Tag Archive: pandemic

After refusing to stop incoming flights from Africa, and then forcing governors in three states to stop quarantining returning doctors, the Pentagon has ignored the Obama administration’s own policy and has started quarantining returning members of the military.

U.S. Army soldiers returning from Liberia are being placed in isolation in Vicenza, Italy and will be held there for at least 21 days. Army Major General Darryl A. Williams, commander of U.S. Army Africa, and approximately 10 other members of the U.S. military have been placed under quarantine in Italy after returning from West Africa over the weekend, according to multiple U.S. military officials.

Williams’ plane was met on the ground by Italian authorities “in full CDC gear,” the official said, referring to the type of protective equipment worn by U.S. health care workers. Another 30 members of the military are expected to be placed under quarantine orders later today.

Refusing to use the word Quarantine, the Obama administration is instead saying the isolated soldiers are under “enhanced monitoring.” Despite the political name play, family members say the soldiers are confined to a building and are unable to speak to their families – sounds a lot like quarantine to me.

Two sets of rules?

This comes as the White House and the CDC both pressured New Jersey and New York to immediately stop their policies of quarantining returning healthcare workers. While the Obama administration seems to have a different set of rules for returning military, they have yet again changed their recommendations for everyone else.

This morning, federal health officials issued new guidelines calling for voluntary, home quarantine for people returning from West Africa at the highest risk of contracting Ebola. The new guidelines, similar to ones that allowed an infected doctor to roam freely throughout New York, have no real power, and do nothing to stop infected individuals from coming to the country and spreading the disease.

A senior U.S. official told Fox News, “The Obama administration is going to war with New York and New Jersey, but its own military is recommending the same thing.”

Officials have refused to fully explain why the group of soldiers was being put under “controlled monitoring”, which is counter to the Pentagon policy. The current DOD policy on monitoring returning troops says “as long as individuals remain asymptomatic, they may return to work and routine daily activities with family members.”

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Monday that the Defense Department policy is “still under development.” When pressed on the issue on why returning military will be subject to quarantine when returning doctors are allowed to freely roam the streets, Earnest said it’s up to the Defense Department to announce its policies for troops that return from the region.

“We are seeing this administration put in place the policies that we believe are necessary to protect the American people and to protect the American troops,” he said. “And we’re going to let science drive that process. And as soon as we have a policy to announce on this, we’ll let you know.”

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Via:   offgridsurvival

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A report out of Dallas, TX indicating that a third Ebola infection had been identified in the United States. It was originally believed to be the boyfriend of Nurse Nina Pham, who tested positive for the virus earlier this week.

Pham’s boyfriend is still believed to be in isolation and it is not clear whether he has tested positive for the virus.

A second health care worker in Dallas, however, has tested positive for Ebola this morning, making her the third person in the United States to have been identified.

The infection of a second person who had been caring for Thomas Duncan suggests a total failure in CDC and hospital containment protocols.

A second Dallas hospital worker who provided care for the first Ebola patient diagnosed in the U.S. has tested positive for the disease, pointing to lapses beyond how one individual may have donned and removed personal protective garb.

It’s not clear how the second worker contracted the virus. Authorities declined to say what position she holds at the hospital or the type of care she provided to Thomas Eric Duncan, who was diagnosed with Ebola after coming to the U.S. from Liberia. Duncan died Oct. 8.
…

“What happened there (in Dallas), regardless of the reason, is not acceptable. It shouldn’t have happened,” Anthony Fauci, director of the Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of NIH, said on MSNBC Wednesday.

The worker at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital was monitoring herself for symptoms, Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said. The unidentified woman reported a fever Tuesday. She was in isolation within 90 minutes, Jenkins said.

“We are looking at every element of our personal protection equipment and infection control in the hospital,” said Dr. Daniel Varga, chief clinical officer for Texas Health Resources, which operates Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas.

Dr. Tom Frieden, head of the CDC, has acknowledged that the government wasn’t aggressive enough in managing Ebola and containing the virus as it spread from an infected patient to a nurse at a Dallas hospital.

“We could’ve sent a more robust hospital infection control team and been more hands-on with the hospital from day one about exactly how this should be managed,” he said Tuesday. (Breitbart)

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The previous report is below and discusses the possibility of another potential Ebola case currently in isolation. It was originally believed that Nina Pham’s boyfriend was the third confirmed Ebola case in America.

Various reports now making their way through social networks and alternative media sources claim that Nina Pham’s boyfriend may have been admitted to a Dallas-area hospital. It is not clear whether the individual was showing symptoms of the virus or if he has been quarantined as a precautionary measure. According to NBC DFW, “Texas Health Presbyterian is monitoring the patient based on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention protocol.”

