Ebola crisis

If you have ever played the online game called "Pandemic" which also happens to be a board game than you will understand what is going on with the Ebola outbreak and what happens. In the game Pandemic which has two sequels Pandemic 2 and Pandemic 3 you are given a country at random which is to be ground zero for your virus. The goal of the game is to infect the entire planet with a virus which you can create and enhance as you advance and infect more countries. Once the entire world is infected and there are no survivors or a cure you win the game.

This time however the outbreak isn't a made up virus and it's not a game. In January of 2014 unknown to the worlds population the Ebola virus which was first discovered in 1976 infects it's first victim supposedly in Guinea Africa which is where the outbreak began. February 2014 the first case surfaces in Guinea Africa but it's not until March that the government officially reports it after officially deeming it an outbreak. The virus then quickly spreads to Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. 

Over the months that followed the virus racked up an estimated infection count of over 2,100 people. Of that number as of this week the estimated death toll is at just over 1,140 victims and that's just the reported cases.

All flights to and from Africa to the US and a host of other countries have been stopped effectively shutting down all physical contact with the virus outbreak. To this date there have only been two reported cases in America related to the outbreak. The infected contracted the virus while in Africa helping patients in Liberia and are now in isolation in an Atlanta, GA hospital where they seem to be recovering.

Ebola is a virus that rarely comes around but when it does it usually has a high death toll and infection rate especially when the outbreak begins in a third world country like Africa. Ebola often takes close to a month to develop and start to show symptoms. Early symptoms can range from sudden fever, headaches all the way to a sore throat and muscle pain. Later stage symptoms include vomiting and impaired kidney and liver functionality.

As of this past week the World Health Organization (WHO) has officially deemed this a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). This designation has only been used twice in recorded history. Once for the 2007 outbreak of H1N1 or Swine Flu and a second time for outbreak of Polio earlier this year. The WHO has also publicly stated that it believes the number of infected people could reach over 20,000 before containment efforts finally catch up and stop the outbreak.

As for me I'm perfectly happy here safe in NH although I fear the WHO's numbers are possibly underestimated and that this might not be as safe a place as I'd like to think. That being because This is the East Coast which is the closest part of America to Africa but I won't jump to conclusions just yet. There's still a lot of time between now and the WHO's projected numbers being reached and I have the utmost confidence that with the UN's new Ebola relief effort everything will be just dandy (can you feel the sarcasm?).

You see I just can't see an outbreak this large that materialized from a virus with no known cure that also originated in a third world country where might I add sanitation is lacking. At least if your going by sanitation guidelines set in place by first world countries like the US and Canada. Now I'm not saying Africa isn't a clean place but a very good portion of the continent is not. This makes for a larger breeding ground for the virus as well as easier spreadability.

Previous outbreaks show us that nothing of this scale and magnitude have hit in a long time. The last outbreak was in 2013 with the number of infected reaching only six and of that six only three of them 50% died. The CDC actually has a great timeline detailing the worlds Ebola outbreaks from the date of discovery to present date which can be found here. The timeline details the origin of the outbreak as well as the number of infected and the percent of the infected that died as a result of the virus.

I would love to hear your opinion on and sadly your predictions for the future spread of the virus as well as the UN, CDC and WHO's efforts at containment and a possible cure which as I mentioned does not exist to date.

You can tweet me @prepidemic using the #TPcoffeetalk.

xoxo Rebecca

Coffee talk

If you haven't been watching the news in the past week then you might want to drop by your favorite social media outlet and look up Michael Brown.

Here's a quick recap/timeline of events.

On Sunday August 9th at about a hair past noon a call came into the Ferguson Missouri police department dispatch from another officer saying a young black male had been shot. The officer claimed it was a self defense shooting ie. he reached for the officers gun and the officer shot him.

What had happened is that a call was made about a robbery. The store clerk gave the dispatcher directions as to where the suspect was heading. Police later found eighteen year old Michael Brown walking in an area near where the supposed suspect was to be located. The officer stopped Brown and that's where the whole thing gets fuzzy.

The story quickly escalates as word spreads from eye witnesses that the officer blatantly shot Brown who was unarmed and cooperating with the officer because he was black.

Later that night a candlelight vigil was held in honor of Brown which soon turned violent as officers try to break it up. As a result over a dozen businesses are looted in protest.

Monday August 11th school is canceled as a safety precaution to walking students. Later that day hundreds of people gather in front of the Ferguson PD to protest Browns death. Police arrest at least seven of the protesters. Later that day the NCAAP holds a meeting to pray for Brown and an end to the violence. That night protesters in Ferguson are tear gassed for not protesting peacefully.

Tuesday August 12th the Ferguson police announce they have arrested fifteen people in connection to the protests.

Wednesday August 13th Ferguson police lock down the city blocking all media from entering and covering the story. They also detain two reporters from the Huffington Post and Washington post.

Saturday August 16th Governor Nixon issues a state of emergency and imposes a curfew in the Ferguson area.


What I think....

The reason this escalated so quickly and is picking up international concern so quickly is because this isn't just about a police officer shooting a man. This is about the police being bias toward blacks, it's about freedom and justice.

Michael Brown was an unarmed black civilian and the police shot and killed him in cold blood. That right there ladies and gentlemen is what this is all about. Peaceful protesters getting shot at with tear gas and rubber/wooden bullets because their protesting the shooting of an innocent black man.

Throughout the history of the US the justice department has favored white people to some degree. There are countless cases to use as a precedent to back that statement up and this shooting just creates another one. As a believer of libertarianism myself I am all about justice and freedom of speech. I believe that as Americans we all have equal rights as is stated in the constitution plain and simple. The fact that every time a black person is shot by a police officer just adds to the stigma that the police don't care about the rights of African Americans in this country which makes this is just as relevant now as it was back in 1963.

What also bugs me about all this is that so many people are still so ignorant towards what's going on. Creating hash tags like "iftheygunnedmedown". So many people are using that now to post pictures of themselves in a good situation and then a bad situation and making a joke of which picture the police would use if they got shot. The problem here is they are inadvertently making fun of blacks by posting these pictures because this is an actual issue with black people. The media always finds a way to use the worst possible photo of a black person when portraying them. Every time someone black ends up in the news there's always a photo of them drinking, smoking, looking thuggish etc to accompany it and it bothers me that people still don't get it.

Media is always out to create a commotion and to stir the pot. They always find a way to negatively portray a situation. As Abraham Lincoln once said “If you look for the bad in people expecting to find it, you surely will.” All you need to do is look at someones Facebook or read some of their tweets and that's all you'll need. Social media makes it so easy now-a-days to twist a story from "Boy scout saves cat in the street" to drunken teen gets hit by car while walking in the middle of the road". Remember, media is NOT always your friend. Don't always trust what you hear on tv or read in the paper.

As the whole situation has yet to resolve itself I would love to hear what you have to say. Tell me your thoughts and opinions by tweeting me @prepidemic with the #TPcoffeetalk.

xoxo Rebecca