Who’s Panicking?

I agree with just about every word of Eugene Robinson’s column about the need for candor from medical officials, especially the conclusion:

The thing is, Americans are anxious about Ebola but not panicked. This will change, however, unless experts speak more honestly about the nature of the threat.

That should include being frank about the limits of what they know. To my eye the greatest signs of panic are those coming from those medical officials who are so frantic to show that it’s not their fault. Or maybe it’s guilt—as though they’ve been caught with their hands in the cookie jar.

17 comments… add one
  • Guarneri Link

    Yeah. Methinks thou doth protest………

    On the panic side, I see that ohio and Texas have closed schools. This is just a variant of what I have mused about, and had scoffed at, with respect to some well placed terrorist suicide bombers in retail, schools or other settings that could bring commerce or routine daily activity to a halt……….at least for awhile. Assuming rational thought or effective prophylactic procedures is, well, a bad assumption.

  • On the panic side, I see that ohio and Texas have closed schools.

    More examples of politicians panicking. It’s the one area in which they’ve gotten ahead of the American people in this story.

  • Public officials will go the full Kevin Bacon before long.

  • steve Link

    What were they not honest about?

    Steve

  • TastyBits Link

    With Ebola we can use the modern scientific method to determine its effects, but we are cautioned not to panic.

    Using pre-Galilean, medieval scientific methods of consensus and mathematical models, the same people declare the world is doomed, and we must panic no matter the cost.

    As usual, they have no use for the modern scientific method.

  • That protocols were in place to handle this at all hospitals, to pick one.

    And you have said it was inevitable that we would get cases, but the CDC, speaking thru the President, said such chances were “extremely low”. So unless extremely low means inevitable, apparently you think they were dishonest too.

  • Initially I thought they were just being stupidly arrogant, but the stuff with the hospitals being prepared just looks like straight up dishonesty now.

  • Modulo Myself Link

    I don’ t see much panic or dishonesty from the CDC. The panic and dishonesty seems to be coming from other quarters, and the right questions don’t even seem to come up. Our health system functions through millions of independent components.

    For example, this lab technician who is now on a cruise–what protocols did the lab employed have in place for dealing with this? Did they expect the employee simply to cancel the vacation and forfeit the money on his own?

    Overall it’s a major problem if anyone exposed to Ebola is expected to deal with the quarantine on their own.

  • Cstanley Link

    It’s almost like we need an agency to coordinate the response between CDC and of state and local level government and private organizations. Establishing protocols, disseminating information, clearing legal and regulatory roadblocks, and other issues that occur in emergency situations (natural disasters, disease epidemic, or acts of war or terrorism.)

    If we were to create such an agency, what could we call it….hmmm….so with to do with security….protecting the homeland…help me out here…

  • steve Link

    “That protocols were in place to handle this at all hospitals, to pick one.

    And you have said it was inevitable that we would get cases, but the CDC, speaking thru the President, said such chances were “extremely low”. So unless extremely low means inevitable, apparently you think they were dishonest too.”

    He said the chances of a serious outbreak were very, very low. He remains correct. Also, hospitals were sent the protocols. As I said before, in theory, hospitals already have people trained in isolation protocols. In reality, many don’t want to spend the money since eht e risk is, wait for it, low. Only one hospital in the US has had an Ebola patient entered its doors since the Ebola outbreak started.

    Steve

  • jan Link

    “I don’ t see much panic or dishonesty from the CDC.”

    Have you been following the sequence of statements made by the CDC director? If you can’t see some of the contradictions, which many see as ‘dishonest,’ then continue putting your head in sand.

  • Guarneri Link

    Cstanley

    AFOFA. The Agency to Fix Other FuckedUp Agencies

  • Steve, the President said outbreak, not serious outbreak.

    There was the CDC director (or commissioner or whatever) stating in one paragraph that people couldn’t get Ebola on a bus and stating that a sick person could give someone Ebola on a bus in the very next paragraph.

    It tends to undermine his credibility when two adjoining paragraphs completely contradict each other on smarter of public health.

  • Guarneri Link

    “…the President said outbreak, not serious outbreak..”

    http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=j4XT-l-_3y0

  • PD Shaw Link

    The Czar has made his appearance, can Cassandra be far behind?

  • steve Link

    … So we are getting back to semantics again. Sigh. Ok, if you want to think of an outbreak as an occasional isolated case, the probability of that has always been 100%. There is no way to prevent that. That is not really what anyone in the trade means when they say outbreak. (That is a definition used by those wanting to criticize the admin.) What we really mean is a disease that is spreading in the community from person to person and multiplying, especially out of control. The odds of that remain very, very low. The virus is relatively non-contagious and we are tracking people exposed.

    On the bus issue, what I see is clips of what he said and not the whole statement. What I think he meant was you can’t get it by riding a bus unless there is someone with Ebola who is in the infectious stage. Haven’t seen the whole statement so hard to tell.

    Steve

  • Clearly not very contagious. You can tell since everyone dealing with the victims dresses up like they’re handling plutoniun dust.

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