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<p>In third world countries with third world resources. A fact that a lot of people seem to be glossing over 
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<p>@Nrdsb4 </p>
<p>I heard it from not a reputable source… Sorry to cause confusion of any sort to anyone!!</p>
<p>In terms of importance, not amount of coverage, it’s been a huge summer. I can’t rank things but here’s a sort of list:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>The Ukraine/Russia war. It’s an actual war and it has the potential for wrecking relations between Europe and Russia. Let’s assume the war gets worse, as seems to be happening, and Russia uses its natural gas leverage. We could be entering a new era of confrontation.</p></li>
<li><p>ISIS is a bigger deal than we might think. The deterioration in the Middle East is continuing, even worsening. ISIS inspires the other religious nut cases across the region. Libya is spiraling down as are other countries. And frankly, the number of refugees has far surpassed what can be maintained. There are now millions of refugees, including nearly all the Christians in Iraq (meaning over 1 million people there alone). Some are “internal” refugees but Jordan is bursting at the seams, as is Lebanon. </p></li>
<li><p>Ebola. Viruses mutate. The thing about Ebola in the past was it was so virulent it couldn’t maintain a population in which it could survive. It appears that has changed. How long before it becomes transmittable by coughing or other lesser fluid transfers so we can call it “airborne”? Maybe it won’t be a big deal but if it is …</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Here is a disease that is actually in the US.
<a href=“After a long journey from Africa, a new tropical disease sets up shop in Florida | The World from PRX”>http://www.pri.org/stories/2014-08-01/after-long-journey-africa-new-tropical-disease-sets-shop-florida</a>
But hopefully it wont spread.
*But the chikungunya virus can cause such extreme joint pain that you can’t even sit up for weeks.
*</p>
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<p>This is one of the main reasons I will never give up my US citizenship. Because when s*** happens, our government comes and gets you. Ebola is actually handled fairly regularly at Biosafety level 4 labs in the US. The CDC diagnosis cases regularly of Ebola (and other lethal diseases found primarily in 3rd world African countries like Marburg and Lassa). They have a lot of expertise. I have no doubt about their ability to keep these two patients in isolation and contain the disease, and to treat them more effectively than can happen in a 3rd world country. I say bravo for our State Department and the CDC, and just be glad they would come to get you if you were unlucky enough to catch something like this. I would rather be treated in Atlanta where the CDC is based for this disease than anyplace else in the world.</p>
<p>Of course, if you’re a Christian jailed for your religion, or a Marine jailed for not following gun laws, or a child abducted by their Muslim father, or committed the high crime of taking a picture of an orphanage in North Korea, they aren’t going to come and get you. They will come and get you if they want to study the disease you’re carrying, though. I have no illusions that if I am unjustly held or kidnapped, that my country is going to move heaven and earth to come and get me, just because I’m an American. </p>
<p>Tell Captain Phillips that. Or US citizens in China (Tachen Islands), Alexandria Egypt (during Suez crisis), the Caribbean during the Cuban missile crisis, Cyprus, Lebanon, Panama, Zaire, Sierra Leone – these are just some of the countries our military has helped evacuate US citizens from during crisis in the past. They can’t rescue everyone all the time (they likely aren’t going to send an army into Iraq or North Korea for one citizen, but some places you travel at your own risk!), but our State Department and armed forces will go a long ways for an American citizen in a civil unrest or natural disaster situation. We always register with the STEP program (<a href=“Smart Traveler Enrollment Program”>Smart Traveler Enrollment Program) when we travel abroad, too – if something happens, I want them to know we are there.</p>
<p>This document is fairly interesting, it is a DOD document about protecting and evacuating American civilians.</p>
<p><a href=“http://prhome.defense.gov/Portals/52/Documents/PR%20Docs/DOS-DOD%20Memo%20of%20Agreement%20on%20Protection%20and%20Evacuation.pdf”>http://prhome.defense.gov/Portals/52/Documents/PR%20Docs/DOS-DOD%20Memo%20of%20Agreement%20on%20Protection%20and%20Evacuation.pdf</a> </p>
<p>And really – are you so cynical that you think they are evacuating those two American citizens so they can study the disease? The CDC has had doctors on the ground in villages and in hospitals in Africa during every Ebola outbreak since the disease was first identified in 1976. They have seen plenty of it. Some people see conspiracy theories everywhere…</p>
<p>I am cynical enough to wonder why they will move heaven and earth for one person in a dire situation, and completely ignore another’s plight (at least until the outcry becomes deafening). </p>
