Friday Reads: Is this the Zombie Apocalypse?

Good Morning!!

In March, the Wall Street Journal published this map of the U.S. showing which states are best prepared to deal with zombie hoards on the march.

Real estate brokerage Estately Inc. published an analysis this week ranking each state by its vulnerability in the event of an undead epidemic. The company looked at four criteria, according to spokesman Reid Wegley:

– Is the state’s population knowledgeable about zombies?

– Are they physically capable of evading them?

– Have they been trained to fight them? and

– Do they have guns and shooting skills?

….

Mr. Wegley said each state was ranked 1-50 based on data from several sources: U.S. Census figures on military personnel and veterans; Facebook Inc. searches of interest in martial arts, survival skills, zombies, laser tag, paintball and Ironman triathlons; gun ownership and physical health and obesity rates by state. The ranks were then totaled for each state—the lower the figure, the better-prepared the state.

Okay, so zombies aren’t real. But Ebola has arrived in Texas, and already there have been screw-ups. We have to rely on the CDC to protect the country–the same CDC that just recently was involved in three serious security lapses involving bird flu, smallpox, and anthrax. And did you know that last year a biolab in Texas *lost* a deadly virus from Venezuela? I didn’t. From ABC News, March 25, 2013:

The Galveston National Laboratory lost one of five vials containing a deadly Venezuelan virus, according to the University of Texas Medical Branch, which owns the $174 million facility designed with the strictest security measures to hold the deadliest viruses in the country.

Like Ebola, the missing Guanarito virus causes hemorrhagic fever, an illness named for “bleeding under the skin, in internal organs or from body orifices like the mouth, eyes, or ears,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“This is clearly an incident that is very discomforting and embarrassing to the University of Texas Medical Center and their national biosecurity lab that they have there,” said Dr. William Schaffner, chairman of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn. “You can be sure there are a lot of sweating people down the chain at that institution.”

These are the folks we are dependent on to protect the country from a major disease epidemic. I’m not ready to panic yet, but I’m sure going to be paying attention from now on.

Governor Goodhair says everything is under control. Now why doesn’t that calm my fears? From the Dallas News: Rick Perry, health officials offer reassurances on Dallas Ebola case.

State and local health officials sought to quiet fears in Dallas after disclosing Wednesday that they are monitoring more than a dozen people, including five schoolchildren, who had close contact with the nation’s first Ebola-stricken victim.

The patient, identified in media reports as Thomas Eric Duncan, a 42-year-old resident of Monrovia, Liberia, remained in Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital as authorities tried to patch together his activities after he became ill here while visiting family members.

Among other key developments in a fast-moving day: Hospital officials said they erred in sending Duncan home when he first sought treatment a week ago; paramedics who later transported him to the hospital tested negative for the virus; and Dallas plans to begin an extensive cleaning of the schools the students attended.

None of those who came into contact with Duncan when he was experiencing active symptoms — meaning the disease was contagious — have shown signs of being infected.

“We’re confident that it’s isolated and it’s being contained, but everyone is working tirelessly to double- and triple- and quadruple-check their work, to make sure that we’ve done an absolutely thorough job of identifying anyone who might be at any risk,” Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said.

Rick Perry chimed in:

Gov. Rick Perry said the patient was receiving “the very best care” there. Duncan, who is in isolation, was said to be in serious but stable condition. A day earlier, he was described as critically ill. Health officials have declined to disclose his name, citing privacy laws.

Perry praised the hospital and health workers.

“This case is serious, but rest assured that our system is working as it should,” he said. “There are few places in the world better-equipped to meet the challenge this patient poses. The public should have every confidence.”

Yeah, right. That’s why the hospital sent Duncan home with antibiotics–for a virus(!)–so that he could expose up to 100 other people to Ebola. Then on the way back to the hospital, the violently ill man vomited outside.

DALLAS – Two days after he was sent home from a Dallas hospital, the man who is the first person to be diagnosed with Ebola in the United States was seen vomiting on the ground outside an apartment complex as he was bundled into an ambulance.

“His whole family was screaming. He got outside and he was throwing up all over the place,” resident Mesud Osmanovic, 21, said on Wednesday, describing the chaotic scene before the man was admitted to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital on Sunday where he is in serious condition.

