Reminder: Four weeks ago today, we received the following reassurances from the smartest guy in whichever room he’s in.
Everything’s fine, because Obama says so.
Unfortunately, Ebola is highly resistant to speeches. WaPo:
As a 26-year-old Dallas nurse lay infected in the same hospital where she treated a dying Ebola patient last week, government officials on Monday said the first transmission of the disease in the United States had revealed systemic failures in preparation that must “substantially” change in coming days.
“We have to rethink the way we address Ebola infection control, because even a single infection is unacceptable,” Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a news conference.
Good call, Tom. Ebola is bad, and we should probably try to keep people from catching it. That’s why you get paid the big bucks.
In other fun Ebola news, Dr. Nancy Snyderman kinda-sorta apologized for voluntarily breaking her voluntary quarantine to go get some soup. NBC News:
“While under voluntary quarantine guidelines, which called for our team to avoid public contact for 21 days, members of our group violated those guidelines and understand that our quarantine is now mandatory until 21 days have passed,” Snyderman said in a statement. “We remain healthy and our temperatures are normal. As a health professional I know that we have no symptoms and pose no risk to the public, but I am deeply sorry for the concerns this episode caused. We are thrilled that Ashoka is getting better and our thoughts continue to be with the thousands affected by Ebola whose stories we all went to cover.”
Don’t worry, everybody. She’s a health professional and she’s on TV. Sure, members of her group — including Nancy Snyderman — broke a quarantine they’d agreed to observe for PR reasons. But she’s not a danger to anybody, because she says so.
Starting to notice a pattern?
While the guys and gals at the top are covering their asses as usual, the people on the front lines of this thing are putting their lives at risk. They’re trying to do the right thing, trying to help people, but the lack of transparency from our lumbering, inept, dishonest government could literally kill them.
They deserve better. We all do.
By the way, I called it weeks ago:
Laying down a marker: In the extremely unlikely event that the above promises turn out to be empty as hell, the culprit will be insufficient government spending. And you will let Obama be clear that he has always said so.
P.S. Has anybody answered this question yet? If not, why not?
.@CDCgov: What was the “breach of protocol” responsible for the transmission of Ebola from Thomas Eric Duncan to one of his nurses?
— Jim Treacher (@jtLOL) October 13, 2014