Thursday Open Thread [10.23.14]
The difference between a responsible and ethical media, interested in journalistic integrity and facts; and a hyperbolic entertainment-first enterprise, interesting only in ratings and thus profit, where facts and ethics must never interfere with that pursuit. CNN and Fox do not want to inform you. They want you only as a daily consumer of their content. In fact, they will misinform you if that is what makes you a daily consumer of their content. They will do anything and everything to scare you. It is why there are people in this country, many many many people, that are convinced ISIS is now invading the US. That Ebola is currently killing millions of Americans.
Driving home yesterday, I have CNN on my Sirius XM, and heard Wolf Blitzer breathlessly shout that OTTAWA IS ONLY AN HOUR’S DRIVE TO THE AMERICAN BORDER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Fuck Wolf Blitzer.
I second that. Fuck Wolf Blitzer.
I thought they were going to invade through Mexico. Go figure
My mother is a CNN addict and spends most of her life terrified of something. I’ve recently had some success with the new — really, really old — Channel 2. She’s less scared these days. The really terrifying part of all this is that my Mother votes. Never misses.
jumping on the bandwagon here…. I have a few minutes to watch Situation room in the common area before my night class….. Wolf Blitzer sucks. I used to think I liked him.. onnacounta his REALLY cool name…. but he is awful. fuck Wolf Blitzer.
It’s sad because where do you get the straight news? News Journal, where they will not put the race of a criminal, Delaware Liberal? Delaware Way? Where? People have to make informed decisions, with what they get. We have a very poor leader in the US, time to take care of our own! USA!!
Bob wrote:
Don’t think that it’s just the News Journal. In the Citizens Voice and Times, a small town weekly in Irvine, Kentucky, a local minister was recently arrested for child molestation, and it turned out that he’d had similar problems previously, the charges and a couple of the details were printed, but, unsurprisingly enough, the sex of the victim was never mentioned. A google search under the accused’s name yielded several different sources for the arrest, and none of them gave that information.
Jason…try cleaning up your act and present your comments without the vulgarity. Difficult, but give it a shot.
It seems there is a pattern forming with another medical professionals, who after being in situ with Ebola, chose to be in public. I don’t know about anyone else, but if I were in that situation, I would definitely quarantine myself regardless of who tells me it’s ok. I just wouldn’t want to take the chance. Is common sense antithetical with a medical degree? Diseases spread because of exposure. I can’t think of anything more effective than quarantine, yet here we are with a doctor who was in Guinea, decides to come home to New York City, a city with a population twice that of the entire nation of Liberia. I can only shake my head.
Dave, in “War and Remembrance,” Herman Wouk called it “the will not to believe.” He was referring to Jews in Nazi hands, who simply would not believe that they were being herded to their deaths.
That was what I thought about the New York physician who had been treating Ebola patients in west Africa: he simply refused to believe that he could have been infected. It’s simple common sense that, if you are a physician who has been working with Ebola patients, you could have been exposed, and you get yourself tested! If it’s too soon for testing, then you quarantine yourself.
News has become entertainment
Mr mouse wrote:
And has been ever since CNN became the “all OJ, all the time” network during Mr Simpson’s arrest and trial.
I have noticed that CNN and the Weather Channel have followed Fox News’ lead, and started putting their on-camera women in short skirts and stilettos.
I expose myself to MRSA, and other more endemic “diseases” in the US everyday, much like this doctor. These “diseases” kill many more people in the world and the US than ebola. Do you feel like I need to quarantine myself as well, Dave? Or, are you just adding to the hype?
I haven’t seen in the “news,” what kind of compensation the two nurses who were doing their jobs and contracted the virus have received. Has anyone? Obviously, they are losing pay, and I guess I would sue for pain and suffering. Wouldn’t you if you were unable to work because of your employer’s and the government’s negligence?
Unrelated to Wolf Blitzer’s f**kery, yesterday I got a mailer from a PAC supporting “Smooth like suede” Kevin Wade and they had a quote from DL excoriating Coons in just about the most prominent spot on the mailer.
Ebola treatment – experimental vaccine (not yet widely available)
MRSA – antibiotics (and in some cases no antibiotics)
I suggest common sense and you call it hype?
If you are a risk to others because of your exposure, do you not employ common sense? Or do you figure “What the heck!”
