Thursday, October 16, 2014

All we need now is Topless Nurse Judy and the head of the Armenian Medical Association. Life Imitates Art. Beat the Reaper: More proof of how well big government works for you.

"I don't know how many different ways I can say this: Captain Trips DOES NOT EXIST!" -- General William "Billy" Starkey, commanding Project Blue, in The Stand.
I was talking to David Codrea yesterday morning about how life imitates art. I pointed out that some of the CDC pronouncements were beginning to rival General Starkey's in The Stand for sheer unreality. So know we learn that "Amber Vinson, Dallas Ebola Patient, Says CDC Gave Her Green Light To Fly."
Vinson told CBS Dallas Fort Worth that she was feeling ill before boarding her flight. She had a low grade fever, but she said that officials told her it was okay to get on the plane. Vinson told CBS that she called the CDC several times with concerns.
Ebola is only contagious when a patient is symptomatic. Vinson's 99.5 degrees Fahrenheit fever wasn't high enough to be considered a symptom.
The CDC confirmed to FOX 4 News that they gave Vinson the green light to fly. "Vinson was not told that she could not fly," a government spokesperson told NBC News.
Vinson's comments contradict remarks made earlier today by CDC Director Tom Freiden, who said that she never should have gotten on the plane.
Meanwhile, Media Matters clucks its collectivist tongue when Laura Ingraham stated that Thomas Frieden, the Director of the CDC "is on the verge of becoming the Baghdad Bob of the health care community."
But as Betsy McCaughey points out in an article in Human Events entitled "Ultimatum to Nurses: One mistake and you die," Frieden is falsely claiming hospitals are ready in order to bolster the policy of his boss, President Obama, who refuses to suspend travel visas from affected countries. But how many American lives should be put at risk for the sake of political correctness?
How many, indeed. David and I share, along with others of our generation, a fondness for the old comedy albums of Firesign Theater, and we talked about how if this goes much farther that we could see a replay of Firesign's Beat the Reaper sketch.
Now personally, I'm not ready to panic on Ebola as the real Captain Trips, although I am bemused by the fact that some folks are just now discovering that the federal government doesn't do ANYTHING right. Where have they been? And where's Obama in all this? Why he's worried about "the optics." So, while we wait for the next Ebolian to be revealed and the next big government failure to become self-evident, here's a little traveling music:
Don't Fear the Reaper.

12 comments:

Mike H said...

The Ebola stricken nurse, the first one, is at CDC. Hope they do a better job than the guy in season one episode 6 of the Walking Dead -s-.

Anonymous said...

I am not sure why you are not worried? No one knows exactly when this virus starts to shed from the infected host. The 21 days from infection is an estimate. Everyone should read or re-read "The Hot Zone". The time to plan and prepare is now. Like 9/11, the government may not be an active player, but they are allowing the Ebola pandemic to take place.

Anonymous said...

"Those rivers of blood will flow again
Someone changed the lyrics but the song remains the same
You can build a wall of protocol to keep the wolves at bay
But history dictates that someone has to pay

It's a long long way from here
Don't you worry yourself my dear
It's a long long way from here" -- UB40

Anonymous said...

The syllogistic structure of logic laid out by Socrates thousands of years ago is never safe when leftists are in power.

Consider words by Dr. Thomas Frieden, from the CDC, who is standing by the apparent contradiction contained by the advice that you can't get Ebola from casual contact sitting next to someone in a bus, but that if you are exposed or infected, don't get on the bus because you may give someone the virus.

Apparently that works logically well enough as long as everyone who have been exposed or is having symptoms voluntarily subscribes to that advice. But it doesn't take too vivid an imagination to uncover several possible flaws from that:

1) That those in the exposed group know that they are in that group, 2) that they are willing to comply, 3) have the capacity to comply.

1) Someone may think he probably just has the flu or is coming down with it.

2) Someone may think malevolently that I got this from someone else so why should I be locked down?

3) In the case of parents deciding whether to have their children board the school bus, they may suspect but not be sure and maybe a little in denial that their child has more than the usual bug, and may be afraid that if they keep them home longer than the expected duration of a flu that they will be giving their child a scarlet E to wear, which would be horrible if premature.

So Johnny boards the bus.

How should people uninfected regard the advice of the CDC? Go to work on the Speed line and let their children also board a bus and sit next to Johnny, trusting everyone else to make accurate assessments and to act responsibly? Where is that fabled paradise? If people conducted themselves that way in general why do we need police, courts, or prisons?

So what happens when uninfected people don't follow that advice and they don't show up for work and keep their kids out of school?

Anonymous said...

I keep sayin' this over and over and over OBAMA'S Government AND THE PENTAGON WANT THIS. This is an "action plan" people. Stand by for activation of patriot act, NDAA , and COG. Think hard on this Mike, cause voting "box four" is about to go live no matter what anyone says to stop it.

Anonymous said...

TPTB attempt to control us through FEAR. They got us into the wars in IRQ and A-Stan through creating the same boogeyman they're using for ISIS. They did the same thing during the cold war.

Ebola is the same thing...if it's actually gone airborne, being terrified of it won't change the course of the pandemic.

Fear is the tool.....THEY are the enemy.

Worry about what you can control. Stock up on food/water in case you have to bug in b/c of some pandemic.

Anonymous said...

I'm so sick of everyone thinking everything is up to obama. It's not up to him to suspend flights. The airlines can do it, Congress can do it, and obviously obama CAN'T.

Anonymous said...

"We can't possibly conduct an election under these conditions." -- coming to a dictatorship near you.

Anonymous said...

Some "obvious problems" arise from the current OA mantra on Ebola. (1) If we continue to persecute caregivers and EM responders by making them pariahs, even to the extent of listing them on the infamous "No Fly" list, who will take care of the victims ? (2) Given the current "hands off" attitude of our government to obvious prophylactic controls we are seemingly forced to fight a "regard action" in controlling a virulent disease at its source. (3) Facing a possible epidemic the OA has yet to address sealing of our borders. (4) The ebola virus is a tailor-made "weapon" for islamic terrorist groups easily inserted via our nebulous southern "border" . (5) Widespread incidents of infection will have an inordinate impact upon our commerce at every level. (6) Ebola, given sufficient "development time" (24 mos ?) could create a public health crisis sufficient to create the "excuse" for a federal declaration of martial law and suspension of the election process. >Jeff

Paul X said...

Not being a believer in the established Government Religion, I can reasonably be accused of being cynical - but the latest goings-on boggle even my mind.

Can it be more plain? People, they do not act in our interest. They act in their own (when they are not being plain stupid, which is also possible). The ruling class does not give a rip about us.

rustynail said...

Anonymous @ 07:44: You are exactly right. Knowledgeable virologists are saying as much and TPTB are echoing a sad and misleading refrain. Commenters warning to look out for ourselves are exactly right.

Anonymous said...

"Pssst. Buddy. Which side are you on?"
"Side six."

I'd forgotten about Fireside Theatre. Love their stuff. And so appropriate.

B Woodman
III-PER