Friday, October 17, 2014

Ron Klain is a welcome face at the White House. I guess an emergency was required to bring him back.

I am quite sure President Obama is relieved to have a capable person take over the day to day management of this national emergency. It is still best if Mr. Klain had a US Surgeon General at the other end of a phone. I thank Mr. Klain for accepting this difficult position.

President Obama meets with Cynthia Hogan, Counsel to the Vice-President and Ron Klain, Chief of Staff to the Vice President in the Oval Office, May 21, 2009. (Official White House photo by Pete Souza) 

October 17, 2014
By David Jackson
Washington — President Obama (click here) tapped veteran government insider Ron Klain to coordinate his administration's efforts to contain the Ebola virus Friday.

Klain, a former chief of staff to Vice Presidents Joe Biden and Al Gore, is well-known by Obama and White House aides. He was selected for his management experience and contacts throughout the government, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.

"He is the right person for the job," Earnest said, particularly the challenge of "integrating the interagency response."

Klain's appointment marks a swift turnabout for Obama, who until Thursday had resisted calls to appoint a single official to run the government's response to Ebola....      

Cliven's hope is yet to be elected.


If Cliven wants to meet with AG Holder I am sure he'd be happy to arrange a meeting if he is accompanied by his lawyer.

The black man in the ad might bring some class to the congressional district. But, if I am reading the signs right when a white horse lifts it's tail along side a black cowboy it is a bad omen. No one can make up this stuff.


Perry seems to aspire to follow in "W"'s footsteps. He was "W"'s Lt. Governor. Sort of explains things.

The Islamic State has Ebola? We have that on record from them? Problem solved.

There is no autoclave in West Africa.

20 September, 2014
by Mark Doyle
...In West Africa (click here) the normal thing to do would be to stop, reach out one hand, or even two, shake warmly and then embrace.
This is followed by much backslapping, more handshaking on points of agreement and even the odd high five.
It's what children do, it's what men do, it's what elderly ladies do.
Well, not any more. Ebola is spread by contact with bodily fluids, so these days people shun contact with others - including handshakes....
...President Johnson Sirleaf had earlier said the disease was damaging Liberians' way of life. One thing she was surely referring to was the unusual Liberian handshake....

A.B.C. - Avoid Body Contact

The Ebola Handshake has several difference styles, but, it is a very effective way of putting this dangerous virus into a social environment. I love it. Congratulations.

This storm has reached category 4 hurricane status twice.

October 17, 2014

Hurricane Gonzalo (click here) barreled toward Bermuda on Friday, with forecasters warning of significant damage ahead and life-threatening storm surge. The National Hurricane Center said the eye of Gonzalo — currently packing Category 3 winds of 125 mph — will near the island Friday afternoon. "Gonzalo is expected to be a dangerous hurricane when it moves near Bermuda," according to the National Hurricane Center, which said the storm was moving north-northeastward and is expected to gain speed through Saturday....

The first time it reached category four status was on October 15, 2014 at 3PM with winds at 115 knots (132.5 mph) and a central pressure of 949. It sustained this status for six hours and then down graded to a category 3 for 12 hours with winds of 105 to 110 knots (121 - 126.7 mph) with a consistent central pressure of 953 millibars of pressure.

The second category 4 status was achieved the lowest central pressure 940 mbar or hPa which ever one prefers. The Cat 4 status sustained then for 27 hours with maximum sustained winds of 125 knots (144 mph). The storm is expected to hit Bermuda directly and cause damage. 

This is not an unusual event for Bermuda having sustained these storms since 1874 (click here). Of all these storms more than 16 percent were major hurricanes. In recent years 2003 was Hurricane Fabian with sustained winds of 104 knots (120 mph).

October 17, 2014
1630.19z
Unisys Goes East Water Vapor Satellite (click here for 12 hour loop)

I think anyone can discern the hurricane and the little red dot that is Bermuda.

The safety of Americans are already compromised do to lack of governance.

A travel ban won't work. Will a refugee stop seeking refuge? A travel ban will only encourage circumventing the ports of entry to the USA.

Right now the traveler is better off being caught having an infection than to go it alone and hope to make it to an emergency room on their own disregarding any safety or monitoring along the way.

What occurred with Mr. Duncan is exactly what this country should not want. At either end of the monitoring, the potential patient will be found and provided monitoring and treatment. That is the only method whereby a person who may be ill knowingly or not will be found before they spread the disease.

Americans in West Africa has a right to come home. This disease may have been stemmed completely if there was sufficient funding for research. The Republican priorities are completely backward. A country with means does not abandon research and it does not create danger for its own citizens by turning sane people into fugitives from a travel ban. Republican priorities are dangerous and completely disregard the public when dismissing the importance of governance and policy.

Eboli is not the avian flu.

