LATEST REPORT SUGGESTS NEW EBOLA CASES HAVE INCREASED TO 1,000 OR MORE A WEEK The latest Ebola response roadmap situation report has come in from the World Health Organization, and the news only keep getting worse. As of the the October 22 report, there had been 9,911 cases; there are now 13,676 reported, an increase of almost 40% in one week. Not to worry, WHOs scribblers assure us: The marked increase in the cumulative total number of cases compared with the situation report of 22 October results from a more comprehensive assessment of patient databases. The additional 3 792 cases have occurred throughout the epidemic period, not only since 22 October. In other words, the epidemic didnt get that much worse, it had been much worse all along, but the institution in charge of the fight against it is just now figuring it out. Great. Very reassuring indeed. But there is even worse news in the details of the main chart, the one in the Countries with Widespread and Intense Transmission section. According to this chart, there have been 2,966 NEW Ebola cases over the past 21 days. Thats an average of 989/week. The previous report, dated October 22 offered a one-week total of 976, not the customary three-week total. But the three week averages for the Oct 1, Oct. 8 and Oct 15 reports were 933, 933 and 939. If you do the math, you will see the figure for the last week in the October 15 report --which would be the earliest week in the current three week count-- had to have been between 947 and 955 cases. The Oct. 22 report had 976 cases. Add 955 to 976, subtract from the 2966 cases of the three week total in the October 29 report and you get 1034 cases for the most recent week. You might think, well perhaps weeks 1 and 2 of the three week period were under-counted to begin with, and the numbers for those two earlier weeks are now higher than even the most recent week. But if so, then the current weeks numbers will also be higher in a week or two. So it really doesnt matter. We are now at 1000 new cases/week in the three affected countries in western sub-Saharan Africa, or as close to as makes no difference. And, anyways, the importance of a round figure liker 1000 cases a week simply reflects the natural decimalist prejudices of a ten-fingered species. Yet the virus has no fingers, only victims. And the numbers climb higher, week after week. But worse than those raw numbers are the multiple outbreaks in the region, and especially the new ones. The WHO October 29 update says All districts in Liberia and Sierra Leone have now reported at least one case of EVD [Ebola virus disease] since the start of the outbreak. That is a first that confirms the epidemic is still spreading, is still out of control. And there has also now been a case in neighboring Mali. A 2-year-old child is dead. Because she had been cared for by many without the strict precautions required in the case of Ebola infection, it is feared she will be the index case in a new cluster, or perhaps major outbreak. Each step in the spread of the disease, whether a new village, district, urban area or country, is a step closer to an uncontrollable pandemic. Every week that there is an increase in the number of new infections pushes humanity closer to the precipice of our civilizations collapse. And so be it. A civilization so racist and barbaric as go be unwilling to stop the holocaust now unfolding in Africa does not deserve to survive, even if it could. So, what are we DOING about it, in the United States, the country politicians never tire of telling us is the greatest country in the world, a shining city on a hill, the last, best hope for humanity? In New Jersey, a woman --a nurse-- who showed tremendous courage in volunteering to to fight Ebola on the front lines in Africa, was ordered jailed in a tent upon returning to her country and even after that humiliation relented, and was allowed to continue to her home, she was promptly slapped with a police-state diktat not to venture outside those four walls ... or else! Thatll teach her not to make us worry about the Ebola epidemic by her going out to actually fight it. From high school classes a lifetime ago, lines from a poem come back to me and mix with the holocaust I see unfolding: This is the way the world ends, This is the way the world ends, This is the way the world ends: Not with a bang, but the braying of jackass politicians. They tell us to look upon the shining city on a hill, but I only see the flames from our funeral pyre.
Posted on: Thu, 30 Oct 2014 00:42:01 +0000
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