How about that Ebola thing

[Thanatos]

As i pointed out early, all it takes is someone with the disease to catch a flight to Europe and America and it can spread. Having to put thousands upon thousands of soldiers to close the borders of these countries are going to put soldiers in direct contact with Ebola victims. never-mind these countries are not going to wanted to be closed and might fight back. now we got disease and war.

Yes and no.

First off, each country only has so many international airports or seaports. A person suffering from a viral hemorrhagic fever such as Ebola or Marburg would be showing some ridiculously painful symptoms. This would alert the crew, who would then contact the host country they are flying to as to what they should do. The host country, or at least the country in question, would then direct them to a particular place where they have HAZMAT teams ready to deal with this kind of issue. Many westernized nations have the capabilities to deal with this kind of issue.

Secondly, while Ebola is certainly virulent, and can be transmitted easily throughout the human population, you need to remember that Ebola is transferred through physical touch. It is not airborne, otherwise the kill counts would be much greater. Furthermore, it is perhaps a grim silver lining that Ebola kills much too quickly for it to spread very easily. These two aforementioned reasons are why the death counts in the afflicted African countries is not higher.

Thirdly, I'm not quite sure how several impoverished (by any stretch of the imagination) nations are going to "fight back" against any developed country, let alone a hypothetical WHO declaration of quarantine against a certain nation, backed by the full power of the UN and its peacekeepers.

I feel like, while the situation is obviously dire, everyone is freaking out a little bit too much about this.

[Vanoi]

Thirdly, I'm not quite sure how several impoverished (by any stretch of the imagination) nations are going to "fight back" against any developed country, let alone a hypothetical WHO declaration of quarantine against a certain nation, backed by the full power of the UN and its peacekeepers.

First, it would be multiple nations, not one. Two, these countries do have armies and militaries. Impoverished countries can fight back. Especially when you are isolating them from the world. They might just get desperate.

Full power of the UN? I had at laugh at that one. UN peacekeeprs suck. The UN doesn't even have enough to send to completely isolate countries. Nor do they have the power. A bunch of rebels in Syria forced out the UN peacekeepers in the Golan Heights and the rebels aren't exactly heavily armed.

My point is that this would be unnecessary and counter-productive compared to simply sending those 3000 troops to help battle the disease.

[Thanatos]

First, it would be multiple nations, not one. Two, these countries do have armies and militaries. Impoverished countries can fight back. Especially when you are isolating them from the world. They might just get desperate.

Full power of the UN? I had at laugh at that one. UN peacekeeprs suck. The UN doesn't even have enough to send to completely isolate countries. Nor do they have the power. A bunch of rebels in Syria forced out the UN peacekeepers in the Golan Heights and the rebels aren't exactly heavily armed.

My point is that this would be unnecessary and counter-productive compared to simply sending those 3000 troops to help battle the disease.

You're assuming that the government in question would be resisting. In the cases discussed thus far, it's the government trying to desperately quarantine areas of their country so that the disease doesn't spread. It is not entirely unreasonable that if things got bad enough, they would ask for outside help in trying to prevent an outbreak from leaving the country by land.

[Condottiere 40K]

UN Peacekeepers are renowned for being lightly armed, and are potential easy targets, like the Belgians that were captured and slaughtered during the Rwandan genocide.

[Heathen Hammer]

As i pointed out early, all it takes is someone with the disease to catch a flight to Europe and America and it can spread. Having to put thousands upon thousands of soldiers to close the borders of these countries are going to put soldiers in direct contact with Ebola victims. never-mind these countries are not going to wanted to be closed and might fight back. now we got disease and war.

You do realize that your president is already planning to send 3000 soldiers there, right?

But Ebola deaths are measured in the low thousands. Cutting off trade will kill far more by detoriating living conditions and is also likely to inspire conspiracy theories as well as violent riots which would spiral the situation out of control.

But again, countries that surround Ebola-affected ones have horrible sanitary conditions, and if disease spreads there it will lead to even more casualties.

[Adar]

But again, countries that surround Ebola-affected ones have horrible sanitary conditions, and if disease spreads there it will lead to even more casualties.

And what do you think will be the result of the societal upheaval caused by your draconian measures? Your proposal is both counter productive and outlandishly expensive which is why the professionals aren't implementing solutions like that.

[Heathen Hammer]

And what do you think will be the result of the societal upheaval caused by your draconian measures? Your proposal is both counter productive and outlandishly expensive which is why the professionals aren't implementing solutions like that.

Instead there would be societal upheaval due to the disease spreading. But then again, it is "too expensive" to prevent those people from dying a rather unpleasant death, so who cares, right?

[Gerhard von Martimer]

I really don't think Ebola is the "civilization ending" disease that the media is playing it to be. When the real thing comes along it will be a totally different government response

[Condottiere 40K]

I don't think there is any natural disease at the moment that can end us, but worse could disrupt our economies.

[flota]

We survived the black plague, viruela, the Spanish flu...
I believe something tampered by ourselves will kill us, not by nature itself

[sabaku_no_gaara]

Hm, Sierra leone has put 1,2 milion people in quarantine

http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...united-nations

[Heathen Hammer]

I really don't think Ebola is the "civilization ending" disease that the media is playing it to be. When the real thing comes along it will be a totally different government response

It is more like "countries wit no sanitation infrastructure ending" disease. Only problem is that some of North American/Western European "liberal" politicians may decide to be altruistic at the expense of their own people, and start accepting refugees from these countries.

[King of the Ring]

Hm, Sierra leone has put 1,2 milion people in quarantine

http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...united-nations

The bet has been placed.

[Aikanár]

Discussion about 4chan, trolling & al split to here.

[Visna]

For all it's unpleasantness, the Black Death forced much needed social, economic and intellectual changes (or accelerated already beginning ones). Maybe ebola will have something like the same effect, and force the the affected countries to organize themselves better.

[sabaku_no_gaara]

For all it's unpleasantness, the Black Death forced much needed social, economic and intellectual changes (or accelerated already beginning ones). Maybe ebola will have something like the same effect, and force the the affected countries to organize themselves better.

I mentioned that once, on a "progressive" facebook forum, I was accused of being the new hitler, and of being a crazy psychopath etc..

be careful what you say but I do agree with you

[Flavius Julius Nepos Augustus]

"The first case of the deadly ‪#‎Ebola‬ virus diagnosed on US soil has been confirmed by medical officials in Dallas, Texas"
hope it is contained but the story looks a bit out of the blue so hopefully it will not spread

[conon394]

I suppose Heathen Hammer will demand we shoot and burn everyone the person came in contact with.

[geyserik]

"The first case of the deadly ‪#‎Ebola‬ virus diagnosed on US soil has been confirmed by medical officials in Dallas, Texas"
hope it is contained but the story looks a bit out of the blue so hopefully it will not spread

You know whats crazy? At the press conference announcing this a NY Times reporter asked if they were going to check out All the people who were on the flight with the person.
The spokesperson said no no need to. That is Nuts!!!.

[sabaku_no_gaara]

The guy lied on the questionaire he had to fill out in Liberia, when asked if he had contact with ebola infected people he said no.

That's how easy it is to circumvent safety measures, just lie, a trait that every single human possesses.

Apparently he also threw up in public in the us outside his apartment and he had contact with several people.



You guys still believe it's a bad idea to block all traffic out of ebola countries?