Obama annoyed by weak Ebola response

[Jeremiah65]

http://news.yahoo.com/obama-annoyed-by-weak-ebola-response-from-france--italy--and-others-165829485.html

Even as the wobbly U.S. response to Ebola dominated the headlines this week, President Barack Obama ramped up a frustration-powered campaign to get reluctant major allies to shoulder more of the burden of quelling the deadly outbreak at its source in West Africa.

Speaking to reporters after an emergency meeting with top aides on Wednesday, the president put his personal annoyance on full display as he portrayed the international response to the crisis as hesitant and shortsighted and warned that it endangered American national security.

“This is not simply charity,” he intoned. “Probably the single most important thing that we can do to prevent a more serious Ebola outbreak in this country is making sure that we get what is a raging epidemic right now in West Africa under control.”

Obama declared that he had convened a videoconference earlier in the day with leaders of core U.S. allies Britain, France, Germany and Italy “to make sure that we are coordinating our efforts and that we are putting in a lot more resources than, so far at least, the international community has put into this process.”

If Ebola tears unchecked through West Africa, Obama warned, “then it will spread globally in an age of frequent travel and the kind of constant interactions that people have across borders.”

OK...this is just ridiculous.

First off...

The core meaning of "quarantine and contain" is to isolate...allowing flights to continue and borders to stay open will do more damage than the countries that don't have the cash to cough up. Sometimes throwing money at something does not fix it...but most of the politicians in DC have forgotten that.

Stop the flights in and out of Hot Zones and their neighbors. Secure their borders so sick people cannot flee to another country and then board a flight...that should have been priority number one...but no...someone...somewhere wanted to let it spike so they could fear monger and make a pile of money....

I feel terrible for the sick people and I am enraged that it was allowed to slip out and into the world....it almost feels on purpose...

Getting lippy and p!ssy with out allies and friends is NOT going to fix sh!t...trying to "shame" them into doing the same stupid crap we are doing is going to backfire on us...

[libstaK]

Honestly, the world needs a serious kick up the butt in how it is dealing with this. Liberia is now suffering a shortage of all Ebola fighting equipment from body bags to face masks, gloves, biohazard suits, gogges, boots - you name it.

That kind of shortage will make things worse, suddenly the already highly at risk medical staff and assisting civilians in the country are in grave danger of exposure to the disease just trying to keep up (while falling woefully behind due to lack of staffing and medical centres). These people will all have families too and that risk then extends to them. Then there is the corpses that are not going to be able to be safely collected without body bags and therefore left lying around further causing means of spreading the disease. Families of loved ones who have passed away will take matters into their own hands and remove the bodies themselves - woefully unprotected.

And so the sorry saga of ridiculous errors just continues.

[UFO_Monster]

He can't say anything of the sort. The man is a total hypocrite and totally lacks the responsibility a leader should have.

[Sir Wearer of Hats]

Sir Wearer of Hats' solution:

1 - Send team of diplomats to near affected area to liase with local government.

2 - STOP ALL FLIGHTS TO AND FROM AFFECTED COUNTRY.

3 - Citizens in country directed to go to diplomats who'll get them home.

4 - Isolate them for 21 days at a designated "Ebola Hospital".

5 - Build specially designed quarantine hotels - nothing skimped, wi-fi, "Cable TV" all the bells and whistles.

6 - Anyone suspected of having Ebola already here - off to the quarantine hotel for a 21 day holiday.

7 - Airdropped gear to hospitals in affected countries.

There you go, no one is "abandoned" in Ebola affected countries and anyone who is suspected of having it is isolated ASAP but in the lap of luxuary and not some third world dive.

[stevemagegod]

And now he wants to send 3,000 National Guard troops over to the countries. Why the **** do are guys have to go? The National Guard is to protect ******* america not other countries. Send the World Health Organization, and Red Cross over to build these frequen tents.

[travelnjones]

Sir Wearer of Hats' solution:

1 - Send team of diplomats to near affected area to liase with local government.

2 - STOP ALL FLIGHTS TO AND FROM AFFECTED COUNTRY.

3 - Citizens in country directed to go to diplomats who'll get them home.

4 - Isolate them for 21 days at a designated "Ebola Hospital".

5 - Build specially designed quarantine hotels - nothing skimped, wi-fi, "Cable TV" all the bells and whistles.

6 - Anyone suspected of having Ebola already here - off to the quarantine hotel for a 21 day holiday.

7 - Airdropped gear to hospitals in affected countries.

There you go, no one is "abandoned" in Ebola affected countries and anyone who is suspected of having it is isolated ASAP but in the lap of luxuary and not some third world dive.

