As someone who worked in health care for a good number of years I know one thing most people who have not worked in medicine do not. Doctors (and some nurses) think they are anatomically superior to the rest of the species. Note here I did not say they have a "god complex" as that goes without saying. Spend an hour with one ...if you can fit into the same room with his/her ego, in this I am speaking about doctors exclusively, as they do the least work and make money hand over fist in comparison to the "lowly" nurse, who is the one actually providing the care, and telling the doctor what he should do...very carefully of course...so as not to trigger the "she suggested it, so I can't do that now" reaction.
Patient care, especially in an intensive care setting, is a very complex dance of actions and words in which the nurse goes home exhausted with very sore toes and the doctor plans his next tee time as he basks in cash and reflected glory. The nurse has choreographed and led the whole thing (which isn't easy with family, friends, and ill-behaved children--hell everyone but the family pets there to care for as well as the patient if we're talking "family centered care in the NICU) but, the goal of patient care has been accomplished and that is what really matters...it truly is. And that's what keeps us going until our bodies give out.
What I refer to as docs' belief in anatomical superiority is their dangerous habit of rarely washing their hands properly, if at all, between patients. At the bottom of this post I've included a how-to on proper hand washing that may well save your life...if Ebola has not made the jump to another form of transmission.
We are seeing typical doctor behavior (along with more than a bit of ethnocentricity, "We're not W. Africa, we're...civilized, harrumph, harrumph.") from our CDC as they work to undo the perfectly logical efforts of states like New Jersey to protect their citizens. Not often will you see me back the idea of states having the right to establish guidelines such as these, given their abysmal record on women's healthcare and their use of us as political puppet theatre, but when the federal government is more concerned about supporting Big Pharma (more about that later) than protecting our safety...I'm all in for States Rights as long as it doesn't set a precedent, but no need to complicate this one way discussion more than it already is.
I'll try to simply present some facts and go from there:
1. The CDC guidelines are based on outdated information about Ebola. It is painfully obvious that something has changed, because it is spreading "over there" and has made its way here now with deadly consequences.
2. Viruses mutate readily.
a. Think of the cold and flu--so many strains it's impossible to provide perfectly accurate vaccines. We just play medical spin the bottle and hope for the best each year because they mutate that rapidly.
b. Then we have the deadly ones like HIV and Ebola, which have proven their ability to mutate by "jumping" species from animal to human hosts. They have a proven record of mutating to survive and reproduce. It is not at all unreasonable to suspect another mutation is in progress or has already taken place on a large enough scale that the relatively minimal inconvenience of a 21 day quarantine for a very few people compared to the carnage of a worldwide pandemic is in no way unreasonable.
People who are altruistic (speaking as an altruistic person) are not going to stop being that way because, "Damn it, I can't infect my family and help infect the entire world if I'm exposed to Ebola! Screw Doctors Without Borders, I QUIT!" It's just not going to happen. Nor are people going to "stigmatize" people willing to put up with this added, let's let them be martyrs too and call it a "burden" even though it's just common freaking sense and sound medical practice. They'll just respect them more. What will stigmatize them is if they keep coming back here with their god complexes, assured they are too above the rest of us to possibly have or spread a disease, and start an epidemic in the US which is rapidly turning into a worldwide pandemic. That will cause a stigma, and fast, and it will keep people away from doctors too, and start a whole cascade of other unwanted events that apparently the CDC and FDA have not been considering.
So, Hallelujah! Finally New Jersey made some much belated common sense in this situation, and Holy Hades are the self-proclaimed gods/goddesses in a fury over it. "How dare people suggest WE are human!" A few short days later, Christie is forced to rescind the common sense move and let the whining doctor go home.
