they've got a cure!"

:/

[stormlion1]

Actually Ebola has escaped much stricter conditions than the CDC in Atlanta in the past. Back about thirty years ago a researcher in the British Chemical Warfare labs somehow got himself infected and they had about as stringent safety protocols or better as the CDC probably has.