Officials ordered everyone who had been in the apartment with Duncan to stay there for 21 days in quarantine. Which was fine, but no one removed the sheets the man had slept on or made provisions for the people inside to have food and other supplies. From CNN: Frustrated woman quarantined with sheets, towels soiled by Ebola patient.

The sweat-stained sheets of Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the United States, still on her bed, a woman quarantined in a Dallas apartment said Thursday that she desperately wants her family’s nightmare to end.

“We can’t wait to be over with everything,” the woman, who asked to be identified only by her first name, Louise, told CNN’s Anderson Cooper. “We can’t wait.”

While Duncan is in isolation at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, his partner and three others have been stuck in a Dallas apartment since his diagnosis this week. Louise told CNN that authorities had her sign paperwork stating “if we step outside, they are going to take us … to court (because) we’ll have committed a crime.”

So there she has stayed, along with her 13-year-old son and two nephews in their 20s. But it hasn’t been easy.

She said no one brought food Thursday to four people who can’t leave to get it themselves, at least until later in the day. There was also the matter of their power going out, which was likely related to strong storms that rolled through the area. Then, of course, there’s the idea of living in a place that — just a few days ago — was home to an Ebola sufferer.

Her 35-year-old daughter brought over Clorox to help clean the house, and she sealed up Duncan’s dirty clothes and towels in a bag.

“But (authorities) said we shouldn’t throw anything away until they can get back with me,” Louise said.

That hadn’t happened as of Thursday evening. Men in trucks from Cleaning Guys, a company that specializes in hazmat and biohazard cleaning services, was turned away for lack of the necessary permit to transport hazardous waste on Texas highways, it said.

According to the article, after CNN reported the horrible conditions in the apartment, some local officials are discussing relocating the family to someplace less contaminated.

Here’s the latest on the Ebola story as of this morning.

Associated Press, 8:15AM: Family that hosted Ebola patient confined to home.

DALLAS (AP) — A woman who has been confined to her Dallas apartment under armed guard after a man infected with Ebola stayed at her home, said she never imagined this could happen to her so far from disease-ravaged West Africa.

Louise Troh said Thursday that she is tired of being locked up and wants health authorities to decontaminate her home.

Authorities say the circle of people in the U.S. possibly exposed to Ebola widened after the man, who arrived from Liberia last month, was discharged from a hospital without being tested for the deadly virus.

The confinement order, which also bans visitors, was imposed after the family failed to comply with a request to stay home, according to Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins. Texas State Health Commissioner David Lakey said the order would ensure Troh, her 13-year-old son and two nephews can be closely monitored for signs of the disease.

An NBC News cameraman has been diagnosed with Ebola in Liberia, 8:30AM: NBC says cameraman tested positive for Ebola. Entire crew to be flown home.

The network reported the freelancer, identified as Ashoka Mukpo, was just hired Tuesday to be a second cameraman for its medical editor, Nancy Snyderman, a physician. It said the freelancer, who has been working in Liberia for some time, showed symptoms Wednesday, and was feeling “tired and achy” before being tested.

The network said the 33-year old cameraman, who is also a writer, was taken to a Doctors Without Borders treatment center and that the positive result came back 12 hours later.

“Obviously he is scared and worried,” Mukpo’s father Dr. Mitchell Levytold the Today show on Friday. Mukpo’s time in Liberia meant that he was “seeing the death and tragedy and now it’s really hit home for him.” he added, “But his spirits are better today.”

Mukpo’s mother Diane Mukpo said that her son will leave Sunday for the US. “I believe they’re doing things as quickly as they can but that doesn’t take away from the fact that we know he’s going to be in Liberia until Sunday, and I really can only hope and pray that his symptoms don’t worsen too quickly,” she said.

He is the fourth American known to have contracted Ebola in Liberia, according to NBC. Another physician, reportedly American and working for the World Health Organization, was flown back to the United States after testing positive in Sierra Leone.

Now that the horses are out of the barn, so to speak, hospitals will review their procedures for dealing with contagious diseases–in Boston at least. From The Boston Globe, After Ebola error, hospitals review procedures.

The emergence this week of the first Ebola case in the United States — and the mistakes made by a Texas hospital that led to a delayed diagnosis — prompted Boston hospitals and primary care practices to review their emergency plans over the past two days and strengthen weak spots.

