1. There is a shortage of health care workers in West Africa. 2. Health care workers are at risk to contract Ebola when caring for contagious patients. 3. Imported health care workers are at risk. Importing health care workers to West Africa is fine in the short term but does not improve things there in the long term. 4. There must be many thousands of Ebola survivors who are now immune.
I propose that a corps of Ebola survivors be formed, and these survivors be trained to deliver the type of supportive health care that people need when ill with Ebola. This kind of care in not brain surgery. It does not require years of schooling.
These survivors would not need swanky suits etc. This group of Ebolaproof medics would be useful in the short and long term, and improves the skillsets of people who live in the affected areas. They could be deployed as a group to foreign areas with new outbreaks.
Also it would offer the possibility of a wage for Ebola survivors who 1: live in an economically depressed area and 2: might be unwelcome in prior employment because of their Ebola history.-- bungston, Oct 20 2014 Nigerian Times: Cured Ebola Victims Can be Reinfected http://nigeriantime...nfected-who-expert/ [rcarty, Oct 20 2014] Only issue is... you gotta be careful that they are not still infected as healthy carriers of the virus.-- mofosyne, Oct 20 2014 I did not think Ebola worked that way. How could there be a standard quarantine if it did?-- bungston, Oct 20 2014 Train Ebola sufferers as candy packers for a much more satisfying Halloween-- not_morrison_rm, Oct 20 2014 Reading about Ebola it says it is a RNA virus that mutates once every replication, which is considered fairly mutagenic as far as my reading can tell, so it should be able to stay ahead of the immune system pretty well. In fact providing legions of cured Ebola survivors will give it the opportunity to mutate better abilities to beat immune systems.-- rcarty, Oct 20 2014 Huh? Too many long words me no understand, Mongrol smash. Laaaraaa-- not_morrison_rm, Oct 20 2014 Hmm, my first impressions was a big plus, but that info about the possibility of reinfection sounds not too favorable.
But I'm having trouble finding anything other than that one article and [rcarty]'s explanation about RNA viruses to confirm that a survivor doesn't have immunity. Google found many articles saying that survivors are immune. One article went as far as to indicate that immunity lasts for at least 10 years, but I don't see how we could have enough data actually put a time frame on it.
Based on other things I've heard, is it possible that a survivor generally has immunity for the one outbreak, but by the time the next outbreak occurs, it is likely that the virus will have mutated enough to bypass a survivor's immunity? Of course in the past the outbreaks have been pretty small, whereas with this large outbreak there may have been more opportunity for more strains to develop.-- scad mientist, Oct 20 2014 (a) Not enough survivors
(b) They would need considerable medical training, not only to tend the sick but also to do so without infecting others.
(c) Cheaper and far more effective to send in teams of trained doctors and appropriate containment facilities.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Oct 20 2014 // There must be many thousands of Ebola survivors who are now immune.
I'd heard that the jury is still out on the issue of survivor immunity. A google glance shows there is a lot of debate. Several articles mention that there are other chronic conditions that survivors can develop as a result of a weakened immune system.
So I'd say, on the whole, this is a bad idea given current knowledge. Also, second third and fourthing [MaxwellBuchanan]'s observations.-- tatterdemalion, Oct 20 2014 //Huh? Too many long words me no understand, Mongrol smash. Laaaraaa//
Agreed, that read slightly worse than word salad, or at least jargon salad. Thing is, it's just as easy to write a sentence that is easy to understand. Some people don't consider that necessary.-- Custardguts, Oct 20 2014 That's fine, I think I, and probably others, are used to it. Just don't expect people to spend a lot of time with their cereal-packet decoders trying to discern what it is you are on about.
The way I look at it, whenever I communicate, I take it upon myself to ensure what I say will be understood. Some contexts lead me to use slightly different language, such as a technical engineering discussion, might be rife with jargon not easily understood by the layperson. (I'm also aware of my flagrant misuse of comma's, but, I write, like, I talk) However when I'm in a session with mixed company, I feel it's my responsibility to ensure the audience has a reasonable chance of understanding.
Not trying to get too personal here (but probably failing) but you don't seem to make the same efforts. Furthermore and additionally, the language you commonly use is I think, somewhat unnecessarily complex, even to the point of not making sense, in the seeming attempt to sound more informed, or smarter or whatever. I liken it to “putting on airs” – you seem to use the language with the intention of alienating your audience, rather than the pure necessity of using those terms and over-complex sentence structure.
Maybe there just is no other way to communicate the thoughts you have, or maybe as you say, it’s not worth the trouble to ensure you’re being understood. That’s of course your decision to make.-- Custardguts, Oct 20 2014 tl;dr - eschew obfuscation.-- tatterdemalion, Oct 20 2014 //what kind of government engineered youth welfare program could possibly have the radical appeal of ISIS?
