<p>Google the new czar and check out his background.</p>
<p>I’ve been bad mouthing Dr Friedan. Now, he looks like an angel compared to this czar.</p>
<p>How does PCR work? Does it speed up virus multiplication in the sample or something?</p>
<p>Klain is clearly a brilliant and accomplished person - but I saw absolutely no qualifications to serve as Ebola czar in his wikipedia entry.</p>
<p>With no background in public health, he’ll have a steep learning curve and the virus won’t.</p>
<p>But plenty of qualifications to manage public sentiment. So I guess the gov thinks the virus isn’t the problem. It’s the public opinion that’s a problem. Science loses out to bureaucracy once again. He doesn’t have to learn anything. He isn’t dealing with the virus.</p>
<p>PCR does not produce “virus”. It produces copies of a small piece of the virus’s genetic material that can be later detected (it is an oversimplification). That piece has to be unique to the virus so the test can distinguish it from other species. </p>
<p><a href=“http://m.dummies.com/how-to/content/dna-techology-copying-a-gene-with-pcr.html”>http://m.dummies.com/how-to/content/dna-techology-copying-a-gene-with-pcr.html</a></p>
<p>BB, thank you for the explanation. It could work to detect Ebola before symptoms show up then?</p>
<p>The response does not need someone with a public health background. It needs someone who can handle the logistics of an incredibly complicated situation.</p>
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<p>I am wondering what kind of person would make people here happy. Someone who wants to “drown government in a bathtub”? A science-denier? Seriously. If ever there was a time to put politics aside and come together to solve a global problem, this would be it.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/17/politics/ebola-czar-ron-klain/index.html?hpt=hp_t1”>http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/17/politics/ebola-czar-ron-klain/index.html?hpt=hp_t1</a></p>
<p>Klain appointment makes sense. He’ll get all the right players in place to tackle Ebola problem succesfully…people like Dr. Paul Farmer, etc.</p>
<p>I just read the Wiki entry. All politics aside (if that’s even possible), what expertise does he bring to this crisis? Maybe he is simpatico with leaders of the House of Representatives but what does that do for us in the short run?</p>
<p>I find the Ebola panic in this country to be absolutely ridiculous, but why appoint a Lawyer to oversee a medical crisis? That’s not exactly reassuring to a very panicky public. </p>
<p>Ron Klain is an excellent choice for this position. It makes an abundance of sense to have someone with his brain and his experience coordinating the many faceted response to this issue.</p>
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Is THIS appointment anything but political?</p>
<p>Theoretically, yes. Practically, no. There has to be enough copies of the virus in the sample for such tests to be conclusive enough to say that the virus is present. Apparently, with Ebola, by the time there is enough viral genetic material in the blood, the person is already getting ill. To think about it simplistically: if you have a test sensitive enough to detect a single copy, but there is one copy of virus per mL of blood, then, if your test is using 1/2 mL, you are going to miss half of the infections! </p>
<p>Additional problem here is that the test sample is blood. Drawing blood in a public place such as an airport is logistically impossible. More on the subject later. Gotta run.</p>
<p>A travel ban will not work but lets do it anyone because it will make people in the US feel better so they can go back to watching America’s Got Talent. </p>
<p>Borders are porous. That is fact. And while we may be able to keep West Africans out of the US - eventually it will show up in other countries outside of West Africa and we will have to begin banning from another, and then another, and then another country, until we ban travel from the rest of the world. It would be not only a worldwide health crisis but a world wide economic crisis, too. But hey, if it makes us feel safer…</p>
<p>And last I knew the US cannot demand other countries stamp Visa’s, stop issuing Visa’s or demand countries set up quarantine camps - unless we invade and take over said country. </p>
<p>As for Klain, why Awsomethingorotherposter, has been going on ad nauseam about how any competent executive in the private sector (and Kain is President and General Counsel of Case Holdings - a private company) would know what to do and get the problem solved lickety split. And maybe if he doesn’t work out we can get The Donald to be Czar. </p>
<p>Hold your horses folks. No one here believes that the government would appoint a dimwit. I know next to nothing about Klain but I’m sure he’s bright and competent. But what we want to know is what will his mandate be. We will be better able to judge him once we know what he’s supposed to do. He’s a lawyer /public affairs guy, so I have some idea of his marching orders. </p>
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<p>This is it, in a nutshell. Although the optimistic side of me wants to believe that this will be a wakeup call to the anti-vax/flat-earth crowd, and the people who don’t see the importance of funding science research and public health initiatives.</p>
<p>This is interesting:
<a href=“http://breakingnews.suntimes.com/nationworld/un-we-botched-response-to-the-ebola-outbreak/#nationworld/un-we-botched-response-to-the-ebola-outbreak/”>http://breakingnews.suntimes.com/nationworld/un-we-botched-response-to-the-ebola-outbreak/#nationworld/un-we-botched-response-to-the-ebola-outbreak/</a></p>
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Ludicrous.</p>
<p>“Ludicrous.”</p>
<p>Really? What happens when it shows up in Belgium, for example? You don’t think people here will be screaming to ban all international flights from Belgium? And then it shows up in France and Italy and Germany. What then? We know that people will not do the common sense things to keep from spreading (see Dallas HCW.) Or will we just demand these European countries set up quarantine camps? </p>
<p>We will institute a travel ban from West Africa. I have no doubt about it. So after that will just have to wait and see. </p>