What’s interesting in the news today?
1. How Ebola spread out of control.
From TheWashingtonPost “Frieden, the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), knew it was no simple matter to properly carry away a body loaded with Ebola virus. It takes four people wearing protective suits, one at each corner of the body bag. On that grim day near the end of August, in a makeshift Ebola ward in Monrovia, Liberia, burial teams already had lugged 60 victims to a truck for the trip to the crematorium.
Frieden had seen plenty of death over the years, but this was far worse than he expected, a plague on a medieval scale. “A scene out of Dante,” he called it.
Shaken, he flew back to the United States on Aug. 31 and immediately briefed President Obama by phone. The window to act was closing, he told the president in the 15-minute call.
That conversation, nearly six months after the World Health Organization (WHO) learned of an Ebola outbreak in West Africa, was part of a mounting realization among world leaders that the battle against the virus was being lost. As of early September, with more than 1,800 confirmed Ebola deaths in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, there was still no coordinated global response. Alarmed U.S. officials realized they would need to call in the military.
Obama eventually ordered 3,000 military personnel to West Africa; about 200 had arrived by the beginning of this month. They will be joined by health workers from countries such as Britain, China and Cuba. Canada and Japan are sending protective gear and mobile laboratories. Nonprofit organizations such as the Gates Foundation also are contributing. But it’s not at all clear that this belated muscular response will be enough to quell the epidemic before it takes tens of thousands of lives.”
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2. The Dallas hospital is blaming a flaw in the new electronic medical records for errors involving patient zero.
From CNSNews “When a sick Liberian man walked into Texas Presbyterian Hospital last month, “Protocols were followed by both the physician and the nurses,” the hospital said in a statement released Thursday night.
The man told a nurse he had come from West Africa, where an Ebola epidemic is raging.
“However, we have identified a flaw in the way the physician and nursing portions of our electronic health records (EHR) interacted in this specific case.”
The hospital said its electronic health records include “separate physician and nursing workflows.” The hospital said the Liberian man’s travel history was located in the nurses’ portion of the EHR, but — “As designed, the travel history would not automatically appear in the physician’s standard workflow.”
“As result of this discovery, Texas Health Dallas has relocated the travel history documentation to a portion of the EHR that is part of both workflows. It also has been modified to specifically reference Ebola-endemic regions in Africa.”
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3. Yes please!
From TheWashingtonTimes “Attorney General Eric Holder should be held in contempt of court for refusing to release “Fast and Furious” documents in line with a judge’s order — and even given jail time if necessary, lawmakers said.
Members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee requested U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson to fine Mr. Holder if he doesn’t comply with her own order issued back in August — the one where she said he couldn’t claim executive privilege to keep private certain documents related to the federal gun-running program, “Operation Fast and Furious,” Politico reported.
Mr. Holder was supposed to turn over the documents by Oct. 1. The attorney general has not — but instead, announced his resignation from office.
Lawyers for the lawmakers say the time has come when the judge should consider imposing fines on Mr. Holder, or even throwing him in jail.
“Should the Court determine that the Attorney General has violated that Order, the Court should impose on the Attorney General an appropriate penalty to coerce his compliance with the August 20 Order, including an escalating daily monetary fine against Eric H. Holder Jr., to be paid by Mr. Holder out of his personal assets, converting to incarceration if the payment of daily monetary fines does not produce compliance within a reasonable period of time,” House Counsel Kerry Kircher and other lawyers wrote in the filing, Politico reported.”
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4. Kick ineligible illegal immigrants off the exchange, get sued for violating their supposed rights. Don’t worry, I’m sure the DoJ has a settlement plan already in the pipeline.
From TheDailyCaller “Two immigration groups have filed legal complaints against the Obama administration for kicking over one hundred thousand Obamacare customers off their insurance plans without sending notices in their native language, Modern Healthcare reports.
The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) and Philadelphia’s Southeast Asian Mutual Assistance Associations Coalition (SEAMACC) have both filed complaints with Health and Human Services’ Office of Civil Rights. The groups believe the Obama administration’s move to end the health plans of customers who failed to prove their legal immigration or citizenship status violate customers’ rights as immigrants.
The Obama administration terminated 115,000 customers’ Obamacare exchange health insurance on September 30, after customers failed to submit required documentation to prove their legal status in the U.S.
