target ebolaThe ‘impossible’ has happened. Ebola is now in the United States. More specifically, it is Dallas, Texas. Information coming out now is that this man flew to a European country, then to Dulles International Airport in Maryland and then down to Dallas, Texas. Timeline suggests that he was asymptomatic until a few days ago, when he went to the hospital and was told to go home, but came back 2 days later and got a ride in an ambulance that was NOT taken out of service until the official diagnosis came in. Did I forget to mention that he had close contact with children too? They are now staying home but last week they were in school when he first started showing symptoms. What a CLUSTER MESS. And ‘we’ have been ‘preparing’ and training and being oh so vigilant about ebola. Uhhuh.

I am not trying to cause any panic, but am going to be telling some truths here. There is no cure, no vaccine (of which most vaccines are only 40-70% effective) and the FDA is on a witch hunt against people who are talking about alternative ways of dealing with Ebola. WHO is saying that this strain of Ebola is becoming more ‘virulent’. Liberia is not on lockdown, but this man CAME FROM THERE. And apparently, so far, HE had no contact with anyone infected while there. Information and misinformation is flying all over the place. The CDC is not tracking all the people he may have come into contact with, just those who came in ‘close’ contact with him when he was obviously sick. Fact, they are still saying its not airborne, but Canadian scientists have proven that ‘fact’ to be incorrect. The hospital where the man is in ‘isolation’ does NOT have a ‘level 4’ biohazard unit, which means they are improvising. Children that he had direct contact with went to school. The ambulance and its workers, not to mention the doctors and nurses that dealt with him the first time just went into ‘quarantine’ when they finally figured out what was wrong with him. Fact, we already have a virus striking our children that is hospitalizing them at alarming rates and flu season is upon us. The CDC still says that if you aren’t symptomatic then you can’t infect someone else. They have ‘everything under control’ and ‘we have the BEST system to handle something like this’. Oh, and I forgot, apparently some sort of medicine to combat Ebola will be available by the end of the year with a vaccine potentially available early next year. AND our president who is ‘not worried about this’ signed and expanded an executive order to forcibly place individuals with flu like symptoms (but not those with the flu, but wait a minute, Ebola presents like the flu at first) into quarantine camps. Sounds to me like everything is under control…yep, yeah, sure….

My apologies for the sarcasm amongst the facts, we as a country need to be paying attention right now and be able to see through the word salads and assurances that all is well, because its NOT. Doctors and nurses are human beings and miss things, forget things, become tired or distracted. They are not infallible. Things HAPPEN. Like sending that guy HOME with prescriptions for antibiotics. They sent him HOME even though he told them he had recently been to Liberia.

We as Americans have been conditioned to show up at work even when sick, sometimes simply because we can’t afford to take a day or two off without loosing money or potentially our very job. We as Americans have a really bad habit of sending our children to school and daycare knowing full well that they are not feeling well. Again, because we can’t or won’t take off work or can’t find someone to stay with our children. And I forgot, big brother through No Child Left Behind demands doctors notes nowadays instead of just our word that our child is sick. My point here is this: We are setting ourselves up for an outbreak the likes we haven’t seen since the Spanish Flu, TB and Polio. We have forgotten in our arrogance and workaholic culture that our health is the most important thing we have as a country. And we forget that its not just about ‘us’ in the singular, but that we are connected to each other in intimate ways even though we don’t even know our neighbors. If you need any proof of this just look at how we handle the flu every year. We as a nation are NOT ready for an infectious disease. It is so far off our radar of possibility that denial and trusting the officials may very well cause a lot of deaths needlessly.

Again, I am not trying to scare anyone, I am making statements that I HOPE will wake you up and start thinking about things in more realistic terms. You are your best health advocate. And you are the only one who should be making decisions that are not only in your best interest, but also in the best interest of others. You don’t have to live in fear about ebola, but educate yourself, think about it, keep it simple and stay healthy. Pay attention to what is going on instead of trusting those in ‘authority’ that have everything under control. Prepare yourself to stay safe just in case Ebola does make it mainstream. That is the best hope and antidote we have against Ebola.