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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Senate So it looks like the Ebola outbreak is getting more serious

Discussion in 'Community' started by Space_Wolf, Jul 30, 2014.

  1. Darth Guy

    Darth Guy Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Aug 16, 2002
    The biggest modern pandemic killed 3-5% of the population. That's a significant number of people and one of the biggest natural disasters ever, but we probably couldn't hope for better than that.
     
  2. Jabbadabbado

    Jabbadabbado Manager Emeritus star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Mar 19, 1999
    5% of the population today would be 350 million people; more than the U.S. population.
     
  3. KissMeImARebel

    KissMeImARebel Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Nov 25, 2003
    I think the pandemic risk from ebola is pretty low. It kills it's hosts, and quickly, so it has less chance to spread. It's not a particularly "smart" virus.
     
  4. Jabbadabbado

    Jabbadabbado Manager Emeritus star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Mar 19, 1999
    WHO August 6 update adds 45 deaths from August 2-4, bringing the total confirmed/probable/suspected death count to 932 through August 4, so likely above 1,000 deaths by now as it's officially killing people at a rate of 50/day. Assuming they have not already or don't or can't bring the rate of new infections under control quickly, the second 1,000 people could be dead by the beginning of September.
     
  5. Rogue_Ten

    Rogue_Ten Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Aug 18, 2002

    id like to hear you say that when youre coughing up bits of lung
     
  6. Blue_Jedi33

    Blue_Jedi33 Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Aug 12, 2003
    Revelations 6:8


    And I saw, and look! a pale horse, and the one seated on it had the name Death. And the Grave was closely following him. And authority was given them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with a long sword and with food shortage and with deadly plague and by the wild beasts of the earth.


    Ebola is certainly part of the deadly plague predicted here.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/...y_n_5660942.html?utm_hp_ref=canada&ir=Canada#
     
  7. anakinfansince1983

    anakinfansince1983 Skywalker Saga/LFL/YJCC Manager star 10 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Mar 4, 2011
    Thank you for sharing, especially as this is the first time that any disease or other disaster on Earth has caused people to make a correlation with a verse in Revelation.
     
  8. Jabbadabbado

    Jabbadabbado Manager Emeritus star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Mar 19, 1999
    Meanwhile, WHO's emergency committee has concluded that:
    Also 68 new cases and 29 deaths reported between August 5 and 6, bringing the outbreak total to 961 confirmed/probable/suspected deaths.

    On the positive side: Guinea reported no new cases for the two-day period.
     
  9. Juliet316

    Juliet316 Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Apr 27, 2005
    Ah yes, Swine Flu. The year I ended having to get two flu shots within months of each other.
     
  10. anakinfansince1983

    anakinfansince1983 Skywalker Saga/LFL/YJCC Manager star 10 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Mar 4, 2011
    My son had H1N1. It was not a fun experience but hardly the Chicken Little scenario that it was made out to be.

    I'm not saying that it wasn't serious or minimizing the fatalities, just that the media running around screaming about the sky falling does not help matters.

    I think we need a "ITT name the deadly disease that will wipe out the entire planet next" thread.
     
  11. Darth Guy

    Darth Guy Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Aug 16, 2002
    That strain of H1N1 (or any influenza virus) is a hell of a lot more contagious and much less deadly. And the WHO taking an outbreak seriously seems to always cause the media to flip out; I remember when swine flu was declared a full-fledged pandemic.
     
  12. Jabbadabbado

    Jabbadabbado Manager Emeritus star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Mar 19, 1999
    the 1,000 death mark should be a big moment for the media. Don't know when it will get reported, but it certainly will have happened by the end of the weekend if it hasn't happened already. Compare that to the China earthquake death toll or the Gaza occupation body count.
     
  13. dp4m

    dp4m Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Nov 8, 2001
    Did an Israeli kill someone with Ebola? NO!

    Therefore, no report.

