A question for you. Are the peoples of Europe and the USA, indeed much of the world, to be sacrificed on the altar of political correctness?
I ask because it seems to me that the only reason that Liberia and Sierra Leone have not been isolated - no international flights to or from these countries - is because it might somehow be seen to be racist.
Consider. What happens with patients that are diagnosed with Ebola virus? They are held in isolation and treated with appropriate caution for such a contagious disease. If diagnosed they are not allowed to wander freely, infecting others. Why would a country be treated differently from its people? Let's be open and honest about this - both Liberia and Sierra Leone have a clear problem in containing this disease - their people are distrustful of government and being told to stay home, if you are sick does nothing to put bread on the table so people won't 'do as they are told'!
The idea of monitoring people on arrival at airports is useless fatuous nonsense and will provide useful but ultimately useless photo-ops at airports, for TV networks.
Think about it. You arrive at London Heathrow, Paris CDG, Chicago O'Hare or Dubai. Your plane lands 10 minutes after a flight from Freetown, Sierra Leone. This plane is carrying someone who has unknowingly contracted Ebola virus. This someone, let's be sexist and say it's a him, had a cold already and has been coughing during the flight and continues upon arrival and some of these coughs contain minor but nevertheless infected, moisture droplets and some of these are ingested by the people off of your flight, including yourself. This someone then takes a connecting flight and so he doesn't pass through check 'systems' in your destination country. You and your fellow passengers do pass through these checks and are allowed in because, while infected, you are not yet showing the so called signs that the authorities can check for.
That is the scenario at so called 'hub' airports and while the risk is greater there it is the same at any port of entry.
At this point, I ask American residents to consider what has happened at their southern border. This has been allowed to be a border in name only by the Obama administration for many months - how many of those that have been allowed to illegally enter the USA, have infectious diseases?
So, the clear answer - but that doesn't mean it will be followed - is to isolate those countries with a high incidence of Ebola. No international flights into or out of Sierra Leone or Liberia. The US Navy and Royal Navy, the Australian, Chinese and French Navy to impose a quarantine on the seas, to keep these countries isolated. Of course measures would need to be taken to ensure that the necessary deliveries of food and medicines and other essentials of life, are provided to the people of these countries but that should be handled by appropriately attired military or voluntary personnel.
Such a quarantine to remain in place until these countries are 'clean' for a period of 2-3 times the incubation period of the disease, so 2 months or so.
Ebola has the potential to be a modern day Black Death or Great Plague but instead of being spread by infected rats, as these great epidemics were, this will be spread by political correctness. A 20th century disease that doesn't take the necessary steps because to do so just might offend someone. Well I have news for the politicians and media - I am offended that my loved ones and fellow humans will be put at risk because of political correctness. I am offended that people will die, needlessly, because politicians lack the courage to act in the best interests of the people that elect them.
This isn't about Left or Right, Labour or Conservative, Republican or Democrat - this is potentially about survival. This is Walking Dead for real, territory!
One final point, why on earth are we bringing infected people back to their home countries for treatment? Why arrange flights to the US or London or Madrid and bring the risk, however small, to your home country? In what warped mind can this risk to the majority of the citizens ever be considered acceptable? I absolutely know and understand that these people have families and it would be awful to just 'abandon' people but that is what must be done - treat them in situ. I know that is harsh but consider this. How hard is it for the families of hostages to hear a spokesperson from their government say 'we don't negotiate with terrorists' knowing that this is effectively a death sentence for the hostage?
Hard times and issues require what might now seem to be harsh solutions but those that survive will bless those in power that allowed them to do so!
I ask because it seems to me that the only reason that Liberia and Sierra Leone have not been isolated - no international flights to or from these countries - is because it might somehow be seen to be racist.
Consider. What happens with patients that are diagnosed with Ebola virus? They are held in isolation and treated with appropriate caution for such a contagious disease. If diagnosed they are not allowed to wander freely, infecting others. Why would a country be treated differently from its people? Let's be open and honest about this - both Liberia and Sierra Leone have a clear problem in containing this disease - their people are distrustful of government and being told to stay home, if you are sick does nothing to put bread on the table so people won't 'do as they are told'!
The idea of monitoring people on arrival at airports is useless fatuous nonsense and will provide useful but ultimately useless photo-ops at airports, for TV networks.
Think about it. You arrive at London Heathrow, Paris CDG, Chicago O'Hare or Dubai. Your plane lands 10 minutes after a flight from Freetown, Sierra Leone. This plane is carrying someone who has unknowingly contracted Ebola virus. This someone, let's be sexist and say it's a him, had a cold already and has been coughing during the flight and continues upon arrival and some of these coughs contain minor but nevertheless infected, moisture droplets and some of these are ingested by the people off of your flight, including yourself. This someone then takes a connecting flight and so he doesn't pass through check 'systems' in your destination country. You and your fellow passengers do pass through these checks and are allowed in because, while infected, you are not yet showing the so called signs that the authorities can check for.
That is the scenario at so called 'hub' airports and while the risk is greater there it is the same at any port of entry.
At this point, I ask American residents to consider what has happened at their southern border. This has been allowed to be a border in name only by the Obama administration for many months - how many of those that have been allowed to illegally enter the USA, have infectious diseases?
So, the clear answer - but that doesn't mean it will be followed - is to isolate those countries with a high incidence of Ebola. No international flights into or out of Sierra Leone or Liberia. The US Navy and Royal Navy, the Australian, Chinese and French Navy to impose a quarantine on the seas, to keep these countries isolated. Of course measures would need to be taken to ensure that the necessary deliveries of food and medicines and other essentials of life, are provided to the people of these countries but that should be handled by appropriately attired military or voluntary personnel.
Such a quarantine to remain in place until these countries are 'clean' for a period of 2-3 times the incubation period of the disease, so 2 months or so.
Ebola has the potential to be a modern day Black Death or Great Plague but instead of being spread by infected rats, as these great epidemics were, this will be spread by political correctness. A 20th century disease that doesn't take the necessary steps because to do so just might offend someone. Well I have news for the politicians and media - I am offended that my loved ones and fellow humans will be put at risk because of political correctness. I am offended that people will die, needlessly, because politicians lack the courage to act in the best interests of the people that elect them.
This isn't about Left or Right, Labour or Conservative, Republican or Democrat - this is potentially about survival. This is Walking Dead for real, territory!
One final point, why on earth are we bringing infected people back to their home countries for treatment? Why arrange flights to the US or London or Madrid and bring the risk, however small, to your home country? In what warped mind can this risk to the majority of the citizens ever be considered acceptable? I absolutely know and understand that these people have families and it would be awful to just 'abandon' people but that is what must be done - treat them in situ. I know that is harsh but consider this. How hard is it for the families of hostages to hear a spokesperson from their government say 'we don't negotiate with terrorists' knowing that this is effectively a death sentence for the hostage?
Hard times and issues require what might now seem to be harsh solutions but those that survive will bless those in power that allowed them to do so!
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