Ms. Pham is the first person to contract the virus in the United States after being one of several medical personnel to provide care for the late Thomas Duncan, who arrived in America from West Africa two weeks ago.

According to reports Pham’s boyfriend works for Fort Worth-based eye care firm Alcon. A letter from Alcon CEO Jeff George sent to employees on Monday says that one of the company’s associates was admitted to Texas Health Presbyterian. George specifically notes in the letter that the individual who has been admitted was not showing symptoms of the virus, but there are contradicting reports with some suggesting that the individual admitted to the hospital was showing Ebola-like symptoms.

Letter to Alcon employees:

It is believed that Nina Pham’s parents and boyfriend are employees of Alcon.

A follow up report from Got News indicates that two Alcon sources confirm the legitimacy of the letter and according to NBC the company says it is not worried about further infections:

Alcon officials said they are confident that there is no risk for their associates after a consultation with the Texas Department of Health.

The Ebola virus has an incubation period of 2 to 21 days according to the CDC. This means that even though Pham had only been showing symptoms for a short period of time before being admitted to the hospital, it is possible that the individual identified by Alcon could have been exposed to the virus before Pham realized she was getting sick. With a two day incubation period, had her boyfriend been exposed it’s possible that he could have showed a more rapid onset of symptoms than Pham or Duncan.

The Centers for Disease control and Texas Health Presbyterian have yet to confirm if the new patient has tested positive for the virus, but some scattered reports online say that tests have actually confirmed infection. These reports have not been independently verified or confirmed.

If it turns out that this individual has Ebola he would be the first non-medical person in the United States to contract the virus, a development that could further stoke panic across America.

The CDC has maintained that they are prepared for Ebola even though director Thomas Frieden admitted yesterday that they have to rethink the way Ebola control protocols are implemented. It’s an admission that has brought further criticism to the agency, which has a $6.6 billion yearly budget, for their failure to implement effective quarantine and control procedures.

The latest potential case in Dallas highlights fears that the Ebola virus may have spread from Thomas Duncan, who was symptomatic two weeks ago, to the general population. With the high end of the incubation period being 21 days, if Duncan infected others then those cases will start showing up at hospitals within the next week.

Should this be the case, and more people become infected with the virus, it is only a matter of time before it makes its way to other major metropolitan areas. It’s also possible that, because of a lack of sufficient screening procedures and flight restrictions, more infected individuals from West Africa or elsewhere could eventually arrive in the United States.

Other than repeating that they have things under control, the CDC has failed to issue any pandemic preparedness guidelines to the general public. Even hospitals across the country lack a single standard for dealing with the virus.

The lack of information from the CDC and a concerned American public has led to panic buying of critical medical supplies like WHO-recommended respirator masks, protective body suits, goggles, gloves and pandemic kits to prevent the spread of contagious diseases.

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Via:   shtfplan

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As a second case of Ebola stemming from the original Ebola patient is now confirmed inside the United States, some very troubling news is coming out about how ill prepared this country is to stop Ebola. According to the nation’s largest nurses’ union, National Nurses United, the hospital that treated Thomas Eric Duncan was learning how to contain the deadly Ebola virus on the fly.

Conditions were so bad in the Dallas hospital that blood, vomit and diarrhea-soaked hazardous materials were left in open hospital rooms piled to the ceiling – a far cry from the CDC assurances that U.S. hospitals were ready to treat and stop Ebola in its tracks.

There will be more infection…

The National Nurses Union is warning that more infection are likely, as information leaks out about what really happened during the treatment of this country’s first case of Ebola.

The initial patient was left in an open area of the Dallas emergency room for hours, potentially exposing hundreds to the deadly virus. When nurses finally started working on the patient, they worked for days without proper protective equipment, at times being told to just use medical tape to cover open areas of skin.

According to the Nurses Union, the hospital had no real safety protocols in place, and the CDC did absolutely nothing to stop the outbreak within the hospital. In fact, the patients’ blood samples were actually sent via the hospital’s pneumatic tube delivery system, opening the possibility of contaminating the specimen delivery system.

CDC was not monitoring the Nurses: Nurse Flew Commercial Airline Flight day before coming down with Symptoms.

This morning, the criminally incompetent CDC – who assured us they were monitoring all potential Ebola cases – announced that the second nurse diagnosed with Ebola traveled by air Oct. 13, the day before she first reported symptoms.

The nurse traveled on Frontier Airlines flight 1143 Cleveland to Dallas/Fort Worth. Over 132 passengers were on the flight; the CDC is now asking them to immediately contact the CDC.

