After news broke that the second Ebola nurse flew on a commercial flight a day before she officially came down with symptoms — but she had a 99.5 fever and Ebola is a viral hemorrhagic fever — CDC Director Tom Frieden said that she should never have traveled on a commercial flight.
What he did not say was that the CDC allowed her to travel on a commercial flight, because her fever was not quite high enough.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that Vinson called the agency several times before flying, saying that she had a fever with a temperature of 99.5 degrees. But because her fever wasn’t 100.4 degrees or higher, she didn’t officially fall into the group of “high risk” and was allowed to fly.
Officials in the U.S. have been trying to calm fears over the Ebola crisis, but time and again events have overtaken their assurances.
Less than a full degree of difference, and the CDC says A-OK? That doesn’t make a lot of sense.
“Events have overtaken” the CDC’s assurances mostly because they keep saying and doing stupid things. Americans would be a whole lot less worried about Ebola if it appeared that we even had one person in charge who possesses a clue. So far, that person has not emerged. President Obama is trying to be that person, but he’s President Obama. He’s already a proven, bonafide dope who leads from behind and plays word games about everything. Swapping out an attack-minded fundraiser for a Washington meeting won’t cut it. That’s not leadership.
Dallas County will hold an emergency meeting this afternoon. The subject: Emergency!
Dallas County Commissioners are set to meet Thursday afternoon to discuss whether to call on Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) to declare an emergency to deal with Ebola. The declaration would give officials greater authority to impose travel restrictions on health-care workers who are being monitored for Ebola symptoms, NBC-DFW reported.
Separately, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) called on President Barack Obama to consider a ban on travel to the United States from Ebola-stricken countries. In a statement, Boehner said “a temporary ban on travel to the United States from countries afflicted with the virus is something the president should absolutely consider along with other appropriate actions as doubts about the security of our air travel systems grow.”
Such calls are growing increasingly bi-partisan, but a travel ban is probably the last thing that the Obama White House will allow. Not because the science is really against it.
Gov. Perry returns from his economic trip overseas to deal with the emergency.
And everyone went nuts about this photo last night. It shows Amber Vinson, Ebola nurse #2, being moved from Texas Presbyterian to Emory, one of the four American hospitals that actually is ready for Ebola patients.
Reaction to this picture shows just how badly the U.S. is handling Ebola at this point — not the American people, but the American government.
Vinson is the person on the gurney. The three people who rode with her and have to physically move her are all in full hazmat suits as they should be. Clipboard Man isn’t, but he also isn’t within three feet of her, doesn’t physically help move her, doesn’t physically touch her, and if she does anything projectile-style, it will stay inside the gear that she is in, and not get on him.
In other words, Clipboard Man is not the idiot Judge Clay Jenkins. If our authorities were doing a better job of not being boobs about all this, photos from that moment would not have caused such a stir.
Vinson had to be moved to Emory for a couple of reasons.Texas Presbyterian is already caring for Nina Pham, who received a blood transfusion from Dr. Kent Brantly. It takes 20 full-time ICU staff to care for one Ebola patient. Brantly and Vinson do not have the same blood type, so Vinson could not get a transfusion from him. Blood from Ebola survivors has antibodies that fight the virus. Vinson needed more care than the Dallas hospital can give her at this point. So she is being moved to Emory. At Emory, there is no reason to fear that she will spread the virus. Let’s pray for her recovery, and for the safety of all of those who work with her.
President Obama may keep playing word games, going from saying that the chances of an “outbreak” are low, to then changing to saying that the chances of a “serious outbreak” are low. Parents of kids at schools in Ohio and Texas aren’t in the mood for word games. If something impacts your kids, it’s serious. Man up, Mr. President.
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