Is IT Time To Worry about Ebola Yet OBAMA

 

Is IT TIME To Worry about EBOLA Yet KING DICTATOR OBAMA

Canadian Health Agency Deletes Info on “Airborne Spread” of Ebola

Text amended amidst concern over first confirmed case in America

by Paul Joseph Watson | October 1, 2014

The Public Health Agency of Canada has deleted information from its official website which indicated that the “airborne spread” of Ebola was strongly suspected by health authorities, amidst efforts by officials in Texas to calm concerns about the first outbreak of the virus in America.

The image below shows the original Public Health Agency of Canada website’s information page on the Ebola virus as it appeared on August 20th compared to how it appears now.

Under a section entitled “mode of transmission,” the original text stated that, “airborne spread among humans is strongly suspected, although it has not yet been conclusively demonstrated.”

However, the amended text states that, “airborne transmission has not been demonstrated between non-human primates.”

Both passages refer to a 2012 study by Canadian scientists which indicated that the Ebola virus could be transmitted by air between different species.

“Researchers from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the country’s Public Health Agency have shown that pigs infected with this form of Ebola can pass the disease on to macaques without any direct contact between the species,” reported BBC News.

Although there is no confirmation that Ebola has gone airborne, Michael T. Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, acknowledged in a recent New York Times op-ed that virologists are “loath to discuss openly but are definitely considering in private” the possibility that Ebola has gone airborne.

Some have questioned why hundreds of health workers have become sick and died from Ebola given that they take extreme precautions to avoid bodily contact with victims.

 

How Bad Could It Get? US Government Order Of 160,000 HazMat Suits Gives A Clue

What do they know the we don't?

Image Credits: ssoosay, Flickr

by Zero Hedge | October 1, 2014

Now that Ebola is officially in the US on an uncontrolled basis, the two questions on everyone’s lips are i) who will get sick next and ii) how bad could it get?

We don’t know the answer to question #1 just yet, but when it comes to the second one, a press release three weeks ago from Lakeland Industries, a manufacturer and seller of a “comprehensive line of safety garments and accessories for the industrial protective clothing market” may provide some insight into just how bad the US State Department thinks it may get. Because when the US government buys 160,000 hazmat suits specifically designed against Ebola, just ahead of the worst Ebola epidemic in history making US landfall, one wonders: what do they know the we don’t?

From Lakeland Industries:

Lakeland Industries, Inc. (LAKE), a leading global manufacturer of industrial protective clothing for industry, municipalities, healthcare and to first responders on the federal, state and local levels, today announced the global availability of its protective apparel for use in handling the Ebola virus.  In response to the increasing demand for specialty protective suits to be worm by healthcare workers and others being exposed to Ebola, Lakeland is increasing its manufacturing capacity for these garments and includes proprietary processes for specialized seam sealing, a far superior technology for protecting against viral hazards than non-sealed products.

“Lakeland stands ready to join the fight against the spread of Ebola,” said Christopher J. Ryan, President and Chief Executive Officer of Lakeland Industries.  “We understand the difficulty of getting appropriate products through a procurement system that in times of crisis favors availability over specification, and we hope our added capacity will help alleviate that problem.  With the U.S. State Department alone putting out a bid for 160,000 suits, we encourage all protective apparel companies to increase their manufacturing capacity for sealed seam garments so that our industry can do its part in addressing this threat to global health.

Of course, purchases by the US government are bought and paid for by taxpayers. For everyone else there’s $1200 mail-order delivery:

That said… 160,000 HazMats for a disease that is supposedly not airborne? Mmmk.

 

Flashback: World Health Organization Rejects Ebola Travel Ban

U.N. organization downplays risk of Ebola spreading via air travel

Image Credits: Kuba Bożanowski / Flickr

by Kit Daniels | Infowars.com | October 1, 2014

The World Health Organization rejected a travel ban to and from Ebola-stricken countries several weeks before an airline passenger infected with Ebola unknowingly brought the disease from Liberia into America.

In its Aug. 14 press release, WHO disapproved of a potential ban on international travel to and from the West African nations hit hardest by Ebola, suggesting instead that governments provide “their citizens traveling to Ebola-affected countries with accurate and relevant information on the Ebola outbreak and measures to reduce the risk of exposure.”