A government sponsored intern scheme in a bank? You can create infinitely more global misery that way.
// I write what I like to read, and don't care what you think.
That's fine, possibly a dummies guide is out there somewhere.-- not_morrison_rm, Oct 20 2014 Hey man, that's just, like, my opinion.
And if I do anything indiscriminately, it's share my opinion with people who haven't asked for it, often from atop some crudely improvised soap box or podium of some sort.-- Custardguts, Oct 21 2014 Well according to one of the pithy rags from around here that's sometimes referred to as a newspaper, the cure for ebola is sufficient hydration and no anti-inflammatory medication. Not sure if a doctor has been anywhere near that little tidbit of info, but the Nigerians are claiming a much higher survival rate than other areas on this basis.
As horrible as it is, I do think maybe it's getting a disproportionate volume of media attention, and is subsequently causing a disproportionate level of concern to the public in general.-- Custardguts, Oct 21 2014 The halfbakery help file specifically mentions ideas for inventions, not ideas about philosophy. And if I never see the word 'semiotic' again, it'll be frankly too soon.
//This is word salad in your opinion, but also simultaneously rejects your fascism. I write what I like to read, and don't care what you think.//
Some people might read that as 'I'm self-absorbed and don't really care about the audience with whom I'm communicating. In that case, you could do the same thing in a diary.-- RayfordSteele, Oct 21 2014 No, [RS], he's saying he comes here to the 'bakery because it makes it less enjoyable for others. His diary wouldn't serve that purpose nearly so well.-- lurch, Oct 21 2014 // you could do the same thing in a diary //
Could he do the same thing in a dairy and be as effective ?-- 8th of 7, Oct 21 2014 Okay fellas, I mean I had a bit of a go, and I think I made my point - no need to tag team him.-- Custardguts, Oct 21 2014 (psstt...rc...that was easily readable. Quick,edit it before anyone else notices...)-- not_morrison_rm, Oct 22 2014 // I'm glad they started calling IS, 'so-called Islamic state' though // -- //Ok I guess they are not Islamic. [sarcasm lost in abbreviated quote. See original] //
Actually I thought the "so called" part of the "The Islamic State" was "the" and "state". While some Islamic people say that SCIS (So Called IS) is not truly Islamic, the reports that it is attracting fighters to join from elsewhere in the world (assuming those are true) suggest that whatever beliefs they have are somewhat widely held by people who call themselves Islamic.
It seems to me that the people are really using labels incorrectly lately. Whenever there is a label that classifies a group of people, everyone else then jumps to the conclusion that everyone inside that classification is in complete agreement on everything. It's like people think that there are only two points of view. Liberal/conservative is not a binary difference. And because of that, whenever someone does something bad or stupid, everyone in any group of which that person may be classified suddenly has to denounce that person as not being part of the group. For example, it is obviously true that the majority of self identified Islamic people are not actively and openly violent. The claim that Islam is a religion of peace and that "Islamic terrorist organizations" are not Islamic, is an argument over the definition of Islamic. But if we could just call them all Islamic and understand that there are some violent people in Islam, some violent Christians, and some violent atheists, we could use those three labels to talk about someone's belief systems, and other labels like psychopath, terrorist, or really nice person to talk about what they do.
And while for an individual person what they do can be highly related to what they believe, for a classification of beliefs, there is a wide variation in belief and the strength of that belief. For example, someone who nominally believes that there is a God may in some situations lie and cheat because they have more belief in the immediate advantage of those actions than in any eternal consequences, while others may sacrifice significant comforts in their life, or even sacrifice their life (either to help or hurt), based on their belief.-- scad mientist, Oct 22 2014 That gets more into their politics...-- RayfordSteele, Oct 22 2014 Why not just develop an Ebola vaccine? That way, you can develop antibodies without the threat of a liquified liver.-- Cuit_au_Four, Oct 22 2014 Oh come on. IS is most definitely an Islamic organisation. Saying that doesn't mean that all Islamic people are part of IS.
Question - are there any people who are part of IS that aren't Islamic? No.
There are parallels in other religions. There are, or have been Christian extremists, even violent ones. Likewise with some other religions. No one accuses those entire religious groups of being extremist. The real problem is fundamentalism, and to a lesser extent, too much intermingling of incompatible cultures.
Scratch that. The real issue there here is that one of my faviourite TV shows, Archer, has given in to the terrorists and is renaming it's (pro)tagonist group something other than ISIS. Which I think sucks big time.-- Custardguts, Oct 22 2014 //Why not just develop an Ebola vaccine?//
For the same reason that you can't snuff out the flu for all time. It evolves.-- RayfordSteele, Oct 23 2014 I think anyone recovering from Ebola virus MUST have some immunity, or they wouldn't have recovered.-- briancady413, Oct 28 2014 random, halfbakery