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Comment by gdubs | Hacker News Reader

I’m not looking to incite a political flame war, but genuinely interested in how the current US government shutdown affects the response to this. The CDC is funded through 2019, but are there “non-essential” services whose absence will be detrimental towards combating a potential crisis like Ebola? Airport screeners? FDA? Research programs?

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Wouldn't China step in before the US if things got bad to the point of threatening the African Economy? I thought China had an economic foothold in Africa, thats why they have a military presence there.

I think op is talking about if or when Ebola reaches US.

It's not a widespread concern for the US. Not that it can't happen here in small pockets, but Ebola is a uniquely African problem, which is allowed to spread from a combination of political instability, African ritual family washing of the dead, aversion to cremation, poor health infrastructure, endemic malaria which has similar initial symptoms, lack of education, porous borders, poor public health infrastructure, and a seasonal migratory workforce that can carry disease across borders.

I'm inclined to believe that a significant urban ebola outbreak in Africa would be sufficiently frightening that politicians, regardless of their political stripe, would authorize the appropriate funding. In any case I'm sure it would fall under the rubric of being a national emergency and funding would be authorized by the executive branch with little controversy.

You do bring up an interesting point about airport screening because presumably that would require significant manpower. In passing, however, it appears that screening at airports hasn't advanced to the stage where it's particularly effective. [0].

[0] https://www.bmj.com/content/349/bmj.g6202

> I'm inclined to believe that a significant urban ebola outbreak in Africa would be sufficiently frightening that politicians, regardless of their political stripe, would authorize the appropriate funding. In any case I'm sure it would fall under the rubric of being a national emergency and funding would be authorized by the executive branch with little controversy.

I'm not so optimistic. I'll believe any of this when I see it.

My belief isn't grounded in any recognition that politicians really care. It's grounded in the fact that no politician would want to be blamed if ebola reached US shores. Ebola cases in the US would dominate the news cycle and incite a lot of fear.

WHO accepted donations in previous outbreak. https://www.who.int/csr/disease/ebola/funding/en/ If the emergency funding won't be available somehow or blocked, the business/private/government entities interested in stopping the outbreak will donate to the cause.

It's also worth considering whether the absence of these officials is a net positive or negative in terms of the overall response. Their response last time was abysmal. Be reminded, for example, that 19 days after Thomas Eric Duncan was treated without proper gear, the CDC still had a cheesy "under construction"-esque web page on the topic that said, "PPE Recommendations are forthcoming".

Hospitals were waiting instead of making their own preparations.

And they told Amber Vinson it was OK to fly with a slight fever, only later to vilify her in the press for "breaking protocol."

What an absolute shitshow.

On the other hand, Nigeria had an amazing response.

"In both cities, all the ingredients for an explosion of new cases were in place. That explosion never happened, thanks to the country’s strong leadership and effective coordination of an immediate and aggressive response. As in Senegal, an emergency operations centre was established, supported by the WHO country office. Also like Senegal, Nigeria had a first-rate virology laboratory, affiliated with the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, that was staffed and equipped to promptly diagnose a case of Ebola virus disease.

"The government generously allocated funds and dispersed them quickly. Isolation facilities were built in both cities, as were designated Ebola treatment facilities. House-to-house information campaigns and messages on local radio stations, in local dialects, were used to ease public fears. Infrastructures and cutting-edge technologies in place for polio eradication, were repurposed to support the Ebola response, putting GPS systems to work for real-time contact tracing and daily mapping of transmission chains. Contact tracing reached 100% in Lagos and 99.8% in Port Harcourt.

"In what WHO described as a “spectacular success story”, the country held the number of cases to 19, with 7 deaths. World-class epidemiological detective work eventually linked all cases back to either direct or indirect contact with the air traveller from Liberia. WHO declared Nigeria free of Ebola virus transmission on 20 October."

https://www.who.int/csr/disease/ebola/one-year-report/nigeri...

at what point institutions lose sight of common sense ..

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