Ebola in Dallas: Your Mid-Morning Update

By Stephen Young Fri., Oct. 3 2014 at 11:44 AM

Centers for Disease Control

Transmission electron micrograph of the Ebola virus

Since concluding our coverage yesterday, the situation hasn't changed much. The apartment in which Thomas Duncan stayed at The Ivy in Vickery Meadows is still under quarantine, but has received additional cleaning and waste disposal. No person Duncan was in contact with has shown any symptoms, and the only reason any DISD schools are closed is the massive power outages caused by yesterday's storms.

See also: Ebola in Dallas: Day 3

Links of Note:

Emily Mathis reports on Dallas parents who are keeping their kids out of school.

From Vox, an explainer of what we know, and perhaps more important, what we don't about the Duncan case. The post questions a lot of information reported by multiple outlets, including the date Duncan first sought care, whether Duncan knew he had been in contact with Ebola and whether anyone actually contacted the CDC about Duncan.

The New York Times describes the challenge "Countering Fear of Ebola With Education Where West Africans Live in U.S." Vickery Meadows has one of the highest concentrations of West Africans in the country. The paper also explains what "direct contact" means with regard to Ebola.

Locally, The Dallas Morning News reports on the difficulties faced by authorities in finding people who may have come in contact with Duncan and ensuring they receive proper monitoring and care and describes the long emergency waits faced by patients at Texas Health Presbyterian.

Finally, from WFAA, an explanation of why Duncan was released from Presbyterian after his first trip to the hospital.

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sbristow15

There’s nothing like an ignorant, publicity-hungry local DA, like Craig Watkins, trying to make a name for himself, but in actuality, he’s making a complete @ss of himself on the national stage by trying to lynch an innocent man with false criminal charges. Who knows? Maybe if someone else dies from the ebola outbreak, Watkins may even charge Duncan with capital murder with the death penalty like Todd Cameron Willingham.

There's no proof that Thomas Duncan lied on any customs form in knowingly having contact with anyone with a diagnosis of ebola. The woman he helped, who died in Liberia and was diagnosed well after her death, was never diagnosed while she was alive because all the hospitals and clinics she sought help from turned their backs on her to die at home, and she, herself, never found out she had contracted the ebola virus. So how could Craig Watkins and Liberian officials claim that Duncan lied when this woman's diagnosis was only confirmed weeks after her death by a New York Times reporter, and well after Duncan himself was diagnosed at Presby weeks later?

The fact that her own family thought that this woman was ill due to a complication of her pregnancy gives Duncan reason to answer "no" to having any contacts with a confirmed “ebola patient.” (See http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/pdf/00_2014/10-2014/Thomas-Eric-Duncan.pdf).

This poor woman was turned away from several hospitals, left to die, so they never got any definitive answer to her ailment. This is clearly the fault of the Liberian health care system, and it's understandable that Duncan had no knowledge of these facts because no one provided any answers to him.

If a PCR test was never run on Duncan, even Presby could honestly say "no" to having any contacts with anybody with ebola. That's why you have to run the test to confirm someone has ebola, and why you have to isolate or quarantine an ebola patient's contacts. The Liberian system dropped the ball, and Duncan should not be vilified for any of his actions. (CNN confirmed much of these facts this evening on Anderson 360.)

The malicious TaliBubbas in this state, like Craig Watkns, are just jumping to conclusions, grandstanding, and trying to make a name for themselves at the expense of others by saying he deliberately lied. If that’s not dishonest, then I don’t know what is.

Watkins is lucky, if stupidity was a crime in this state, he’d get the death penalty.

Mervis

http://thecolbertreport.cc.com/full-episodes/0zline/october-2--2014---lynn-sherr

TheRuddSki topcommenter

It's nice to know that the only real defense against Ebolians entering the country is trust.

DonkeyHotay topcommenter

Update -- God Hates Humans

hth.

deep-sigh

http://www.vox.com/2014/10/1/6878695/ebola-virus-outbreak-symptoms

"The Ebola virus has been able to live in semen for up to 82 days" here's hopin he only had the one girlfriend....

becoolerifyoudid

This is really all about I-345 isn't it?

I mean we have a densely populated area that is walkable by default (many people don't have the money to own cars in Five Points). It is close to a DART station. Nonetheless, the area doesn't fit the utopian ideal of the self selected New Urbanist high priests. Indeed, it has been a high crime blighted area for twenty years. Thus, we need to get the feds involved to wipe them off the map a la 1840s Manifest Destiny lest people confuse Five Points urbanism for West Village urbanism and refuse to spend tax money turning I-345 into a developer's profit.

No, I'm not serious. I am bored at work, but I like to keep my paranoia reflexes strong.

wcvemail

First! (isn't that enough?)

noblefurrtexas topcommenter

@bvckvs I certainly agree with you about our Dallas County Health Director. He's worse than useless; he puts out bad information and has a clue what he's doing.

The best Hazmat cleanup people are in the military. But, in the DFW area, there are probably several good companies. As well, the Dallas Fire and Rescue Department probably knows several people who contract with them after chemical spill fires, and such.