Ebola - Doctor who treated Atlanta patients visits the White House

While looking at Ebola news updates I just happened to see this and was a bit surprised. One (or possibly both) of the doctors mentioned in the article treated the Ebola patients in Atlanta and now has been in the White House:

Dr. George Marshall Lyon III was part of the team at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta that cared for...

...Dr. Kent Brantly and his fellow medical missionary Nancy Writebol...

Lyon said the team of doctors and nurses that worked with the patients took every precaution not to contract the disease, including wearing personal protective suits that resemble HAZMAT suits, but that didn't keep him from being a little hesitant at first when he learned he would be treating the patients.

"Briefly, before the patients ever got here, when I was told by the unit director that we would be receiving them, I was worried," he said. "But with my training and the personal protection equipment we had and seeing how well we prepared ourselves, it was reassuring."

...Treating the patients was challenging because of the protective equipment, Lyon said, particularly having to get in and out of the suit without touching any part of it that was exposed to the patients.

...last week he joined Dr. Bruce Ribner, the director of the infectious disease unit, at The White House to meet with government leaders tasked with finding ways to avert the outbreak in Africa.

SOURCE

I know at least some of the medical personnel returning from West Africa have been doing a voluntary 3 week self-quarantine to be sure they don't have Ebola and don't spread it to others. That not only doesn't seem to be the case with medical personnel who treated the Ebola patients in Atlanta, but then they go to the White House too!

Does anyone else besides me find that a bit strange? And possibly stupid? Whatever one may think of politicians and the current administration in Washington, it just doesn't seem like the brightest idea to take such a risk no matter how slight.

a reply to: ikonoklast

He should have licked every microphone in the Capitol....specifically the microphones used by the House and Senate

a reply to: ikonoklast

Does anyone else besides me find that a bit strange?

Yah, but not because of infection, because of what they discussed.

Love to be a bug on the wall for that conversation.

I'm just guessing he was being asked his thoughts on what can be done to help stop this outbreak.

We could never be that lucky. Nothing is going to happen.

a reply to: rickymouse

I don't think anything is going to happen either, but I think it's stupid to take the risk. I also think it indicates a confidence in protective equipment and procedures that is not necessarily justified when you look at the number of doctors and health care workers who have contracted Ebola from patients. 21 days of quarantine (self or otherwise) after working closely with Ebola patients seems like a reasonable and simple precaution.

It's a bit surprising that 'leaders' at the White House would take the risk too. Wonder if they shook hands...

a reply to: ikonoklast

Yes, I find it very odd considering others who were supposedly well protected got infected and died. To me it says either they have ways to test 'now' (before a 21 day incubation period) that they are not infected, or they did 'not shake hands' and were kept at a safe distance.

Another possibility is everyone in the white house is protected from it anyway - either they have a vaccine everyone has gotten or they're simply a different breed that doesn't pick such viruses up.... (another topic altogether). Either way - the only way they would risk putting these guys in the white house is if they know - somehow - there is zero possibility of them getting ill - what that reason is we'll never know.

I also wondered by Prince William and Kate Middleton came to Calgary four months after Fukushima blew up - either there was no risk of any hot particles (which I don't believe) or they were somehow immuned.... because surely their health would never be put at risk.

l0l @ chrismarco... yes, lick everything like that Southpark episode when they wanted their parents to get syphallis in retaliation for intentionally exposing them to measles - very funny, thanks for the chuckle!

originally posted by: Junkheap
I'm just guessing he was being asked his thoughts on what can be done to help stop this outbreak.

Cool... a phone call or even skype would serve the same purpose, tho.

I think the doc could just as well get his 'kudos' (if that's what this is about) after 21 days counting from the day the last patient was released. It's the only sensible thing to do-- err on the side of caution.

This is, after all, one of those things the Secret Service cannot protect Obomer and his minions from.

originally posted by: wishes
a reply to: ikonoklast
Another possibility is everyone in the white house is protected from it anyway - either they have a vaccine everyone has gotten or they're simply a different breed that doesn't pick such viruses up.... (another topic altogether). Either way - the only way they would risk putting these guys in the white house is if they know - somehow - there is zero possibility of them getting ill - what that reason is we'll never know.