The CDC has no real Plan to Contain Ebola, and if they do have one they have allowed political correctness to trump their plans.

At this point it’s pretty clear the CDC has no idea what they’re doing. From continuing to allow passengers from the hot zone in West Africa to board flights to the U.S., to completely failing to keep healthcare workers in Dallas safe, the CDC has lost all credibility. They’ve allowed political correctness to trump common sense safety protocols that would have never allowed this infection in the country to begin with. And now that Ebola has reached the U.S., they’ve dropped the ball at every step of the way.

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Via:   offgridsurvival

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Guest post from our Friend – Dr. Bones

Hemorrhage Under the Skin in Ebola Patient

When I first wrote about Ebola early this year, I was hoping that it wouldn’t be a news item 6 months later. In my March 2014 article, I mentioned my concern about 86 cases and 59 deaths reported in the country of Guinea. The article you’re reading now counts more than 8000 cases and 4000 deaths in several countries. Dire projections by some experts predict more than a million cases by January.

The biggest headlines have gone to a man named Thomas Eric Duncan, who was admitted with Ebola after arriving in Texas. Although he came into this country by false pretenses, I, of course, hoped that Mr. Duncan would survive. I wanted to believe that our system of disease control was so strong that we could overcome any illness if we could just put our high technology and resources to work.

I was wrong. Mr. Duncan succumbed to the disease Oct. 7. Would he have survived if he were admitted to the hospital when he first presented, instead of being sent home due to a failure in the chain of communication? Possibly, but mistakes happen. Could our medical system trump both infectious disease and human error? In the case of Thomas Eric Duncan, apparently not. And now, it appears that it has failed again.

One of the health care workers assigned to Mr. Duncan’s case has contracted the disease. This person worked with the patient in full protective gear. It’s thought that a breach of infectious disease protocol is at fault, which makes it clear that the average hospital may not be able to handle cases of highly contagious illnesses such as Ebola. There are 4 centers in the U.S. that can: Nebraska, Atlanta, Montana, and the NIH. Given the inadequate pandemic training that medical personnel get in your average hospital, these are the only places that victims can go without threatening medical staffs and the community. Sending U.S. Ebola patients for treatment anywhere else is, at this point in the game, foolhardy and, perhaps, criminal.

In other developments this year, Ebola, like many viruses, has shown an ability to mutate. A team of Harvard scientists published a study in the journal SCIENCE in which they claimed to identify 250 different mutations in the Ebola genome. Most of these had little effect on the virus, but even the United Nations is concerned that a future mutation may cause the virus to be airborne.  Airborne transmission is different from transmission by inhalation.  If you inhale blood splatter, particles of vomit, or phlegm cast into the air by an Ebola patient, you can get the virus.  The difference is that the conventional wisdom believes that you can’t get it simply by breathing the air in the same, say, airplane, as an ebola patient.

Before the U.S. cases, I was regularly asked why it should matter to Americans that there is an Ebola epidemic in West Africa. Once Mr. Duncan hit the headlines, it was clear that we have plenty of reason to care. We have to care for humanitarian reasons and we have to care for selfish reasons as well. The U.S. should send as many resources as possible to the affected countries but must consider the protection of its own citizens as well.

Have political considerations regarding “fairness” to West Africa trumped public safety in the eyes of our health officials? We can’t expect our politicians to wage the battle between fairness and public health, but those in power at the CDC shouldn’t shy away from the hard truth: More U.S. Ebola cases mean resources must be spent here that could have gone to West Africa.

It’s been a long and winding road this year on the Ebola front, yet there are multiple fronts in the war on infectious disease:  Enterovirus D68 has invaded 46 states. Mosquito-borne Chikungunya is ravaging the Caribbean and Latin America, with sporadic cases from New York to Texas. Malaria is a long-standing issue in many areas. Yet, most of us aren’t prepared to meet the demands of preventing the spread of contagious illnesses. We depend on our top doctors to protect us.

They won’t. They can’t, truthfully, if the number of infectious cases becomes so numerous that they strain the ability of a nation’s medical system to handle them. It’s happening in West Africa with Ebola right now, and the financial cost of more victims in the U.S. might become astronomical.

As I write this, I’m hearing about immense hurricanes striking India and Japan. For the United States, hurricanes and Ebola have one thing in common: We get warnings that allow us to prepare for them. If our top health officials listen to the warnings about Ebola, we may still avoid becoming its victims.