In explaining the reasoning behind the decision, WHO said “the risk of transmission of Ebola virus disease during air travel remains low,” which completely ignores the possibility that someone infected with Ebola could spread the disease weeks after flying back to his home country.

“On the small chance that someone on the plane is sick with Ebola, the likelihood of other passengers and crew having contact with their body fluids is even smaller,” the press release states. “Usually when someone is sick with Ebola, they are so unwell that they cannot travel.”

“WHO is therefore advising against travel bans to and from affected countries.”

That small chance became reality on Tuesday when the U.S. Center for Disease Control confirmed a person in Dallas, Texas, contracted Ebola after visiting Liberia, which is the first case of Ebola diagnosed in the United States.

The man had arrived in the U.S. by plane from Liberia on Sept. 20 and went to the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital with symptoms of Ebola a few days later.

“The patient was discharged with antibiotics and returned again days later with watery diarrhea and other symptoms, tested for both malaria and Ebola, and put in isolation on the 28th,” Erick Erickson with Red State wrote, quoting a source reportedly from the CDC.

Earlier this morning, Dallas health officials announced they are now monitoring a second person who may have contracted Ebola after coming into contact with the first patient.

“Let me be real frank to the Dallas County residents: the fact that we have one confirmed case, there may be another case that is a close associate with this particular patient,” Dallas County Health and Human Services Director Zachary Thompson said in an interview with local ABC affiliate WFAA. “So this is real.”

Despite the WHO’s recommendation against a travel ban, multiple countries decided to terminate air service to and from West African nations back in August, further indicating that WHO downplayed the risk of Ebola spreading via air travel.

 

Ebola Case in Texas Validates Concerns Over Open Border

Concerns that virus could enter US proven valid

by Adan Salazar | Infowars.com | October 1, 2014

As the first American case of Ebola was confirmed in Dallas yesterday, some laid blame on the Obama administration’s lax immigration policies for the ease at which the illness penetrated the nation’s borders.

During the past year, the federal government has struggled to deal with an influx of immigrants, 75 percent of which have arrived from countries other than Mexico.

The scale of diseases entering the US became apparent earlier this year when several Border Patrol agents working in crowded detention facilities began contracting illnesses, such as H1N1 swine flu, scabies and chicken pox, stemming from contact with diseased illegals.

Indeed, as more cases of tuberculosis and other contagious illnesses surfaced, experts began predicting that, given the lack of border security enforcement and health screenings, viral outbreaks occurring in parts of the world such as West Africa had a higher chance of reaching the U.S.

“Why are more doctors in the southern border states not already on alert to handle sudden increase in TB, adult chicken pox, measles, H1N1 influenza, dengue, Ebola, plus other unknown but lethal diseases?” asked practicing medical doctor Elizabeth Lee Vliet back in June.

Dr. Vliet and a host of politicians and medical professionals, including radio host and epidemiologist Michael Savage, were long ago warning of the dire threats posed to public health by the Obama administration’s de facto open border policies, which allowed illegals into the U.S. absent proper health screenings.

“These diseases are highly contagious,” wrote Vliet, “especially in crowded and poor sanitary conditions in the detention and processing centers where thousands of illegals are housed until sent to other areas of America, without full screening for such diseases.”

“Many of the diseases of concern, such as Ebola hemorrhagic fever, have NO effective treatments,” wrote Dr. Vliet, noting infectious disease is the leading cause of death worldwide.

Others, such as Texas Rep. Phil Gingrey, expressed concerns that “the border poses many risks, including grave public health threats.”

“Reports of illegal migrants carrying deadly diseases such as swine flu, dengue fever, Ebola virus and tuberculosis are particularly concerning,” Gingrey wrote in a letter to the CDC back in July.

While the CDC claims the Ebola patient did not cross through the southern border, last month, Dr. Vliet cast a prediction that the “global array of viral illnesses,” in addition to the nation’s porous borders, were a recipe for disaster.

“Ebola is one of the most lethal diseases we face, with a death rate from 60-90 percent of infected patients. It is a horrible death as the virus attacks the blood vessels leading to hemorrhaging internally and externally. There are no good treatments or vaccines,” she wrote.

