President Obama sending 3000 troops to fight Ebola

[zolace]

The Ebola virus epidemic is not abating as illnesses usually do.  It is getting worse.  The fear is that the virus will mutate and give it the ability to become airborne.  The virus will kill in two weeks time.  Some estimates set the total death toll at 500,000.


President Obama is expected to announce Tuesday that he's sending up to 3,000 military personnel to combat the Ebola virus in West Africa.

Obama will announce the stepped-up offensive against the outbreak, which has killed more than 2,200 people in five West African countries, in an appearance at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
Administration officials said that the U.S. would help to provide medical and logistical support to overwhelmed local health care systems and to boost the number of beds needed to isolate and treat victims of the epidemic. The Defense Department has requested Congress for nearly $500 million in existing funds to be put toward the effort. The money would otherwise be used to support overseas contingency operations, such as the drawdown of troops in Afghanistan.

The new initiatives include training as many as 500 health care workers a week; erecting 17 heath care facilities with approximately 100 beds each; setting up a joint command headquartered in Monrovia, Liberia, to coordinate between U.S. and international relief efforts; providing home health care kits to hundreds of thousands of households, including 50,000 that the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) will deliver to Liberia this week; and carrying out a home- and community-based campaign to train local populations on how to handle exposed patients.

The fight against Ebola is considered, in part, a national security issue because the disease threatens fragile governments in Africa and could lead to more safe havens for terrorists. The request falls under the jurisdiction of the Pentagon because the military has the capacity to set up quarantine camps.

Sources told Fox News on Monday that the request is expected to be discussed Tuesday at the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing with Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey. But the sources said they believe the requested amount is a lot to reprogram.

Officials told the Associated Press that it would take about two weeks for U.S. forces to get on the ground. The U.S. effort will include medics and corpsmen for treatment and training, engineers to help erect the treatment facilities and specialists in logistics to assist in patient transportation.

The Obama administration’s decision to enlist the Defense Department in responding to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa has raised concerns that the task is pulling the already-stretched military away from other missions, including vital counter-terrorism operations.

According to a senior military official, Dempsey said at a recent meeting: "The Department of Defense's number one priority is combating Ebola."

However, a Defense Department source told Fox News last week that alarms had been raised about the decision.

“We don’t need to be taking planners away from the CT [counterterrorism] mission, and that is what is going on,” the Defense Department source said.

USAID and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are already involved.

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[zolace]

However, a Defense Department source told Fox News last week that alarms had been raised about the decision.

“We don’t need to be taking planners away from the CT [counterterrorism] mission, and that is what is going on,” the Defense Department source said.

USAID and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are already involved.


The death toll in the Ebola outbreak is expected to reach 10,000 before six months from now, and some estimates believe it will reach 500,000 before it’s over. Hardest hit by the outbreak are Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. The virus also has reached Nigeria and Senegal. Ebola is spread through direct contact with the bodily fluids of sick patients, making doctors and nurses especially vulnerable to contracting the virus that has no vaccine or approved treatment.

Four Americans, including three doctors, have been or are being treated for the virus in the U.S.

Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., the senior Republican on the Senate's health committee, said Monday that the U.S. must take the Ebola threat as seriously as it does the Islamic State terrorist group. He added that he would support the Obama administration's request for $30 million for the CDC and $58 million for the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority in an upcoming bill.

“This is an instance where we should be running toward the burning flames with our fireproof suits on," Alexander said in a statement. "This is an emergency. We need to recognize it, and we need to find and work with other countries in the world that recognize it.”

On Monday, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power called for an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Thursday, warning that the potential risk of the virus could "set the countries of West Africa back a generation."

Power said the meeting Thursday would mark a rare occasion when the Security Council, which is responsible for threats to international peace and security, addresses a public health crisis.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was expected to brief the council along with World Health Organization chief Dr. Margaret Chan and Dr. David Nabarro, the recently named U.N. coordinator to tackle the disease, as well as representatives from the affected countries.

[DrG]

So is Ebola still a junior varsity virus or has it been drafted in the virus Hall Of Fame?   Does it get to go to the White House and have a meeting with him?

Obama's wife was a hospital administrator making almost 1/2 a million a year thanks to a job he created just for her while he was Senator.  You would think for 1/2 million a year she would know something about public health policy.  A little slow on the uptake there Barry...

[bryant.coleman]

What he is going to achieve by sending those military personnel to West Africa? If he is serious, then he should order the major hospitals in the US to ship volunteer medical professionals to Liberia and Sierra Leone. May be he should learn something from Cuba. They recently announced that some 165 medical personnel would be sent to West Africa.

[RedDiamond]

What he is going to achieve by sending those military personnel to West Africa? If he is serious, then he should order the major hospitals in the US to ship volunteer medical professionals to Liberia and Sierra Leone. May be he should learn something from Cuba. They recently announced that some 165 medical personnel would be sent to West Africa.

"The goal here is to search American expertise, including our military, logistics and command and control expertise, to try and control this outbreak at its source in west Africa," Lisa Monaco, Obama's White House counter-terrorism adviser, told MSNBC television on Tuesday ahead of the announcement."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/16/us-health-ebola-obama-idUSKBN0HB08S20140916

I see it as a good move, it is already time to somebody to take a control over the situation. We have already seen that the local administration do not have enough resources to do so.

[niothor]

What he is going to achieve by sending those military personnel to West Africa? If he is serious, then he should order the major hospitals in the US to ship volunteer medical professionals to Liberia and Sierra Leone. May be he should learn something from Cuba. They recently announced that some 165 medical personnel would be sent to West Africa.

Yeah send the doctors there and then watch them as they get robbed , raped and murdered by the ...local population.

And about those Cubanese doctors , I wonder how many will get back .
They have a history of "disappearing" once they reach other countries.

