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US PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA has vowed that his administration would provide “much more aggressive” monitoring of Ebola cases in the United States and warned that in an age of frequent travel the disease could spread globally if the world doesn’t respond to the “raging epidemic in West Africa.”
In his most urgent comments on the spread of the disease, Obama also sought to ease growing anxiety and fears in the U.S. in the aftermath of a second nurse being diagnosed with Ebola after treating a patient in a Dallas hospital. He said he had directed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to step up its response to new cases.
He said:
We want a rapid response team, a SWAT team essentially, from the CDC to be on the ground as quickly as possible, hopefully within 24 hours, so that they are taking the local hospital step by step though what needs to be done.
Obama spoke after cancelling a political campaign trip to convene a session of top Cabinet officials involved in the Ebola response both in the U.S. and in the West African region where the disease has been spreading at alarming rates.
Participants in the meeting were a roster of Cabinet secretaries and top Obama advisers, including Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, Attorney General Eric Holder, Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey.
Hours before Obama canceled his trip, officials confirmed that a second nurse at a Dallas had tested positive for the virus after treating an Ebola patient who later died. The disclosure raised new fears regarding the exposure by other health care workers. Officials also revealed that the nurse was on a commercial flight the evening before being diagnosed.
The Texas developments added a new domestic element to what has developed into an Ebola crisis in the West African countries of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. Obama has been pressing the international community to step up its assistance in combating the disease.
On Wednesday, Obama spoke by phone with British Prime Minister David Cameron, French President François Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi. The White House said Obama stressed that the world must provide the finances and personnel needed “to bend the curve of the epidemic” and said it amounts to a “human tragedy as well as a threat to international security.”
He made a similar case to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday, the White House said.
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The Secretary of State is to appoint Ryan Carroll as spokesman so as to reassure the people.
On a serious note, the clinicians, nurses and attendants who assist the sick and dying are extraordinarily brave. There is inherent risk invplved, no matter how careful such health staff are but they bravely continue.
I know so little about this topic but I get the impression that civil authorities are slowly becoming more concerned about the scale of risk. I’m not sure that there is absolute certainty and predictablity about transmission. The average of 1.7 infections passed on my each victim looks easily controllable but there shpuld be concern iver the 2 health care infections in Texas and one in Spain. No one seems fully clear about how precisely each of the 3 infections occurred. I’m not inclinrd to talk down to those who post comments expressing concern.
I’m sorry for the double post. I did not think that the first attempt had succeeded.
You’d think the journal would allow editing or deletion of own posts but they don’t unfortunately.
Comment of the week
“Never let a good crisis go to waste”…Winston Churchill.
No doubt this nasty terrorist supporting wicked man will ride this opportunity to take more control of the country.
http://www.alef.net/ALEFArtists/DavidDees/Depopulation/DavidDees-ObamaCare.Gif
This is where Rex 84 aka FEMA camps come into play.
Sending in drones to bomb ebolastan
Looks like they brought in Walter White to sort things out!
The Secretary of State is to appoint Ryan Carroll as spokesman so as to reassure the people. Only joking!
On a serious note, the clinicians, nurses and attendants who assist the sick and dying are extraordinarily brave. There is inherent risk invplved, no matter how careful such health staff are but they bravely continue.
I know so little about this topic but I get the impression that civil authorities are slowly becoming more concerned about the scale of risk. I’m not sure that there is absolute certainty and predictablity about transmission. The average of 1.7 infections passed on my each victim looks easily controllable but there shpuld be concern iver the 2 health care infections in Texas and one in Spain. No one seems fully clear about how precisely each of the 3 infections occurred. I’m not inclinrd to talk down to those who post comments expressing concern.
Cue a further erosion of civil liberties in the land of the free , “it’s for your own protection , seriously “
Why don’t al-Qaeda infect a few volunteers, travel to New York, wait a few days until they start to become infectious then discreetly smear bodily fluids all around the New York subway system and at JFK airport?
Al-Qaeda haven’t really done anything since 2001. This disease could really cause terror.
Ok. I hope I haven’t given them any ideas.
I am starting to get scared about Ebola though. There is no signs of it coming under control anytime soon.
Obama is probably working overtime to infect ISIS and have them terrorize the country.
ISIS is just the more dangerous and improved made for television version of Al-Qaeda
Jack Bowden ..This is the best solution to stop the spread of Ebola fear.
I like that cartoon. It’s very true but how true will it be in 6 months time. 3 months ago people in Sierra Leone weren’t taking it seriously now 5 people an hour are getting infected there.
if you have fear inside you are fecked , survival of the fitted.. Man Up
Idiot.
I’m just waiting for their official announcement of the “War On Ebola”!
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