Ebola is also not easy to work with. Even if a terrorist kidnapped an Ebola victim to get viral samples, working with the virus in anything less than an advanced microbiology lab (called a “Biosafety Level 4”) would likely result in the terrorist dying from the disease. As well, Ebola virus is too sensitive to survive the complex process of refining, enriching, and so on that is necessary for weaponization.
So don’t panic the next time you read about “Ebola Gas” or “Ebola Bombs.” Be aware of the virus, have supplies available that will help in a crisis, and use your most important survival tooclass="underline" your mind. Do your research and get the facts to come to a conclusion.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Government and health officials will continue to downplay the notion that Ebola could reach apocalyptic proportions to avoid wholesale panic, even if four thousand American military personnel are deployed to the epidemic zone. To be prepared, however, it’s important to always stay aware of the facts and never assume that it couldn’t happen here.
Americans need to prepare by making a plan of action that can be activated if Ebola ever reaches their area. They must also continue asking the tough questions of those in power. The American Thinker blog offers fourteen questions that will never be asked about Ebola but should be. They include:
• “Why doesn’t the United States have a mandatory quarantine period of twenty-eight days before allowing any traveler who has visited West Africa in the past ninety days, to enter our country?”
• “If an outbreak of Ebola occurs in a major US city such as New York, Chicago, or Los Angeles, is this government prepared to quarantine five to eight million citizens from land, sea, and air travel to stop the spread of the virus? How many deaths from such an outbreak would trigger such quarantine? Would US troops be ordered to fire upon US citizens attempting to evade the quarantine?”
• “How many Ebola deaths nationally would trigger a Presidential Executive Order declaring martial law, nationalizing the distribution of food, energy, health care, and information? Would this Executive Order also limit the duration of martial law and the circumstances for it being lifted?”
And, perhaps most significantly:
• “Why are so few of us raising our voices—screaming at the top of our lungs—demanding that our government begin implementing common-sense epidemiological safeguards against Ebola unnecessarily infecting more Americans?”
The United States, more than any other country, has the potential to rise to the challenge of containing this epidemic and helping those in need. We must expand our efforts in West Africa and remain the force of good for the world that we have traditionally been.
By the same token, the United States can’t ignore the public health and safety of its citizens. Americans depend on government to protect the populace in times of trouble. We have to look at the Ebola crisis in terms of humanitarian considerations, but also in terms of self-preservation. That means that there may be tough decisions ahead.
I hope that the reader of this book never has to resort to the strategies that I’ve outlined here. I prefer to hope for the best, while preparing for the worst. In this way, we can all succeed, even if everything else fails.
NOW YOU KNOW…
A heckuva lot about Ebola. I hope that, for your family, it will be, in the distant future, just a number of interesting facts you learned a long time ago.
RESOURCES
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention
The World Health Organization
The National Institutes of Health
The American Medical Association
The New England Journal of Medicine
The American Red Cross
Doctors Without Borders
http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/
US Department of Health and Human Services Disaster Information Management Resource Center
http://sis.nlm.nih.gov/dimrc/Ebola_2014.html
Mayo Clinic
Author Bio
Joseph Alton, MD is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons and the American College of OB/GYN and the founder of the survival website DoomandBloom.net. Dr. Alton is the author of The Survival Medicine Handbook and is one of the most popular speakers in the country on crisis medicine. He has been featured in The New York Times, Fortune magazine, The Miami Herald, Tulsa World, Small Business Trendsetters, Mother Jones, and on various ABC, CBS, and Fox affiliates. Dr. Alton is a popular medical keynote speaker at survival and preparedness events throughout the country, and has been at the forefront of advising citizens on how to understand and survive the Ebola crisis.
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