It's a Katy Bar the Door Thing

Dear America,

katy bar the door

maybe it's just me, but I just can't bear to listen to it.

The absolute protection of a nation's entire health and welfare should never be left in the care of the politics of it.

Some of you may remember a few 'days' back, my brief remarks on dealing with a medical emergency --  when my girl, all the way on the other side of the country, required a 911 call and a brief stay at a local emergency room.  Fortunately, all was well at the end of the day and she returned to her dorm in time for afternoon tea and life went on as if nothing had ever happened.

As with all emergency calls -- the paramedics and hospital staff don't discriminate.  They just do.  They jump to the task at hand at the mercy of the circumstances at play, no matter what.  

And how many times have people boarded a plane bearing symptoms of the flu -- slight fever, aches and pains, and just dying to get home to their own bed?

And President Obama cancels a fundraiser?  Now?
He had to get his sleep the night of the Benghazi attacks just to get to where ever it was the next day.... Los Angeles,.... Las Vegas...can't remember; no matter, he sure couldn't cancel those plans. But he stopped everything to gather the troops to talk about Ebola?  

I thought everything was under control?

After hearing of the missile downing a passenger jet over Ukraine, life went on business as usual.    After hearing of one of own be beheaded by ISIS, golf went on for the afternoon totally unaffected.   What's so different about this situation that prompted the discriminating gesture of throwing off the best laid plans and prompt your full attention, Mr. President?

And if I hear Thomas Frieden say 24/7 one more time....well I ought-ta...

no, no, here's a good quote (thanks to CNS News):

“I think there are two different parts of that equation,” he continued. “The first is, if you’re a member of the traveling public and are healthy, should you be worried that you might have gotten it by sitting next to someone? And the answer is no.”

“Second, if you are sick and you may have Ebola, should you get on a bus? And the answer to that is also no. You might become ill, you might have a problem that exposes someone around you,” he said.

The thing is -- as I may be sounding very well all over the place -- I'm not alone in my flighty outbursts of contradiction and confusion; I have plenty of company...CDC, check.  NIH, check, White House, check check.

katy bar the door

How is it that this morning  -- after authorizing the second nurse to board the Frontier flight from Ohio back to Texas -- the CDC mulls over the possibility of changing protocol and putting all medical personnel who just happened to have come in contact with the patient who died in Texas, suddenly land themselves on the "no-fly" list --  AND YET, no one seems all that concerned about banning flights from the African countries  at the heart of the Ebola virus?  Come fly, come all.

Are you kidding me?

And you know -- it's funny (not really) -- how is it that as things progress, or rather, regress -- the effective protocols in place require change?   

And on top of that, how is it that our president is considering sending more troops -- National Guard -- to Liberia?

Again, with the contradictions being sharply illuminated by the politics of it all.  

We can send our steadfast National Guard into a situation containing absolute danger of contracting a deadly virus, in the protection of non-citizens, but we can't send our National Guard to our borders to protect us?   

Until we truly have a handle on this thing called Ebola, wouldn't it be smart  -- in the protection of  America and all of our citizens -- to quarantine -- to quarantine all 300 million of us, that is?

katy bar the door

And if, in fact, we know that the virus contagion can be active in the body for 21 days, how do we really know how vulnerable the public truly is, even before someone coming down with a fever?

If the CDC director, Tom Frieden, tells us we need to "stop it [Ebola] at the source"  -- doesn't that mean keep it within the borders on the continent of Africa?  

Our healthcare system is already being tested in ways unimaginable with added costs and regulations and bureaucracy and subsidizing  -- how is it even possible to put the African Ebola epidemic at the top of the list of things to do?  [personal note: bear in mind, seven hours in the emergency room after simply fainting and accidentally hitting the head costs about a grand per hour.  NO kidding.  I wonder what it will cost in the care-taking of an entire nation (or three) of the Ebola virus?]

And what about this news breaker -- via the Washington Times -- here's the opening:

The Centers for Disease Control told the incoming Obama administration in 2008 that it should establish 18 regional disease detection centers around the world to adequately safeguard the U.S. from emerging health threats like Ebola, according to an agency memo.

But six years later, as the government struggles to contain the fallout from a deadly Ebola outbreak at home and abroad, the CDC still has only 10 centers — and none of them operates in the western Africa region hardest hit by the deadly virus.

2008 was a long time ago.

katy bar the door

So here we are, instead of putting our troops on the border, we are putting them at risk by physically traveling to places like Liberia to assist in the containment of this virus; while, here at home, leaving our borders open to whatever.   And when I say 'whatever' the list is growing:   illegal immigrants, illegal gang violence, illegal Islamic Extremists, and the illegal spread of all kinds of infectious and deadly diseases.  Come one, come all.

We can't be seen as intolerant or discriminating in any possible way...even if such actions protect the health and welfare of our own.

While to continue on this thread of being all over the place, let's applaud a couple actions of the free market.

British Airways, who began suspending flights to Liberia and Sierra Leone back in August, is extending the restrictions through MARCH!   Cue the Liberian diplomat who calls such actions knee-jerk and contempt-able...and bear with me now as I link to The Telegraph for more on that.

And what kind of help does an Ebola Swat Team accomplish after the fact, the day after another person in America has been infected, Mr. President?

And let's cue Pete Hoekstra, former House Intelligence Chairman, via Newsmax, highlighting conflicting optics:

"The director of the CDC yesterday saying, 'We've got all of our rules and regulations and the protocols, they're all very, very clear,' and then people are saying, 'Well, if everything is so well understood and they work so well, why is it that we now have two nurses that have Ebola?'

As Newsmax goes on to add:

The Michigan Republican says the Obama administration needs to "step back, take a deep breath. Before you say you got it under control, understand exactly what's going on." 

Hoekstra contends that this is another example of the administration's putting "politics before policy." 

katy bar the door

I don't know...

I say, let's pass the hat around and take donations, and send money.

Ask for volunteers to go to Africa -- to assist.

Stop all flights from the infectious countries until such time we have things under control.

Send medications.  Send food and water.  All while working personnel to and fro don Hazmat suits.

And close our border...Maybe until March...We'll see,

I'll have my people get back to your people.

Let's have a summit.  Create a task force.  Soon.  

Lord knows, we have plenty of shovel ready jobs ahead.

Yes, I'm being flip and all over the place all the way to the brutal end.

Make it a Good Day, G

Oh my:  THIS JUST IN!  An area of Southwestern College, in a south county of San Diego, Chula Vista --  has just gone on lock down, and full quarantine AFTER a student who had apparently come in contact with the nurse in flight exhibited symptoms.  She vomited in class and confessed to the possibility of just maybe...hopefully it's nothing.  Maybe she's got the flu.  No No, maybe it's worse, maybe she's pregnant.

katy bar the door