The administration said it first reached out to each customer between eight and ten times through mail, phone and e-mail in an attempt to get them to update their documents on HealthCare.gov before finally kicking them off their plans.”
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5. The real war on women.
From CNSNews “A record 55,553,000 women 16 years and older did not participate in the labor force in September, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). This means that 55,553,000 women in the United States did not have a job and did not actively seek one in the past four weeks.
The number of women not in the labor force increased from 55,345,000 in August to 55,553,000 in September, an increase of 208,000.
The participation rate for women also dipped in September to 56.7 percent; it has not been this low since September of 1988 when it was 56.6 percent. This means that only 56.7 percent of women participated in the labor force by either having a job during the month or actively seeking one.”
But thanks to the Obama admin’s fuzzy math, the unemployment rate for women dropped anyway.
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6. Some good news.
From MSN “Nearly two-thirds of the abortion clinics remaining in Texas must close immediately after a federal appeals court ruled Thursday that the state may enforce a law that requires those facilities to be built to the same standards as hospitals.
That law — part of an omnibus bill with several measures that chip away at women’s access to abortion — was struck down in late August as unconstitutional by an Austin federal judge, who put it on hold while the state appeals.
But on Thursday, a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans tossed out U.S. District Court Judge Lee Yeakel’s August injunction, which allowed the estimated 20 abortion clinics in Texas to continue operating during the appeals process. Without that injunction, only seven clinics will be left.
In its ruling, the 5th Circuit said the “central” question it considered was “whether the state has shown a likelihood of success” in fighting Yeakel’s ruling “regarding whether the ambulatory surgical center provision is unconstitutional. We conclude that it has.”
The Center for Reproductive Rights, which sued the state on behalf of a coalition of abortion clinics, said that Thursday’s decision will force nearly 1 million Texas women of reproductive age to drive a minimum of 300 miles round trip “to access their constitutional right to an abortion.”
Oh, the horror…. 🙄
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Wandering Views 
#2. I don’t understand none of that at all.
There is a point, when the software fails, that the brain kicks in.
I always use that as a backup. It works.
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#2 I understand it. But at some point, doesn’t human intervention kick in? Did the nurses not SEE the patient leave the hospital and say something?
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There are some things they haven’t told us about this ebola thing.
1. If it can only be transmitted by body fluids, and that only after the patient is being affected, that means the person is not a carrier during the 21 day dormant period.
That means the he is harmless until he shows signs.
So? What is the problem? I wouldn’t mind shaking hands with an AIDS patient.
2. If a person dies from ebola, they disinfect his bed clothing.
How long does the virus remain dormant? i.e. If an infected person sits in a chair, how long will the virus remain there?
.3. Bottom line, I think they’re lying about the transmission of this disease
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I think the major concern about Ebola is (1) its high mortality rate in those who do contract it and (2) it’s been spreading very rapidly in the past several months. It is especially deadly where acute medical care isn’t available, which isn’t the case in the U.S.
But …. Now that it is in the U.S., we need to (obviously) get some better policies and procedures in place to deal with patients, contaminated waste, etc. — the Dallas experience demonstrated how many holes there are in the electronic systems.
I also agree with Linda, too, though: at some point you’d have thought someone would have intervened & said he should stay and be quarantined, not be sent home with antibiotics.
The disease and is symptoms are horrific, the kind of stuff pandemic disaster movies are made out of, which I think is why there’s a bit of potential panic in all of this.
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Court punts on gay marriage:
http://www.worldmag.com/2014/10/supreme_court_won_t_hear_marriage_cases
“… Many court observers believed the court would take up one of the same-sex marriage petitions and decide the issue nationwide this term. By denying all the cases, the court has punted the question of the constitutionality of traditional marriage laws. But in effect, the denials will allow lower courts to legalize gay marriage piecemeal.
