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  • US Military to combat Ebola?

    Surprised someone doesnt have this up here. Pretty interesting, wondering why this isn't garnering more attention. I'm not sure how I feel about this, especially I have friends currently in the area. Thoughts?


    President Obama has said that the United States military will begin aiding the response to an outbreak of the Ebola virus in West Africa that has claimed the lives of at least 2,100 people in five countries.?




    President Obama has said that the United States military will begin aiding the response to an outbreak of the Ebola virus in West Africa that has claimed the lives of at least 2,100 people in five countries.

    In an interview broadcast Sunday on NBC's "Meet The Press," Obama said the epidemic was a "national security priority" and added that the military would be involved in setting up isolation units and other equipment, as well as providing security for public health workers from around the world.

    "If we do that, then it's still going to be months before this problem is controllable in Africa," Obama said. "But it shouldn't reach our shores."

    However, Obama also warned that the virus could conceivably spread beyond West Africa, mutating and becoming more easily transmissible in the process, "and then it could become a serious danger to the United States."

    Obama's statement comes after global health officials had faulted world leaders for failing to organize a more robust response to the outbreak, leaving much of the heavy lifting to West African governments and charitable organizations. All three Americans who have been infected with the Ebola virus were working for missionary organizations in Liberia at the time.

    Last week, Joanne Liu, international director of the charity Doctors Without Borders, told the United Nations in a briefing that "the world is losing the battle" to contain the outbreak six months after its start. Liu's words echoed those of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Tom Frieden, who told reporters that the number of Ebola cases was "increasing rapidly."

    Frieden, who visited three of the hardest-hit countries -- Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea -- said, "There is a window of opportunity to tamp this down, but that window is closing ... we need action now to scale up the response.

    On Friday, Liu told The Washington Post that the group was appealing to governments to send military assets to West Africa to provide support. Liu said that only the military has the ability to deploy assets like mobile laboratories and field hospitals quickly and efficiently.

    "Because the response has been so slow, we now have to switch to a mass-casualty response," Liu told the Post.

    The paper reports that Obama has asked Congress to provide $88 million to send more CDC personnel and equipment to West Africa. If approved that amount would bring the total commitment by the United States to over $250 million.

  • #2
    What the fuck?

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    • #3
      I see we're still not doing shit about that cholera outbreak.
      ZOMBIE REAGAN FOR PRESIDENT 2016!!! heh

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      • #4
        Sure, send our troops over there to catch it and bring is back to their families.

        Let those people over there handle it themselves. Aren't they just as smart?

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        • #5
          I don't believe our troops are trained to treat infectious diseases. LoL

          Obama is a Fukin moron!

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          • #6
            He is a fool. Let it runs its course over there.

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            • #7
              He probably thinks it isn't fair for those poor people over there to have to suffer alone. He's already said that we (US) should be brought down to the same standard of living as the rest of the world.

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              • #8
                The only problem with it "running its course over there" is sooner or later it is going to spread to elsewhere. All though a huge outbreak outside of a 3rd world country doesn't seem as likely because we have better hygiene it still sounds like a really nasty virus.

                One article I read mentioned a chance of mutation if it is allowed to continue that is a scary though too.
                1997 Miata - Weekend\Autox Car
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                • #9
                  Originally posted by bjtheman1 View Post
                  I don't believe our troops are trained to treat infectious diseases. LoL
                  You'd be surprised, they have a lot more resources than any charity that's been involved so far. The Army has 22 combat support hospitals (10 active duty) that can setup 256 bed hospitals in a matter of weeks. The Navy has the Comfort and Mercy that each have 1000 beds and all of our amphibious assault ships can be converted to 600 beds.

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                  • #10
                    The military is made up of soldiers. Soldiers are not doctors, first responders or peacemakers.

                    They are soldiers. They fuck shit up and destroy their target.

                    "Combat Ebola" should tranlate as shoot any infected person from 200 yds or 30,000ft - whichever gets the job done.

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                    • #11
                      See the second red portion for an idea of why military support could really help

                      This was on Sep 2.


                      I said last month that I was going to try to stay out of Ebola news because so much is being written about it elsewhere. Since then, the African outbreak — now really an epidemic, since it is in multiple countries — has ballooned to 3,000 cases, and the World Health Organization has predicted it […]


                      CDC Director on Ebola: ‘The Window of Opportunity Really Is Closing’

                      I said last month that I was going to try to stay out of Ebola news because so much is being written about it elsewhere. Since then, the African outbreak — now really an epidemic, since it is in multiple countries – has ballooned to 3,000 cases, and the World Health Organization has predicted it may take 6 months or more to bring it under control.