That could work or at the very least get them caught up today with their favorite shows. but yeah i would agree with that solution sort of a modern day leper colony.

[Jeremiah65]

And now he wants to send 3,000 National Guard troops over to the countries. Why the **** do are guys have to go? The National Guard is to protect ******* america not other countries. Send the World Health Organization, and Red Cross over to build these frequen tents.

I don't get it and most people I have talked to don't either. I think it's a "We care" display and nothing more...we are putting weekend warriors in harms way for little to nothing.

Why the national guard?....they are this nation's guard...we have forces specifically for foreign soil...aka...Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines. What's next? Is he going to be deploying Coast Guard cutters as well...?

ETA:

Maybe to prepare and condition our "national guard" for crowd control and epidemic conditions here at home?

Edited October 17, 2014 by Jeremiah65

[Thorvir]

Well I'm annoyed at Obama's weak response to everything else.

Oh, and his own weak response to this ebola problem.

[Merc14]

It is ridiculous to send the military to hot zones and insane to send the reserves and national guard. This SOB and his little Executive Order pen needs to be stopped from sending our friends and neighbors into ebola hot zones to make it look like he is doing something before the elections and believe me, that is all this move is folks, . Everything is political with Obama and company. Congress can probably stop this by not funding the mission and possibly that is Obama's plan, blame ebola on the republicans. Suggest the insane, republicans stop it and the MSM blames republicans for doing nothing all before November 4th. Odious.

Think about this, these guys and gals retuurn from ebola land and head home for a little welcome back. Do you want your kids playing with their's? Do you want them back at work? How about after sleeping with their spouses or girl/boy-friends, do you want the girl/boy-friend coming to work? How about a bar room pick up with a just returned ebola troop?

Edited October 17, 2014 by Merc14

[Sundew]

Obama is annoyed? Really? It might have been because this emerging crisis has interrupted his fund-raising schedule. Well, a lot of folks are annoyed, there annoyed because people are dying and potential carriers of a very dangerous disease are still coming into the USA, and visas are still being issued to these countries.

Enough with the PC nonsense: we need an immediate ban on air travel from the infected counties. In years gone by when ships were the mode of transpiration between nations, a disease like Ebola would never make it across an ocean. The fact that you can board a jet in Liberia and be in New York City and beyond in roughly 24 hours shows the danger we are in. Most of the other African nations, plus several outside of Africa, have banned all flights in and out of the hot zone countries and closed their borders. And guess what? It seems to be working, at least so far.

Just think of how much fear, expense and risk this one single patient from Liberia has caused. At least two health care workers infected, millions of dollars spent, many more health and sanitation workers exposed as were the people he was staying with. BTW, has anyone heard any more about their status since they were moved from the apartment? And one of the health care workers took a plane trip with a fever and I don't blame her, she called the CDC and told them she was febrile and had been in contact with patient zero, and the CDC said, no problem go ahead and fly, because you temperate is 1.1 degree below some arbitrarily level they had set.

This may or may not reach a pandemic level in the United States, but when one looks at all the mistakes, lack of procedures, or just lack of even common since that has occurred with ONE case, it does not exactly give one confidence in our government's ability to protect its citizenry.

I don't even want to think about the possibilities of terrorism and Ebola, but I can assure you, our enemies have been thinking about it.

[DONTEATUS]

Its not going to be a cut and dry project,And Bashing our POTUS is never going to do anything positive ! Obama Has and Is doing everything possible ,I actually Live in Dallas texas, And people here are actually now getting a bit on edge ! The annoying part is the A-Holes inn the FOX type media Fear Mungering Outlets ! We do need to Stop All Flights into and Out of The Hot Zone. Collect up all the people that may of cantacted the virus, And Really start a system of care in those countries ! USA being one of them !

CDC and WHO have there hands Full now. At least this week Three Very Smart and careing people ,Bill & Melinda Gates,Paul Allen, Mark Zukerberg, all have donated 95 million to start up the care and maney stream !

Closeing the borders on these countries IS not an Impossible feat ! Just Do it ! The Cost of not Doing this will far out run the Losses in them being closed !

Now Why would anyone Dis Our Great President ? He has actually done more for our world than the Last Three !All Positive I will Impathitically Add !

As I type I see Military Chinnoks flying over head, The borders and Major Highways will be closed by night Fall ! The Power & Water will be off by High Noon! They arre handing out Weed to smoke ! All the Resturants are open and foos will be Free ! School`s have all been Closed down. Fear Runs Rapid$$$$ Oh Wake Up Wake Up I must of fallen into that Fear train of thougth the Right Is always Spewing !!!!!!

