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Townhall
Ebola In
America: Is The Government Doing Enough?
Derek Hunter
Oct 05, 2014
I’m writing this with Ebola-type symptoms. I don’t have Ebola;, I have
food poisoning. But still. The world is not yet in panic mode over the
latest outbreak, but it’s close. Is it justified?
Ebola isn’t an easy virus to contract, or at least it didn’t used to
be. The only sure way to catch it is from the bodily fluids of people
with it – and then only once they start to exhibit symptoms themselves.
That’s why it’s been the near-exclusive domain of countries without
proper sewage treatment, clean water and general hygiene amenities we
in the West are fortunate enough to take for granted.
What makes this current outbreak so concerning is how many trained
medical professionals have contracted it.
These doctors, nurses and other health care professionals are not being
reckless; they know what they’re up against. They take all the
precautions that have worked in the past. So how are they getting it?
How are so many civilians who are taking all the prescribed precautions
getting it? We don’t know.
Officials from the Centers for Disease Control and the World Health
Organization assure the public this is nothing to be concerned with,
but what they can’t do is explain how people in protective gear catch
it.
I don’t have the answer. No one does. I just hope the people whose job
it is to come up with it do so soon.
Viruses mutate. What once wasn’t airborne can become airborne. What
used to survive only moments outside the body can change to thrive
outside it. These changes can happen quickly, or not at all. Pretending
to know what happened with a virus is folly.
Is Ebola worthy of panic? Not right now. But it is worth concern. If
this current strain has mutated, or is in the process of mutating,
waiting to take action is the worst thing we can do.
The government can and should impose travel restrictions from
Ebola-infected areas. The Obama administration so far has refused, but
there is no sensible reason not to...
Read the rest of the article at Townhall
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