“The news in Texas didn’t change our planning, but it got our staff’s attention,” said Dr. Paul Biddinger, vice chairman and medical director for preparedness at Massachusetts General Hospital.

The reassessment of emergency measures comes even as disease trackers emphasize that the likelihood of Ebola striking Boston remains low.

Still, nurses, doctors, and physician’s assistants in Mass. General’s emergency department and clinics have been asking for information about symptoms and for a list of western Africa countries that have experienced more than 7,100 Ebola cases and 3,300 deaths since the outbreak was first reported in March. Some health workers at the hospital have practiced putting protective gear on and off.

Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital

Presumably hospitals around the country will take similar precautions. However, at the Texas hospital responsible for the “error,” excuse-making is still the order of the day. CBS News: Hospital blames tech glitch for Ebola patient error.

Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital officials said a flaw in the way the electronic records interacted between the nurse who questioned Thomas Eric Duncan and the doctor who treated him led to the mis-communication that enabled Duncan to go home after his first visit to the emergency room last week.

They said that flaw has now been fixed.

But the fallout from that mistake is far from over.

CBS reports that the apartment has now been “decontaminated by hazmat crews,” and food and other supplies have been provided for the people trapped inside the apartment. But so far, other residents of the apartment complex have not been screened for Ebola infection.

Early this morning, Tom Frieden, the CDC chief, told MSNBC that the only way to stop an Ebola epidemic is to deal with it in West Africa. Politico reports:

CDC Director Tom Frieden on Friday said restricting travel between the U.S. and West Africa would likely “backfire” and put Americans more at risk of contracting Ebola.

Appearing on MSNBC, Frieden was asked about potentially prohibiting air travel between the U.S. and West Africa, where the Ebola outbreak is most widespread. He said that such a restriction would likely be ineffective and would make it harder for health officials to root out the virus.

“The only way we’re going to get to zero risk is by stopping the outbreak at the source” in West Africa, Frieden said.

“Even if we tried to close the border, it wouldn’t work,” the top health official added. “People have a right to return. People transiting through could come in. And it would backfire, because by isolating these countries, it’ll make it harder to help them, it will spread more there and we’d be more likely to be exposed here.”

Finally, for Chris Cillizza of The Fix, even the potential for a deadly epidemic is all about politics: How the Ebola case gives Rick Perry a second chance to make a first impression.

At a press conference Wednesday announcing the details of the case, Perry was front and center — playing the dual role of information provider and, maybe more importantly, calmer of nerves. “This case is serious,” Perry said. “Rest assured, our system is working as it should.”

For Perry, it’s a return to the national spotlight that he left with a whimper in January 2012 when he ended a disastrously bad presidential bid.  That candidacy, which began in August 2011 to much fanfare, collapsed, largely, because of Perry’s inadequacies as a candidate.  While his “oops” moment during a presidential debate came to epitomize his flailing bid, there were any number of other off — or downright odd — moments during his five months as a candidate.

Perry has spent virtually every minute since he dropped out of the race working to rehab his image. He got glasses. He started traveling to early caucus and primary states (again). He floated the possibility that he would run for president (again). All of it was met, generally, with a collective eye roll by the professional political class who viewed him as yesterday’s news.  Donors, activists and the media tend to want new blood in presidential races, not folks who are viewed as having had their chance and blown it. Perry was forever battling the “oh yeah, you’re the guy who forgot the third federal agency you wanted to get rid of” narrative. And it was a fight he wasn’t going to win.

Until, maybe, now.  Being at the forefront of the fight against Ebola — the first-ever case in the United States — affords Perry an opportunity to bend the story about him heading into the 2016 presidential election.  Rather than Perry as fumbling dunderhead, there is now a chance for a Perry as competent chief executive narrative to emerge. (Before I go any further, let me note: Perry’s high profile on Ebola is not because of 2016 calculations. But, it absolutely impacts how he is perceived — whether he intends it to or not.) There are very few moments that can draw the attention of the entire country anymore — outside of the SuperBowl is there any regularly scheduled event that can? — but this Ebola story can. Fear is a powerful driver.

Bla bla bla . . . F$$k you, Cillizza.

Now, what else is going on in the world? Please post your thoughts and links on any topic in the comment thread.