Even with the entire civilized world focused on stopping Ebola, the spread of the disease in West Africa continues unabated. This weekend, the number of confirmed cases exceeded 10,000. Roughly half of all infected people wind up dying from the disease. There is a great deal of uncertainty still about how the disease is spread, even as American health officials insist that they know everything there is to know about contamination and communicability.
Virus Can Live up to 50 Days on Surfaces
Consider a research study from 2010, which points out that certain strains of the virus can live on surfaces for up to fifty days after contact. This is certainly not the kind of risk the CDC wants us to buy into, repeatedly assuring Americans that they can’t catch the disease on a bus or in a bowling alley. Governors Chris Christie and Andrew Cuomo have come under harsh backlash in the last few days over their short-lived quarantine policies, but maybe they have it right. Until we’re 100% certain that people returning from infected countries aren’t spreading this disease through the populace, maybe extreme measures are just what the doctor ordered.
Quarantined Nurse a CDC Fellow
That there are elements of government cover-up in play is beyond question. The only real question is how deeply the cover-up goes. News hit just this week that Kaci Hickox, the nurse who made all the noise about her quarantine, is an Obama supporter, a left-wing advocate, and is in the middle of a 2-year fellowship with the CDC. In light of this news, you have to take her vicious language regarding the Republican-backed quarantine with a grain of salt.
Method of Transmission
After being pressed on the issue, the CDC has been forced to admit that Ebola can be transmitted through the air by way of sneezing. Even then, though, they claim that there is only a three-foot danger zone. This conflicts with research from MIT, where researchers proved a sneeze can reach people up to 20 feet away.
The bottom line is that the CDC and the Obama administration is playing games with the lives of Americans. Trying desperately to keep a lid on the panic – at least until the midterm elections are over – they refuse to tell us the real extent of the danger. Again and again, they’ve been caught falsely minimizing the risks of an Ebola outbreak, even as infections in Africa continue to grow at an exponential rate.
There are reasons to question the effectiveness of quarantines. There are reasons to keep calm. But this continual attempt to admit only as much about Ebola as they’re forced to is actively hurting the country. More than ever, we need leaders who are willing to put aside politics. We need leaders who can shoot straight with the American people, consequences be damned. Unfortunately, those kinds of leaders are not to be found in the current administration.
President Obama has dropped the ball more times that anyone can count, but this is his chance to make a stand. If he misses it, and this thing becomes a real American epidemic, he truly will have earned his spot as the country’s worst president.
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