EBOLA FUTURES The Ebola thing is foremost on the minds of everyone. Why? It is true that more people will die from the flu than Ebola. But the issue is simply one of the horrific nature of the disease, and the fact that it has crystalized the ineptitude of the government beurocracy to handle anything more complex than a stop light. So here is what the possibilities are. Either there will be more people diagnosed with it, and traced back to the nurse on the CDC-approved/CDC-disapproved flight…or not. I will discuss the “not” first. If there is no more diagnosis of Ebola, everything will go back to normal…eventually. By then flights from West Africa will have been stopped. Any new visitors with passports stamps from the region will have been quarantined and tested. And the same measures taken by China, Japan, and Russia will be in place here (who are Ebola free nations due to taking those steps). If there are more people stricken with Ebola the opposite will happen. And I doubt in the age of Twitter, Facebook, and texting that even the NSA will be able to keep it hidden. People will stop traveling; they will stay at home and wait until it blows over. The hunker down reaction is a natural human thing that dates back to the Black Death. Why ride the bus to flip burgers when the homie next to you on the bus has flu-like symptoms and will cough Ebola all over you. Screw it. You will stay home, live off your reserves and come out of hiding in a few weeks when your FB friends say its safe. Public service workers…those tasked with contacting the very people everyone is terrified of, will weigh the options. Go to work and do my job…poorly prepared as we are – or call in sick, take my vacation time now, or screw it – quit. I can always get another job later. I recall during the heyday of the AIDS deal. It didn’t matter what the training school said, if a guy was suspected of having AIDS or HIV, nobody touched him. People will also hunker down regionally. Think what the more prepared and affluent neighborhoods have done during natural disasters. Trespassers will in fact be shot, and nobody will know what happened. Since public service will be at a minimum, I doubt there will be any quick responses. Things will be difficult until the entire deal blows over, but I suspect the greatest hit will be in lower rungs of the social – economic ladder where people tend to not be as educated about precautions nor mobile, and where the blue-flu in public service will be highest. But even then, in about three or four weeks, everything will be back to normal. Well…everything except the trust and credibility of the government. That will be dead and buried along with the Ebola victims in Africa and the USA.
Posted on: Thu, 16 Oct 2014 15:07:07 +0000
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