Yeah, I was wondering about that too. Basically I only see two possibilities:

1. They took a big risk.

2. They knew they were not taking a risk.

#1 to me would indicate a level of stupidity or overconfidence on the part of American leaders and the medical community that would not give me much confidence in their ability to contain or fight the Ebola outbreak(s).

But #2 really leads down the rabbithole and raises a lot of questions. Is there a known (and guaranteed-to-work) vaccine or cure or a known genetic immunity in certain people that only certain people in power know about? Is the outbreak a natural occurrence that was foreseen and prepared for, or is it due to an intentional/unintentional release of a bio weapon? Is there really a plan to significantly reduce population in Africa or even globally (a la the Georgia Guidestones)?

It's really easy to believe #1 is likely. As for #2, it does make me curious... Has anyone actually seen Obama golfing recently? What about other people one might expect to be first in line for bunker space?

a reply to: ikonoklast

Nah.. rich politicians wouldn't be allowed to die from Ebola. Really though, its been weeks since they treated the people (who had been isolated since before their arrival), I think it's aight.

a reply to: GogoVicMorrow

Probably ok, but still a risk. The patients arrived in Atlanta on August 2 and August 5, 2014. The second of the two was released from Emory Hospital on August 21, 2014. It's not clear when the patients would have no longer been contagious, but even if the 2nd patient was suddenly cured and no longer contagious the very same day she was admitted to Emory, the 21 day period would have run until August 26. And at the latest, it would go until September 11, 2014.

The doctors apparently visited the White House sometime between approximately August 23-30, 2014. At the very least, it seems to be pushing the 21-day safety margin.

Come on peps ebola doesnt travel via magic rays of death.

You have to be showing symptoms before your infectouis,

And if said doctor had so much as a sniffle he would not have been allowed in DC.

a reply to: crazyewok

I'm not sure that's completely true. I think you can possibly be infectious before showing symptoms (and apparently if you survive it stays in a males semen for several weeks after?), but not likely to spread the virus without the symptoms.

a reply to: ikonoklast

I'm sure they also tested themselves. If they were considered even the slightest risk they wouldn't be allowed in. Also that Sept 11 date is using the full 21 days max time before showing symptoms. The average is within a few days. 6-9 days I believe is generally how long most people take to get sick. 21 days would probably be people with supressed immune systems or something else affecting them.

originally posted by: GogoVicMorrow
a reply to: crazyewok

I'm not sure that's completely true. I think you can possibly be infectious before showing symptoms (and apparently if you survive it stays in a males semen for several weeks after?), but not likely to spread the virus without the symptoms.

Well if you drink or inject yourself with contaiminated blood it may.

But its a scientific fact Ebola can not be spread dureing its incubation.


So unless the president and congressmen were festing on his blood and haveing a gang bang I think the risk is no existant.

a reply to: crazyewok

I wasn't arguing that it was a risk to the president. Evident from my other posts. Just arguing what I was arguing.

Even knowing how Ebola is transmitted, incubation periods, etc., I'm pretty sure my preferred minimum distance from an Ebola patient (current or recovered) or anyone who has been near one approaches infinity, and so does the time period for which that is true. That may not be justified by scientific facts, but I'm pretty sure most people feel similarly, whether they will admit it or not. Even one of the doctors that went to the White House admitted to having to overcome such fears.

originally posted by: crazyewok
So unless the president and congressmen were festing on his blood and haveing a gang bang I think the risk is no existant.

Lol, there are enough stories about past presidents (and about the current president in Chicago days and college days) that you can't rule out one of those possibilities. And you don't have to read too many posts on ATS to wonder if you can entirely rule out the other possibility either.

But of course the president was probably playing golf at Martha's Vineyard at the time.

I hope he's contagious.

originally posted by: chrismarco
a reply to: ikonoklast

He should have licked every microphone in the Capitol....specifically the microphones used by the House and Senate

OMG, roflmao