Edited October 17, 2014 by DONTEATUS

[ChloeB]

http://news.yahoo.co...-165829485.html

Even as the wobbly U.S. response to Ebola dominated the headlines this week, President Barack Obama ramped up a frustration-powered campaign to get reluctant major allies to shoulder more of the burden of quelling the deadly outbreak at its source in West Africa.

Speaking to reporters after an emergency meeting with top aides on Wednesday, the president put his personal annoyance on full display as he portrayed the international response to the crisis as hesitant and shortsighted and warned that it endangered American national security.

“This is not simply charity,” he intoned. “Probably the single most important thing that we can do to prevent a more serious Ebola outbreak in this country is making sure that we get what is a raging epidemic right now in West Africa under control.”

Obama declared that he had convened a videoconference earlier in the day with leaders of core U.S. allies Britain, France, Germany and Italy “to make sure that we are coordinating our efforts and that we are putting in a lot more resources than, so far at least, the international community has put into this process.”

If Ebola tears unchecked through West Africa, Obama warned, “then it will spread globally in an age of frequent travel and the kind of constant interactions that people have across borders.”

OK...this is just ridiculous.

First off...

The core meaning of "quarantine and contain" is to isolate...allowing flights to continue and borders to stay open will do more damage than the countries that don't have the cash to cough up. Sometimes throwing money at something does not fix it...but most of the politicians in DC have forgotten that.

Stop the flights in and out of Hot Zones and their neighbors. Secure their borders so sick people cannot flee to another country and then board a flight...that should have been priority number one...but no...someone...somewhere wanted to let it spike so they could fear monger and make a pile of money....

I feel terrible for the sick people and I am enraged that it was allowed to slip out and into the world....it almost feels on purpose...

Getting lippy and p!ssy with out allies and friends is NOT going to fix sh!t...trying to "shame" them into doing the same stupid crap we are doing is going to backfire on us...

Well if he's so frustrated why does he appoint this new "Ebola czar" or Ebola response coordinator, to oversee all this who is a former chief of staff, a lawyer with absolutely no medical background? http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/17/politics/ebola-czar-ron-klain/index.html?hpt=hp_t1 Again you honestly wonder if they are making real efforts or just trying to appear that they are.

[travelnjones]

It's easy to realize everyone else sucks, hard to realize you suck too. - Buhda paraphrased

[Jeremiah65]

It's easy to realize everyone else sucks, hard to realize you suck too. - Buhda paraphrased

I admit up front that I would not want the job...I would suck at it...

Here's a thought game since we had a "what if" thread not long ago...

"What if..."

You were the man in the big chair and they came to you with hard calculations that Ebola was going to kill 4.5 billion people in the next 2 years if it is not stopped NOW at the source....now imagine someone suggests tactical nuclear strikes as a definitive stop measure....possible casualties 45 million...what do you do?

Edited October 17, 2014 by Jeremiah65

[archer95446]

IMO, I really doubt that us, we the people, are being told everything!!! A lot of us already know, that "the powers that be", will say whatever they want, in order

to prevent mass hysteria and chaos!!! No matter how detrimental the situation at hand is!!! Remember, they always have a hidden agenda that benefits them, not us!!!!

[Merc14]

It's easy to realize everyone else sucks, hard to realize you suck too. - Buhda paraphrased

What does this mean? Obama is doing well by playing politics with a 70% kill rate virus? Do you think this can't get out of control?

From the weekly Standard:

Six Reasons to Panic

http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/six-reasons-panic_816387.html?page=2

In other words, rather than catching up with Ebola, we’re falling further behind. And we’re likely to continue falling behind, because physical and human resources do not scale virally. In order to stop the spread of Ebola, the reproduction number needs to be more than halved from its current rate. Yet reducing the reproduction number only gets harder as the total number of cases increases, because each case requires resources—facilities, beds, doctors, nurses, decontamination, and secure burials—which are already lagging well behind need. The latest WHO projections suggest that by December 1 we are likely to see 10,000 new cases in West Africa per week, at which point the virus could begin spreading geographically within the continent as it nears the border with Ivory Coast.

Article continues http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/six-reasons-panic_816387.html?page=2

Week;y Standard isn't right wing blind man. Grow up and realize you made a BIG mistake and learn from it . That is called growing up.

[preacherman76]

I admit up front that I would not want the job...I would suck at it...

Here's a thought game since we had a "what if" thread not long ago...

"What if..."

You were the man in the big chair and they came to you with hard calculations that Ebola was going to kill 4.5 billion people in the next 2 years if it is not stopped NOW at the source....now imagine someone suggests tactical nuclear strikes as a definitive stop measure....possible casualties 45 million...what do you do?

Id take you over this globalist with a obvious population control agenda.

