News that Richardson Will Get an Ebola Center Doesn't Spark Panic in the Streets

By Emily Mathis Wed., Oct. 22 2014 at 4:33 PM

Is Dallas' Ebolapocalypse over?

On Monday, Governor Rick Perry announced that UT Southwestern Medical Center, Methodist Health System and Parkland Hospital System would be partnering to open a dedicated Ebola treatment center at the Methodist Campus for Continuing Care in Richardson. With Wednesday's opening, we spoke to residents and workers near the center to gauge their reaction. The response? Meh.

"I don't see a problem with it. I don't really see any particular problem with having a treatment center in any particular location," says Wayne Krug, who works close to Methodist and lives close to Texas Health Presbyterian, where two nurses recently contracted Ebola after treating Thomas Eric Duncan, who died of the disease. "Having some hospital set up for it just as a precaution is a good idea. If you have something staffed up and ready to do it, it cuts down on problems in the future."

The lackadaisical attitude toward the new center is a sharp contrast to the response from some in the immediate days after Duncan's diagnosis. "I'd want to get away from these people if they came in. It's right here, in the middle school and high school. It's all around. And Presbyterian isn't far from here, that's where the guy died," said one worker at a Target close to Texas Health Presbyterian, just two weeks ago. "If I see somebody is sick, I'll want a mask. And I'd go to a manager and tell them to talk to the person. You've got to be careful. You just have to stay sanitized and just be careful."

"As a parent you can't do anything, it's like our hands are tied," said Cristina Garcia, a Vickery Meadow resident with kids in the DISD schools that were decontaminated, not long after Duncan's diagnosis. "It's too much to take in. We're wondering how much to freak out."

Which is why it's reasonable to suspect that at least some panic and paranoia would continue with the latest Ebola-related announcement. But with the removal of nurses Nina Pham and Amber Vinson to more well-equipped facilities in Atlanta and Bethesda, and the announcement that 61 people have been cleared from the Ebola watch list, much of our fear, too, has cleared. While there are still 116 people being monitored for symptoms, Dallasites are, it seems, returning to a state of pre-Ebola normalcy.

"It doesn't bother me," says Steven Flores, who works across the street from the center. "I know that Ebola is lethal, but it seems really overblown. It will still be around, but we won't hear about it as much."

Michael Cummings has lived close to the Methodist center for 30 years. He too is dismissive of any fears, as well as any potential financial downfalls of living so close to the center. "I do not have a problem with an Ebola center specialized for that hospital here," he says. "I think we've made some mistakes how we've handled the first few cases. But I think after these mistakes that we've done we'll be able to handle what else is thrown at us."

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roo_ster

Let us not discount the fact that our very own Governor Goodhair, Rick Perry(1), did a bang up job getting the right men together on his Task Force on Infectious Disease Preparedness and Response. Guy he selected to head it up, Brett Giroir, is the sort of guy you can call a Top Man and not say it sarcastically or while alluding to the last scene in the Raiders of the Lost Ark.

And the plan they came up with makes a whole lot of sense. Methodist Richardson is not a top-flight hospital, but its small size makes it a good choice if the whole place has to be shut down to manage an ebola outbreak. We won't lose nearly 1000 beds like we lost at Presby Dallas. The ER is small, too. And bringing in the big guns from UTSW and Parkland is the right answer.

To sum up, no one in Richardson is going apey because the Governor of Texas and an impressive team of competent men got their stuff wired tight. Unlike Obama and his Klown Kar Posse.

(1) Perry leaves me cold at times, but he provided the sort of leadership Obama could never manage. BHO's "Ebola Czar," is a political fixer, not a leader or doctor. BHO's choice to run the CDC is a nanny-statist good for knocking Big Gulps out of folks' hands, but not for dealing with infectious disease. BHO's choice for Surgeon General is just a gun-grabbing leftist twit. BHO's Original Ebola Czar has been AWOL over a political corruption scandal. Really, how hollow inside is Obama when _Perry_is the one who looks substantive and provides substance? Clinton may have been our first black PTOUS, but Obama is our first affirmative action POTUS.

RTGolden1 topcommenter

The difference in attitude you are noticing: informed vs. uninformed. With changing stories almost daily at the beginning of Duncan's treatment, people were, understandably, concerned. Conflicting advice, outright lies and deliberate misinformation, designed to 'maintain calm' had the opposite effect and caused people to wonder all sorts of things.

Now, most people have had a chance to sift through the available information, the CDC seems to have found true north, and the local threat seems to be on the decline. People can get back to worrying about benzine and abortion and voter ID.