Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Breaking. The health care worker flew by air the day before showing symptoms.

Did you read that headline?

This shit is going to go stupid before its over.   But this points to something even more ominous!

Voluntary quarantine is not working.

The Dr with NBC News broke her quarantine.  Additionally we had Duncan knowingly breaking quarantine.  Now this health care worker broke quarantine.

Public safety demands that more drastic measure be taken.

UPDATE:  This person flew from DFW to Cleveland Ohio.  She showed symptoms on the flight.

UPDATE 1:  Its being reported that the people that were caring for Duncan were told to monitor themselves but that they WERE NOT under quarantine orders.  SOMEONE FUCKED UP BAD.  Still believe that the CDC has this under control?  To clarify, the hospital workers were under a voluntary self observation.  

38 comments :

  1. Wow and i thought that the lowest point was the spanish nurse going in vacation

    They will have to include an IQ test in the ebola procedures.

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    1. Spanish nursing assistant no travel, she did not only work during that time. It went to an opposition examination and to shave. As soon as she detected fever she warned and took measures from precaution.
      She followed the protocol, but the protocol indicated that the fever had to be greater than 38.6ºC.
      She warned from the first moment, but the fever was lower.
      As a result to this case, the protocol has been changed. Today, the limit is 37.7ºC.

      She volunteered to patient care.
      These people received little training.

      Today, she is better. The rest have no symptoms.

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  2. It's worse! Fox news had an expert come on and he stated the obvious for all the "it's not airborne" crowd.
    It may not be airborne, BUT it is a virus, like the Flu it can shift it's antigen and "MUTATE" as it travels from host to host.
    Great! Ebola can mutate as in travels from one host to another into a whole new infection.
    Stupidity is what kills in Ebola, that and government incompetence.

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    1. ...and there is no shortage of stupidity on this planet.

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    2. The higher the Boss Monkey climbs in the tree the higher up above it all he gets, he looks down at the peon monkey's below him and sees only smiling faces........The Monkey's look up and all they see above them are assholes.

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    3. It's not airborne.... right?

      In a study done by the Broad Institute and Harvard University, in partnership with the Sierra Leone Ministry of Health and Sanitation, researchers may have provided information about the origin and transmission of the Ebola virus that sets this outbreak apart from previous outbreaks. For this study, 99 Ebola virus genomes were collected and sequenced from 78 patients diagnosed with the Ebola virus during the first 24 days of the outbreak in Sierra Leone. From the resulting sequences, and three previously published sequences from Guinea, the team found 341 genetic changes that make the outbreak distinct from previous outbreaks.

      It is still unclear whether these differences are related to the severity of the current situation. Five members of the research team became ill and died from Ebola before the study was published in August.

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    4. It's no airborne. Only if infecting coughs to you and you swallow its saliva with blood.
      http://www.ivoox.com/ebola-lo-nadie-cuenta-12-10-2014-milenio3-audios-mp3_rf_3597705_1.html Link to a program of radio in Spanish who explains things of Ebola and the investigators died in strange circumstances. As well as, of the stay of the American military previously to Ebola outbreak.

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  3. So she puked, sweated, sneezed, coughed and shat diarrhea with Ebola all the way across two airports, twice each and on two different airplanes? While infectious?
    The transport to the airport, the ticket clerks and agents, the fellow passengers, (My, My, My how must that feel to be one of those souls) the stewardesses, baggage handlers, taxi drivers, restaurants, customers, waitresses, restrooms, door knobs, handles, seats she touched and came into contact with.......................
    Holly Sheet! We are soooo screwed.

    P/S Her family is now under Ebola watch, hopefully quarantined but probably not.

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  4. CNN report says CDC head stated the reason the healthcare workers got infected is because they wore too much safety gear.
    They put on too many garments and that caused the infection.
    Hmmmmmmmm.

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  5. My spouse works in the health care system, and I can tell you that some of the stories I've been told are shocking.
    - HC workers that refuse to take the flu shot, are now forced to where masks. Think about it, you are a HC worker but you refuse to take the flu shot. I'm not saying you should or should not, just that you are suppose to be a HC pro.
    - Real Nurse Jackie's...yes there are real Nurse Jackie's and they may work in your hospital, stealing prescriptions, shorting patients.
    - The medical system is setup to be like a quick oil change mechanics garage. It is setup for maternity, cardiac, orthopedic, surgery and emergency. It is not setup for serious diseases or epidemics. The sooner we realize that and stop thinking that they are the same thing the better we will be in handling this type of disease.
    - Many people just want to do there job (during the day), then f*ck off to their consumer lifestyle and iphone. They are not "invested".

