Hiring and Ebola concerns

[down_to_business]

Anyone out there changing their hiring habits based on fear of Ebola?

 

While this may be ignorant, discriminatory, irrational or who knows what else, I find myself becoming increasingly hesitant to hire escorts that do a lot of travel, especially if that travel is outside of the United States.

 

Given the recent refusal of another country to allow a cruise ship from the United States to dock simply because one passenger may have processed some clinical specimens from an infected Ebola patient seems a clear sign that people are altering the way they do things out of fear of this horrible virus.

[Diverdan]

The chances are pretty slim... you are more likely to be killed in a car accident, walking across the street, etc. than you are catching Ebola... unless you are hiring individuals from the African Countries where it is prevalent. The media has really overblown this situation, and while the virus is very potent, you are much more likely to catch something else that can also be devastating. Some of our physician friends on this Forum are probably in a better position to comment, but I don't see it as any more concern than a lot of others.

[armadillo]

Anyone out there changing their hiring habits based on fear of Ebola?

 

Not yet, but I am certainly monitoring Ebola's spread (if it continues) here in USA.

[Guest]

Anyone out there changing their hiring habits based on fear of Ebola?

 

While this may be ignorant, discriminatory, irrational or who knows what else, I find myself becoming increasingly hesitant to hire escorts that do a lot of travel, especially if that travel is outside of the United States.

 

I doubt that any escorts are traveling to Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea. If I had irrational fears about diseases, I wouldn't be hiring escorts, although, of course, I'm quite careful about what I do and how I do it. Of course, if ebola did start becoming widespread, I would only hire an escort I knew would be honest with me (i.e. one of those I've met and trust). I went to a medical conference last week, and apparently they're making good progress on a vaccine, and actually have phase I trials going on. Gotta hope they come up with a vaccine ASAP...

[marylander1940]

Anyone out there changing their hiring habits based on fear of Ebola?

 

While this may be ignorant, discriminatory, irrational or who knows what else, I find myself becoming increasingly hesitant to hire escorts that do a lot of travel, especially if that travel is outside of the United States.

 

 

Do escorts travel to Liberia? I don't think so...

 

Will you discriminate against escorts who have visited Dallas, Cleveland, and Madrid recently?

 

If I was you I'd be more concerned about not hiring one of the many "bareback queens" who are on prep and don't give a sh#$%&t about getting infected and passing the bill to the rest of the society.

[down_to_business]

...If I was you ...

 

You are not me. I am not asking you or anyone else what they think I should do.

[armadillo]

In additon to hiring, it also may affect ones travel:

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/ebola-cruise-ship-in-utter-panic-as-mexico-and-belize-refuse-to-let-it-dock-9804428.html

[Steven_Draker]

 

 

 

Irrational fear, blown out of all proportion.

 

Do many escorts travel to West Africa? Do many escorts are in contact with the medical staff that treats Ebola patients?

 

... especially if that travel is outside of the United States.

 

Provided there were 8 cases of Ebola in the United States so far, in what domestic travel is any "safer" than international travel?

 

Frankly, if you hire an escort, you have to be concerned about other "bugs". Ebola should be THE LEAST of your worries!

 

Seriously.

[Rudynate]

Anyone out there changing their hiring habits based on fear of Ebola?

 

While this may be ignorant, discriminatory, irrational or who knows what else, I find myself becoming increasingly hesitant to hire escorts that do a lot of travel, especially if that travel is outside of the United States.

 

Given the recent refusal of another country to allow a cruise ship from the United States to dock simply because one passenger may have processed some clinical specimens from an infected Ebola patient seems a clear sign that people are altering the way they do things out of fear of this horrible virus.

 

I don't think people are getting hysterical about the virus. The complacency and mismanagement they have seen from public health authorities causes them to doubt the authorities' ability to protect the populace from the disease.

[down_to_business]

I don't think people are getting hysterical about the virus. The complacency and mismanagement they have seen from public health authorities causes them to doubt the authorities' ability to protect the populace from the disease.

 

http://gawker.com/schools-in-ohio-texas-shut-down-after-students-linked-1647240285

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/male-strippers-quarantine-flying-ebola-stricken-nurse-article-1.1977644

 

Well schools completely shutting down, people self-isolating, Mexico and Belize denying entry to a cruise ship-- I think the "hysteria" has begun whether or not there is any science to support it.

If being rational is expected, I think people's expectations will not be met. People are going to react irrationally, especially when uncertainty and fear is involved. They definitely don't believe the government or the CDC.

 

http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/13/health/ebola-cdc/index.html

[Kenny]

Spot on. The paranoia is nuts. Two Americans have the disease, contracted by direct contact with a dying patient. TWO -- out of a population of 318,929,000. Turn off your TV and get a grip.

 

 

 

 

Irrational fear, blown out of all proportion.

 

Do many escorts travel to West Africa? Do many escorts are in contact with the medical staff that treats Ebola patients?

 

 

 

Provided there were 8 cases of Ebola in the United States so far, in what domestic travel is any "safer" than international travel?