“With the denials, same sex marriage will likely now be legal in 30 states and Washington, D.C. In many cases, the marriages are moving forward because a judge has overturned a state-level law defining marriage as only between one man and one woman. …”
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Chas, they aren’t lying. AIDS is actually only found in certain body fluids, like blood and semen, while the saliva and sweat of someone with AIDS is not infectious – that is why you can shake hands or kiss an AIDS patient without fear of infection. However, that is not the case with Ebola – the viral load is so high in an Ebola patient that they could be literally sweating the virus: http://www.npr.org/blogs/goatsandsoda/2014/09/12/346114454/how-do-you-catch-ebola-by-air-sweat-or-water
I have had some experience with the health care in West Africa, so I know perfectly well how easily it could spread in that environment. When you see people urinating and defecating on the side of the road and know that toilets are nothing more than a hole in the ground, you realize that an Ebola patient with diarrhea and vomiting could contaminate an entire neighbourhood. You also realize that the fact that the disease has still only infected about 7000 people after several months is amazing considering the lack of sanitation (and proof that the virus is not easily spread). Also, the hospitals are doing their best – but the infection control in these places is far below Western standards. For example, I once went with a woman who was bleeding heavily after delivery to the nearest hospital (as the clinic did not have the facilities for a blood transfusion). When we got there and passed the patient over to their care, we wanted to wash our hands. There was no running water. So, with those general conditions, the effort to isolate Ebola patients properly in these facilities is very difficult.
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Interesting: http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-s-religious-freedom-ambassador-blasts-putin-on-eve-of-ukraine-visit-1.2788638
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Very interesting interview with one of the researchers who identified/discovered the Ebola virus in 1976:
” … There was a map hanging on the wall and our American team leader suggested looking for the nearest river and giving the virus its name. It was the Ebola river. So by around three or four in the morning we had found a name. But the map was small and inexact. We only learned later that the nearest river was actually a different one. But Ebola is a nice name, isn’t it? …”
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/04/ebola-zaire-peter-piot-outbreak
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The world is turned upside down:
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2014/10/obama_sends_thank_you_note_to_oklahoma_beheaders_mosque.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=facebook
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And for those following the Roman Catholic church, there’s a synod underway to examine issues of marriage and sexual morality … (not sure if they’re examining the one thing that really ought to examined, however, and that’s the church’s unbliblical mandatory celibacy for priests).
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/geneveith/2014/10/catholics-begin-synod-on-marriage-sexual-morality/#ixzz3FO8chuig
From Veith: “…Theoretically, Catholic sexual ethics are based on natural law, and so cannot be changed. If any substantive changes do come out of the synod, that would shake Catholic theology to its core. More likely are pastoral changes to be ‘more compassionate.’
Does this have any relevance for non-Catholic Christians?”
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Roscuro, Can you tell me what 4000 soldiers will do in Liberia?
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from the interview of the researcher linked in my 1:41 post:
Do you think we might be facing the beginnings of a pandemic?
There will certainly be Ebola patients from Africa who come to us in the hopes of receiving treatment. And they might even infect a few people here who may then die. But an outbreak in Europe or North America would quickly be brought under control. I am more worried about the many people from India who work in trade or industry in west Africa. It would only take one of them to become infected, travel to India to visit relatives during the virus’s incubation period, and then, once he becomes sick, go to a public hospital there. Doctors and nurses in India, too, often don’t wear protective gloves. They would immediately become infected and spread the virus.
The virus is continually changing its genetic makeup. The more people who become infected, the greater the chance becomes that it will mutate …
… which might speed its spread. Yes, that really is the apocalyptic scenario. Humans are actually just an accidental host for the virus, and not a good one. From the perspective of a virus, it isn’t desirable for its host, within which the pathogen hopes to multiply, to die so quickly. It would be much better for the virus to allow us to stay alive longer.
Could the virus suddenly change itself such that it could be spread through the air?
Like measles, you mean? Luckily that is extremely unlikely. But a mutation that would allow Ebola patients to live a couple of weeks longer is certainly possible and would be advantageous for the virus. But that would allow Ebola patients to infect many, many more people than is currently the case.
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And a ‘good news’ story about a newspaper. I like that. 🙂
“Nothing in God’s creation is ever as good as it once was, but The Washington Post is coming pretty close.
“The once-embattled newspaper is in the middle of a great run, turning out the kind of reporting that journalists — and readers — live for. That includes coverage that played a role in the resignation of the director of the Secret Service and investigative work that eventually led to the conviction of a former governor of Virginia on corruption charges. ….
“For all their bluster and outward crustiness, newspaper people can be delicate flowers who have trouble doing their jobs when they believe that they are under threat. The directionality of the business — are we going up or are we going down? — is a kind of destiny. For years at The Post, and elsewhere in the industry, so many goodbye cakes were ordered that it became a verb: caking. …
“Good news about journalism is as rare as Beltway bipartisanship, so watching The Post’s return to the big-boy table has been fun to watch. As it turns out, the Grahams’ final act of stewardship — conveying The Post to an owner who could afford and support it — was among their most important. While Mr. Bezos may not have figured out how to use drone delivery to change the economics of owning a newspaper, he has financed excellence and stayed out of the way. …”
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Upside down and inside out. Disgusting. They repeatedly cater to the people who recruit American’s for radicalism in Boston, all over Minnesota, here, and anywhere else.
