Friday, October 17, 2014
Obama A Muslim Propagandist
There is a video floating around that shows Barack Obama referring to the United States as “one of the largest Muslim countries in the world’ based on the number of Muslims in America. Well, yes, he did say it but at least one site is promoting it as something Obama said recently. He did not; his over-the-top comment was from 2009 as he was gearing up for his now infamous Cairo speech.
That said, it is instructive to watch the clip in the context of the more than five years of Obama as President that the U.S. has witnessed since. For starters, the extremely warranted suspicions about Obama today compared to back then, relative to his Muslim allegiances, would probably preclude him from making the same statement today (then again, he did recently say that ‘ISIL is not Islamic’).
It’s worth noting that these comments were made long before the ‘Arab Spring’ and before his irrefutable support for the Muslim Brotherhood became so patently obvious:
Incidentally, even Politifact gave him a ‘Pants on Fire’ rating for that absurd comment at the time
Credit to Shoebat.com
Ebola 'could mutate into airborne virus' ministers are warned
Lord Robert Winston said the British government should not become complacent over the Ebola risk [ PA]
Lord Robert Winston said Ebola could mutate into an airborne virus that is caught like a common cold during a House of Lords debate today.
The TV scientist was reacting after Health Minister Earl Howe insisted the risk to British people "remains low" at the House of Commons.
Labour's Lord Winston argued: "I am slightly concerned about the possible risk of seeming a little complacent about saying that this is low-risk.
“We know that viruses mutate, for example, and we know that the Ebola virus can mutate.
“We know perfectly well that it is not airborne at the moment, and we know that the pharyngeal and upper respiratory tract cells are unlikely to harbour the virus.
Ebola has claimed the lives of more than 4,000 people [ AP]
The Professor added: "However, can you assure us that people are looking at the risk of mutation of this virus so that we can make certain that its mode of transmission does not change?”
Mr Howe said the killer virus can only be transmitted by direct contact with the blood or bodily fluids of an infected person. He also confirmed there would be a “very close monitoring” of the way the virus mutates were carried out.
The Ebola outbreak has claimed more than 4,447 lives, mostly in West Africa. The World Heath Organisation (WHO) reports 8,914 probable or suspected cases.
That would seem to imply that half the people stricken with Ebola will survive the disease.
This comes after the chief of the UN’s Ebola mission, Anthony Banbury wanted there was a "nightmare" chance that the Ebola virus could become airborne if the epidemic is not brought under control fast enough.
Meanwhile WHO said the killer virus is killing 70 percent of those infected, and there could be as many as 10,000 new cases a week in West Africa by December.
Credit to Express
Lord Robert Winston said Ebola could mutate into an airborne virus that is caught like a common cold during a House of Lords debate today.
The TV scientist was reacting after Health Minister Earl Howe insisted the risk to British people "remains low" at the House of Commons.
Labour's Lord Winston argued: "I am slightly concerned about the possible risk of seeming a little complacent about saying that this is low-risk.
“We know that viruses mutate, for example, and we know that the Ebola virus can mutate.
“We know perfectly well that it is not airborne at the moment, and we know that the pharyngeal and upper respiratory tract cells are unlikely to harbour the virus.
The Professor added: "However, can you assure us that people are looking at the risk of mutation of this virus so that we can make certain that its mode of transmission does not change?”
Mr Howe said the killer virus can only be transmitted by direct contact with the blood or bodily fluids of an infected person. He also confirmed there would be a “very close monitoring” of the way the virus mutates were carried out.
The Ebola outbreak has claimed more than 4,447 lives, mostly in West Africa. The World Heath Organisation (WHO) reports 8,914 probable or suspected cases.
That would seem to imply that half the people stricken with Ebola will survive the disease.
This comes after the chief of the UN’s Ebola mission, Anthony Banbury wanted there was a "nightmare" chance that the Ebola virus could become airborne if the epidemic is not brought under control fast enough.
Meanwhile WHO said the killer virus is killing 70 percent of those infected, and there could be as many as 10,000 new cases a week in West Africa by December.
Credit to Express
Sixty Days To Beat Ebola, United Nations Warns
If the deadly outbreak cannot be reined in by Christmas then the UN says there is no plan in place and it could be overwhelmed.
Video: Sixty Days To Beat Ebola - UN
The UN says the ebola outbreak must be controlled within 60 days or else the world faces an "unprecedented" situation for which there is no plan.
The United Nations made the stark warning as it warned that the disease "is running faster than us and it is winning the race".
Nearly 9,000 cases of ebola have been reported so far in West Africa, including 4,447 deaths.
:: Read the latest on the ebola crisis as another US health worker catches the disease
"The WHO advises within 60 days we must ensure 70% of infected people are in a care facility and 70% of burials are done without causing further infection," said Anthony Banbury, the UN's deputy ebola coordinator.
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Video: Sixty Days To Beat Ebola - UN
The UN says the ebola outbreak must be controlled within 60 days or else the world faces an "unprecedented" situation for which there is no plan.
