World 'losing battle' to contain Ebola

[Furry Alairia and Algeria]

-snip-

A shame really. Africa could be the answer to all of our economic problems: a huge market of a billion people trading with Europe would be a lot better then the disease infested, war ridden, cesspool of misery that Africa currently is....

Parts of Africa, like Botswana, Ghana, Benin, Togo, Seychelles, Mauritius, etc. aren't too war torn.

[Wangdiduo12]

Source.

He said researchers, not pharmaceutical companies. Many researchers themselves probably aren't holding back.

[Calisu]

Source.

He said researchers, not pharmaceutical companies. Many researchers themselves probably aren't holding back.

He still made a claim with absolutely no evidence to back it up.

[Mefpan]

He said researchers, not pharmaceutical companies. Many researchers themselves probably aren't holding back.

He still made a claim with absolutely no evidence to back it up.

To be fair, that goes both ways.

[Wangdiduo12]

To be fair, that goes both ways.

Not assuming the worst is a psychological defence of the cowardly.

[Calisu]

He still made a claim with absolutely no evidence to back it up.

To be fair, that goes both ways.

If they truly wanted to cure it and not make money off of it why in all of human history have we only cured one disease?

[Mefpan]

To be fair, that goes both ways.

Not assuming the worst is a psychological defence of the cowardly.

As the Emperor's Inquisitor says, "A suspicious mind is a healthy mind."

But yeah, I'm rather happy with not assuming the worst all the time and being permitted to do things by my own reasoning because not every movement will kill you.

Edit:

To be fair, that goes both ways.

If they truly wanted to cure it and not make money off of it why in all of human history have we only cured one disease?

Please do me a favor. I really, really, really hate sand.

Please collect each and every single grain of sand on this planet and destroy it. Notice a problem?

[Wangdiduo12]

But yeah, I'm rather happy with not assuming the worst all the time and being permitted to do things by my own reasoning because not every movement will kill you.

You will die horribly for your insolence.

[Nationes Pii Redivivi]

Wanton pessimism time...

"Oh my God...we are going to die, we are all going to die."

[Wangdiduo12]

Please collect each and every single grain of sand on this planet and destroy it.

I see, that's a good excuse.

[Mefpan]

But yeah, I'm rather happy with not assuming the worst all the time and being permitted to do things by my own reasoning because not every movement will kill you.

You will die horribly for your insolence.

Statistically speaking, one hundred percent of people that live eventually die.

You know, I can live with that. Pun originally not intended but kept for the sake of making a groan-worthy joke.

Please collect each and every single grain of sand on this planet and destroy it.

I see, that's a good excuse.

No, that's a good way of describing just how fucking difficult it is to entirely destroy a virus. Unless, of course, we destroy all lab samples and purge the entire area in which it naturally occurs in roughly two weeks of concentrated nuclear fire to ensure that no host of the virus survives.

In the case of the common cold, we might as well set the world on fire. And I don't want to set the world on fire.
In the case of Ebola, that's still a very large portion of the world but no less unacceptable.

[Calisu]

Not assuming the worst is a psychological defence of the cowardly.

As the Emperor's Inquisitor says, "A suspicious mind is a healthy mind."

But yeah, I'm rather happy with not assuming the worst all the time and being permitted to do things by my own reasoning because not every movement will kill you.

Edit:

If they truly wanted to cure it and not make money off of it why in all of human history have we only cured one disease?

Please do me a favor. I really, really, really hate sand.

Please collect each and every single grain of sand on this planet and destroy it. Notice a problem?

With your logic? Yes.

[Ulrenon]

American sensationalism at its best, as always. Ebola outbreaks in Africa have been common for quite a while now, the only difference is that Americans have always ignored the problem until today.

In any case, the "band aid" solution that the west if favouring is useless. Africa needs development, it needs factories, technologic know-how, roads and railways, hospitals...the very basic stuff that civilised liberal democratic society needs.
Providing all of this will take time, planning and political will: but the west is governed by political midgets who are always going to prefer the "band-aid".

A shame really. Africa could be the answer to all of our economic problems: a huge market of a billion people trading with Europe would be a lot better then the disease infested, war ridden, cesspool of misery that Africa currently is....

Africa was only valuable to Europeans when we colonized it, now it's just a big pile of problems, problems, and more problems.

[Scomagia]

Sensationalism without context. Ebola isn't really "spreading uncontrollably", it's just that people in the effected nations aren't taking necessary precautions when dealing with the infected. The spread of Ebola is attributable to ignorance rather than actual infectiousness of the virus itself. I expected better from MSF.

[Swith Witherward]

Researchers are not holding back in order to make more money. Good grief. People need to take off the tinfoil hats once in a while.

Source.

I'm a researcher.

The problem rests with armchair paranoidists. They don't understand how research and production work. They see that aspirin and penicillin are cheap and don't understand why a tube of Aciclovir costs $700. They see a person with shingles and... like researchers... they want to see that person healthy and not in discomfort, but they don't understand that there are things in the Aciclovir that cost the manufacturer an arm and a leg. They don't understand that it's expensive to produce, and some ingredient costs are influenced by the global market. They assume that the manufacturer has jacked up the price in order to line the corporate executive's wallet. They're dead wrong, of course, but entitled to their opinion.

That said, the company I used to work for, and that my husband still works for, is a private organization working in tandem with two universities to establish an ovarian cancer vaccine. Funding is so short this year that they've culled five employees that were contributing to the program. It's pushed back the program by two years. Our costs are rising exponentially but the grants are smaller and smaller.