I cannot tell you how angry this makes me...at the whining doctor and at the freaking CDC for continuing the myth that tells us that we basically have to have someone squirt bloody diarrhea into our open gaping wound and put a bandage over the festering sore for three weeks in order to get Ebola but at the same time we should be very, very scared. This is what real panic--the thing they allegedly want us to avoid--is made of. So what else is new; the freaking government does not seem to know what the hell it's talking about. Sadly this time there is a method to their madness.
While it's true that they have no clue why these doctors and care givers are coming back infected with no recall of the event that infected them, and rumors are growing that Ebola has indeed made that evolutionary jump to airborne transmission, that is not their major concern. Nope, not at all. They are actually worried about catering to Big Pharma's (we must assume Monsanto given how many former execs of theirs pollute high places in regulatory agencies, like the CDC and FDA).
Big Pharma's profiteering process demands, without exception, that plenty very publicly sicken and die in as horrific a way as possible and that literally millions upon millions, of INSURED "targets" (to them we are not people) get good and scared before they'll spend the money to research and perform clinical trials on vaccines, which are not money-makers otherwise. It's all a disgusting numbers game of profit and loss for which living, breathing human beings, including innocent little children, pay the (ultimate) price on a daily basis, not just over in W. Africa for Ebola, but right here at home for a multitude of diseases too rare to meet that HEP (high-enough-profit) threshold.
I cannot believe they made one of my favorite characters on Big Bang Theory a pharma rep...the most universally loathed persons in the quasi-medical field, even though they do try to buy their way into our affection with treats, trips and pills and they have to look like Barbie or Ken, though of course there is some ethnic and age leeway, especially for males who only need good hair and good bodies in large markets.
The Monsanto-FDA connection
So the CDC is putting prevention on the back burner while the panic builds and Big Bad Pharma finally does in a rush what they could and should have done in an orderly fashion many years ago. It's not like they're hurting for money. They spend far more money on lobbying alone than they do on research and development and salaries of their staff combined.
Please do not take my word on the vaccine though. Don't take anyone's word on something of this import. Please Read This Short Article For Details, and note cited sources please. I chose that source because it was short and concise and the cited resource articles checked out. I will not state as fact something that is only conjecture or opinion or found on Wiki, and this is most especially true of my two greatest passions, health care and justice/politics, which for some insane reason are still linked in my Pollyanna mind.
This is the kind of thing that happens when one super-corporation, in this case Monsanto, makers of "wonderful" Agent Orange, owners of huge portions and often the majority of our nation's chemical industry, users of (allegedly) former CIA agents and rumored owners of big name defense contractors (I'm sure you've heard of Blackwater defense contractors, recipient of billions of dollars on the books and who knows how much off the books in Bush's war on terror, the company which briefly went by the name of Xe when members were charged with rape and murder of their own fellow workers and countless civilians in Iraq) to do God knows what to anti-Monsanto activists. I mean they raped and killed their own. What do they do to people who oppose them?
Were you aware, and if so have you ever wondered why on earth Barack Obama decided to retain TWO FORMER MONSANTO EXECUTIVES TO LEAD THE FDA? Anyone have a spare fox to guard my chicken coop? Honestly, those moves go far beyond his clearly being a conservative dressed up in liberal clothing. Michelle Obama was a medical administrator, so it's not like he's functioning in ignorance of the horrendously corrupt reputation of Monsanto, the pharmaceutical, chemical, genetic engineering, etc. and etc. giant. I have a possible reason, but I don't really want to state it. *cough* Blackwater/CIA/Intimidation *cough* No one is president forever, and while they do get token protection forever, we are talking former CIA agents, yes? Yes.
As for me fearing for my life, their chemicals are already killing me. I'm a stateside Agent Orange (etc.) vet, though, like all vets not recognized in the initial settlement, I am not likely to ever be officially recognized as such. I'm not all that worried about Monsanto's sell-out thugs. Do they think they are going to get a nice retirement package when they no longer wish to work. Ha! Not effing likely. They'll be retired all right, likely in some "tragic accident", but that's not my concern either. Karma happens.
