Virologist Says Ebola Will Kill 5 Million

[Jmpty]

Meh. What're you gonna do.

[The Skeletal Atheist]

Meh. What're you gonna do.

Bleed out of every orifice.

[Mermaid]

Meh. What're you gonna do.

Sooner or later we all turn into our Jewish grandparents.

[GrinningYMIR]

I wonder how many cases of ebola there are that have made it to the West. You know, the people that visit those areas and bring it home and are recognized and treated, all without the public knowing.

I know they've had cases where the shits come over and they were treated all very hush hush in order to avoid hysteria, wouldn't surprise me if its happened now

[Mike Cl]

I wonder how many cases of ebola there are that have made it to the West. You know, the people that visit those areas and bring it home and are recognized and treated, all without the public knowing.

I know they've had cases where the shits come over and they were treated all very hush hush in order to avoid hysteria, wouldn't surprise me if its happened now

If you guys on this board have not read The Stand, but Mr. King, you might read the first part, especially if you want to scare yourself. :)  A virus escapes a government research facility and spreads around the world fairly quickly.  The symptoms are quite like the ebola symptoms; flu like and you die in 3/4 days.    Most of the world dies; this happens at the beginning of the book; first 75 or so pages I think.  The rest of the book deals with what the few survivors do.  If one is so inclined read the unabridged version.  Another, older, book, The Earth Abides (author eludes me), deals with the same topic.  A guy is in the deep mountains and he is bitten by a rattlesnake .  He barely recovers,  and it takes him a week.  When he returns to 'civilization' he does not find anybody alive.  According to some newspaper headlines an unknown virus was on the rampage.  The rest of the book deals with him finding the few survivors and their struggles to live on.  Both great books--at least I liked them.

[SGOS]

We tend to think we will win the battle with nature, because man has done fairly well and survived for the last 50,000 or so years.  And while that's nothing but a heartbeat on a geological scale, it's all we know.  But 50,000 years doesn't establish a track record, and it gives us little to go on.  We have yet to deal with a cosmic "bullet", although we have warded off plenty of mosquitoes during our short reign.

We can be fairly assured that life will survive for another millions of years, but we are a species, and the overwhelming outcome for species is to become extinct.  Turtles have done unusually well, however.  But we aren't turtles.  In fact, we might be the death of the hearty turtles too, but wiping out other species equates only to dominance, not permanence.

[stromboli]

Survivors, a British TV show
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivors_(2008_TV_series)

was about the survivors of a world wide influenza pandemic. Interesting show imo. And I also read The Stand. I personally think that people are tuned in enough to the concept of a pandemic that should it happen, we would be smart enough to deal with it properly. And no government wants to be the one that allows massive citizen deaths. Hopefully we are smart enough to apply preventive measures before we ever get to that point.

That said, something as virulent as Ebola or a super strain of influenza with an airborne vector would be devastating. Ebola has an incubation period of from 2 to 21 days, with people showing symptoms after 8-10 days. Therefore the potential to spread it is high, with people not knowing they have a disease. An airborne vector with a long incubation period and the potential transmission scenarios are scary. One person carrying the disease in an airport could transmit the disease internationally in a short time- which was the scenario for the Survivors TV show.

[Green Bottle]

I remember watching it Stromboli an while it was a gd show i thought it a wee bit scary imagining something similar happening in real life.
There must be loads of deadly bugs in secure labs all over the world and it only takes one nutcase to start it off, then its Pandemic time and panic everywhere.
Lets hope it never happens, but you never know...

[TrueTexan]

My family leased a 1600 acre property in the south Texas desert for 20 years and the owner just sold it last week. I hope I don't have to confiscate it. If I do, you are all welcome to visit my Ebola free desert utopia, just stay on the highway. I'll wave.

[stromboli]

I know just about every high country camp site in Utah and Idaho. I can hide if necessary.

[Mike Cl]

If there is an upside to ebola is that it really is hard to catch--harder to catch than aids.  It is not airborne.  To get it, you have to be exposed to bodily fluids.  Apparently the culture of those countries encourages physical contact in many social situations and when people are sick.  So, always wear gloves--and if somebody is about to sneeze, run or stuff a rag into their mouth.

[aitm]

I am going to put up an "Ebola Free Zone" sign in my front yard because you know, the "gun free zone" signs worked so well