Via the World Health Organization:
The Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo declared a new outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in Bikoro in Equateur Province today (8 May). The outbreak declaration occurred after laboratory results confirmed two cases of EVD.
The Ministry of Health of Democratic of the Congo (DRC) informed WHO that two out of five samples collected from five patients tested positive for EVD at the Institut National de Recherche Biomédicale (INRB) in Kinshasa. More specimens are being collected for testing.
Right now this is a local outbreak. If it becomes a regional outbreak, the response requires nuance, international collaboration, expertise and the ability to plan and act under pressure.
In other words, nothing that the United States government can do at the highest levels any more.
Cheryl Rofer
Trump freaked out over Ebola in that last big outbreak.
trollhattan
Trump’s totally got this, unlike that last guy.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
Donald Trump is a goon.
Shell
I nominate Chris Christie for the cool-under-pressure Ebola Czar.
BGinCHI
We should send Jared there immediately to check it out.
He already has a vest.
TenguPhule
I can see this getting out of hand easily.
TenguPhule
@J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford:
Stop insulting goons, some of them are very nice people.
trollhattan
@BGinCHI:
Seems as though Giuliani would agree–Disposable Jared to Congo, stat!
Major Major Major Major
Could trump use this as a pretext to curb immigration and refugees?
BGinCHI
@trollhattan: Drop him in one of those flying suits.
trollhattan
@BGinCHI:
He’d glide for a long damn distance–looks like a stiff breeze would knock him flat as it is. Squirrelboy Kushner!
TenguPhule
@Major Major Major Major:
He’s not even bothering with pretext anymore. Its all text.
dmsilev
@trollhattan: Can we also send Rudy as well, or would that count as a war crime?
TenguPhule
@BGinCHI:
What?! And waste a perfectly good suit?!
MJS
Eric and Donald, Jr., having been to Africa in the past few years to murder defenseless animals, should be quarantined immediately. As should anyone they’ve been in contact with.
TenguPhule
@dmsilev:
Depends on whether or not he survives the landing.
ruemara
*sigh*
This is going to be a wonderful day in nationalism. Picked the wrong week to give up meat & carbs.
YetAnotherJay formerly (Jay S)
@trollhattan: He’s probably calling up the bombing campaign now!
TenguPhule
@ruemara:
You can always say fuck it and try again next week.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
So, according to NBC, the Ebola scare gave Repubs a boost in 2014. Will Ebola give Dems a boost?
Chyron HR
Republicans: “We told you to start scaremongering Ebola in OCTOBER, dammit! Nobody ever heard of a MAY surprise!!”
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Cheryl Rofer:
He did. If I remember, the squealing white assholes that vote conservative basically wanted to close the borders to all international inbounds, including American citizens so they could “feel” safe.
I suppose that we could all spend our vacations driving to Branson, Ruby Falls, Rock City, Gatlinburg and Destin (all in red locales), but I fucking refuse.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@TenguPhule:
I’m thinking he should be shrink wrapped to a pallet of medical supplies (bandages and tongue depressors) with a faulty parachute.
SiubhanDuinne
@Major Major Major Major:
Pretext? PRETEXT?? He don’t need no steenking PRETEXT!
Elizabelle
Just saw an informative and nonhysterical article in The Guardian on that. Says the Congo generally sees less death tolls from their sporadic Ebola outbreaks. Perhaps they’re better prepared; that question not addressed. In its entirety:
DRC: at least 17 people dead in confirmed Ebola outbreak
Cermet
The last outbreak in the Congo was handle extremely well and quickly contained and then put out. With the new and extremely effective vaccine – and there even is some established expertise in and by the Congo government – I am certain, this outbreak will also be stopped and quickly. They (various international health groups and keys places in sub-sharia Africa) have some excellent systems in place and there are stock piles of the needed vaccine available.
Major Major Major Major
@SiubhanDuinne: I mean… legally he does. It’s why the Muslim ban is a “countries in the Middle East with terrorists that don’t give me lots of money” ban.
Peale
@Major Major Major Major: Ummm. Yeah. Its the way to show that great contrast between the Democrats and Republicans all summer long, again. Its not like African Leaders are lining up to be invited to this White House anyway, but I’m sure their ambassadors being detained for hours on end at airports will go over well.