Monsanto poisoned an entire water/ecosystem in Alabama so blatantly over so many decades and caused so many deaths and such health and environmental devastation that despite the best lawyers the world has to offer (you know they can buy them) they actually lost a lawsuit (and every appeal) ...to the teensy-tiny town of Anniston, Alabama! Evidence was found supporting the claim that their chemicals, including dioxin and Agent Orange, were intentionally dumped (claimed to be accidentally spilled) into the water supply. They were also stored for decades in open pits, thereby further contaminating the groundwater. This went on since 1930 and continued in some form until Ft. McClellan, which shared water and environment with Anniston, closed in 1996.
The DOD/VA was ordered to compensate and care for veterans and their families who had been stationed at McClellan, which was a basic training facility for women for much of its existence, but also the MP school and, ironically, the Army's Bio-Nuclear/Chemical Headquarters. No one is ever going to need a favor from a backwoods Alabama Senator or Representative so it's not likely the DOD will ever comply with the court order, and the whole thing looks more and more like a sweetheart deal to save Monsanto the money involved in providing care and compensation to another "crop" of veterans they poisoned, so while that final appeals judge did rule against them, he also saved them a big bundle of money.
Without the government doing what it's been charged to do, and with Monsanto "keeping a lid on it" and now heading the FDA and having officials in high places in other government agencies, no one is going to put the puzzle pieces together in time to help or even acknowledge us as veterans dying from service related illness. Sorry about the lengthy aside, but it proves just how far Monsanto is willing to go to cover its assets and how blind an eye the government will willingly turn as they do so. I and multiple generations of soldiers who served at McClellan are still alive, for today anyway, are living proof. I see that exact same kind of collusion going on now in this crisis and the vaccine.
It illustrates just one of many ways Monsanto owns or controls far too much of American and international industry and plays too large a role in our own governance. One of theirs heads the FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, seriously, the makers of genetically altered foods is telling us what's SAFE to eat and take as medication? Hmm, is this profitable? Yes? Okay, it's safe. What's this about circulatory collapse and heart failure? Wait, who makes it? Us? I mean, erm, Monsanto? Ah I see, it was psychosomatic heart failure in all 134,694 cases. Yep, it's absolutely ready to go to market, but let's get that blanket coverage against lawsuits from Obama like we got from Bush with the Anthrax vaccines just to be safe. Good, Next?
Terrifying, absolutely terrifying. That would be like the USSC overruling the voters and putting..I don't know...a, let's say HALLIBURTON executive with anger management issues in the White House as VP.
Wait, what? Ohhhh yeah, we did that, right before we dropped all the anti-terrorism protections put in place by the Clinton administration, then immediately put an end to the bin Laden investigation also started by Clinton, and then had a prez and VP too busy for weeks "meeting with OIL executives" to make time to discuss the terror threats hot off the wire! Never mind that our multi-administration anti-terror expert was running around "with my hair on fire" trying to get Rice, Rummy, Cheney or Bush to listen to him ...right up until the moment 9/11 happened.
*Quotes from Richard Clarke's book, Against All Enemies
Then for some odd reason Cheney/Bush/Powell responded by fabricating a bunch of fake evidence, lying through their teeth to the world to build a "coalition of the threatened into action" then invaded Iraq? ...even though we were allegedly attacked by Saudi terrorists led by a former Saudi prince, Osama bin Laden, that congress had mercilessly razzed President Clinton about because he was obsessed with capturing or killing the guy throughout his administration. A lot of people freaked out, however, when one of the first things Bush did in office was immediately suspended all Clinton's anti-terrorist measures and investigations, without replacing them with any of his own, which left the doors, of several air training schools as it turns out, wide open to some extremely questionable behavior that was never questioned.
