Ebola Cure

[PegLeg45]

It's called "mid-term elections".......

[alfsauve]

So the CDC (don't get me started on why the Nat. Institute of Health isn't in the forefront of this) just proudly announced that we, the US, now have 35 hospitals capable of treating people infected with Ebola.

Huh?   Ebola has an infection rate, R0, of 2 or less.  Very, very low on the infectious scale.  "Hard to catch", "Don't Panic" "they" kept saying.   So, if ONLY 35 hospitals  NOW can handle Ebola, what about something with a higher infection rate?  Something say, "Easy to catch?"    Something akin to Black Plaque or something we've never heard of before?       And why didn't we have these places before?   What has the NIH been doing the past 13 years to prepare us for something like Ebola or worse?

[crusader rabbit]

So, I asked my Doctor, "Doc, what are we going to do about this
dangerous virus from Africa?

He said, "I don't know, but he has two more years in office."

[JoeG]

So the CDC (don't get me started on why the Nat. Institute of Health isn't in the forefront of this)

In govt speak, generally if it is an institute then it if research and policy advice so they don't make or enforce regulations. NIH largely disperses grant money to researchers at colleges and thereby sets trends in what gets studied. Do a pretty good job of it. Not enough money to go around so the  grant approval rate has gone from about 30% 20 years ago to about 3-5% these days. It has become the dirty secret in science research how badly the pay and advancement tracks for researcher are broken. This and the crazy tuition costs for college will be the drivers to break up the old system and create something new based on web learning. Most college administrations are disfunctional due to the feelings of entitlement by some faculty and staff and the inability to cut costs.

The problem at hospitals is the same old thing too many conflicting regulations and priorities, not enough money or staff. I think what the 35 number means is that is how many they actually inspected and did well enough to pass.

[kmitch200]

So, I asked my Doctor, "Doc, what are we going to do about this
dangerous virus from Africa?

He said, "I don't know, but he has two more years in office."

        

[Sponsor]

[alfsauve]

Uh OH!   JoeG has got me wound up.   Okay, it is separate from NIH, my mistake, but it is still under the HHS umbrella.  And we haven't heard diddly squat from Dr. Lurie since the whole Ebola thing began. 

Here's what the Office Preparedness and Response is suppose to do.

The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response  was created to lead the nation in preventing, preparing for, and responding to the adverse health effects of public health emergencies and disasters.  ASPR focuses on preparedness planning and response; building federal emergency medical operational capabilities; countermeasures research, advance development, and procurement; and grants to strengthen the capabilities of hospitals and health care systems in public health emergencies and medical disasters.

[Emphasis mine.  And I deleted some extraneous and superfluous phrases.]


So we NOW have 35 hospitals capable of treating a virus with a very low infection rate.    What have we done to prepare for something with a high rate?

[JoeG]

The key in avoiding the epidemic is to not be in the early phase when they are still learning how to stop it! Reducing your exposure to others is a good way to delay getting it, but history tells us that isolation never works forever. So if you can delay long enough for a vaccine OR effective treatment then your chance of survival goes way up.

The funding process for medical (ie insurance) is all retroactive so there won't be any money to prepare the hospitals until the epidemic gets started

Awareness and a simple plan for when the media panic starts is about all you can do.