Mnemosyne
@Cermet:
For the sake of the people who could die, I really hope that Congo and its neighbors are up to the challenge. The US will be worse than useless in a crisis, unfortunately.
lol chikinburd
As for the U.S., political divorce has to happen. Either the U.S. becomes two countries, one part of the world and one pariah, or it’ll be one big pariah, and be destroyed by global concensus.
Yeah, yeah, who’d get custody of the nukes. We’d have to, to (one hopes) deter them. Just make it happen, world.
Citizen_X
Great, now Trump is going to declare war on Ebolastan.
HeleninEire
@BGinCHI: You make me cry and laugh all with the same sentence.
They are too early. The Ebola scare needs to come 2 months before the election. Amateurs. But we knew that.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@lol chikinburd:
It’s not quite that simple.
The Moar You Know
Watch us close our borders entirely to the “shithole countries” in the name of some sort of national biological security.
Major Major Major Major
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: pariah it is!
Elizabelle
LOL: headline up at NY Mag:
About Giuliani.
TeezySkeezy (formerly the T S you hate)
@Citizen_X: Nah, we’ll let a client states taunt Ebolastan until it makes the first move.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Haaretz is reporting that Israeli jets are blowing shit up in Damascus in “anticipation” of Iranian retaliation for a previous Israeli raid.
I’m eager to see Netanyahu and the rest of his Likud cabal stand some human rights/war crimes trials.
John Revolta
@HeleninEire: Six months- to the day- before the election. Well, maybe they’re gonna build it into a great big shiny thing all through the summer!
Jeffro
@The Moar You Know:
This is exactly what noted germaphobe Trumpov panic-tweeted about endlessly back in 2013 or 2014. Betting that he will close the borders entirely to every non-majority white country on Earth is as close to a sure thing as you’ll get in this lifetime.
Elizabelle
For some happier news, gonna pop in some background on the new acting AG for New York, Barbara Underwood, state’s longtime solicitor general (she’s argued 20 cases before the US Supreme Court) and a former clerk to Thurgood Marshall in 1971 and 1972. She’s 73, and apparently not running for AG this fall.
NY Daily News: Everything you need to know about Barbara Underwood — the first woman to head AG office after replacing Schneiderman
We have to look for the good things. I can’t take gloom and doom and “we’re going to war, war I tell you!” (says who?) around here.
Cermet
@Mnemosyne: I read some of the details of how the Congo (with help from the stock piles of vaccine) organized, delivered and used the vaccine so that the Ebola outbreak last time was quickly stopped. No reason they can’t again. Great strides have been done in controlling Ebola thanks to that breakthrough vaccine developed in no small part, thanks to the massive effort caused by that previous, large outbreak that so scared the US. Some great good has been achieved in the world. The vaccine even helps people who already have the illness (early stages) – it is extremely effective in preventing the illness.
J R in WV
@ruemara:
Say whut!??? You’re going to live on kale, broccoli, and lettuce? How?
Ooh, Ooh, I see, lots of cheese and bacon and dressing on the kale salads…
;-)
TenguPhule
@J R in WV:
After throwing away the kale.
J R in WV
I know this is very seriously bad news, and I apologize if I offend anyone with my lame attempts at humor, but it really helps me deal with the terrible nature of most of the news recently.
My friends and relatives on the Big Island of Hawaii are all OK, the folks in Hilo were jounced around pretty badly but my cousins were just a little shaken up. Volcano still erupting!
NY state AG’s office – wholly crap!!!
Trump’s foreign mismanagement – not a policy at all, just wow. So lame, so ignorant AND so stupid. Is the stupid the cause of the ignorance, or are they two independent factors?
And now Ebola, an excuse for Trump to shut down all travel between North America and Africa! Or even people who once lived in Africa, because he doesn’t understand the germ theory of diseases…
I wonder what next? I mean, who could have guessed that the same day Trump stomps on the international order, Ebola crops up again… Plus the volcano, and the NY State AG, what a news week so far!
TenguPhule
@J R in WV:
In better news, its at least cleared enough for some people to go back and rescue pets and livestock left behind during the initial evacuation.
Sab
@ruemara: What is left? You can”t live on veggies alone for long.
Sab
@TenguPhule: Livestock are difficult to move, but who the fuck wouldn’t take their pets in the initial evacuation?
TenguPhule
@Sab: Birds and fish might have been too problematic to move in the first frenzied rush to get the hell out of the danger zone.
Cheryl Rofer
workworkwork
@TenguPhule: Plus (in hockey at least), they serve a useful purpose.