Common sense would tell me that if I were in a location where I was exposed to a virus (Ebola) vs bacteria (MRSA), I would take the utmost of precautions especially given that there is only an experimental vaccine, which is not yet even mass produced.
Given free will, I am free to expose myself. However, I don’t feel as if I have the right to expose others and therefore I would act accordingly and consequently would not ride the NYC subway. But that’s just me.
You may call it hype, I call it consideration for my fellow man. When a proven vaccine becomes widely available, so that the risk of death is reduced or eliminated, I’ll reconsider my consideration.
How about HIV Dave? Should a person infected with HIV (incurable terminal disease) refrain from subway riding? How about after one has had unprotected sex? Should they take a taxi to go shopping?
If you are a risk to others because of your exposure, do you not employ common sense?
Perhaps the doctor has more common sense than you about the virus.
“…yesterday I got a mailer from a PAC supporting “Smooth like suede” Kevin Wade and they had a quote from DL excoriating Coons in just about the most prominent spot on the mailer.”
SWEET!!! Can you send me a digital copy.
I had sex in a taxi once. Hope I didn’t infect anyone
Luckily, these days they accept credit cards, Mouse.
“How about HIV”
You are either being silly or attempting to employ hyperbole.
There is virtually no risk of exposure through incidental contact as well you know (or should know). Do you know any medical professionals who have acquired HIV as a result of treating HIV patients? Yeah, me neither.
Can you find something more appropriate to make your point (which perhaps is that the doctor knew more than everyone else, which is why he didn’t….oops, but he did get it didn’t he?).
I think I’ll take my common sense over his at this point, since he assumed he was at risk, which is why he was taking his temperature twice a day prior to coming down with symptoms. And knowing he was at risk, he continued contact with the public. It’s really that simple. The knowledge that there was risk, warranted monitoring but apparently not isolation, thereby impacting others.
DD – have you seen the stats for this page? Over 5,000 hits yesterday. It must be a measure of how universal the “Fuck Wolf Blitzer” sentiment is.
Sorry Dave, no. That doctor knows how the disease is communicated. He knows when he is contagious (if he has it) and he knows how to protect himself and others. everyone that has contracted the disease has done so by interacting with the bodily fluids of an infected individual that was symptomatic. Just because you don’t understand how it is communicated doesn’t mean that he needs to sink to your level to appease you.
And in the early days of AIDS, I would guess that there were medical professionals that contracted the virus because they mishandled needles or blood or were exposed while performing some procedure.
Just like HIV, you don’t catch it by sitting next to someone on a bus.
Mouse… if you had sex in a taxi, it is likely you picked up something…. rather than the other way around.
Jason… Yes. Reddit linked to this on one of their discussion threads on the Ottawa Shooting.
@LG,
I do understand how the disease is communicated. So does the CDC and other health officials which is why they quarantine his significant other and two other people. People interact with others bodily fluids all the time, or have you never sneezed when you were around someone or perhaps you have no children in school?
Anyway, since NY and NJ now have a mandatory 21 day quarantine for all personal who have had contact with victims of Ebola and the White House is considering similar quarantine requirements, I feel like I am in good company when I say that people cannot be relied upon to exercise common sense.
And since I am in good company with Governor Cuomo, I’m guessing the pejorative “sink to your level” would apply to him as well. Or was that just for my benefit.
Define “contact”. Should everyone that rode on subways with the doctor be quarantined? No, of course not.
For the record, NY and NJ have also said that the doctor that you are pissed off at did nothing wrong.
First, who is specifically is “NY” and “NJ” and what specifically did they say? You mean they said there is no cause for alarm or were you providing someone’s interpretation of what he said?
Second , I define “contact” as follows: “Ebola is transmitted through direct contact with the blood or body fluids (urine, saliva, sweat, feces, vomit, breast milk, and semen) of an infected symptomatic person or though exposure to objects (such as needles) that have been contaminated with infected secretions.”
My source is the White House (http://www.whitehouse.gov/ebola-response?utm_source=email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=email385-text1&utm_campaign=ebola#section-the-facts)
Lastly, I am not pissed off. I simply stated that he lacked common sense. I don’t fly off into outrage land every time someone does something dumb or inconsiderate.
A doctor, who deserves credit for his voluntary efforts, did something dumb. I did not crucify him. I castigated him, and deservedly so.