11 People with “Potential Exposure” to Ebola Being Brought to American…ummm…Hotels???

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By Daisy Luther

It looks like we’re gearing up for Round 2 of Ebola Roulette.

A couple of days ago an American healthcare worker who had been definitively diagnosed with Ebola was brought back to the US for treatment at the National Institute of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland.  Eleven more patients have been isolated and are on their way to the United States as well, after having had  “potential exposure” to the disease.

Now, about those people who were “potentially exposed”?

They aren’t being hospitalized. Oh no.  They are being brought back to stay at hotels “near” three different hospitals in different regions of the country. I couldn’t make this up if I tried. Read this excerpt from a report by CNN and weep.

[content_container max_width=’500′ align=’center’]”(The) CDC and the State Department are facilitating the return of additional American citizens who had potential exposure to the index patient or exposures similar to those that resulted in the infection of the index patient,” the CDC said in a written statement.

The CDC said none of these individuals returning from Africa has been diagnosed as having Ebola, including one who had “potential exposure to the individual being treated at NIH” and was “transported via charter to the Atlanta area to be close to Emory University Hospital” on Friday. That person is voluntarily self-isolating and will be monitored over the 21-day incubation period, the CDC said.

Four people who had “more exposure than the others” to the patient with Ebola will isolate themselves in housing on the campus of the University of Nebraska Medical Center, said Nebraska Medicine spokesman Taylor Wilson. They arrived on the medical campus Saturday evening, Wilson said.

The other six are scheduled to fly into Washington on Sunday to go to the NIH, and into Atlanta on Monday to go to Emory, Skinner said.

Skinner said the Americans coming home will stay at hotels and other housing near the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, the National Institutes of Health in Maryland or Emory University Hospital in Atlanta.[/content_container]

Let me repeat that one very important sentence:

[content_container max_width=’500′ align=’center’]…the Americans coming home will stay at hotels and other housing near the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, the National Institutes of Health in Maryland or Emory University Hospital in Atlanta.[/content_container]


So what about…

  • Hotel personnel?
  • Housekeeping?
  • Room service or other food delivery people?
  • Other hotel guests who you can guess won’t be warned about the possible status of their fellow lodgers
  • Whoever gets these rooms later?
  • People who use the vending machine if someone decides to just pop out and grab a Coke?

I realize the points above sound facetious, but why in the name of all things cute and fluffy aren’t these people being isolated in a health care facility? ELEVEN people in THREE different parts of the country. It’s like those in charge are trying to give the disease the best possible chance to spread across the country.

Edited to add:

I should have taken a screen shot of the article on CNN, because they’ve changed it to remove the part about the victims staying in hotels and switched the word to housing. However, I found mention of the hotel stays on two other outlets and DID take screenshots of this.  Click to enlarge them.

This one is reposted from CNN on Channel 13 news in Iowa.

channel 13

 

And this one is from Fox 17:

fox 17

A refresher on the 2014 Ebola scare…

Who can forget the events of last October and November, when only dumb luck kept the hemorrhagic illness from being unleashed on our country?

Last fall, experts from the CDC (Center for Disease Control) and the WHO (World Health Organization) received a great deal of criticism for how they handled the potential Ebola crisis. First, a man visited a Texas hospital twice before being admitted with the disease. Then protocols (actually, what protocols? read this horrifying timeline!) were questioned after two of the nurses caring for the man before he died also contracted Ebola. The hospital was so overwhelmed that one case of Ebola shut down an entire emergency room. One of the nurses flew across the country twice before she became ill, expanding potential exposure exponentially. Hundreds of people showed up to hospitals convinced they had the disease after the government deliberately brought health-care professionals who had contracted the illness in disease-stricken Sierra Leone back to the US for treatment. Yet another health care professional wandered around New York City, taking public transit and going bowling the day before he was admitted to the hospital and diagnosed with Ebola. Several stories about Ebola were literally scrubbed from the internet as officials tried to cover up their mishandling of the situation.

Let’s hope that medical personnel are better trained this time around, and that the proper protective equipment is available to caregivers.

How to prep if you’re concerned…

When it looked like the disease was going to be unleashed on our country last time around, I wrote up some lists to help folks get prepared for the possibility of a pandemic.