Additionally, the doctor highlighted, the CDC unbeknownst to the public has already established emergency health facilities across the country to deal specifically with an Ebola outbreak.

“If risk is so low for the U.S., why is the CDC quietly setting up Ebola Quarantine Centers in 20 cities across the U.S.? Why did the Congressional Record report that Ebola bio kits have been deployed to National Guard units in all 50 states?” Dr. Vliet questioned last month.

Alarmingly, the CDC has also proceeded to issue guidelines to U.S. funeral homes on how to deal with the corpses of dead Ebola patients, and the U.S. State Department has also put out a bid for 160,000 Hazmat suits in anticipation of a viral outbreak.

Concerns over an American Ebola outbreak were also raised last month when the US decided to fly patients infected with the disease back into the US for treatment, rather than restricting flights from affected regions.

With fears of an Ebola pandemic coming to fruition inside the United States, the administration can now drop its facade of securing the border and move forward with efforts to scale up emergency powers, such as those outlined in the Model State Emergency Health Powers Act – which among other things would “Force persons to be vaccinated, treated, or quarantined for infectious diseases” – and President Obama’s executive order mandating the apprehension and detention of “well persons” who merely show signs of “respiratory illness.”

 

 

Obama Still Refuses to Halt Flights From Ebola Hot Zone

Multiple nations stopped flights over a month ago

Image Credits: Intel Photos / Flickr

by Kit Daniels | Infowars.com | October 1, 2014

After U.S. officials disclosed another potential case of Ebola in Dallas, Texas, this morning, the question remains whether the Obama administration will finally stop flights from Ebola-stricken countries as multiple nations did over a month ago.

In mid-August, Korean Air and Kenya Airways announced they were halting flights to the West African countries ravaged by Ebola, and British Airways and Air France also decided to suspend service to the Ebola hot zone a few weeks later.

“France is recommending that its citizens leave Sierra Leone and Liberia, two of the countries hardest hit by the worst ever outbreak of the disease,” Jessica Plautz reported for Mashable. “The government said the increasing spread of the disease prompted its request that the airline to suspend flights.”

Yet the Obama administration made no such request to U.S. airlines and government flights, despite the Center of Disease Control advising Americans to avoid “non-essential travel” to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea several weeks ago.

“CDC urges all US residents to avoid non-essential travel to Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone because of unprecedented outbreaks of Ebola in those countries,” the CDC travel health advisory states. “CDC recommends that travelers to these countries protect themselves by avoiding contact with the blood and body fluids of people who are sick with Ebola.”

The patient in Dallas, Texas, who the CDC confirmed as the first case of Ebola virus diagnosed in the United States, flew into the U.S. on Sept. 20 after contracting the disease in Liberia.

This morning, Dallas County Health and Human Services Director Zachary Thompson said officials are currently monitoring another person who they fear may have Ebola after coming into contact with the patient currently being treated in Dallas.

“Let me be real frank to the Dallas County residents: the fact that we have one confirmed case, there may be another case that is a close associate with this particular patient,” Dallas County Health and Human Services Director Zachary Thompson said Wednesday in an interview with local ABC affiliate WFAA. “So this is real.”

So far, the White House has done little to prevent the spread of Ebola in the U.S. and may have in fact encouraged an outbreak by sending thousands of U.S. troops into West Africa earlier this month who could potentially contract the disease.

 

Five Dallas ISD students may have had contact with Ebola patient, none are sick

By Tawnell D. Hobbs

thobbs@dallasnews.com
12:21 pm on October 1, 2014 | Permalink

A Dallas ISD police officer arrives Wednesday at Sam Tasby Middle School, one of four Dallas schools attended by students who may have had contact with the man being treated for Ebola at Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas. (Andy Jacobsohn/Staff Photographer)

Five Dallas ISD students at four schools may have had contact with the Ebola patient in Dallas and stayed home from school as a precaution, according to a district email (see below) sent to employees today.

The kids are not showing symptoms of having the virus.