<p>How much trust do we have in the CDC, to be absolutely perfect, and never make a mistake—that could be deadly. and potentially catastrophic. Some examples:</p>
<p>"Trust in the CDC has waned in recent months, after multiple lapses in proper lab procedure put workers – and potentially the public – at risk. Investigators found that scientists had transported dangerous biological materials in Ziploc bags and once sent a live sample of bird flu to a low-security lab ill-equipped to handle the virus.</p>
<p>The investigation began in June, when workers based at the agency’s headquarters in Atlanta were potentially exposed to anthrax after a lab failed to deactivate it. Congress grilled Frieden on July 16 over these and other incidents, saying they were “completely unacceptable.”</p>
<p>“The CDC is supposed to be the gold standard” for lab safety, Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Pennsylvania, said at the hearing. “This is not sound science, and this will not be tolerated.”</p>
<p>Which prompts the question: If the CDC wasn’t handling dangerous biological materials properly in a lab, is it ready to handle America’s first Ebola patient?"</p>
<p>The US ignoring of the jailed Mexico Marine is very big news with military families. There are a lot of military families. </p>
<p>I have complete confidence that the CDC is fully capable to handle a patient infected with Ebola (watching the ambulance making its way into the university hospital) - he will be treated by highly experienced and trained medical personnel, and not some whacko postdocs doing bench work. It is also a good “rehearsal” of what could be done if such an infected person makes their way onto a commercial airplane and comes to the US. (BTW, Busdriver - you do not have to worry if you are flying that plane - the virus is not airborne).</p>
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<p>Maybe because none of these are situations with natural disasters, disease outbreaks, or civil unrest? Three of the four examples are situations where someone broke a local law. You may not like the laws of other countries, but that is a choice those individuals made. You would be the first to raise a hue and cry if another country invaded because of a jailing in your community if their citizen had broken one of your local laws. And the kidnapping situation is probably not one where the child’s life is in immediate danger. In all of those situations the State Department will work to to find a solution, but you can’t equate that with an epidemic or a coup situation. Sheesh. Some people just LOVE to hate our government so much that they can’t even praise a humanitarian gesture.</p>
<p>If I were going to worry about the spread of a virulent, deadly disease to American shores, I would not spend any time worrying about these patients being treated by the CDC at Emory. Spend your time worrying about some unknown, very sick traveler arriving in the US, quietly disappearing into some city somewhere, and finally showing up in an overcrowded, understaffed, overwhelmed ER.</p>
<p>Now THAT’S scary. </p>
<p>The Gaza Strip war.</p>
<p>Russia/Ukraine. It’s 1939 all over again, complete w do-nothing Europeans.</p>
<p>What about a feel good story of the summer? Anything other than Russia/Ukraine/Gaza/Ebola? </p>
<p>Despite the massive property and environmental damage from the wildfires in Washington state, only one person has died.( from a heart attack)
Also the Blue Angels are back for Seattle Seafair.
And I can only find it on facebook, but google Mitch Hughes & Jerry the goat.</p>
<p>The Blue Angels were awesome! We have a little boat, and we took it out today and parked as close to the I90 bridge we could. As we were making our way back after the show, they took the final pass and flew directly over the boats, really low. We were lucky enough to be right underneath them, it was amazing!</p>
<p>"If I were going to worry about the spread of a virulent, deadly disease to American shores, I would not spend any time worrying about these patients being treated by the CDC at Emory. Spend your time worrying about some unknown, very sick traveler arriving in the US, quietly disappearing into some city somewhere, and finally showing up in an overcrowded, understaffed, overwhelmed ER.</p>
<p>Now THAT’S scary"</p>
<p>Yes, that is very scary. Especially since it takes some time for the symptoms to show up, so people could be long gone from any area that they know is infected, and think it is just the flu.</p>
<p>" (BTW, Busdriver - you do not have to worry if you are flying that plane - the virus is not airborne). "</p>
<p>Yes, it is not airborne. Yet. But I did have to wonder about the precautions the pilots took. It was not a large aircraft, a small private jet. Makes you wonder what they were thinking if they heard the patient coughing or throwing up, just a few feet away from them. They were lucky to not have an airborne emergency, and have to divert into an airport unexpectedly. Or have a smoke/fire situation, where people would have to evacuate.</p>
<p>For amusing fluff stories of 2014, there’s </p>
<p>Jeremy Meeks: hot felon mugshot that went viral
<a href=“Man's 'handsome' mug shot goes viral on police Facebook page”>http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-handsome-mugshot-goes-viral-20140619-story.html</a></p>