Then we compounded the attacks and our invasion and occupation of a sovereign nation by going on an all out public disinformation campaign trying to confuse people into thinking it really was Iraq that attacked us on 9/11, and to this day many Fox "news" viewers still believe it, and an entire generation of the best of our young men and some women too have perished or worse, have hideous brain trauma from inadequately armored vehicles and a poorly planned set of wars with no plan beyond getting them started and getting the money rolling into everyone's pockets.
By everyone I mean Cheney's Halliburton pals and Monsanto's Blackwater pals and those kind of war profiteers, not the soldiers who actually put their lives and futures on the line for a pittance and promises that are rarely kept. But the smart thing they did was put the whole thing on credit, so they threw money at those wars like there was no tomorrow, because for them there wasn't. It was all done on the budget of the NEXT administration, yet Bush still managed to tank the economy! Simply amazing. Mind boggling. But personally, that whole bunch of people were rolling in lots of new billions of dollars in blood money, including several billions "lost" and still unaccounted for, just like the weapons still being used against Americans because Rummy couldn't be bothered to protect Iraq's armories as they were openly looted with our soldiers THERE to protect them. HIS priority, for some reason, was the god-damned OIL MINISTRY! "Boys will be boys" got a LOT of our finest DEAD!
I have strayed way off the path here, but my point is that mixing corporate, big money interests with governing bodies is not a good idea. Disaster is inevitable, but it is among many lessons of history our nation seems all too willing to ignore, at our peril.
So what can we do?
Prevent.
GOOD HAND WASHING MAY SAVE YOUR LIFE!
No, that is not hyperbole. Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Curcumin--all have been shown to support healthy immunity and help prevent infection, Ebola specifically. Other articles have other ideas, but these three show up consistently and are inexpensive and well tolerated in most people. Nothing seems to be as effective as non-exposure, obviously, but just as obviously we are not taking that precaution in this country because Big Pharma has money to make. So, the next best thing is frequent hand washing.
Regarding the hand washing, doctors are well aware of this, but despite the fact that several have already been infected and health care workers have brought the infection back here with them, in their own minds a great majority of doctors seem to sincerely believe they cannot become infected, nor, their actions indicate, can they pass on infection to anyone else, even if they fail utterly to follow this most simple preventive measure of all--which includes cleaning under the nails, which should always, and I mean always, be natural, never synthetic, because synthetic nails act like little petri dishes with your body as the agar, moving with you from person to person. No amount of washing gets them clean--it's a physical impossibility.
HAND WASHING 101
Acceptable hand washing, and this is good for anyone to know, consists of plenty of warm soap and water, vigorous friction covering all surfaces of the hands, including between the fingers for an absolute minimum of thirty seconds, with three minutes and scrubbing with a soft brush to the elbow being the ideal but rarely practical. Patting rather than rubbing your skin dry prevents repeated trauma and resulting breaks in the skin, and a fresh cotton towel washed with hot water, detergent and bleach and dried on the high setting is better than paper, but also rarely realistic. Paper is very rough on hands, even when it feels soft, so if you're ever in a care-giving situation, bear this in mind.
Most posters suggest twenty seconds of washing. I say thirty in hopes that people in a rush will at least do twenty then. It really IS best to aim for thirty. They also say rub your hands dry. Don't. Pat, pat, pat. Stupid posters.
Use hand sanitizer often and liberally between good washes, with plenty of fast friction. Not only can sanitizer like Purel be more moisturizing with winter coming, it has longer residual action than soap and water and you can easily carry the stuff in your pocket. Definitely a very good habit to get into. Just remember not to just rub it on like lotion--the friction is essential to kill "bugs".
NO-BRAINER THAT MOST PEOPLE DON'T CONSIDER
DON'T TOUCH YOUR FACE OR EYES
While I'm talking about this, get out of the habit, right now, of ever touching your face or eyes, except perhaps when you've freshly cleaned both. That is one of the main ways people infect themselves--unconscious face touching. If you have a problem complexion, you will be pleased to note your face will likely tend to clear up as well.
You're welcome.