Joe Alton, M.D., aka Dr. Bones

The Definition of Geezer

Are you prepared to deal with an epidemic if it came to your town?  What about other medical issues related to disasters?  Our new Pandemic Preparedness DVD and our #1 Amazon Bestseller The Survival Medicine Handbook
will give you tons of step-by-step information, IN PLAIN ENGLISH, that will help you become a medical asset to your family, even when the ambulance ISN’T heading in your direction.

Got your medical supplies in order in case of disaster?  Check out our entire line of medical kits:  MEDICAL SUPPLIES

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Despite numerous procedural missteps over the course of the last several weeks, the Centers for Disease control want the American public to believe they have everything under control.

But with a second case now being confirmed in Dallas, one can’t help but consider that these so-called ‘protocols’ set forth by the CDC are either inadequate, or they are being wholly mismanaged.

Where were the Hazmat suits for the police officers and clean-up crew that were first to arrive at Duncan’s Ebola-stricken apartment? Or what about the ambulance that carried numerous patients and personnel for 48 hours after Duncan was dropped off at the hospital before anyone realized it needed to be isolated? Or how about the quarantine procedures, which left Duncan’s extended relatives in an apartment with no established procedure for  supplying the detainees with food? And why were others who were living in apartments adjacent to these, who had close proximity to  Duncan’s ventilation systems, not moved?  Moreover, why did the Obama administration wait almost two weeks before suggesting that we should be screening passengers arriving in the United States from flights originating in Africa?

These are just a handful of the inconsistencies which suggest, among other things, that the CDC was caught completely off guard and unprepared.

But if that’s not enough to convince you that we have a serious problem with emergency response protocols for pandemics and outbreaks, then perhaps the fact that a single Ebola patient in Dallas overwhelmed the system to such an extent that Texas Presbyterian had to shut down their emergency room to new patients.

The CDC now is recommending that the Dallas hospital, Texas Health Presbyterian, keep the number of workers treating possible Ebola patients to an “absolute minimum,” Frieden said. The agency also wants the hospital to provide a full-time infection control officer to ensure that safety measures are followed with Ebola patients.

Varga did not identify the worker and said her family has “requested total privacy.”

The hospital announced Sunday that its emergency department had stopped until further notice accepting patients brought by ambulance “because of limitations in staffed capacity,” a step known as “diversion.”

“While we are on diversion we are also using this time to further expand the margin of safety by triple-checking our full compliance with updated CDC guidelines,” the hospital said. “We are also continuing to monitor all staff who had some relation to Mr. Duncan’s care even if they are not assumed to be at significant risk of infection.”

The infected woman sought care immediately after her symptoms developed and was placed in isolation at the hospital, Frieden said. (News Observer)

That’s right. The hospital literally closed its doors to new patients.

Consider for a moment what something like this might look like if  several cases popped up throughout a major metro area simultaneously. Would all of the hospitals to which those infected with Ebola were taken then shut their doors to new patients?

What this means for you is very simple and it’s something that members of the preparedness community have been warning about since before Ebola was even on the CDC’s domestic radar.

If this virus (or any other contagion) spreads like it did in Africa, our entire health care system will be paralyzed.

This means that whether a person needs medical attention for a viral infection or a broken arm, they will have nowhere to go for help.

Of course, CDC director Thomas Frieden would disagree. Ebola, as he so adamantly stated back in July, is simply not in the cards for America.

We are sure that the medical professionals at the CDC and other government agencies are the cream of the crop. It’s not that they are incapable of doing their jobs. The problem lies at the top of the decision-making hierarchy and one government emergency manager claims that these officials are are not only violating all containment and response protocols, but they are doing so on purpose.

Whether their reasons for this are politically motivated – like causing a panic so they can run GOP-blame commercials – or something even more sinister, they are playing a very dangerous game with the lives of 300 million Americans. Alarmingly, the CDC’s director admitted today that they’ve completely dropped the ball, despite every assurance that they were ready for Ebola. “We have to rethink the way we address Ebola infection control,” Frieden said at a press conference.

This ‘rethinking’ should include real, actionable preventative measures that can be taken by the American public, something the CDC has failed to provide thus far in any serious capacity. Given the (mis)handling of Ebola in the United States thus far, it’s probably about time each individual and family take it upon themselves to establish a pandemic preparedness plan and protocols to deal with this crisis if it continues to spread.

Or, you can just sit back and relax knowing that President Obama has you and your family’s interests at heart while he’s taking a swing on the Back Nine for the 200th time in his Presidency.

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Via:  shtfplan

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Tonight, Joe Alton, M.D., and Amy Alton, A.R.N.P., aka Dr. Bones and Nurse Amy, will be doing a webinar on the Ebola epidemic and how to be prepared for infectious diseases.