The United Nations made the stark warning as it warned that the disease "is running faster than us and it is winning the race".
Nearly 9,000 cases of ebola have been reported so far in West Africa, including 4,447 deaths.
:: Read the latest on the ebola crisis as another US health worker catches the disease
"The WHO advises within 60 days we must ensure 70% of infected people are in a care facility and 70% of burials are done without causing further infection," said Anthony Banbury, the UN's deputy ebola coordinator.
"We need to do that within 60 days from 1 October. If we reach these targets then we can turn this epidemic around."
But Mr Banbury told the UN Security Council the 70% target was becoming harder to meet as new infections stack up.
He urged: "We either stop ebola now or we face an entirely unprecedented situation for which we do not have a plan."
The UN's Unmeer emergency mission is following a four-pronged plan to fight ebola.
Identify and trace contacts; manage cases; ensure safe burials and provide people with information to protect themselves.
"If we fail at any of these, we fail entirely," warned Mr Banbury.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) earlier said there could be 10,000 new cases of ebola per week within two months.
WHO assistant director general Bruce Aylward told a news conference the total was expected to top 9,000 by the end of this week.
He said the death rate from the current outbreak had risen to 70% from about 50%.
When asked how the situation could develop in the next two months, he warned: "We anticipate the number of cases occurring per week by that time to be somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 per week.
"It could be higher, it could be lower, but somewhere in that ball park."
Some 95% of the cases are occurring in the same limited number of districts of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea which were affected a month ago, he said.
Dr Aylward said it was "too early to say" whether this meant that the epidemic was slowing down.
The plateau in reported infections may simply be due to limitations in the ability of authorities in the region to check and record cases, he said.
Dr Aylward said there were "positive" signs of a slow down in the rate of new cases in northern Liberia and Guinea, probably due to behaviour changes among the local population.
But he warned: "This is ebola, this is a horrible, unforgiving disease - you've got to get to zero.
"With a bit of change in the behaviour of populations, with some burials happening safely, with a little bit more case management and a couple of new centres opening, you are going to slow this down very quickly."
In other ebola developments:
:: Enhanced screening of passengers travelling to the UK began at Heathrow airport
:: An American nurse who contracted ebola received blood from a survivor of the virus and says she is "doing well"
:: Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg said he is to give $25m (£15.7m) to help fight the outbreak
Credit to Sky News
Thursday, October 16, 2014
PASSENGERS ON FLIGHT WITH EBOLA PATIENT MIGHT BE INFECTED
CDC attempting to contact all passengers on Frontier Airlines flight
The second Texas nurse diagnosed with Ebola was on a flight from Cleveland to Dallas when she was considered contagious.
The woman is now in isolation at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital.
The CDC is now attempting to contact all the passengers on the Frontier Airlines flight to determine if they may have been exposed to the disease.
“As of right now we do not have a case of Ebola in Ohio, but we are going to be working to identify any close contacts that the individual was in contact with in the state,” Dr. Mary DiOrio of the Ohio Department of Health told the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
“We would recommend that anyone who has had contact with an individual with Ebola and they have symptoms, that they be in contact with their doctor at that time,” DiOrio added.
The CDC issued the following statement:
“On the morning of Oct. 14, the second healthcare worker reported to the hospital with a low-grade fever and was isolated. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirms that the second healthcare worker who tested positive last night for Ebola traveled by air Oct. 13, the day before she reported symptoms.
Because of the proximity in time between the evening flight and first report of illness the following morning, CDC is reaching out to passengers who flew on Frontier Airlines flight 1143 Cleveland to Dallas/Fort Worth Oct. 13.
CDC is asking all 132 passengers on Frontier Airlines flight 1143 Cleveland to Dallas/Fort Worth on October 13 (the flight route was Cleveland to Dallas Fort Worth and landed at 8:16 p.m. CT) to call 1 800-CDC INFO (1 800 232-4636). After 1 p.m. ET, public health professionals will begin interviewing passengers about the flight, answering their questions, and arranging follow up. Individuals who are determined to be at any potential risk will be actively monitored.
The healthcare worker exhibited no signs or symptoms of illness while on flight 1143, according to the crew. Frontier is working closely with CDC to identify and notify passengers who may have traveled on flight 1143 on Oct. 13. Passengers who may have traveled on flight 1143 should contact CDC at 1 800-CDC INFO (1 800 232-4636).”
Frontier Airlines added this statement:
“At approximately 1:00 a.m. MT on October 15, Frontier was notified by the CDC that a customer traveling on Frontier Airlines flight 1143 Cleveland to Dallas/Fort Worth on Oct. 13 has since tested positive for the Ebola virus. The flight landed in Dallas/Fort Worth at 8:16 p.m. local and remained overnight at the airport having completed its flying for the day at which point the aircraft received a thorough cleaning per our normal procedures which is consistent with CDC guidelines prior to returning to service the next day. It was also cleaned again in Cleveland last night. Previously the customer had traveled from Dallas Fort Worth to Cleveland on Frontier flight 1142 on October 10.
