Healthcare

Ebola in Dallas: Day 3

By Stephen Young Thu., Oct. 2 2014 at 3:57 PM
Categories: Healthcare

ebolawikicommons.jpg
Centers for Disease Control
Transmission electron micrograph of the Ebola virus

Newest updates will appear at the bottom of this post. Yesterday's updates can be found here: Ebola in Dallas: What We Know So Far

October 2: Morning Links:

Emily Mathis on the atmosphere at Texas Health Presbyterian.

From Vox, "How a Dallas hospital failed to diagnose the Ebola patient" and "The 6 Biggest myths about Ebola."

The Dallas Morning News reports that the State of Texas has confined Duncan's family to their home and forbidden them receiving visitors.

A report from NBC News says that Duncan's nephew, Josephus Weeks, called the CDC about his uncle, which prompted his being appropriately treated.

Here's the DMN's Todd Gillman explaining why the feds aren't restricting travel to the U.S. from West Africa.

Author Alexis Okeowo has an Op-Ed in The New York Times about "Living With the Terror of Ebola."

October 2, 9:21 a.m.:

From WFAA's Jenny Doren:

October 2, 9:56 a.m.: Carrie Williams, a spokeswoman with the Texas Department of State Health Services, has issued the following statement regarding Duncan's potential number of contacts:

"We are working from a list of about 100 potential or possible contacts and will soon have an official contact tracing number that will be lower. Out of an abundance of caution, we're starting with this very wide net, including people who have had even brief encounters with the patient or the patient's home. The number will drop as we focus in on those whose contact may represent a potential risk of infection."


October 2, 10:23 a.m.

A Reuters report from last night says that Duncan vomited outside of The Ivy on Sunday. Mesud Osmanovic told Reuters he was nearby as Duncan was heading to the hospital. "[Duncan's] whole family was screaming," he said. "He got outside and he was throwing up all over the place."

KDFW says that a report issued with its logo about Ebola in Frisco is a fake.


3:15 p.m.KDFW has confirmed that a Frisco teen allegedly behind this hoax has been arrested.

October 2, 10:32 a.m.: The mayor's office says it has staff available at 311 to answer Dallas residents Ebola questions.


October 2, 10:42 a.m. : Amy Silverstein reports on the scene at The Ivy, the apartment complex at which Duncan was staying. A City of Dallas spokesman says reporters are scaring residents.

October 2, 11:38 a.m. : The owner of The Ivy says the CDC is monitoring Duncan's family and providing them with essentials. Residents of the complex will have an Ebola information session later Thursday.

October 2, 12:05 p.m. : Supposedly, you can view the CDC press conference live at this link, but the video isn't working for me yet.

Also, this from the Associated Press:

October 2, 12:14 p.m. : If you feel like reading a pertinent seminal academic study, you can check out the full text of Philip Strong's "Epidemic psychology: a model."

October 2, 12:21 p.m. :


October 2, 12:34 p.m. : From the CDC Teleconference:

October 2, 1:32 p.m.: Mayor Mike Rawlings, County Judge Clay Jenkins, DISD superintendent Mike Miles and Dr. Paul Pepe, the City of Dallas Medical Director will provide an Ebola update from the county commissioners' courtroom at 2 p.m.

October 2, 1:42 p.m.:


October 2, 2:09 p.m.: Jenkins at press conference: "The science hasn't changed overnight. This is not like the flu."

Miles says first priority is children's safety. Nurses are making additional rounds at affected school. Miles says DISD does not think there is Ebola at the schools, cleaning is just an extra precaution.

"I think the message is getting out and people do feel safe," he says. That's why kids are still attending school.

DCHHS director Zach Thompson compares Ebola investigation to what happens after a food poisoning case is discovered at a restaurant or a tuberculosis case is discovered at a school: "It's a wide circle and then it gets reduced."

Thompson: County is in process of evaluating where a potential second patient would be taken, but there is NO evidence of a second case.

Jenkins: Dallas emergency rooms prepared for Ebola in August. The judge adds that Presbyterian is doing as excellent job of treating Duncan.

It should be noted that the above tweet refers to why the order was issued. There has been no resistance to the quarantine from the family post-order.

October 2, 2014:

October 2, 3:05 p.m.: Here's the DISD guide for talking to kids (or your most panicked co-worker) about Ebola.

October 2, 3:12 p.m.: KTVT reporter Ken Molestina tweets that three Richardson Independant School District students have been sent home as part of the "Ebola contact list."

Additionally, a Frisco High School student is being investigated for making a false Ebola report via Twitter, says WFAA's Jason Whitely. KDFW says this is the fake news report from this morning.

Richardson kids are students at Wallace Elementary, a letter sent to parents of kids at the school says the trio were sent as a precaution and emphasizes that none were showing any symptoms of Ebola.