As for this one, you’d think the head of the FBI would already know this. You’d be correct, he does. But now they just ignore laws they don’t like. They refuse to protect America, a failure of their most basic constitutional duty. It’s not that they can’t. It’s that they won’t. They’re too concentrated on American citizens who dare oppose their domestic agenda. Dereliction of duty. Plain and simple.
http://weaselzippers.us/201721-fbi-director-americans-who-fight-for-isis-are-entitled-to-come-back-to-u-s/
“8 U.S. Code Section 1481 states:
(a) A person who is a national of the United States whether by birth or naturalization, shall lose his nationality by voluntarily performing any of the following acts with the intention of relinquishing United States nationality—
(1) obtaining naturalization in a foreign state upon his own application or upon an application filed by a duly authorized agent, after having attained the age of eighteen years; or
(2) taking an oath or making an affirmation or other formal declaration of allegiance to a foreign state or a political subdivision thereof, after having attained the age of eighteen years; or
(3) entering, or serving in, the armed forces of a foreign state if
(A) such armed forces are engaged in hostilities against the United States”
The law is quite clear, yet they let them walk free, supposedly monitored. But not in their mosques, where many of the leaders are already known for their radical statements and support of known terrorist groups, because that would be profiling.
And they refuse to enforce the borders, which also makes it easier for them to return unknown. They’re handling the Ebola thing in much the same inept way.
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Owned by Amazon . . . .
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Chas, assuming that the majority of them will be from the medical corps, they will simply be doing what the thinly staffed clinics are doing now – operating ambulances, setting up isolation units, treating the sick, burying bodies, etc. As soldiers, they are trained to obey orders at the risk of their lives, which is what is needed. That isn’t to say that the medical aid missions have failed – Les medecins sans frontieres, WHO and other aid organizations are still operating in those countries; but they are overworked from lack of staff – British nurse William Pooley, who contracted and recovered from Ebola, described how he and a Sierra Leonean nurse had to leave the Ebola patients for the night, because there was no one else to take the next shift and they desperately needed to sleep. A large influx of health workers is needed, as those who are working there are just rushing around putting out fires and not really making progress in improving sanitation and treatment.
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Save the Children, out of London, will be getting involved. My godson works for them but keeps assuring his mother he will NOT be going to Africa. I think he’s in a finance role, but remember, he spent quite a bit of time in Yemen at feeding stations. All 6’7″ of American him!
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WaPo ownership (from link above in 2:17):
“…The Graham family, longtime stewards of the newspaper, finally decided a little over a year ago that deeper pockets and different thinking would be needed to preserve the paper, and sold it to Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.
“But now, more than a year after the sale, that narrative has changed and The Washington Post is being talked about for all the right reasons. Did Mr. Bezos have some digital lightning in a bottle that altered the math of modern journalism? Far from it, but his willingness to finance hiring new employees — over 100 so far this year — has created an atmosphere of confidence and financial stability. …
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Just watched a pair of oddly mismatched TV campaign ads for one of our state legislators.
The first one ripped him for a lawsuit being filed by a former employee charging him with indecent exposure (complete with visuals of newspaper headlines), including one charge that he’d answered his door “half naked,” holding just a pair of pans around his waist.
Then, right afterward, a “pro” commercial aired, everyone smiling, saying how many jobs the half-naked guy had creates, the fully-dressed legislator grinning.
Just another campaign season in California. We’ll never bore you. 🙂
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The note that was supposedly sent to the Mosque on behalf of Obama/The Admin (or whoever), is that real? Aside from being an audacious thing to do, look at the language of the written letter:
“Your service is a powerful example of the powerful roots of the Abrahamic faiths and how our communities can come together with shared peace with dignity and a sense of justice.”
Somebody wrote that, then someone delivered and read it? It’s poorly written; it’s clunky. I saw that story in my facebook feed and have been a bit skeptical of its authenticity.
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I would be skeptical, Soalr
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5. Female work participation hasn’t been this low since the Reagan era. If this is a bad thing for the Obama admin was it a bad thing for the Reagan admin?
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