To watch, click the link below:

http://beyondoffgrid.com/webinars/ebola-pandemic-preparedness-with-dr-bones-and-nurse-amy/?utm_source=DoomandBloom&utm_medium=Website&utm_campaign=EbolaWebinar

Wishing you the best of health in good time OR bad…

Joe and Amy Alton

Dr. Bones and Nurse Amy

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A public tweet from a large government supplier of emergency response products specializing in “high risk events” says that Disaster Assistance Response Teams were told to prepare to be activated in the month of October. The shocking revelation, made on the Goldenstate Fire/EMS Twitter page, suggests that not only did someone know that the Ebola virus would be reaching America, but that they knew exactly when it would happen.

“What we are now hearing is just the tip of the iceburg as we enter October,” noted the company’s Twitter spokesperson. “Ebola virus will cripple EMS and hospitals.”

When Future Money Trends, a follower of the page, asked what they meant by this statement, Goldenstate Fire/EMS responded with a shocking revelation.

“DART teams were notified months ago they would be activated in October. Timing seems weird. Source: current DART member.”

Twitter exchange:

What we are now hearing is just the tip of the iceburg as we enter October. #Ebola virus will cripple EMS and hospitals. The wait is over!

— GoldenStateFIRE/EMS (@GoldenStateEMS) September 30, 2014

@FutureMoneyTren DART teams were notified months ago they would be activated in October. Timing seems weird. Source: current DART member.

— GoldenStateFIRE/EMS (@GoldenStateEMS) September 30, 2014

Be prepared to self quarantine yourselves if you experience flu like symptoms. Do not venture out as EMS & hospitals will be overwhelmed.

— GoldenStateFIRE/EMS (@GoldenStateEMS) September 30, 2014

There is speculation that this #DallasEbola case is not Ebola. DART teams were told months ago they would be activated in October.

— GoldenStateFIRE/EMS (@GoldenStateEMS) September 30, 2014

The full twitter exchange is available here and a screenshot has been archived.

With the Ebola virus now having been confirmed on U.S. soil, speculation as to how it got here and how many others may have contracted it is mounting. The traditional thinking here is that the virus made its way to the United States simply by one infected individual coming into contact with another, and so on. But, a growing chorus of contrarian researchers suggests another possibility – the Ebola virus may have been weaponized by a government or rogue terror cell and it has been deployed as a bio weapon.

This may sound outlandish, but in August SHTFplan.com posted a video of a State Department official’s remarks to reporters about developments in Africa. In her statement she specifically referred to the growing crisis as an “Ebola attack,” suggesting that not only has the virus been weaponized, but that the U.S. government knew it was not a naturally occurring event.

Though such weaponization is difficult to achieve according to Dr. Joe Alton, it remains a distinct possibility.

As noted by Kurt Nimmo, who cites a 2013 Global Policy Journal report, if someone had the resources to make it happen, they probably could:

Although weaponization of Ebola is complex and unlikely, experts in the field say transmission of the virus by air has occurred between animals. They believe “with advancing knowledge about how to manipulate viruses, the traits that make these [hemorrhagic fever virus agents] difficult to weaponize might be a diminishing barrier.”

Additionally, a “reverse genetics system provides a way to produce highly virulent mutated viruses for the purpose of biological warfare or biological terrorism,” scientists believe, according to Teckman’s research. (Infowars)

Dave Hodges of The Common Sense Show notes that the U.S. Army is intimately involved in Ebola research, adding further fuel to speculation that it has been used to develop new bio weapon systems:

The fact that the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) is involved suggests that either the Ebola virus, or the vaccine, or both, have been weaponized.

Weaponization aside, there is a third possibility and that is the virus did spread through the natural contagion effect, but that its entry into the United States is being facilitated by lax border policies and almost non-existent airport screening procedures, something that has Immigration and Customs officials terrified.

Over the last several years the U.S. government has been actively preparing for a widespread crisis scenario. Whether that crisis is Ebola or something else remains to be seen. But, what we do know is that they have stocked up not only armaments and ammunition, but tens of thousands of Hazmat suits, body bags and what are believed to be millions of disposable FEMA coffins.

Moreover, the President updated several Executive Orders over the last several years authorizing, among other things, forced quarantines and round-ups in the event of a pandemic emergency and the appropriation of private resources like food, water and human labor.

That a major government supplier of emergency equipment has come out in the open to claim that their sources had foreknowledge of an emergency Disaster Response mobilization to occur in the United States in October of this year is an astonishing development considering what has transpired in the last 72 hours.

Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.

Via: shtfplan

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