October 17, 2014
By Daniel M. Keller


PHILADELPHIA — A vaccine (click here) containing small amounts of influenza H7N9 antigen elicited good immune responses when mixed with a common adjuvant, according to the results of a new study.
"The H7 hemagglutinin is a very poor antigen," said Mark Mulligan, MD, director of the Hope Clinic of the Emory Vaccine Center and professor of medicine at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. "We know that from earlier H7 containing subtype vaccines that there is very little immune response to the protein alone."
Speaking here at IDWeek 2014, Dr Mulligan reported that two doses of 45 μg of hemagglutinin antigen raised antibody titers only minimally, but when mixed with MF59 adjuvant, doses as low as 3.75 μg were very effective. The technique may be valuable during pandemics, when vaccine antigen is in short supply, and may help raise antibodies to poorly immunogenic antigens.
The study was also published in the October 8 issue of JAMA....

Any person is most likely to seek out government authority for help when there are no penalties to do so. Not only will they seek government authority and/or hospitals when they are infected, but, citizens within the USA are also willing to come forward without reservations to their treatment. 

The emergency rooms today around the country where people believe they have been exposed for whatever reasons they believe that are coming in fairly large numbers to be checked. It is important open doors continue to receive information. If this virus gets out of control the entire character of the country will change. Monitoring those that might be infected provides information to the public that proves tracing people and monitoring them works. Not only does it work, but, treatment appears to be successful.

The blame game is going to continue? Really? Then there is only one place to put it and that is on Congress.

The Surgeon General reports to the Assistant Secretary for Health (ASH), who may be a four-star admiral in the United States Public Health Service, Commissioned Corps (PHSCC), and who serves as the principal adviser to the Secretary of Health and Human Services on public health and scientific issues.

Rand Paul is going to be losing supporters, even among Libertarians. He is becoming too extreme and backing candidates that fill the description of extreme. He says Dr. Murthy is primarily a political animal and that is life.

It is very strange to have a man who is an optomologist state another health care professional is a political animal. Hello?

October 16, 2014

...Rear Admiral Boris Lushniak (click here) has been acting surgeon general since Regina Benjamin’s resignation in July 2013.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) put a hold on Murthy’s nomination in February, noting “the majority of Dr. Murthy’s non-clinical experience is in political advocacy.”
“Historically, the Surgeon General of the United States has been a position with the purpose of educating Americans so that they may lead healthier lives, rather than advancing a political agenda,” Paul wrote at the time to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). “Dr. Murthy has disqualified himself from being Surgeon General because of his intent to use that position to launch an attack on Americans’ right to own a firearm under the guise of a public health and safety campaign.”...

There needs to be criminal penalties for assaulting the sovereignty of the USA.

There is only one thing I think of other than friends when it comes to South Carolina and that is the iconic Palmetto Palm Tree. 

This is outrageous behavior by a Governor obviously pandering to racists for votes.

There needs to be criminal charges for desecrating the image of the USA by displaying and holding fond, especially by an elected official, the confederate flag. The confederate flag is an indication people still hold the ideas of the past dear seeking to adhere to them. It is an assault again the country. 

October 17, 2014 Nikki Haley (click here) has come under fire for declaring the confederate flag above the South Carolina statehouse a non-issue because no CEO has mentioned it. Haley, the incumbent Republican governor of South Carolina, said the line in a debate with gubernatorial candidate Democrat Vincent Sheheen.
The South Carolina flag controversy has existed for sometime. The confederate flag was originally placed on the main dome of the statehouse until a heated debate after the 2000 presidential race created a compromise. A monument was created for the soldiers who died for the South in the civil war and the flag was moved to the top of that monument, where it still flies today.
The confederate flag remains an issue for Nikki Haley’s opponent Sheheen, who has called for the flag to be taken down all together.
Saying in the Tuesday debate, “I think the people of South Carolina are tired of having an image across America that’s not truly who we are. We should rally together under a flag that unites us all, the American flag, that looks toward the future, and not the past.”...

I am very happy for Nina. Dallas did a great job with her recovery.

October 17, 2014

The first nurse (click here) to test positive for the Ebola virus arrived in Maryland Thursday evening on a chartered flight from Dallas, bound for treatment at a federal hospital outside Washington, D.C.,Nina Pham, saying "I'm doing really well,'' left Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in an ambulance for a chartered small jet waiting at the city's Love Field. The plane departed at 7:09 p.m. CT and arrived at an airport at Frederick, Md., less than three hours later....

I think it makes a great deal of difference if an individual contracts the virus when they are healthy and early to begin recovery. 

:But, I didn't have trip insurance." Everyone's got their priorities.

Oct. 15, 2014
WASHINGTON -- Obama administration officials (click here) said Friday that a Dallas health care worker who handled a lab specimen from an Ebola-infected man from Liberia who died of the disease was on a Caribbean cruise ship where she has self-quarantined and was being monitored for any signs of infection.
State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement that the woman had shown no signs of the disease and had been asymptomatic for 19 days.
The government was working to return the woman and her husband to the U.S. before the ship completes its cruise. The White House said the State Department was working with an unidentified country to secure their transportation home....

"I'm goin' on this cruise if it kills me."

"Ya only go around once, ya know."

"What goes around comes around."

Only in America are people with money this stupid.

"But, I wasn't thinking." 

Okay, then.

I sincerely can't imagine having the pursue gingerly knock on my stateroom door saying, "The Secretary of State of the USA is really upset right now."