 

Frankly, if you hire an escort, you have to be concerned about other "bugs". Ebola should be THE LEAST of your worries!

 

Seriously.

[marylander1940]

You are not me. I am not asking you or anyone else what they think I should do.

 

I know I'm not you, maybe I should have said: "let's be more concerned about taking the flu shot".

 

Let's do not forget about self inflicted wounds in our society like obesity, HIV, legal and illegal drugs, gun violence, mass shootings, etc.

 

http://www.healthaliciousness.com/blog/images/Preventable_causes_of_death.png

 

http://media.boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/4310v6111-300x237.jpg

 

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Tiga8A5Uh0g/TdO3hLfm_II/AAAAAAAAAc8/FolO_gTb-8Y/s1600/militia.jpg

 

http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.1753852!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/article_970/aptopix-colorado-shooting.jpg

[down_to_business]

http://www.healthaliciousness.com/blog/images/Preventable_causes_of_death.png

 

I was kind of surprised by your chart that Sexually Transmitted Infections have a higher cause of death than Drug Abuse. Very interesting.

 

Of course, living in Texas, I fear masked men carrying chainsaws more than Ebola (for now) anyways.

[caliguy]

I was kind of surprised by your chart that Sexually Transmitted Infections have a higher cause of death than Drug Abuse. Very interesting.

 

Of course, living in Texas, I fear masked men carrying chainsaws more than Ebola (for now) anyways.

Probably because the chart is dated.

[marylander1940]

I was kind of surprised by your chart that Sexually Transmitted Infections have a higher cause of death than Drug Abuse. Very interesting.

 

Of course, living in Texas, I fear masked men carrying chainsaws more than Ebola (for now) anyways.

 

I found it in google, I don't know how accurate it is but it has a similar number of tobacco related deaths to the charter SD posted.

 

In Texas you should fear "death by redneck"!

 

http://www.emailajoke.com/images/ver4/funny_pics/general/Redneck-Hearing-Protection.jpg

 

http://images.sodahead.com/polls/001515729/5755664992_keep_your_governement_hands_off_of_my_medicare_answer_5_xlarge.jpeg

 

http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/5d/c1/66/5dc1669d774e4e5295dc88a8268f7022.jpg

 

http://culleynet.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/hardly_texting.jpg

[MsGuy]

Two points to consider:

 

A) Retransmission rate.

 

In prior outbreaks, the retransmission rate for the various strains of Ebola has been 1.2, i.e. each Ebola patient could be expected to transmit it to 1.2 new hosts. The current outbreak appears to have a retransmission rate of around 1.6 to 1.8, which is edging up into explosive epidemic territory.

 

The question is why the difference. Maybe because the current outbreak is occurring in much more densely populated territory; maybe because of cultural differences in the handling of the sick and the dead; and maybe because the current variant of the virus has mutated to be much more easily transmitted. Nobody really knows.

 

B) At the CDC it's business as usual.

The CDC is cheerily optimistic about the ability to contain any outbreak of the virus in the USA because of the deep and sophisticated medical infrastructure in America. Grab every Ebola case as it appears, stuff him into an isolation ward and wait it out. Bury your losses safely and go on about your business.

 

Except that Presbyterian in Dallas, a first class medical facility in one of the top ten medical cities in the United States, was completely unprepared to maintain containment in its isolation ward. Nurses swapping back and forth between the ebola ward and other patients; sloppy disposal of contaminated wastes; training of nurses: zip. If Presbyterian in Dallas has to send one of it's own infected nurses to Emory in Atlanta for treatment, what does that say about how prepared we are to contain an epidemic in America? What are the chances that the NE Miss. Medical Center in Tupelo, Ms.,is prepared to deal with Ebola cases?

 

Except the CDC itself tells an ebola care nurse running a fever, "Hop that plane and fly all over the country. Sure, why not?"

=====

Now personally I agree that, because of the nature of the disease, my chances of contracting Ebola are about on par with my getting hit by lightning, but that doesn't mean that it's not plausible that it may give folks over here fits before we get a handle on it. Remember it only took a couple of weeks at Dallas Presbyterian before large numbers of staff started refusing to report to work. If that's not a clear shot across the bows of our medical delivery system, a clear warning about how fast it can collapse in the face of an ebola scare, I don't want to see what is.

 

http://www.wday.com/sites/default/files/styles/full_1000/public/field/image/S035825433-300.jpg?itok=rxLVatpG

 

I guess we can cross Dallas off that list.

 

One down, 19 to go.

[Steven_Draker]

I was kind of surprised by your chart that Sexually Transmitted Infections have a higher cause of death than Drug Abuse. Very interesting.

 

Probably because the chart is dated.

 

The chart is from Year 2K

 

Source: Mokdad AH, Marks JS. Actual causes of death in the United States, 2000. JAMA 291

 

 

Putting things into perspective: Prescription drugs are now killing far more people than illegal drugs, and while most major causes of preventable deaths are declining, those from prescription drug use are increasing.