The students, who were not named, attend Tasby Middle School, Hotchkiss Elementary School, Dan D. Rogers Elementary and Conrad High School. The schools are in the Vickery Meadow area in northeast Dallas where many refugee families and other immigrants have settled in apartments.

DISD is also monitoring Lowe Elementary since it is connected to Tasby.

Mikey Terrell, a Conrad volunteer who lives in downtown Dallas, said news was spreading around the school that the man with Ebola lived or was visiting family nearby.

“It’s just getting around, just a few minutes ago,” he said today. He said he’d read about symptoms and prevention tips.

“I’ll just keep my hands to myself,” he said.

Click here for more information on the Ebola virus. Here’s a link on DISD’s website with more information.

More information, 12:49 p.m.:

Superintendent Mike Miles said during an afternoon news conference that impacted schools would have additional health professionals and custodial staff. He said that the district was informed this morning by Dallas County Health and Human Services of the five students that could have had contact with the Ebola patient.

“They possibly had contact with the patient over the weekend, and they have been in school since,” Miles said.

More information from Staff Writer Melissa Repko, 12:55 p.m.:

Tammy Brown, a mother of two students at Conrad, drove to pick up her daughter for a doctors appointment. She was greeted by a closed gate.

Her daughter, a junior in high school, came home Tuesday and said she didn’t want to go to school. She’d heard the man diagnosed with Ebola lived in a nearby apartment or was visiting there.

“She was real freaked out about it,” Brown said. “She worried someone was floating around with it.”

Brown spent Tuesday night researching on Google where the virus came from and how it spreads. She said she wishes the school district had sent home informational fliers to notify parents and tell them the virus’ symptoms. They could also make courtesy calls like they did when a middle school student was diagnosed with tuberculosis nearby, she said.

Her daughter’s fears concerned her, too.

“It made me nervous,” she said. “I had to stop because she was asking me questions and I didn’t have answers. I didn’t want to scare her.”

But Wednesday, Brown said her daughter decided to go to school anyway. “She tries to keep good attendance.”

More information from Staff Writer Jeff Mosier, 2:17 p.m.:

Shortly after lunch, a handful of Hotchkiss Elementary parents showed up to pull their children out of class.

Mayra Duarte, mother of a Hotchkiss first grader, said she first heard about the Ebola connection on the DISD Facebook page. “I don’t think I’m going to bring him until we go to the doctor and check him and see if he’s okay,” Duarte said.
This as well as the start of flu season has her worried about her son’s health.

One woman, who declined to give her name and appeared frantic, rushed up to the school and would only say: “I’m picking up my baby. ”

On her way out, she said she was hurrying to another of the schools to get her other child.

Deatra Allen, the aunt of a Hotchkiss kindergarten student, was unaware of the Ebola exposure until she was surrounded by members of the media in front of the school. She said this was a little too close to home.

“I don’t know if I want him to come back tomorrow,” she said.

More information, 2:38 p.m.:

The NEA-Dallas employees association urged health officials “to quarantine the five children” until they are satisfied that the kids have not contacted the disease.

“As always, their teachers will go the extra mile to help them get caught up on their studies after they return to class,” the group said in a statement.

Dallas ISD Ebola Notice

Urgent! Ebola Hits The US: Feds to Enact Emergency Measures?

Doctors give dire warnings as feds attempt to downplay

by Infowars.com | October 1, 2014

Infowars reporter Joe Biggs is on the scene where The Centers for Disease Control confirmed today that an Ebola victim was admitted to the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas

 

When Ebola comes to the U.S., who stands to profit?

By Abby Ohlheiser October 1 at 5:24 PM

Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas. (Brandon Wade/Reuters)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Tuesday that a person has been diagnosed with Ebola in the United States. The market reacted accordingly.

Here are some examples of those who might profit from Ebola's continued spread, more than six months into the deadliest outbreak in history.

 

Drug manufacturers

The most striking monetary effect of the CDC's announcement was encapsulated in this headline from USA Today: "Ebola stocks soar after infection hits U.S."

Yes, the makers of experimental drugs that have a shot at becoming the first confirmed Ebola treatment fared well in the markets after the Ebola-in-the-U.S. news broke.

"The first confirmed Ebola case in the U.S. is fanning fears around the country, but it's also driving greed in some corners of the stock market," CNNMoney said.