Anyhow, I couldnt support nuking them.

[Sir Wearer of Hats]

I admit up front that I would not want the job...I would suck at it...

Here's a thought game since we had a "what if" thread not long ago...

"What if..."

You were the man in the big chair and they came to you with hard calculations that Ebola was going to kill 4.5 billion people in the next 2 years if it is not stopped NOW at the source....now imagine someone suggests tactical nuclear strikes as a definitive stop measure....possible casualties 45 million...what do you do?

Press the button and then hand myself over to the UN for crimes against humanity.

[libstaK]

I admit up front that I would not want the job...I would suck at it...

Here's a thought game since we had a "what if" thread not long ago...

"What if..."

You were the man in the big chair and they came to you with hard calculations that Ebola was going to kill 4.5 billion people in the next 2 years if it is not stopped NOW at the source....now imagine someone suggests tactical nuclear strikes as a definitive stop measure....possible casualties 45 million...what do you do?

That's a no brainer.

- Nucleur weapons are the most expensive artillery on the planet, it would be a waste to use them on sick people.

- The expense of the fallout economically would eclipse anything humanity has experienced so far, we would nose dive into market collapses.

- The fallout would sicken healthy people, adding a medical burden equal too if not greater than the original problem.

- The fallout diplomatically on the world stage could and likely would trigger a counter attack and WW3.

I would throw all resources at containing the outbreak and recovering the affected areas economically as best as possible.

Martial law and strict curfews may need to apply but they would be coupled with food and water being dropped to homes, along with tonnes of bleach and disinfectants as well as biohazard gear and medical supplies that can help anyone sick inside until they can be removed to proper quarantined locations.

The best way to diffuse public panic about spread is to actively being rigorous about containing the spread of the disease, actions speak louder than words and enlisting the army to assist in creating medical shelters and maintaining law and order and quarantine restrictions, as well as assisting with food dispersal and patient retrievals from homes, burning of corpses where required etc will free up professional medical personnel to do what they do best - treat the sick.

[Big Jim]

Since police departments all over the country are getting Army surplus Humvees and such doesn't it stand to reason that there would also be surplus field hospitals that could be sent to the affected areas? It may not be the ultimate solution but it would be a big step up from the mud huts and shacks I see on the evening news. I agree that sending the National Guard is a misuse of that resource and a betrayal of the men and women who enlist for the purpose of domestic protection. This is clearly not what any of them would have had in mind. Just another way to expose as many people as possible and then have them disperse across the country. Our response to ebola so far is straining my resolve not to weave conspiracy theories. I mean, such massive incompetence almost seems to have a purpose.

[Sir Wearer of Hats]

First thing you lot should do is close all the damn airports.

"Contact your embassy in order to get home".

[ChloeB]

Since police departments all over the country are getting Army surplus Humvees and such doesn't it stand to reason that there would also be surplus field hospitals that could be sent to the affected areas? It may not be the ultimate solution but it would be a big step up from the mud huts and shacks I see on the evening news. I agree that sending the National Guard is a misuse of that resource and a betrayal of the men and women who enlist for the purpose of domestic protection. This is clearly not what any of them would have had in mind. Just another way to expose as many people as possible and then have them disperse across the country. Our response to ebola so far is straining my resolve not to weave conspiracy theories. I mean, such massive incompetence almost seems to have a purpose.

I am with you on it making you believe in some of the conspiracy theories. This was actually my question to ask everyone, what is the point in sending in the National Guard and reserve troops? Don't they need more doctors and medical staff, not military? We see here even trained nurses are having trouble not catching it, what does this say about the military? What exactly are they meant to do there? I read building more hospitals and facilities, I guess I could see that. I'm just not sure what they are to do there exactly. Keep areas isolated and such?

[ChloeB]

I meant to add, I can see they may have shortages in equipment and medical staff, but do they not have enough people to build more hospitals and help in isolating areas? Do we really need to send in our military for that?

[regeneratia]

Obama is weak on his respoonse as well. Shut down flights coming into this ocuntry from the ebola countries, until this questionable crisis is over.

Edited October 18, 2014 by regeneratia

[Jeremiah65]

Obama is weak on his respoonse as well. Shut down flights coming into this ocuntry from the ebola countries, until this questionable crisis is over.

I agree. I even contacted one of my Senators and stated my views on the airflights and the "Czar" appointment qualifications.

I have heard the excuses as to "why" they are not willing to ban flights in and out...and to me...they do not hold water. I have my reasons and they are not purely "conspiratorial" in nature...

If they continue pumping out visas and passports in the hot zones...then they are idiots...there has to be a way to contain this and I don't feel they are trying hard enough.