Here's another one: titanium surgical parts. The cost has tripled. Why? Obama is encouraging foreigners to purchase titanium plants in the US. Those overseas investors shut down the plants here which makes the demand stay the same but the supply less than usual. The investors set the price. Titanium must be shipped into the US. Expensive. The plants that process the parts are paying more for raw material, and now they're paying more for electricity because Obama is shutting down West Virginia coal mines. The coal mines provide the coal that electric companies use to power those plants. More expensive material coupled with higher production costs mean that manufacturers charge more for the parts, and that cost is passed on to medical facilities and their patients.

Don't like it? I can't help you. Researchers aren't holding back. Most are taking a loss yet still working... and sometimes volunteering man hours... to see a project to completion. If you want to cure Ebola, look at all that goes into researching those cures (and the short number of labs that can handle Ebola) and then donate directly to help.

[Keyboard Warriors]

This assumption that the world is doing nothing about Ebola because there's money to be made by letting it spread is bullshit and anybody who thinks this should be ashamed of themselves for being so ignorant.

[Calisu]

Source.

I'm a researcher.
-WALL OF TEXT NO SOURCE JUST OPINION-

Again, source.

[Britannic Realms]

Give me an 'S'. Give me an 'E'. Give me an 'N'. Give me an 'S'. Give me an 'A'. Give me a 'T'. Give me an 'I'. Give me an 'O'. Give me an 'N'. Give me an 'A'. Give me an 'L'. Give me an 'I'. Give me an 'S'. Give me an 'M'.

What do you get? SENSATIONALISM.

More seriously, the press have blown this matter way out of proportion, as usual. While the fight to contain Ebola in West Africa may be lost, it is not the end of the world. I still doubt it will reach Britain.

[Mefpan]

I'm a researcher.
-WALL OF TEXT NO SOURCE JUST OPINION-

Again, source.

I don't think we need a source to prove that the economy is interconnected and doesn't run on muahahahaium, the secret element that comes into existence whenever someone hatches a nefarious plan.

Why shouldn't you be providing a source for your beliefs, anyway? The Evil Scientists vs. Reasonable Researchers subdebate started with the claim they were intentionally withholding medicine, did it not?

[Scomagia]

Again, source.

I don't think we need a source to prove that the economy is interconnected and doesn't run on muahahahaium, the secret element that comes into existence whenever someone hatches a nefarious plan.

Why shouldn't you be providing a source for your beliefs, anyway? The Evil Scientists vs. Reasonable Researchers subdebate started with the claim they were intentionally withholding medicine, did it not?

Sigging the bolded.

[Calisu]

Again, source.

I don't think we need a source to prove that the economy is interconnected and doesn't run on muahahahaium, the secret element that comes into existence whenever someone hatches a nefarious plan.

Why shouldn't you be providing a source for your beliefs, anyway? The Evil Scientists vs. Reasonable Researchers subdebate started with the claim they were intentionally withholding medicine, did it not?

>Implying there isn't more money in treating a disease rather than curing it

[Swith Witherward]

I'm a researcher.
-WALL OF TEXT NO SOURCE JUST OPINION-

Again, source.

"An expert witness is one who allegedly has specialized knowledge relevant to the matter of interest, which knowledge purportedly helps to either make sense of other evidence, including other testimony, documentary evidence or physical evidence (e.g., a fingerprint). An expert witness may or may not also be a percipient witness, as in a doctor or may or may not have treated the victim of an accident or crime.

A reputation witness is one who testifies about the reputation of a person or business entity, when reputation is material to the dispute at issue."

I worked in the field. My degree is in the field. In a court of law, I can serve as an expert in the field. Now please list your source, Calisu, that I may dispute it or refute it. I'd prefer it if it was accredited through a legitimate agency because no one takes armchair paranoidist websites seriously.

[Swith Witherward]

I don't think we need a source to prove that the economy is interconnected and doesn't run on muahahahaium, the secret element that comes into existence whenever someone hatches a nefarious plan.

Why shouldn't you be providing a source for your beliefs, anyway? The Evil Scientists vs. Reasonable Researchers subdebate started with the claim they were intentionally withholding medicine, did it not?

Sigging the bolded.

No doubt! That's sig-worthy material.

[Scomagia]

I don't think we need a source to prove that the economy is interconnected and doesn't run on muahahahaium, the secret element that comes into existence whenever someone hatches a nefarious plan.

Why shouldn't you be providing a source for your beliefs, anyway? The Evil Scientists vs. Reasonable Researchers subdebate started with the claim they were intentionally withholding medicine, did it not?

>Implying there isn't more money in treating a disease rather than curing it

Are you going to source your conspiracy theory garbage or not?

[Mefpan]

I don't think we need a source to prove that the economy is interconnected and doesn't run on muahahahaium, the secret element that comes into existence whenever someone hatches a nefarious plan.

Why shouldn't you be providing a source for your beliefs, anyway? The Evil Scientists vs. Reasonable Researchers subdebate started with the claim they were intentionally withholding medicine, did it not?

>Implying there isn't more money in treating a disease rather than curing it

You know, "curing" a disease means that you make individual patients or a group of patients stop being sick.

If you're really on about why diseases don't seem to die out, then you are demanding the extermination of diseases. And since viruses, bacteria and what else there is that causes diseases to spring up in your body are really, really small and animals are often carrier species, I point at the sand grain example I made a short time ago: It's almost impossible to find every single last remaining virus, bacteria or whateverius that causes diseases that exists in nature. Yes, we did get to declare one disease to be extinct. Obviously we can exterminate them. Pray tell, one out of how many? The odds to eliminate one in its entirety are very slim.

Sigging the bolded.

I shall bestow my most sincere thanks upon you. Here, have this ceremonial imaginary cookie.