Thursday Open Thread [10.15.14]
New Public Policy Polling surveys in 6 states, which I will go into tomorrow in more detail, with highly competitive races either for the Senate or Governor this fall — Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, North Carolina, and Wisconsin — find strong support for increasing the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, and that Republican candidates could face backlash for their opposition to the raise.
First Read: “But here is something else we need to say about the Ebola story: The level of panic doesn’t match the crisis, at least not yet. So far in the United States, one man (from Liberia) has died, and two nurses have been infected from caring for him. And at this rate, it’s possible another health-care worker (or two or three) might get infected, too. But compare this with the thousands who have died from the disease in West Africa, plus the thousands who die from the flu and car accidents each year.”
Three people out of three hundred and fifty million. Three people in one city, one hospital. Three people connected to only one incident. I wonder why that is. I wonder why the public is hysterical. Could it be that the media and certain Republican candidates are stoking the fear for ratings and votes?
If the disease pops up in Cleveland and other cities based on that idiot Texas nurse did (she should be fired as a nurse and have her license forever revoked), then we can start to get a little bit concerned. If it spreads to more people and more cities after that, then we can start panicking.
So I guess nurses, who make little more than double what a fast food worker does, now have to self quarantine themselves because of a crisis you seem to agree is not happening.
What about those who come in contact with the influenza virus. Say for instance flu is running rampant through Del Dems office yet he has an important meeting in Los Angles. Does he still hop on a plane? I bet he does. Talk about fucking idiots.
Flu, every year kills tens of thousands more people in the US alone than the entire worldwide infection rate of ebola since it was recognized in 1976.
Way to feed the panic.
The amount of time I’m willing to devote to this US Ebola crisis is —
That’s it. I’m done.
Science is hard. Creating Ebola hysteria is easy… and cheap.
I never get a flu shot, should I? I’ve never gotten the flu, so I don’t see the point. I’m not vaccination truther though and I realize that I might just be getting lucky.
The teajhadi racist idiot Larry Klayman thinks that President Obama needs to be “taken alive” because the President is using ebola against white people.
🙄
“she should be fired as a nurse and have her license forever revoked”
She had the CDC’s permission to travel. Don’t blame the victim.
The level of panic doesn’t match the crisis, at least not yet. So far in the United States, one man (from Liberia who should have never been allowed to leave his country or let into this one) has died, and two nurses (who despite taking the prescribed precautions) have been infected from caring for him.
There fixed that for you.
This is no time to panic, but it should not be taken lightly, either. Especially if you work in the medical field.
And your evidence that it’s being taken lightly would be….?
…by having an untold number of hospital workers treat Duncan for two days with no protection.
http://gawker.com/hospital-workers-treated-ebola-patient-for-two-days-wit-1646751180
To answer meatball above about my seeming hypocrisy at scoffing at the hype and yet condemning the second nurse: if every single medical professional who treats the situation as haphazardly as Texas Presbyterian did, this will very quickly become the crisis that the hype envisions. Plus, I cannot stand incompetence. I don’t care how much a person is paid or not. If you are going to take money for a job, be competent in it.
No one is denying that the Texas hospital didn’t follow proper protocol – but that is the reason the nurses became infected. Cause meet effect.
I agree. Which is why an example must be made of Texas Presbyterian. Close the hospital down and fire everyone in the chain of command responsible.
And you’re still blaming the nurse for something that’s the hospital’s fault, not hers. Or do you expect every nurse to shell out hundreds or thousands of dollars for their own hazmat suits?
I’d believe you more about your hatred of incompetence if your screen name weren’t “Delaware Democrat.” It’s hard to find a better example of incompetence than the Delaware Democratic Party.
“an example must be made of Texas Presbyterian. Close the hospital down and fire everyone in the chain of command responsible.”
Well done. That’s a level of overreaction and irrationality you normally only see from conservatives.
Whoa… we don’t need to fire everyone and close down the hospital. I will agree to questioning, and perhaps firing, the hospital spokes people/doctors who spoke to the press. If what they said was true we wouldn’t be dealing with this. But what they said wasn’t true. There’s the problem.