                      Something caught my attention today though that felt worth highlighting. Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, gave a lengthy press conference immediately after returning to the US from a visit to the Ebola zone. Frieden has shown in the past that he knows how to be outspoken in a very strategic way; yet even so, the urgency of his language, and his call for an immediate, comprehensive global response, was striking.

                      You can find the whole transcript on this page, but here are some highlights:
                      “Despite tremendous efforts from the U.S. Government, from CDC, from within countries, the number of cases continues to increase and is now increasing rapidly. I’m afraid over the next few weeks, those numbers are likely to increase further and significantly. There is a window of opportunity to tamp this down, but that window is closing. We need action now to scale up the response. We know how to stop Ebola. The challenge is to scale it up to the massive levels needed to stop this outbreak.”

                      “The number of cases is increasing so quickly that for every day’s delay, it becomes that much harder to stop it. There are three key things that we need. The first is more resources. This is going to take a lot to confront. The second are technical experts in health care and management to help in country. And the third is a global coordinated unified approach because this is not just a program for … West Africa, it’s not just a problem for Africa, it’s a problem for the world and the world needs to respond.”

                      “In some ways the most upsetting thing I saw is what I didn’t see. I didn’t see enough beds for treatment. So in one facility which had just opened with 35 beds, there were 63 patients, many of them lying on the ground. I didn’t see data coming in from large parts of the country where Ebola might be spreading. I didn’t see the kind of rapid response team that’s needed to stop a single cluster from becoming a large outbreak. I didn’t see the kind of efficient management systems and support and transport and jeeps that are essential for a rapid and effective response.

                      “Everything I’ve seen suggests over the next few weeks it’s likely to get worse. We’re likely to see significant increases in cases. Already we have widespread transmission in Liberia. In Sierra Leone, we are seeing strong signs that that will happen in the near future.”

                      “There’s a real risk to the stability and security of societies as governments are increasingly challenged to not only control Ebola but provide basic health services, security services, and keep the government running, the stability of these countries, of their economies, of their neighbors and of others is increasingly at risk.”

                      “There is a theoretical risk that may be very low: we simply don’t know that Ebola could become easier to spread through genetic mutation. That risk may be very low, but it’s probably not zero. The longer it spreads, the higher the risk.”

                      “In theory it’s not hard to stop Ebola. We know what to do. Find patients quickly. Isolate them effectively and promptly. Treat them. Make sure their contacts are traced and tracked for 21 days, if they develop fever, do the same thing and make sure they’re tested and treated. Make sure health care is safe and that burial practices are safe. The challenge is not those efforts, it’s doing them consistently at the scale that we need.”

                      “One of the most experienced Ebola experts in the world was there on one of my site visits, his comment to me summed up my visit. What has worked to stop every Ebola outbreak until now will work here if we can get it to scale.”

                      “The window of opportunity really is closing. I could not possibly overstate the need for an urgent response.”

                      For more about the epidemic, the work facing the 70 CDC people sent to Africa so far, and glimpses of what it’s like to wear protective gear in an Ebola hospital and to meet some of the victims, check out the full transcript.

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                      • #12
                        Well...a plan to defend Africa with the military was conjured up pretty quickly...
                        "Self-government won't work without self-discipline." - Paul Harvey

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                        • #13

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                          • #14
                            Originally posted by Binky View Post
                            The military is made up of soldiers. Soldiers are not doctors, first responders or peacemakers.

                            They are soldiers. They fuck shit up and destroy their target.

                            "Combat Ebola" should tranlate as shoot any infected person from 200 yds or 30,000ft - whichever gets the job done.
                            Soldiers should be allowed to do just that and only that - kill the enemy and destroy their means of support without concern for reprisals or second-guessing by a pansy administration or liberal senators/representative sitting safely at home.

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                            • #15
                              Originally posted by The King View Post
                              Soldiers should be allowed to do just that and only that - kill the enemy and destroy their means of support without concern for reprisals or second-guessing by a pansy administration or liberal senators/representative sitting safely at home.

                              Now the soldiers can kill that shit with some tussin.

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