EBOLA What will the history books say about this? Hopefull not this.

[Betty_Rose]

As a historian, I've been thinking about this too much.

What will history say about this? That we were killed by political correctness? That our civilization was brought down by a liberal view of the world?

We've been very blessed thus far. Polio was a virus but we conquered it through immunizations. Prior to that, there was The Spanish Flu of 1918 and even that was quite a surprise. Medicine was advancing, the scientific method was young and new, the Germ Theory had been discovered just a few decades earlier. We were sure we had it covered. We knew that whatever the question was, modern medicine would have the answer.

We were so wrong.

Spanish Flu killed 5-10% of the earth's population.

BTW, I edited out a big chunk of my original post. The potential future of this virus is too frightening. I'm struggling with this, and don't want to instill fear in others.

 

[ginnie6]

I'm a homeschool mom and I've been wondering the same thing. In fact another mom and I were talking about it at our last co-op meeting. If the liberals get their way this will not be recorded I think. Or it will be recorded as a great disaster no one could do anything about.
I'm struggling too with exactly how scary this is.

 

[NC Susan]

Turn off electricity and half the population will be dead in 30 days. Turn off the internet and all of us will be blind to truth cept propaganda

 

[summerthyme]

I told my son-in-law yesterday (after shocking him with some of the stories going around) "I've always said political correctness would be the death of us"... I didn't really believe that it was going to LITERALLY kill us all, though!

Summerthyme

 

[imaginative]

I remember in college in the early 80's reading someones thesis that stated that "political correctness" would evolve into speech control and then into thought control and finally into complete control of society.

Most people laughed at that at the time...

 

[TerryK]

As a historian, I've been thinking about this too much.

What will history say about this? That we were killed by political correctness? That our civilization was brought down by a liberal view of the world?
We've been very blessed thus far. Polio was a virus but we conquered it through immunizations. Prior to that, there was The Spanish Flu of 1918 and even that was quite a surprise. Medicine was advancing, the scientific method was young and new, the Germ Theory had been discovered just a few decades earlier. We were sure we had it covered. We knew that whatever the question was, modern medicine would have the answer.
We were so wrong.
Spanish Flu killed 5-10% of the earth's population.
BTW, I edited out a big chunk of my original post. The potential future of this virus is too frightening. I'm struggling with this, and don't want to instill fear in others.

Actually the Spanish Flu killed a high estimate of 50 million people or a little less than 2% of the worlds population.
The highest death toll was with 20 to 40 year olds, in other words those with the strongest immune systems.
I do agree with you that this whole Ebola thing has been spectacularly mismanaged by our incompetent government, but that's what most governments do.
Sad to say, they will get better at it as more people die.
I don't think we will have a pandemic in the US. The new Canadian vaccine is very promising (100% effective in animal tests) and is now being tested on humans.
Until we have a commonly available vaccine, isolation and containment is the only answer in dealing with Ebola.
Even when the vaccine is approved, it will probably only be necessary to widely distribute it to African countries where Ebola frequently crops up.
I don't look for it to be widely used in western countries except possibly in bio labs and centers for handling contagious diseases.
Ebola spread is not mushrooming out as many were afraid of at first. We may have a few more cases but I don't think it will get out of control.
What I do worry about is a large influx of people from Ebola stricken countries or even worse a terrorist organization bringing infected blood into the US and then deliberately infecting a hundred suicide terrorists to spread the disease here.
It is now obvious to the rest of the world that we, and most western countries, lack the facilities and training to contain such a bio-attack.

 

[pooreboy]

We read of other cultures collapsing from within. I believe that our own government is hiding many truths of different situations. They are afraid of truth, it could cause them to loose their positions, wealth and power. If this gets really bad, it should be recorded and remembered as the worst decision (closing borders and stopping flights) ever made in modern times.

 

[FREEBIRD]

"If the liberals get their way this will not be recorded I think. Or it will be recorded as a great disaster no one could do anything about."

Nope---if the liberals get their way the story will read that evil conservatives (especially Christians? hmmm) created the pandemic and the brave and brilliant liberals fought them at every turn, etc., etc. Dictatorships always re-write history to glorify themselves and demonize their enemies.