[bryant.coleman]

And about those Cubanese doctors , I wonder how many will get back .
They have a history of "disappearing" once they reach other countries.

Cuba is a very poor country, and the average wage of doctors was just around $50 a few years ago. Compare that to the average wage of $500,000, which most of the doctors receive in the US. So they have a valid reason to defect. Raul Castro recently increased the salary of the (overseas) Cuban doctors to around $1,000 per month, thereby discouraging the defections. But still, a few will happen anyways.

But their intention should be appreciated. They did whatever in their capacity, to help these West African nations.

[1btcdream]

I understand trying to stop the Ebola virus before it get's ever worse, but the more people President Obama send over to try to stop this virus, the more likely someone is going to come back with the virus and start spreading the virus. Even with all of safe guards, they are taking a huge risk.

[BADecker]

Maybe the Ebola virus is one that can't be cured or controlled. Oh, well. The people are all going to die anyway. Does Ebola affect animals as well? If so, maybe the only way to cure Ebola is to let all life die together.

[wasserman99]

What he is going to achieve by sending those military personnel to West Africa? If he is serious, then he should order the major hospitals in the US to ship volunteer medical professionals to Liberia and Sierra Leone. May be he should learn something from Cuba. They recently announced that some 165 medical personnel would be sent to West Africa.

This is not your traditional infantry personal that are trained to fight in wars that are being sent. This is medial personal that are being sent; people whose job it is to do things like tend to the wounded and perform surgery near enemy lines. These are people who work in military hospitals. You would generally not consider these people to be "soldiers" or "people in the military"

[counter]

I think the military trains for these kinds or outbreaks and that is why they would be a useful tool to access and help contain the situation.  At the same time I wonder how much they can really do when the doctors that have been there are getting Ebola themselves.  It's all just a mess. but hopefully they can help restore some kind of order in an environment full of panic and fear.

[koshgel]

The problem is getting slowly out of control, and there is really minimal coverage regarding it in the West.

There was a news story that by Christmas time they are predicting approximately 500k will have been infected with Ebola. I can't believe that.

[Eisenhower34]

I think the military trains for these kinds or outbreaks and that is why they would be a useful tool to access and help contain the situation.  At the same time I wonder how much they can really do when the doctors that have been there are getting Ebola themselves.  It's all just a mess. but hopefully they can help restore some kind of order in an environment full of panic and fear.

In order to contain the outbreak, each person who has contracted the virus needs to be quarantined from the rest of the population. The military does have somewhat amount of training to do this and to be able to assist with doing this.

The reasons the doctors and other medical personal have been contracting the virus is because they are not taking the necessary precautions to protect themselves when dealing with patients.

[freedomno1]

The problem is getting slowly out of control, and there is really minimal coverage regarding it in the West.

There was a news story that by Christmas time they are predicting approximately 500k will have been infected with Ebola. I can't believe that.

This is going to become the new aids if their isn't some serious mitigation steps to prevent it
I say Aids/HIV since that was the last virus to really spread around and become a major virus in the last 30 years and that other one that tends to appear now and then in schools where it got its name from due to sanitation issues etc (forgot its name atm)

If no one monitors ebola an unprotected population with no immunity to these sort of viruses or antibodies pretty much all of us will be susceptible and the disease could keep transmitting and becoming a more serious problem unless extreme steps are done now to nip it in the bud.

(Also known as enough bureaucracy More action NOW) And smart action ^^.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/17/world/africa/obama-urges-world-powers-to-bolster-ebola-response.html?_r=0

__
That said do they always have to use war references (Can't they say a coordinated teamwork of Western powers for once not assault lol)
Sounds like were invading Africa Guys   (With ebola cures)

They said that although the American contribution was on a scale large enough to make a difference, a coordinated assault in Africa from other Western powers was essential to bringing the virus under control.

[bryant.coleman]

I understand trying to stop the Ebola virus before it get's ever worse, but the more people President Obama send over to try to stop this virus, the more likely someone is going to come back with the virus and start spreading the virus. Even with all of safe guards, they are taking a huge risk.

Sometimes you have to take the lesser risk.

What will happen if the epidemic gets out of control and infects millions of people? It won't be viable to monitor everyone of them, and some of the infected people will definitely travel to other countries, spreading the epidemic. So better to try and control the epidemic in West Africa itself.

[cinder]

What he is going to achieve by sending those military personnel to West Africa? If he is serious, then he should order the major hospitals in the US to ship volunteer medical professionals to Liberia and Sierra Leone. May be he should learn something from Cuba. They recently announced that some 165 medical personnel would be sent to West Africa.

It is just an excuse to station troop in Africa continent.

[BCwinning]

I think the military trains for these kinds or outbreaks and that is why they would be a useful tool to access and help contain the situation.  At the same time I wonder how much they can really do when the doctors that have been there are getting Ebola themselves.  It's all just a mess. but hopefully they can help restore some kind of order in an environment full of panic and fear.

In order to contain the outbreak, each person who has contracted the virus needs to be quarantined from the rest of the population. The military does have somewhat amount of training to do this and to be able to assist with doing this.

The reasons the doctors and other medical personal have been contracting the virus is because they are not taking the necessary precautions to protect themselves when dealing with patients.

It is not because that are not taking the precautions. They don't have the protective clothing to wear in the first place.
For example they are reusing gloves, if they have them. I would hope the situation is better now (regarding gear) but I doubt it in some areas.

[extrabyte]

It is good news that the US is beginning to realize the
severity of the threat Ebola poses

[RobFordWotWot]

As if he didn't introduce the virus in the first place.

[koshgel]

As if he didn't introduce the virus in the first place.

What does that even mean? Obama distributed Ebola to Africa?