It was just the latest in a series of boons for those companies.

Here's a chart showing the stock price for Tekmira, the makers of TKM-Ebola, over the past three months, via Wall Street Journal's Market Watch:

That giant spike in August coincided with the FDA's announcement that the agency would loosen its hold on the development of Tekmira's Ebola drug.

In late September, health officials announced that they would begin clinical trials in West Africa for several of the most promising experimental drugs designed to treat Ebola. Researchers are determining which drugs to test, but it's known that the trials will include medications produced by Mapp Biopharmaceutical, Sarepta and Tekmira.

And here is Tekmira's stock price charted over the past five days:

Sarepta's shares jumped 8 percent in after-hours trading after the CDC's Tuesday announcement. Sarepta makes another Ebola drug that the company says has been effective in treatments applied to monkeys.

In an interview with CNBC on Tuesday night, Sarepta Therapeutics CEO Chris Garabedian said that the company had about 100 doses of its experimental drug available, adding: "Yes, we need more funding to take the drug materials that we have currently to convert that into upwards of 100 more courses of therapy, or more." Garabedian didn't have a cost estimate for such an operation, saying: "We would need to determine those costs and what kind of revenues would need to come into the company for us to be able to do that."

Mapp, maker of another promising Ebola treatment, is privately held. That drug was used to treat two American doctors who contracted the deadly virus while working on the front lines of Ebola in West Africa. While those patients recovered, it's not clear at this point whether that recovery was due to the drug, or some other aspect of their treatment.

In August, Mapp announced that its small, existing supply of ZMapp was exhausted, after a shipment of the medication to a West African country.

As the Wall Street Journal points out, pharmaceutical companies rarely have a financial incentive to work on treatments for rare diseases such as Ebola, which usually kills no more than hundreds in a typical year.

But that's been changing recently: Research and development spending on rarer illnesses such as Ebola and TB went up 20 percent between 2008 and 2012, according to the Journal.

It's worth noting that conspiracy theorists got busy upon Ebola's arrival in the United States.​ "Ebola: Collaboration Between the Pentagon and Pharmaceutical Corporations," Infowars.com said.

The Ebola virus. (CDC via Associated Press)

Natural remedy marketers

Health scares cause all sorts of things to happen. One of the more reliable byproducts of something like the Ebola outbreak in Africa (and its arrival in the U.S.) is the marketing of products that aren't actually drugs as potential cures or treatments for the illness.

This is something the FDA anticipated would happen this year, as Ebola began to spread across West Africa. "Oftentimes with public health incidences, like Ebola or even during H1n1, we see products that are marketed, often online, that claim to treat or cure the disease ... without FDA approval," FDA spokesperson Stephanie Yao said in an earlier interview with The Post.

Last week, the agency sent letters to three companies, alerting them that some of their paid consultants were marketing their products -- which included essential oils and organic dark chocolate bars -- as Ebola cures and treatments against FDA regulations.

Although two of the companies in question made it very clear in statements to The Post that they don't condone the marketing of their products in this way, one company was promoting the idea itself.

Natural Solutions Foundation claimed in its online marketing materials that its Nano Silver product could cure Ebola, Hepatitis B and C, and H1N1, among other diseases. "WHO, FDA, the New York Times, etc., have gone on a rampage of disonformation [sic] to keep you in the dark about natural ways to dispose of dangerous microbes without damaging your beneficial bacteria," the company added.

We've gone into the FDA's action against the marketing materials in question in more detail, here.

 

 Hedge funds

This example isn't specifically linked to the news of the first Ebola case diagnosed in the U.S., but it turns out that the spread of Ebola through West Africa prompted some hedge funds to bet on it affecting cocoa prices.

The countries hardest hit by the outbreak border the Ivory Coast, one of the world's largest cocoa producers. According to Bloomberg, the possibility that Ebola will spread there is one of many factors leading experts to speculate that cocoa prices will continue to rise.

A Sept. 24 Moody's report cited by Bloomberg notes that Ebola control measures might produce labor shortages during the beginning of cocoa's harvest season in October.

Abby Ohlheiser is a general assignment reporter for The Washington Post.