October 2, 3:36 p.m.: From The New York Times: "In Dallas Schools, Fear of Possible Ebola Exposure"

From the Twitter account of the Frico teenager accused of making the fake Ebola news report:

October 2, 8:51 p.m. : Details emerge about Duncan's interactions with Presbyterian and Clay Jenkins visits the quarantined apartment at The Ivy as decontamination begins:







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Myrna.Minkoff-Katz
Myrna.Minkoff-Katz topcommenter

UPDATE:

Hysteria subsides as Ebola headlines disappear from front pages.

JFPO
JFPO

Why is "reporting" (not just here) often little more than screen shots of other people's Twitter feeds?


#lazy

JeezeLouise
JeezeLouise

I just saw a picture in the Boston Globe of a worker just using a power washer to clean off the sidewalk in front of the apartment.  Shouldn't he be wearing something to protect himself from the spray?  Even people in Africa are wearing protective gear when they enter houses where the virus has been & they are certainly wearing waterproof suits when cleaning out transport vans, etc.  I don't think it's too paranoid to be extra cautious where you KNOW the virus has been/is until the incubation period is up.  Why aren't any, even basic, precautions being taken at that apartment?


http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/world/2014/10/02/dallas-ebola-patient-lied-screening-form-airport-official-says/RF497GcChq2FnTiADv2xxJ/story.html#comments

sbristow15
sbristow15

The two most obvious reasons why this patient was initially so quickly discharged home from a private hospital such as Presby is: 1. He couldn't pay or lacked insurance, or 2. HE HAD THE EBOLA VIRUS!, and Presby didn't want any part of that. Apparently, a call from the man's nephew to the CDC was the only thing that did the trick to finally force Presby to admit him.


Despite what the medical experts have been saying to downplay fears about ebola coming to U.S. soil, it's now a reality, and the flood gates are fully open for many more cases. 


Americans have a real worry on their hands. Now that the word is out that two people infected with the virus have successfully boarded airplanes to seek better medical care outside of West Africa, many more desperately sick or infected people will try to do the same to seek out better health care in the West.


What choice do they have? If they stay in impoverished West Africa, they will not get care because the system is overrun, and they will die, or they can get to the West and have a fighting chance to survive.

JeezeLouise
JeezeLouise

Why aren't the Dallas County people wearing protective clothing coming out of the "infected" apartment?  Aren't they exposed now? Picture in the NYT: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/03/us/tracing-ebola-contacts-can-stop-virus-in-its-tracks-experts-say.html


Also, they keep saying no one is showing signs of infection, but it took Duncan from his exposure on Sept 15 until Sept. 24 before he started showing symptoms prior to going to Presby the first time on the 26th.  These people probably wouldn't start showing illness until tomorrow or so if you go by his timetable.

MaxNoDifference
MaxNoDifference

I haven't seen this level of reporting/hysteria since the Ice Storm Apocalypse.  Do we have a Pete Delkus of Ebola reporting?  Or least his sleeves?

LionelHutz
LionelHutz

How could Mesud Osmanovic, a resident of the Ivy Apartments, who stated that he witnessed Duncan vomiting outside at the Apartments, whilst his "whole family was screaming" also witness Duncan vomit outside of Presbyterian while his "whole family was screaming"??


Did Osmanovic accompany Duncan and his family to Presby in the ambulance? Maybe they drove real fast to get to there first. And when the ambulance arrived with Duncan at Presbyterian did the paramedics just stop for a minute so he could vomit outside of the hospital?

Montemalone
Montemalone topcommenter

My guess is the virus has mutated as a result of exposure to high altitude solar radiation as well as x-ray and particle beam scans in airport security.



BEWARE THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE.


FYI rednecks, guns don't work.

brad.mason.dallas
brad.mason.dallas

What happened to the vomit at the apartment complex and outside the hospital??  Birds, dogs, cats, rats, squirrels?  Prepare for "The Stand".

wcvemail
wcvemail

Found it! "Panic in the Streets" starred Richard Widmark as a U.S. Public Health Service captain (naval-looking uniform, but not exactly) who's got only hours to track a carrier of "pneumonic plague" in New Orleans, where it was actually filmed by Elia Kazan. The movie is Jack Palance's film debut, BTW. (1950)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042832/

HeywoodUBuzzoff
HeywoodUBuzzoff

Did I miss it?  The column where Schutz moans that Ebola is not as bad as what he saw in Detroit and that the rich white folks in North Dallas already have set up a system to keep anyone from South Dallas out of their hermetically sealed neighborhoods where the DMN has  special ink that contains Prosac to keep them calm while promoting submersible toll roads that will be named after John Wylie Price?? 

everlastingphelps
everlastingphelps topcommenter

@JFPO It's better than the usual "journalistic" practice of slightly rewording it, citing "sources" and then acting like it is original reporting.