Customer exhibited no symptoms or sign of illness while on flight 1143, according to the crew. Frontier responded immediately upon notification from the CDC by removing the aircraft from service and is working closely with CDC to identify and contact customers who may traveled on flight 1143.
Customers who may have traveled on either flight should contact CDC at 1 800 CDC-INFO.
The safety and security of our customers and employees is our primary concern. Frontier will continue to work closely with CDC and other governmental agencies to ensure proper protocols and procedures are being followed.”
Credit to Infowars
Health experts question effectiveness of airport Ebola screening
Medical staff monitor passengers’ body temperatures with a thermal camera Oct. 10, 2014, at Skopje Airport in Macedonia, where medical controls were enhanced after a British man died with Ebola-like symptoms.
Georgi Licovski / EPA
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Department of Homeland Security have rolled out new measures over the past few days to screen for Ebola among travelers arriving from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. But some public health experts say such steps have done little to stop deadly viruses from crossing borders in past outbreaks, and may be more about reassuring the public that something is being done.
A handful of airports — including New York City’s John F. Kennedy, Chicago-O’Hare, Atlanta, Newark and Washington-Dulles — receive 94 percent of the travelers from three West African countries where the most recent outbreak of Ebola has killed more than 4,000 people, according to the CDC.
At those airports, all passengers coming from Ebola-stricken countries in West Africa are receiving an extra layer of screening starting this week. They will be pulled aside and observed for signs of illness, asked questions about their potential exposure to the Ebola virus and given information about symptoms. If they appear ill, medical staff will take their temperatures with a noncontact thermometer — and those who have a fever will be quarantined and tested for Ebola.
“We work to continuously increase the safety of Americans,” CDC Director Tom Frieden said. “We believe these new measures will further protect the health of Americans, understanding that nothing we can do will get us to absolute zero risk until we end the Ebola epidemic in West Africa.”
However, a number of public health experts say such fever screening in recent years has not been very effective at stopping the spread of diseases such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and swine flu. And Ebola’s long incubation period makes the situation even more difficult, as those who have it often do not show symptoms like a fever for days or weeks.
“What the studies show is that [fever screening is] not very effective, though it occasionally picks up somebody who might have the infection,” said David Heymann, a professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who coordinated the World Health Organization’s global response to SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, in 2003. “The problem is that many of these people cross the border when they’re in the incubation period” and don’t yet have fevers, he said, so the thermal screening might give health officials a false sense of security.
Thomas Eric Duncan, who died of Ebola last week at a Dallas hospital, came to Texas from Liberia after receiving the same screening that thousands of other West Africans did — but he did not show signs of the disease until days after he arrived.
“We’ve learned in the past that borders cannot stop all disease,” Heymann said.
While thermal scanning technology may be good at detecting fevers — though some studies have called into question their ability to do even that — a fever obviously does not necessarily indicate the presence of the Ebola virus.
In the past two months, exit screening of the estimated 36,000 air passengers who have traveled outside of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone resulted in 77 people being barred from their flights. But none of those 77 had Ebola, according to the CDC. Many had malaria, which is only spread by mosquitoes.
Also, experiences with past epidemics have shown that efforts to contain them using thermal screening at airports were not entirely effective.
For example, in Canada — where there were 438 probable SARS cases, including 44 deaths, in 2003 — airports in Toronto and Vancouver used thermal scanners to take some 2.4 million people’s temperatures that year. While 832 were referred for further testing, none of them had SARS, Canada’s public health agency said in a paper assessing lessons learned from the epidemic.
“In other countries, the yields for airport screening measures were similarly low,” the paper said.
“Unfortunately, the experience with SARS was that it was pretty worthless,” said Arthur Reingold, professor and head of epidemiology at U.C. Berkeley’s School of public health. “Clearly, fever-screening will not pick up all the fevers. It only picks up those who aren’t taking any medications at all.”
In other words, sick people often take over-the-counter medications to lessen their symptoms when they are traveling, and people who may unknowingly have Ebola could do the same.
However, both Heymann and Reingold agree that airport screening is critically important for public health awareness purposes — it will help travelers be able to recognize whether they have Ebola symptoms, and instill the importance of seeking medical treatment and telling clinicians if they have been to West Africa.
“If it picks up one case and it keeps one case from spreading to others, it may be considered a good investment in a rich country,” Heymann said, adding that the crucial element will be what the screeners do with those who do have fevers.
“A lot of what’s done in various places you could say is overkill, or is erring on the side of caution,” Reingold said. “Decontaminating around someone’s home is almost certainly not of any benefit except in terms of public reassurance,” he said, referring to the cleanup of the area around the apartment where Duncan had been staying. “But is public reassurance important? Yes, public health reassurance is important.”
Credit to Common Sense
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