    In the end, just like many other professions and industries the majority of the people involved are good at what they do. The problem in this case is that it only takes a few people to be incompetent, dumb, lazy, lack of critical thinking to allow one problem to become multiple problems.
    -

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  6. And the Texas hospital had 76 providing care to Duncan.

    It's fucking imbeciles like this with normalcy bias that aren't taking it serious.

    All the workers who provide for care for ebola patients should have vacations plans cancelled.
    Don't go home to your families, we'll put you up in a hotel room or a room in the hospital.

    Canuck Fighter is right: Healthcare is not setup for this. There is a reason why C-Diff and MRSA outbreaks in hospitals is because they aren't following protocols.

    They are setup for hip replacement surgery, heart bypasses surgery, transplants, etc, etc., not infectious diseases.

    And with the paid-time leave instead of sick time, it creates a disincentive for workers to call in sick otherwise they don't get paid. SO sick staff show up to work and can infect staff.




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    1. @Paralus

      Absolutely correctly. You work on an infectious disease patient, you now have to exist in a new protocol. You are "confined and restricted" for 21 days (if that's what it is) from the last day you worked on it.

      We need to have people THINK, not wait until they are told to do something. If you don't know, ASK, if the answer is unsatisfactory DEMAND, if you are still unsatisfied, REFUSE. But THINK, it's why you have a brain in the first place.

      Delete
    2. "Confined and restricted" = owed mandatory double time around the clock starting at the twelfth hour.
      One nurse under than restriction would be owed +/- $40K for 3 weeks.
      It also probably violates about 20 federal labor laws, not to mention violating the 13th Amendment ban on involuntary servitude.

      Either treatment protection protocols work, and they get to go home at the end of the day, or they don't, and we should put Ebola victims in a hole and shovel dirt on their face the minute they're diagnosed.

      You pick which.

      Delete
    3. Which is why we need to really look at the protocols and the law. This isn't the flu.

      Just like there are volunteers to travel to Africa, hospitals needs to start asking Doctors and Nurses to be on an on-call list of those willing to treat and perhaps quarantine themselves or at least self-segregate.

      Then they need to start looking at how we pay over-time, etc. That's where the government can step: Cash and logistics.



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  7. Here is something to think about Sol. Flu season is coming. The expected strains are expected to be very similar to last year. That's really not the point though. The point is this, flu season adds massive strain to the emergency ward, HC workload, waiting rooms will be full, the challenge is that the symptoms between various flu strains, the particular, may be similar. Imagine how challenging it could get, when you have dozens of people in the waiting room with the flu.
    Another topic that I didn't touch on in the previous post is the cleaning function. This is the achilles heal of the hospital process. It is usually contracted out, often to low bidders, who use as inexpensive labour as possibly. The people that work there, they are not bad people, they are just who they are, working in job that is often considered low end. Again in the "industrial hospital process", the biggest risk is usually things like staph infections, c-dificile, norwalk, influenza, but ebola is totally different because most hospitals don't know how to deal with it. In that Dallas hospital, waste items piled up because no one new what to do with it.

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    1. Not quite true.
      The Ebola waste piled up because no one was authorized to handle, remove, or dispose of it, nor had the permits required.

      Tha's how well the hospital had planned this out.

      Delete
  8. What happen if flu and ebola do mutation ask madagascar!

    Ebola Avian Flu Mutation Reported

    Reports of a new strain of the deadly Ebola virus affecting bird habitats in Madagascar have placed international health organizations on high alert for a new port of entry for the pandemic’s transmission and spread.

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  9. An interesting perspective:

    http://dtolar.wordpress.com/2014/10/01/ebola-a-nurses-perspective/

    Take away: The Flu isn't 'airborne' either, and Ebola spreads the exact same way.

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  10. "Shit just got real!"
    POTUS Obama cancelled a campaign function!

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  11. Amber Vinson wasn't on "voluntary quarantine".
    She was on self-surveillance, and NO quarantine, as an "extremely low-risk" contact of Duncans.
    Neither she, Pham, nor 74 other hospital staff members were on any mandatory anything.
    Right up until Nina Pham popped positive for Ebola.

    If that doesn't piss everyone off enough, Vinson, 28, was travelling to Cleveland to finalize plans for her pending wedding.