TheRuddSki
TheRuddSki topcommenter

@JFPO

Probably because the tweets, like quotes, contain relevant information.

roo_ster
roo_ster

@JeezeLouise 

Not to worry, those good Catholic boys will run on back to Oaxaca and tell their families all about the excitement up north. 

Pete_Delkus_Sleeves
Pete_Delkus_Sleeves

@MaxNoDifference Im here, but I dont want to taint the weather side of my gig that Pete doesnt seem to mind.  Not sure he'd appreciate Ebolapocolypse humor from me!  Ill let someone else create something like John McCaa's hitler stache 

smyoung17
smyoung17

@LionelHutz Yeah, no vomit outside the hospital. Reading, posting this stuff quickly and misread the initial report. Fixed now.

TheRuddSki
TheRuddSki topcommenter

@Donk

UP hasn't had this much excitement since I called someone a cunt.

ThePosterFormerlyKnownasPaul
ThePosterFormerlyKnownasPaul topcommenter

@wcvemail 

Actually the US Navy is jealous of the the USPHS uniform.

The Surgeon General is the head of the USPHS and used to have very significant powers, particularly in regards to disease control and quarantine until the Surgeon General under LBJ had an argument with LBJ and LBJ then turned the Surgeon General position into essentially a bully pulpit.

mavdog
mavdog topcommenter

@TheRuddSki 

interesting 2nd paragraph of the story:

It is unclear what role the virus played in their deaths. In fact, it’s possible that enterovirus had nothing to do with them. The virus is very common, especially in the late summer and early fall, with the CDC estimating 10 million to 15 million infections each year in the United States.

the headline sure got your attention tho, didn't it?

MaxNoDifference
MaxNoDifference

@HeywoodUBuzzoff Unfortunately, the infected neighborhood (AKA "The Combat Zone")  is just a couple of miles to the east of the Dallas' vaunted enclave.

wcvemail
wcvemail

@HeywoodUBuzzoff 

I'm guessing "buzz" is actually happening a lot right now inside AND in front of your computer, huh.

Hot.Sauce
Hot.Sauce topcommenter

Who needs accuracy when there's public hysteria to inflame?

everlastingphelps
everlastingphelps topcommenter

@chasd00 @brad.mason.dallas From the reports, the EMTs might be the only ones that handled this like the serious business it is, using PPE and following the decontamination protocols on the ambulance right after.

wcvemail
wcvemail

@ThePosterFormerlyKnownasPaul @wcvemail

Interesting to learn. Still, when C. Everett Koop appeared in full uniform and Lincoln beard on the teevee machine telling me I should quit smoking, I quit smoking. And also sat up straighter.

TheRuddSki
TheRuddSki topcommenter

@mavdog

Got your attention too, didn't it?

roo_ster
roo_ster

@bmarvel @roo_ster @JeezeLouise 

Given where and for whom they are working, there is a good chance the brain surgeons turning Ebola Guy's vomitus into an aerosol are illegals.  Oaxaca is a common source of many illegals.  If Ebola gets out of hand here in DFW, expect many transients of all sorts to un-ass the area.  Likely places to flee are those that are familiar, like where one was born and has relatives.  There is a good chance that if such folk do flee, they will bring Ebola with them.  And we will get to see even more horror south of the border.  Because narcotraficante ultra-violence is just not horrifying enough.


Which brings up an item of interest:

The gov't of Mexico has already lost control of much of the north part of the country to the drug lords.  If the gov't of Mexico is shown to also be incompetent in containing a major disease outbreak like ebola, what are the chances that the Mexican gov't collapses?

TheRuddSki
TheRuddSki topcommenter

@Hot.Sauce

No, some weird dude who was fixated on me.

mavdog
mavdog topcommenter

@TheRuddSki 

no, you posted it so I opened it.

WHNT or CNN aren't on my normal reading list.

bmarvel
bmarvel topcommenter

@roo_ster So it's really all...the Catholics, right?Just to clarify where you're coming from, roos. 

mavdog
mavdog topcommenter

@TheRuddSki 

Ann Coulter qualifies as "some wierd dude'. close enough.

TheRuddSki
TheRuddSki topcommenter

@mavdog

Skipped biology?

TheRuddSki
TheRuddSki topcommenter

@mavdog

Good point, hon.

mavdog
mavdog topcommenter

@bmarvel

RuddSki and I are close in age....

you're a bit touchy about age comments Bill.

bmarvel
bmarvel topcommenter

@mavdog @bmarvel It's true. I am. But the little nips and scratches I get don't amount to anything at all considering the virulent racism and sexism regularly displayed on this blog.

Still it's my constant prayer that each and every commenter here lives to be at least as old as I am, and then some, so they can experience the rare privilege of having some young pup whose memory barely extends past yesterday address them as "old man" or "old woman."

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