    :p
     
    Vezner likes this.
  14. Jabbadabbado

    Jabbadabbado Manager Emeritus star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Mar 19, 1999
    the Gaza strip really isn't the best run extermination camp, but the Israelis are slowly getting the job done
     
    Rogue_Ten likes this.
  15. Rogue_Ten

    Rogue_Ten Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Aug 18, 2002
    these things take time when you arent willing to espouse full, industrial-style fascism. heck, we still havent eradicated the native americans, 500+ years on. keep on truckin', bibi
     
  16. Lord Vivec

    Lord Vivec Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Apr 17, 2006
    dp I'm really questioning your choice of news watching
     
    Ender Sai likes this.
  17. Rogue_Ten

    Rogue_Ten Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Aug 18, 2002
    btw the PHEIC (public health emergency of international concern) standards that the media is (i can only imagine) flipping out about being met by this current outbreak havent been around very long, and have been triggered twice before (H1N1 in 2009 and polio's comeback earlier this year)
     
  18. Rogue_Ten

    Rogue_Ten Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Aug 18, 2002
    lmao if you dont get all your news from the internet

    24 hour cable news networks? really? bet you still have a corded landline phone lmao
     
  19. Darth Guy

    Darth Guy Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Aug 16, 2002
    Al Jazeera America is pretty good, although last I heard it got ratings in the tens of thousands so it may as well not exist.
     
  20. Rogue_Ten

    Rogue_Ten Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Aug 18, 2002
    i dont watch tv in the traditional sense (i watch youtube clips and online episodes of shows and such) so i havent seen AJA, but i used to use AJE for my go-to on international coverage (supplemented by CNN and BBC for asia-pacific, where AJE was fairly sparse) but they done fell off around the time of the arab spring and their qatari purse-strings started to show. still, i check their site every once in a while but, as with Russia Today, you have to take it with a big grain of salt vis a vis their geopolitical agenda

    tho now that ive typed that out, i guess that's true of every news agency :p
     
  21. Darth Guy

    Darth Guy Chosen One star 10

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    Aug 16, 2002
    I think that despite their state funding AJA is far more "balanced" (they ignore or mock climate change "skeptics," for example) than, at the very least, the big three American cable news channels. That they're mostly state-funded and not beholden to corporate sponsors probably plays a huge part in it.

    Does the Qatari government exert control over Al Jazeera the same way the Kremlin does over RT? I thought it was more akin to a BBC-type or PBS-type arrangement.
     
  22. Rogue_Ten

    Rogue_Ten Chosen One star 7

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    Aug 18, 2002
    they're supposed to be editorially independent, yes, but the interests they promote are sometimes a bit transparently qatari. giving preferential treatment to the emir's opinion on regional events, etc

    but again, every news agency is going to have bias so i guess ymmv as long as you keep that in mind
     
  23. dp4m

    dp4m Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Nov 8, 2001

    Naw, man -- this one was just a joke (hence, the :p you know). Given who I work for, we even get updates internally since we have so much international travel (I still have two full cycles of Tamiflu for SARS + Asian Bird Flu).
     
  24. solojones

    solojones Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Sep 27, 2000
    Ebola Zaire is definitely a virus with a high fatality and a huge scare factor. However, the people most at risk are medical workers and those with poor sanitation in their homes and hospitals. This makes it a virus primarily of the developing world, which incidentally is why it's taken so long to even make serious attempts at a vaccine (trials starting September). Most transmission is through eating infected bush meat, improperly handling bodies, and medical personnel who get blood and/or black vomit coughed up in their eyes or nose when treating patients.

    Which isn't to say that it's not a huge problem. I don't think it's a huge problem for the Western world as our ability to treat symptoms is much higher (we can give kidney or liver-specific supportive treatments rather than just hooking everyone indiscriminately to IVs). We also have better ability to control universal precautions in the hospital setting. And our near phobia of dead bodies might actually be a good thing in this case.

    But the people of West Africa are no less deserving of intense concern and distress than the people of the west, obviously. Ebola Zaire making its way to Lagos -- one of the most populated and densely packed cities in the world -- is a true nightmare scenario for virologists and epidemiologists everywhere. We in the west should be offering the same level of aide in containing the virus where it is as we would if it were contained to, say, an area just outside of Los Angeles. I'm not entirely confident we will, though.
     
  25. Rogue_Ten

    Rogue_Ten Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Aug 18, 2002
    we wont