While many Legal Insurrection fans may disagree with my assessment of the limited risk that the two American Ebola patients are to our country, my basic point is sound: The uncontrolled entry of people infected with much easier to transmit and more common pathogens should be the main focus of concern.
As my compatriot Bruce Carroll brilliantly noted, the “CDC’s selective information dumps mirrors how the rest of the Obama Administration has been less than transparent.” Furthermore, the only consistent policy approach of the White House is: “”You never let a serious crisis go to waste.”
With this in mind, what better way to create fear in order to hide policy disasters and to distract people from the news of worldwide chaos then to focus on a devastating disease that is nearly 100% fatal? Cue Tom Frieden, the head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Ebola’s spread to the United States is “inevitable” due to the nature of global airline travel, but any outbreak is not likely to be large, US health authorities said Thursday.Already one man with dual US-Liberian citizenship has died from Ebola, after becoming sick on a plane from Monrovia to Lagos and exposing as many as seven other people in Nigeria.More cases of Ebola moving across borders via air travel are expected, as West Africa faces the largest outbreak of the hemorrhagic virus in history, said Tom Frieden, the head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Since the outbreak of the media’s interest in Ebola, how much attention has been given on the current border crisis that recently was the focus of a nationwide protest movement?
Substantially less. Yet, in terms of what type of diseases Americans can contract and how likely they are to become infected, it is the border surge that should be of true concern.
The current border crisis has involved tens of thousands of Central Americans entering the U.S. illegally. Some of these individuals have tested positive for illnesses including tuberculosis, chicken pox, and other viruses–despite this, most of them are not immediately deported…..So, while a prospective legal immigrant who has not been vaccinated for chicken pox would be barred from entering the U.S., unvaccinated individuals who enter the country illegally are being allowed to stay. “The CDC’s own guidelines are clearly being violated with regards to the illegal immigrants currently crossing the border,” Vliet stated.The CDC website also claims that tuberculosis (TB) is a “disease of public health significance” that “would cause an applicant to fail a medical examination or be inadmissible” to the U.S.TB has also been identified within the illegal immigrant population; the TB-infected individuals remain in the U.S. and receive subsidized medical treatment.
There were over 500 deaths from tuberculosis in 2010. In fact, this disease is deemed such a public health threat that authorities went on a state-wide hunt to track down a man wandering around California with a suspected case.
Happily, he seems to be contained, at this point:
A man is being held in isolation at a Central California jail on allegations he has refused to submit to an exam to check for tuberculosis.The Fresno Bee reports that 59-year-old Steven Reyes was scheduled to be arraigned remotely from his Fresno County jail cell Wednesday, but a judge had difficulty hearing him and continued the hearing until Monday. He is facing a misdemeanor charge.According to court records, Reyes was deemed a sexually violent predator and committed to a state hospital in December. Authorities say he has since shown symptoms of TB disease, the active, contagious form of the illness. But they say he has refused to take a chest X-ray to determine whether he has the condition.
Given the nature of Ebola, I understand the tendency of mainstream media and our current administration to work us up into a fevered pitch. However, based on the toxic legislation that tends to pass during “crisis situations”, I would recommend keeping that we all keep cool head.
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