Yes, that’s’ fine, Pandora. You know me, I tend to the hyperbolic. I just want accountability. And Geezer, the reason that you and we and the medical professionals have all been saying that this is nothing to worry about is because there is nothing to worry about if the proper protection protocols quarantining the infected patient are followed. But if they are not followed, well then that gives license to a malicious media that is already irresponsibly stoking fear and hype.
“No one is denying that the Texas hospital didn’t follow proper protocol – but that is the reason the nurses became infected.”
Seems you know more about this than the officials looking in to the case, Pandora.
Perhaps you should head over to DC or down to TX and tell them whats up.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/16/cdc-ebola-transmission-dallas_n_5997438.html
Geezer: “The amount of time I’m willing to devote to this US Ebola crisis is –That’s it. I’m done.”- Pandora. I Guess that passes for taking it seriously. Somehow.
Pandora isn’t a health care professional. Outside of that profession, nobody should be spending any more time than zero worrying about the “crisis.”
There have been reports out of the nurses’ union in Dallas that hazmat suits weren’t worn in the first day after Duncan was admitted. They don’t KNOW that’s how she caught it, so they’re being truthful in a sense.
About that nurses’ union report:
* the patient was “left for several hours, not in isolation, in an area where other patients were present,”
* The nurses weren’t issued protective gear that covered their entire bodies.
* They claim there was no one to pick up hazardous waste.
Just because no one can say exactly how these people caught the virus doesn’t mean they’re saying that protocol was followed.
Republican state didn’t need no stinkin federal protocols
Mr ball wrote:
Uhhh, registered nurses, in hospital settings at least, make a lot more than double what fast food workers earn. Wages vary widely by city, and city size, but over $40 per hour is not uncommon.
Mr. Ball. Tee-hee.
Mr Geezer, I always strive for courtesy! Sadly, there have been times I have come up short in that department.
It just reminded me of when The New York Times referred to the “Bat Out of Hell” singer as Mr. Loaf.
On a more serious note, Dana, as you’re well aware, some of those taking the greatest risks in this outbreak — for example, the Spanish “nurse” who is more what we would call an orderly — are as poorly paid as Mr. Ball thinks.
The problem with Ebola is that we let the thing fester in West Africa killing thousands… and did basically nothing.
The Republicans are SO intent on denying people free health care around the world that they’re effectively promoting the spread of nasty diseases.
For a very SMALL fraction of what we spend on our military budget we could provide effective healthcare for everyone in the world who is underserved. If we don’t, then this sort of thing will happen every decade or so. There are worse things than Ebola… much worse.
@Liberal Elite–
You’re absolutely right. Al Mascitti made this very point a week or so ago. He was talking about how we claim to do everything for “the children” yet don’t actually DO anything for the CHILDREN.
The point is the same. We don’t really care if a bunch of black/brown/other non-whites are dying from some horrible disease until that disease threatens US.
Mr. Ball has been a registered nurse in acute care settings for over twenty years and is painfully aware of what the pay scale is. The north east and north west/California are the highest paying regions, the south, not so much.
CDC was (and still is, as far as I can tell) advising standard, contact, and droplet precautions only, none of which include a hazmat suit. Droplet precautions offer less protection than airborne precautions used for influenza A which add an N-95 mask, but still no hazmat suit.
http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/hcp/infection-prevention-and-control-recommendations.html
The median salary for an RN in Dallas is $60k. I seriously doubt that 26 year old Ms. Pham was making anywhere near the median salary as a staff nurse. I’m thinking she was probably more around $25/hr, in other words a little more than double what a five year veteran of the fast food industry makes.
You might want to move this to your Friday thread, or create a new post:
Here’s Ledford’s description of what’s up at the new NJ. No reference to making reporters and editors re-apply to keep the jobs they’ve had for years. An acknowledgement that there will be fewer editors ( when they need more in order to reduce the proliferation of grammatical abominations we’ve seen throughout the print and digital editions).
http://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/local/2014/10/16/news-journal-keeping-needs-readers-mind/17382679/
Most striking to me: First thing that caught my attention when I opened the page was the “Buy Photo” link at the bottom of Ledford’s portrait. Might make a good purchase for the dartboard in the break room at 950 W. Basin Road.
Go sports team.