 

source: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/10/26/prescription-drugs-number-one-cause-preventable-death-in-us.aspx

[marylander1940]

Putting things into perspective: Prescription drugs are now killing far more people than illegal drugs, and while most major causes of preventable deaths are declining, those from prescription drug use are increasing.[/color]

 

source: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/10/26/prescription-drugs-number-one-cause-preventable-death-in-us.aspx

 

[video=youtube;KJICKrRMlOA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJICKrRMlOA

[MsGuy]

Hmm...it just occurred to me that the ebola virus is transmitted in semen. What other virus do we know that uses that pathway?

 

No joke, just think about it.

 

One cute infected Lufhansa pilot hops off his airliner in New York and spends the weekend clubbing. Likes receiving oral, doesn't like rubbers. Can't recall the names of the 8 or 10 or 12 guys who blew him (or the ones in London the week before or the however many in LA 4 days later.).

 

Good luck rounding that bunch up for quarantine.

 

Maybe Down_To_Business fears aren't quite as irrational as they first appeared to be.

[Steven_Draker]

... One cute infected Lufhansa pilot hops off his airliner in New York and spends the weekend clubbing. Likes receiving oral, doesn't like rubbers. Can't recall the names of the 8 or 10 or 12 guys who blew him (or the ones in London the week before or the however many in LA 4 days later.)

 

GET INFORMED!

 

NO SYMPTOMS --> NO RISK OF CONTAGION

 

 

 

[down_to_business]

GET INFORMED!

 

NO SYMPTOMS --> NO RISK OF CONTAGION

 

 

 

 

I'm not 100% convinced this is for certain. Maybe so, maybe not.

 

http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/story/news/nation/2014/10/08/experts-worry-ebola-may-spread-easily-assumed/16900881/

 

Here's an excerpt:

 

Yet some scientists who have long studied Ebola say such assurances are premature — and they're concerned about what isn't known about the Ebola strain now on the loose. The present outbreak in west Africa has killed about 3,400 people.

 

Dr. C.J. Peters, who led the CDC's most far-reaching study of Ebola's transmission in humans, said he would not rule out the possibility that Ebola spreads through air. "We just don't have the data to exclude it," said Peters, who researches viral diseases at the University of Texas in Galveston.

Tom Skinner, a spokesman for the CDC in Atlanta, said that while the evidence "is really overwhelming" that people are most at risk when they touch sick people or have contact with their bodily fluids, "we can never say never" about the disease spreading through coughing or sneezing.

 

Moreover, some public health specialists said, there is no proof that an infected person without symptoms could not spread the virus. "It's really unclear," said Michael Osterholm, a public health scientist at the University of Minnesota who served on the U.S. government's National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity. "None of us know."

[armadillo]

I'm not 100% convinced this is for certain. Maybe so, maybe not.

 

+1

[+ deej]

I'm not 100% convinced this is for certain. Maybe so, maybe not.

 

When in trouble, when in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout.

 

Panic is ABSOLUTELY NEVER the best response. It doesn't matter what you're responding to. Panic is absolutely the wrong response every time.

[Guest]

Panic is ABSOLUTELY NEVER the best response. It doesn't matter what you're responding to. Panic is absolutely the wrong response every time.

 

Panic is not a good response. Preparedness is. A virus does not have to be airborne in order to be highly contagious. The common cold is also spread by bodily secretions from symptomatic people (mainly mucous, of course, but probably also tears or saliva). Every Fall it spreads like wildfire. Yet it only kills those with serious underlying health problems, and only a tiny percentage of those infected every need to even seek health care, let alone be hospitalized, let alone be placed in an isolation room. Most health care workers (including myself) have NOT had special training regarding the equipment and precautions needed to deal with ebola patients. Yet even in those with such education, it still passed on to two health care workers who knew full well with what they were dealing. Simply counting on the honesty and responsible behavior of those exposed, in order to minimize transmission, has proven inadequate. While it looks as if the current outbreak (which came from a single man who simply lied about his exposure history on an intake form) may be contained, imagine the bedlam multiplied by 5 or 6. I think we have enough information to require quarantine of all travelers with passport stamps indicating travel from Guinea, Liberia, or Sierra Leone until 21 days after their date of departure from those countries. That's not panic. That's sensible behavior.

[+ deej]

I think we have enough information to require quarantine of all travelers with passport stamps indicating travel from Guinea, Liberia, or Sierra Leone until 21 days after their date of departure from those countries. That's not panic. That's sensible behavior.

 

And it's righteous expensive, not to mention a human rights violation (and, for US citizens, a constitutional violation). And it won't be effective.

 

Tell me, how many HIV infections were prevented by the Reagan-era ban on travel by HIV-infected individuals (which was just lifted in the last year)? How many SARS infections were caught by the Canadian travel ban? (Hint: none.) How effective have ANY travel bans ever been?

 

Thinking you can bury your head in the sand and it won't come here is idiotic. It's here. The solution to the African Ebola problem is in Africa. Not here.

 

It's amusing, though, to see all of the small government libertarian leaning talking heads suddenly calling for BIG DAMN GOVERNMENT RESTRICTIONS that won't be effective but will cost a shitload of money.

 

Panic is in full swing and as I said it's absolutely never the right response.