Articles pulled from the news and other sources and fact-checked by Equipped.org members by identifying and linking the source of the information in the article. Related to the media coverage of the outbreak and how organizations, institutions and individuals are responding.

Ebola Conference at John Hopkins via C-Span 10/14/14:

Panel One:

http://www.c-span.org/video/?322092-1/discussion-ebola-outbreak

Panel Two:

http://www.c-span.org/video/?322092-2/ebola-epidemic-western-africa-panel-two

Panel Three:

http://www.c-span.org/video/?322092-3/ebola-epidemic-western-africa-panel-three


An excellent overview of the situation in West Africa, for those who have time to watch or listen to it. Three panels discuss the ongoing socio-economic impact, as well as current vaccine developments, protocols, etc. A good window into how all the governments and organizations are attempting to coordinate to get a handle on the epidemic.



--M

A good article about Ebola, media, and society in the WaPo:
In Ebola fear, a familiar whiff of paranoia

A justified fear, IMHO

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/health/how-ebola-spreads/

Once the influenza season starts the rate of Ebola infection rate will probably progress at a much accelerated rate.

Secondary economic effects of social collapse are still probably 6-9 months away. (which may be more of a problem in the short to medium term outlook)

It's interesting that the writer compares the Ebola experience to the early days of HIV/AIDS. "Striking parallels," he says. I say it's interesting because as a blood-borne disease, HIV is even harder to spread than Ebola, and yet it eventually turned into a pandemic and global scourge that has haunted (hunted?) all of us for the past 35 years. Even HIV/AIDS started small. I'm not making any predictions about Ebola, but it's hubris to say with certainty that Ebola will not be a big problem in the US. Maybe not this particular outbreak, but who knows, down the line?

That said, there were definitely mistakes and regrets back then, and we're repeating many of them now, and that's not a good thing.

on the plus side ebola will kill most of its victims within 30 to 40 days allowing it to eventually burn out. where as a hiv victim may not even know he is infected for yrs while spreading it to a wider group.

For those of us following this issue, I think it's important to hear from all sides, including Thomas Eric Duncan's. Obviously, he's no longer on this earth to defend himself, but in his place, his nephew, Josephus Weeks, has published an op-ed about his uncle.

One unexpected thing in the op-ed is the revelation that the story of Mr Duncan helping take his landlord's pregnant and Ebola-stricken daughter to the hospital back in Liberia is not true. It never happened. None of us can verify that, but even from the beginning, I was saying that the story--as was popularly being told--just didn't make sense in the context of his imminent flight to America to marry his fiancé and then allowing himself to be sent home from the ER the first time.

The Dallas Morning News apparently took a lot of heat for publishing that piece, and they respond here. This outbreak is about real people, not just bureaucrats, politicians, and talking heads on TV or online, so it's good to hear from people directly impacted.

A statement from the nurses union:

http://www.nationalnursesunited.org/blog...ospital-in-dal/

"In summary, the nurses state there have been no policies in cleaning or bleaching the premises without housekeeping services. There was no one to pick up hazardous waste as it piled to the ceiling. They did not have access to proper supplies and observed the Infectious Disease Department and CDC themselves violate basic principles of infection control, including cross contaminating between patients. In the end, the nurses strongly feel unsupported, unprepared, lied to, and deserted to handle the situation on their own."

Ebola and CDC recommendations for public transport.



http://cnsnews.com/news/article/brittany-m-hughes/cdc-you-can-give-can-t-get-ebola-bus

I thought this Washington Post piece was particularly interesting. It's main aim is to calm people's fear about Ebola and I think it does a good job at it.


So, it seems we're just about out of the woods regarding secondary infection from patient zero--Thomas Eric Duncan. No one exposed to Duncan prior to hospital admission has come down with Ebola. Another circle of people exposed to nurses Pham and Vinson may be at risk, but the risk seems very low.

Once we reach three weeks from Pham and Vinson being diagnosed and if there are no more cases connected to them, then that would reinforce the idea that the primary risk is from exposure to seriously ill people, people who are too sick to be out and about in public anyway. Duncan was pretty sick at home--already starting to vomit--yet none of those people have come down with Ebola.

Anyway, it is a particularly far ranging article and touches on a lot of different issues regarding the disease, which made it interesting to me. For example, it actually mentions that fever may not be present in some cases or may appear late. That's interesting in the academic sense, but I haven't seen any evidence that it has made any difference in the real world so far.