The first thing I want to stress is…please, DON’T PANIC.  At this point, there is no reason to be exceptionally worried.  The second thing I want to stress is…DON’T BE LULLED INTO A FALSE SENSE OF SECURITY.  Last time, the crisis was averted. Don’t let that convince you that there’s no way the disease will spread across the country this time.

You should calmly and rationally take some steps to be prepared in the event that an outbreak begins here in the United States. I wrote about this in great detail last year and you can find that information right here, in an article called “Prepping for an Ebola Lockdown.”  Last time around, supplies went quickly, so it’s better to get ahead of the curve.  Check your supplies against this list, and order the things you need now. If these other people are diagnosed after spending time in public places, ordering supplies then will be much like running to the grocery store right before a storm hits. Everyone else will have the same idea and the shelves will be emptied in a panic.

Here’s a quick checklist along with some links to resources.  Base amounts on the number of family members you’ll be sheltering.

Note – we do not commonly use anti-bacterial products but in a situation like this, it’s important to have this type of thing on hand, particularly in the event that there are issues with sanitation

Here are some useful links if you are new to prepping:

Don’t panic…prepare.

Again, please don’t read this and panic. At this point, there is NO pandemic in the US.  It seems that some careless actions are taking place and that preparation well before the storm, is, as always, the best course of action for a wise prepper.

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Daisy Luther

Daisy Luther is a coffee-swigging, globe-trotting blogger. She is the founder and publisher of three websites.  1) The Organic Prepper, which is about current events, preparedness, self-reliance, and the pursuit of liberty on her website, 2)  The Frugalite, a website with thrifty tips and solutions to help people get a handle on their personal finances without feeling deprived, and 3) PreppersDailyNews.com, an aggregate site where you can find links to all the most important news for those who wish to be prepared. She is widely republished across alternative media and  Daisy is the best-selling author of 5 traditionally published books and runs a small digital publishing company with PDF guides, printables, and courses. You can find her on FacebookPinterest, Gab, MeWe, Parler, Instagram, and Twitter.

Leave a Reply

  • This news of putting these 11 people in HOTELS is frightening and really stupid. I doubt the CDC is informing these hotels that these folks have been exposed to Ebola.

    In a few weeks will be spring break, where there will increased numbers of people (college kids and families) traveling and staying in hotels.

  • “Let’s hope that medical personnel are better trained this time around, and that the proper protective equipment is available to caregivers.”

    To me, the news is that this isn’t true at all. After all this time, how were 11 people exposed at the same time? Although the hotel thing is freaky enough, the fact that they were exposed in the first place really concerns me. And it’s evidence to me that none of them are better trained this time around. We’ll never know how they were exposed at the same time, but to me, that’s the real story.

  • This might explain why the health care workers exposed to Ebola were divided into 3 groups and sent to 3 different locations…

    Do the Math

    Federal officials have reassured the public that our “health-care system is well-equipped to treat the virus and stop it from spreading.”

    “There are a total of four medical isolation units in the entire United States … that are capable of handling infected Ebola patients.

    Where are they, and what can they handle?

    Emory University’s Serious Communicable Disease Unit is in Atlanta, GA. It has THREE BEDS.
    St. Patrick Hospital’s ICU Isolation Unit is in Missoula MT. It has THREE BEDS.
    The National Institute of Health’s Special Clinical Studies Unit is in Bethesda MD. It has SEVEN BEDS.
    And the biggest, the Nebraska Medical Center’s Biocontainment Unit is in Omaha NE. It has TEN BEDS.

    3+3+7+10=23 beds, coast to coast.

    So, for the entire country, all 316,100,000+ of us, we’re fully prepared to treat 23 Ebola patients at the same time.”
    http://raconteurreport.blogspot.com/2014/10/do-math.html

  • Sadly this does not surprise me. I was in nursing school in the 80s and one of my instructors was former military. These gals were so fanatical (and rightly so) that infection control was drilled in so much to be second nature. I am THAT clean at home, seriously. Over the years since I have watched standards of cleanliness deteriorate significantly. It all starts in the schools at an early age. The dumbing down is reaping consequences in our society.

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