Dr. Whosit

 

 

"Is the Doctor in the house? Sorry, the guy heading up our Ebola efforts is a hyper partisan lawyer..."

I heard or read something in the past few days that really hit home with me. A pundit was asked what it was that was killing many Democrats right now. So close to an important election, what is it? The pundit answered in one word. "Competence. Or should I say lack thereof. And it starts with the head of the ticket - the President".

I could not have put that better. To find an example of incompetence, one does not have to look far at all. Just look to the current Ebola crisis and how it is being handled, both in Africa as well as here. We have been caught (once again), totally flat footed.

Ebola is not new to the scene. It has been around since 1976. As many of us know, it was named after the Ebola River in Zaire. There have been occasional outbreaks in Africa, usually resulting in a few hundred deaths. It mutates into different strains, so each outbreak is given a different name. It was only a matter of time before a mutated strain would emerge that would dwarf all previous ones in severity and mortality rates.

This new and virulent strain of this disease was first detected on December 6, 2013, when a young boy in Guinea succumbed to it. It spread fast, and before anyone knew it, it was in a handful of African countries. Right then, the WHO, the CDC, the UN, should have declared the affected countries "hot zones" and initiated travel restrictions as well as quarantine procedures. Some countries have banned flights coming in from affected countries. Others have iron clad quarantine procedures for returning citizens. We have not, and still do not. The clock is ticking. Ebola has already visited our shores, and more will come.

Yesterday the New York Times (certainly not a "Right Wing" newspaper) came out and called our response to handling the Ebola threat "patchwork". I will call it one better - "making it up as we go". Today we have 100 people who arrive here daily from Sierra Leone, Guinea or Liberia. Each one of these people could be perfectly healthy. Or they could be walking petri dishes. They may be symptomatic or asymptomatic. They may have infected others or not. The virus may survive for a few days or for up to 50 days on surfaces. In other words, we don't have a clue as to how much danger we might be in.

To further exhibit our incompetence on this issue, we have now appointed an "Ebola Czar". I will call him "Dr. Whosit". He comes into this job "highly qualified' to fight this virus. His background? Well he is a lawyer. He was on Al Gore's staff. He became very good at counting"hanging chads" during the infamous 2000 Presidential recount. Currently, he is on "Smokin" Joe Biden's staff. The closest thing he has to medical training is he knows Dr. Jill Biden. That is it.

So, just like the ISIL resurgence which caught us off guard, so has this disease. Last month, the CDC predicted 1.4 million people in Africa could be infected by this virus (with a 70% mortality rate) by the end of January 2015. That is less than 100 days away. Considering previous outbreaks in Africa have killed less than 1,000 people, this could be the pandemic we have all feared.

Our "Dr. Whosit" better get up to speed and fast. No more skipping Ebola meetings. Take this seriously - as serious as a heart attack. The world is looking to us for leadership - for clarity. Right now, all they see is confusion.