I've probably used up all my tokens for describing events as "surrealistic." Yet I can't come up with a better word for the flap over the Ebola virus.
Most recently, this:
Arlington County Fire Department and Fairfax County HAZMAT Teams are on the scene after a woman - alleged to have recently traveled from Liberia - fell ill and started vomiting in The Pentagon parking lot this morning. Arlington Public Health has activated its Emergency Operations Center to manage the incident. ...
Why was she not admitted to the Virginia Hospital Center (where my wife and I have both been treated several times) and admitted to Fairfax Inova (my address for two weeks when I had a heart operation)? Did VHC have no vacancies for potential Ebola patients?"During the response, the individual allegedly indicated that she had recently visited western Africa. Out of an abundance of caution, all pedestrian and vehicular traffic was suspended around the South Parking lot, while Arlington County responded to the scene," Arlington officials said.
The situation started at around 9:10 a.m. when the woman started vomiting in the Pentagon Parking Lot around lanes 17-19, officials said.
Arlington County Fire Department transported the woman to the Virginia Hospital Center, but she did not exit the ambulance there. She was then taken to Fairfax Inova Hospital, officials said.
Now the Washington Post has awoken and found it was all a dream:
While it may have been a false alarm, the story doesn't quite add up.A woman who caused concern near the Pentagon and a four-hour quarantine on a bus in the District does not have Ebola, Arlington and Fairfax County officials confirmed on Friday. ...At about 5 p.m., the two counties’ health departments said in a statement that she did not have the virus. The hospital said in a statement that she did not meet the criteria to be tested for Ebola.Two officials with knowledge of the incident said they do not believe the woman has recently traveled out of the United States. Mary Curtis, an Arlington County spokeswoman, said that she does not know why county officials initially believed the patient had been in west Africa, but that the county’s health department no longer believes that to be the case.
Steve Gordon, the woman’s boss at the public relations firm Total Spectrum, said the woman was suffering a severe illness and he does not think she has ever left the country.
According to another news report (I just clicked the link and the story has disappeared): "The Pentagon said in a statement: " 'During the response, the individual indicated that she had recently visited Africa.' " What kind of illness makes one hallucinate having been to Africa? What was the source of the Pentagon's information?
Why did the Arlington County spokeswoman say she had no idea where the idea of the patient's having been in Africa came from? Could she have been unaware of the Pentagon statement? I wouldn't necessarily believe either the Pentagon or a county PR person, but this is an odd case of he-said, she-said. How would Arlington County so quickly determine the patient's recent whereabouts?
This incident came a day or two after the CDC director told a Congressman that "the administration fears a travel ban from affected countries would hurt fragile West African economies." Americans' health and well-being? Eh. President Obola knows his priorities.
If the woman who fell ill at the Pentagon was not a virus carrier, well, we'll just have to import them.
While the bipartisan voice grows to ban Ebola victims from entering the United States, a new report claims that President Obama is considering a plan to bring the world’s Ebola patients to the United States to be treated.
Judicial Watch, the conservative public watchdog group, says in a shocking report that the president is “actively formulating plans” to admit Ebola-infected non-citizens just to be treated.
“Specifically, the goal of the administration is to bring Ebola patients into the United States for treatment within the first days of diagnosis,” said the group.Maybe you can chalk this up to another tactic in "our" president's plan for population replacement. Of course, the infectees might fail to cooperate, dying before they can vote Democrat. But surely their spouses, children, aunts, uncles, and grandparents will be welcome. It's only fair.
5 comments:
I read an interesting post on "thenaturalethnopatriot", this morning. It is titled "unbelievable", and rightly so!
In France, TPTB seem to cling to their belief ot the Tchernobyl time : "the borders will stop the illness, just as they stopped the radioactive cloud"....
the blog is :
www.theneturalethopatriot.com
You might find the articles interesting!
If you could get the audio transcript of the initial 911 call made, the subsequent dispatch of emergency personnel and communications between they and the dispatcher (this is all public record, but that doesn't mean it's free.), you might be able to piece it all together and get to the actual source of the exposure to Ebola in western Africa allegation. Might.
Having once (July 17, 2010 to be exact - a day that will forever live in infamy. lol.) been the victim of miscommunication between police, dispatch personnel and a 911 caller who refuses to understand that 911 is to be used solely for emergencies, and not for one's manipulative purpose of sidestepping duly enacted laws that in a particular situation they conveniently disagree with, I can confidently say that there is literally no telling how the idea got out that this woman had just returned from western Africa. She very likely never said she'd been there. The far greater likelihood is that either the initial caller, or one of the emergency personnel on scene made the original comment, in communications with dispatch, about exposure to Ebola in western Africa, and it all went to s*it from there.
If you don't know, these government agencies aren't particularly professional in the way they conduct themselves in certain high-tension situations. Often they hear what they want to hear, and that ain't just cliche'. That they are too often the cause themselves of the high-tension situations to which I allude doesn't seem to concern them to the extent that they're willing to evaluate wherein they went wrong, and how to prevent similar situations in the future. They pretty much view themselves as infallible, and that's a fact.
In my paticular case I did get the audio transcript, and was able to connect the dots to a "superman, thrill-of-the-chase, gonna-save-the-day-and-get-my-name-in-the-papers" mentality with police - basically the whole department - fueled by the caller's 'upping the ante' to making false statements when the truth wasn't enough to get what he was after. Which was enough to clear my good name and set the record straight after the fact, but that's about all the good it did. The problem still exists. It's the world we live in, God help us all.
(newer post) "Earlier this month ... VHC told TV station WUSA 9 that it was ready to deal with potential Ebola patients."
That was hospital press flack talking to TV standup, nothing new.
In VHC: Honcho sends out email ''To all department heads: Meeting, conference room A 2pm - MANDATORY''
At meeting: ''OK, we've seen the whole comedy of errors over in Dallas. What if THAT shows up here? Same time tomorrow, we'll meet here and I want the straight facts''.
Next day: ''You said you wanted the straight scoop? Here it is; we don't have adequate training, supplies, or facilities to isolate and deal with ONE 0bola case - and if it's more than one we're screwed''.
The typical US hospital is designed to handle 'normal' patients - like you. 0bola is a whole different ball game, it needs special handling. VHC is no more ready than Dallas was.
You're fortunate, if it's 0bola, there's a place for it: Reston. Texas (or Florida) doesn't have that option.
The next 0bola case that shows up at a random ER is going to be medical Keystone Cops again, but at least Dallas showed us what not to do.
The above comment was moved to the later posting.
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