A Professor In U.S. Is Telling Liberians That The Defense Department ‘Manufactured’ Ebola -- Washington Post
Last week, President Obama announced an ambitious — and expensive — plan that effectively placed the U.S. military at the forefront of the global fight against the worst Ebola outbreak in history. In an effort that could cost as much as $750 million in the next six months, he assigned up to 3,000 military personnel to West Africa to “combat and contain” what officials call “an extraordinarily serious epidemic.”
As those military doctors and officials begin what will be a difficult task, among the challenges they face are rumors that spread fear — fear of Ebola, fear of quarantine measures and fear of doctors. Already, several medical workers have been murdered in Guinea — throats slit, bodies dumped in a latrine. Then six Red Cross volunteers were attacked earlier this week while they tried to collect the body of an Ebola victim.
And now, in what may plant further seeds of mistrust and suspicion, a major Liberian newspaper, the Daily Observer, has published an article by a Liberian-born faculty member of a U.S. university implying the epidemic is the result of bioterrorism experiments conducted by the United States Department of Defense, among others.
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WNU Editor: The Liberian newspaper article is here. What's my take .... such a state of affairs has been repeated many times throughout history .... ignorance and fear walk hand in hand when an epidemic that cannot be contained breaks out.
4 comments:
What will they say? Academic Freedom?
"The government lied about inventing the HIV virus as a means of genocide against people of color. The government lied,"
- Reverend Jeremiah Wright
Obama attended his church for 20 years.
http://spectator.org/articles/41382/jeremiah-wright-foreign-policy
Obama had the beer summit with Henry Louis Gates, Jr & Crowley. Obama's statements prior to the summit were not the best.
If Obama sat down with Cyril Broderick and others some might see it as diminishing the stature of the office of the Presidency.
But if he could put a stake though the heart of this pernicious lie, then it would very much help race relations.
Maybe he could invite Reverend Wright too.
On 2nd thought Reverend wright might disavow his HIV origin theory but open up about something else. So better not.
Right up there with the CIA/Crack conspiracy of the 80's.
The FDA goes after people when the product stats becoming a big seller and is quackery.
The government should go after a conspiracy theory when it is harmful. This runs into the 1st amendment very fast. But maybe through a PSA campaign run in conjunction with some non profits would help.
Plus well heck of a lot of education.
Several Ebola educators were killed. I am sure the Seabees in Liberia have a force protection plan. Still stuff could happen. there are no shortage of AK47s and other assorted assault rifles running around.
I fail to see what the addition of a 25 person hospital will do. that cannot be their only project.
When and if they get Ebola under control they need to keep up the fight with other diseases.
Aizino,
To me the questions are:
If these people come into any kind of contact what happens to them, quarantine? All 3,000?
What about personnel circulating in and out of theater?
What about the equipment in theater?
If any of these people come in contact with the virus then in essence we've lost this group at least for a while. Add in the troops in Afghanistan who are becoming more isolated and it's starting to add up.
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