    So now, I want CDC Director Frieden to explain to her fiancé that Ebola is "highly unlikely" to get to the US, and how "any hospital" can treat Ebola patients, because "we know how to control it".
    I want him to tell that guy all that live, in person, face to face, on live TV.
    And then I want Frieden to have to stand there and take the response from that fiance, even if it (ideally) results in the fiance beating Frieden to death with his bare hands in front of 200M witnesses.

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  12. Permit me to express my humble opinion.

    1. There were two (US citizens) other cases, before Duncan, who where flown into the US. The quarantine wasn't broken (as far as we're made aware).
    2. With the Duncan case, TWO nurses were affected.

    This means that the protocol in place in Texas was at fault. The Hospital and the press are (wrongfully) going around BLAMING THE NURSES. I would be scrutinizing CDC as well as the Hospital management for the (lack of) quarantine control for this matter.

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    1. Both were flown to Emory Hospital which is prepared, which have the protocol, which the trained HC workers.

      The problem is that the vast majority of hospitals are not prepared, and do not have the experience. They want to be prepared, may even have a plan, but that is not the same as being operationally prepared, when something happens.

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    4. And that's my point. The hospital and CDC quickly blamed the HC workers. They are NOT to be blamed if the hospital and/or CDC are not doing a good job.

      If Emory Hospital is prepared, why wasn't Duncan flown to Emory then? Why risk the people in the hospital? Ebola is not a time to fight a political fight.

      Be a man. Take ownership. Apologize. Gain everyone's trust.

      Everyone will be looking at how the US is handling this deadly virus. Every country will, most likely, have very senior medical person/people in the US gathering as much information as they can about what to do if Ebola reaches their shores/border.

      No person will trust the hospital if they can allow two HC workers to get infected. This is why the hospital blames the nurses. It was their fault for "breaking protocol". WRONG. They may have inadvertedly broken protocol but it is the hospital's responsibility to manage them. The hospital didn't. The nurse took off her gloves and touched her eyes. And NO ONE SAW HER DO THIS? No one supervised the nurses as they treated the patient?

      Note: The second nurse, Amber Vinson, has been transferred to Emory. This means TWO things:

      1. CDC is covering their precious a$$. The Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital has lost the trust of CDC, wider community and health staff.

      2. If they can get the first nurse, Nina Pham, into Emory, treat both of them successfully, then Emory Hospital can, literally, write the book about how to treat and control the spread of Ebola effectively and efficiently.

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    5. Part of the Ebola protocol is that while one HC worker works on the patient 2nd HC worker watches the 1st HC worker to ensure that they do not break protocol. The 2nd HC worker's sole purpose is to protect the 1st HC worker. That's because Ebola care is hard to do, and only one small slip up risks contamination.

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    6. That's the protocol. But was this protocol followed at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital?

      The nurse took off her gloves and touched her eyes. Protocol was broken.

      Delete
  13. Another thing, the day before her flight, she developed a fever. She told CDC. CDC cleared her.

    ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? Personally, if a health care worker and had provided care to a person with a very deadly contagious disease like Ebola started showing signs of skin rash, a cold or even a pimple outbreak, I'd put the person into isolation (even when showing non-Ebola like symptoms). PERIOD. I'd rather spend ten thousand dollars on a false reading than people dying. CDC screwed up. No questioned about it. And no amount of "press conference" and finger pointing is going to fix this one.

    On September 11, 2011, American intelligence agencies let everyday Americans down. Now, CDC has taken the torch.

    Obama, if you know what you're doing, terminate the CDC head now before it's too late. Get someone who's competent.

    NOTE: To all you readers out there, I apologize for my rant.

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  14. Off topic : http://www.funker530.com/isis-probably-in-control-of-hundreds-of-chemical-weapons/

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  15. It gets better. Fuck-up No. 1: Vinson was aware she had a fever before she flew and called the CDC for guidance.

    I'm sorry, but if I had just treated the most contagious man on planet Earth and another co-worker had gotten ill, I would be flying back to the hospital if I had a temperature of 98.7F!! Better yet, I would have camped out in the waiting-room ordering-in pizza for two weeks until I was sure I was ok.

    Fuck-up No. 2: The person at the CDC that was contacted by Vinson cleared her to fly because "her temperature was 99.6F and the level of concern starts at 100.4F." Plus, as they put it " there wasn't a clear need to restrict her from flying as this is a bit of a gray area."

    ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME!

    I have never, ever, used the F-bomb on this or any other web site but I'm afraid I have to go all-in on this one.

    These STUPID FUCKS are playing with fire and all of our lives. And yet they don't have the common sense to play it safe? A bit of a gray-area?

    Usually, I feel that Sol overplays it a bit (hey, its an entertaining blog) for dramatic effect and to make a point. On this, however, I think he is playing it right on the money. The "system" is relying too much on common sense, which as we all know, should be called "uncommon sense." The article about the CDC quoted someone there as saying something to the effect that "we thought it would be self-evident that someone wouldn't want to travel in this kind of situation."

    I'm so disgusted with the response of those in charge and even those not-so-in-charge, that I think Obama should put the whole thing under the direction of a military leader. Some General or Admiral that has a "take-no-prisoners" attitude. If this thing is going to stay under wraps, we need someone that can cut through the bullshit and politics and hurt feelings and "get 'er done." The time to get serious is right this fucking minute. Not tomorrow. Not after another dozen people have fallen ill. Right fucking now!

    Ok, rant over.

    Stay safe.

    WJ out.

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    1. That is my sentiment exactly. Im a very skeptical person and value rationality to avoid overexaggerations and panic to situations.

      However, there are many red herrings and attempts to downplay the potential disaster that ebola presents to our modern society with transcontinental transportation systems and densely populated areas. "oh its not airborne, its okay!", "our modern medical system is miles better than Sierra Leone's, its going to be okay!", "the flu kills thousands annually, ebola is nothing in terms of body count", and other such attempts to pass around the happy gas (I love that term. Im stealing it from Aesop)

      You said it best: we are dicking around and playing with fire on this one. We could get a rude awakening relearning what the term "exponential growth" means.

      By all means, I hope the concern results in unfounded fears of the worst case scenario. That would be a blessing. I hope that we can just chaulk this up as another one of the "close calls that never was". But, again, its not looking that way. I hate how I agree with Solomon and Aesop's postings regarding ebola.

      What you said also proves that our "wonderful and infalliable western medical apparatus" that is supposedly "perfectly geared to minimize the risks of ebola" is only was strong as its weakest link.

      Like I have told others before until I'm blue in the face: if you are unprepared for the eventuality of a national crisis requiring you and your neighbors to hack it out by yourselves, entrenched in your homes, then it would be a good time to get ready. I dont mean panic bying hazmat suits and masks, i mean the basics of benign, but absolutely essential, food stuffs, medications, and of course, a means to defend your home from those that lacked the wisdom to prepare and told preppers they were nuckin futs for actually being prepared for a crisis (fuck those assclowns with a rusty trumbone). Hopefully this ebola situation is waking up more people that it is a good idea to be generally prepared and that 3 days worth of provisions is as wrong as the mr hands video.

      Be calm, be rational, make a plan, do PT, and listen to all, but follow none.

      Delete
    2. Well said truescot.

      Ebola is the cold, hard reality that refuses to conform to our broken society's preconceptions.

      Delete
  16. Hey Sol,

    Off-topic, but I think you will find this very interesting:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7TAAw3oQvg&feature=youtu.be

    ReplyDelete
  17. Stupid of the day!
    escorting 2 nurse lol!

    http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/10/16/1413418145946_wps_8_As_coverage_of_the_transp.jpg

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  18. UPDATE from Texas... A military service member was on one of the flights with the infected nurse. The military "suggested" to the family to voluntarily quarantine themselves. Well their kid goes to a school my "buddies" wife teaches at........ Shit just hit home no matter how remote the chance the kid was infected. I heard from my "buddy" only half his wife's class showed up today. Also if the kid ends up having Ebola she will have to be quarantined at home.... Also the statement the school district sent out lied and said the nurse had no symptoms while on her flights.... My "buddy" needs to double check he has 3 months worth of food stocked up in case both their jobs force them into lock down.... by God it may seem small to some, but its deer season and my "buddy" will hate to miss 21 days of it which would put him over the top in food supplies.......... it might suck and just isn't right from the individual perspective....

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    Replies
    1. Damn... That sucks.

      Oh, does your police department have the equipment to deal with Ebola? Just curious.

      Delete
  19. No...We were given instructions we will only provide perimeter security to EMS and fire. Sol covered it before that with all of our nice batman belt gear and nice shinny metal pins and badge we would rip up any type of suit they would put us in.

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