A Disconnect between National Preparedness for Potential Ebola Outbreak and What the Public is Told

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Michael Snyder asked the obvious question, “How in the world is it possible that more than 170 health workers have been infected by the Ebola virus?” The World Health Organization does not seem to have the answer even though health workers are dressed “head to toe in suits that are specifically designed to prevent the spread of the virus.” http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-08-12/one-question-about-ebola-nobody-can-seem-answer

The World Health Organization released the information that West Africa has tallied 1,711 Ebola diagnoses and 932 deaths. Ken Isaacs of the Samaritan’s Purse said, “We believe that these numbers represent just 25 to 50 percent of what is happening.” The CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden has estimated that the total number of those killed or infected in this outbreak is higher than all the other outbreaks in the last 32 years.” www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/08/07/ebola-experts-describe-atmosphere-in-west-africa-as-apocalyptic.html

Isaacs stated that the “disease is uncontained and out of control” in three of the “poorest nations in the world,” Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone. He continued, “Is the world willing to let the public health of the world be in their hands?” And it has now spread to Nigeria, a country with more resources to handle patient cases in better hospitals.

Dr. Frank Glover, a missionary, testified at a hearing in D.C. how the affected countries lack personal protective gear (PPG). The Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organizations Subcommittee hearing on “Combating the Ebola Threat” was held on August 7, 2014 at the Rayburn House.

Since international air travel has not been suspended to, from, or via the affected countries (the countries have not been quarantined because it would negatively affect their poor economies), the virus was brought on uninfected U.S. soil by way of two contaminated Americans at Emory Hospital in Atlanta, and since our borders are wide-open, the possibility that one small mistake can trigger an outbreak in the U.S. is real.

The CDC Director does not know how many Ebola serums are available, similar to those administered to Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol. “I don’t have definitive information,” he said. “Whatever happens with these individuals… we still do not know from their experience whether these drugs work… It’s too soon to know.”

Dr. Vliet, MD and Dr. Steven Hatfill, MD, virologist, microbiologist, former researcher of Ebola at USMRIID, former weapons inspector, and board member of Doctors for Disaster Preparedness explain the new drug therapies for Ebola and emerging viral diseases.

One such serum is ZMapp, a mixture of three monoclonal antibodies obtained from tobacco plants by Mapp Biopharmaceuticals in San Diego and Kentucky BioProcessing in Owensboro, Kentucky. The drug could potentially save the two infected missionaries but the drug is experimental and as such, it was not tested on humans before.

According to Dr. Vliet, the drug is “not manufactured but grown and derived from genetically modified tobacco plants. The tobacco plants are infected with the protein and the plants reproduce it like a photocopier, the desired proteins are extracted from the tobacco plant, and purified into a serum.”

The results of the USMRIID 2013 study showed that when the serum was used on non-human primates, 43 percent of them recovered after intravenous treatment, even when the serum was administered 104-120 hours after infection or after symptoms appeared. http://youtu.be/X4TrmvhNLH4

In an interview on Conservative Commandos Radio show, August 5, 2014, Dr. Elizabeth Lee Vliet, described her concern about the “uncontrolled border crisis creating dangers of disease epidemics, including the potential of Ebola.”  According to a leaked intelligence report from the Border and Customs Protection, individuals from 75 different countries have crossed through the southern border illegally.  

This unclassified report with “sensitive data” indicated that “71 individuals from the three nations affected by the current Ebola outbreak either turned themselves in or have been caught attempting to illegally enter the U.S. between January and July 2014.” The Border Patrol is detaining only 3-5 percent of the border crossers.  She continued, “The odds are very good that Ebola could have already come across the border. No one knows for sure because information is being suppressed.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RO7PZ1AVf5U

Dr. Lee Vliet said that several very sick individuals caught at the Texas border were transported to an undisclosed location, “all in respiratory distress, high fever, shaking, chills, and coughing up blood. Two weeks later, NBC news broke the story that several very sick individuals were flown to Ventura Air Force Base. These individuals were so sick, they were taken to an intensive care unit with the same symptoms.” Dr. Vliet considered this incident significant because these could be symptoms of Ebola, dengue fever, and hemorrhagic fever. They are not symptoms of early phase tuberculosis. Medical personnel are forced to suppress medical information, keeping the public in the dark.

The Inspector General for DHS released a report on July 31, 2014 in which he documented the spread of viral illnesses, previously eradicated and controlled, among the Border Patrol agents and their families. Dispersing these illegal aliens with unknown infections into the general population was a bad idea.

The “unclassified report” leaked to Breitbart Texas showed that 250 individuals from Pakistan, numerous Egyptians, Yemenis, Somalis, known sponsors of terrorism, and 3,200 people from China were caught sneaking across the border, “ a totally different pattern of previous illegal border crossings.” Dr. Vliet mentioned  89 cases last week of illegal aliens with TB at the border in Texas.

She believed that bringing in two patients infected with Ebola into the U.S. was a great risk to the patients and to the public. The safe transportation in hazmat suits and the special flight came at great expense, millions and millions of dollars when they could have been treated on site with the portable decontamination units, without risking the lives of the flight crews, the patients themselves, and the American public.

“We don’t know with certainty how Ebola is transmitted. There are studies from Canada that suggest that there is the possibility of aerosol (airborne) transmission.” She continued that medical personnel in protected hazmat suits, including a doctor, have died of Ebola. Lung fluids and other bodily excretions are highly contagious.

There is a stark disconnect between the government’s preparation to contain potential Ebola, going on around the country quietly, such as quarantine locations, requisitions for bio hazmat suits for the National Guard, and what people are being told publicly, not to worry about the spread of Ebola.