 

[banana.republic.us]

As a historian, I've been thinking about this too much.

What will history say about this? That we were killed by political correctness? That our civilization was brought down by a liberal view of the world?

We've been very blessed thus far. Polio was a virus but we conquered it through immunizations. Prior to that, there was The Spanish Flu of 1918 and even that was quite a surprise. Medicine was advancing, the scientific method was young and new, the Germ Theory had been discovered just a few decades earlier. We were sure we had it covered. We knew that whatever the question was, modern medicine would have the answer.

We were so wrong.

Spanish Flu killed 5-10% of the earth's population.

BTW, I edited out a big chunk of my original post. The potential future of this virus is too frightening. I'm struggling with this, and don't want to instill fear in others.

As we run out of antibiotics, if Ebola doesn't get us, drug resistant bacteria will render our advances in medicine useless.

I can see us going back to an age of palliative care, and solariums for simple little infections.

How will history judge the pharmaceutical industry that develops boner pills, and creates chronic diseases in the customers mind while overlooking basic research into antibiotics.
That will be a fun chapter to read.

I think within a decade or two we will be in the midst of it.

 

[beaglemama]

I'm a homeschool mom and I've been wondering the same thing. In fact another mom and I were talking about it at our last co-op meeting. If the liberals get their way this will not be recorded I think. Or it will be recorded as a great disaster no one could do anything about.
I'm struggling too with exactly how scary this is.

It would help if we had a Surgeon General. I blame the Republicans for that - they're holding up the confirmation. Plenty of blame to go around.

 

[SpiritBear]

As the opening from my favorite movie of all time starts off..

"Historians from England will say that I am a liar..but history was written by those who hang heroes".

So, there's your answer.

Bonus points: what was the movie?

 

[Jonas Parker]

It would help if we had a Surgeon General. I blame the Republicans for that - they're holding up the confirmation. Plenty of blame to go around.

Somehow I doubt that another political hack with a medical degree will make much of a difference.

 

[summerthyme]

Somehow I doubt that another political hack with a medical degree will make much of a difference.

LOL! Exactly! Not one of Obola's appointments have been worth a damn.

Summerthyme

 

[Garryowen]

It would help if we had a Surgeon General. I blame the Republicans for that - they're holding up the confirmation. Plenty of blame to go around.

Who has been nominated? Doesn't the senate confirm appointments? Which party controls the senate? I guess I'm confused.

 

[Hacker]

It would help if we had a Surgeon General. I blame the Republicans for that - they're holding up the confirmation. Plenty of blame to go around.

The guy Obama appointed for Surgeon General is a gun control nut. He should not be confirmed because he's an enemy of our Constitution.

Besides, this would be much better managed if there were no federal government, IMHO.

 

[knepper]

Let's pray it's not...
In 2014, the Great Satan, the House of Infidels, America, began to collapse before the victorious forces of the Islamic State. The cowardly Americans, after successfully being infiltrated to the very highest level of government, were given the choice of convert or perish!

 

[Jonas Parker]

Let's pray it's not...
In 2014, the Great Satan, the House of Infidels, America, began to collapse before the victorious forces of the Islamic State. The cowardly Americans, after successfully being infiltrated to the very highest level of government, were given the choice of convert or perish!

WTF? Bring it on, assholes!

 

[NoDandy]

It would help if we had a Surgeon General. I blame the Republicans for that - they're holding up the confirmation. Plenty of blame to go around.

Yes, the Repub's are to blame for NOT doing a number of things. But, The blame starts at the top - at the White Hut!! Because he did not CLOSE THE DAMN BORDERS, AND STOP IN BOUND FLIGHTS !!! Take politics out of it, it is just that simple!!

 

[Milk-maid]

BTW, I edited out a big chunk of my original post. The potential future of this virus is too frightening. I'm struggling with this, and don't want to instill fear in others.

I wish you wouldn't have edited it. I'm really interested in this topic. I'd love another perspective besides my own.

I bet they are going to read that we allowed another Hitler type person to come to power despite all the warnings. They'll say the people didn't care enough to stop it.