ebola, anyone else mildly terrified?
Discussion
Jeez, poor thing can't catch a break.
I hope her situation is as unique as it seems because if hundreds of thousands of west Africans are also having these health crises things are gonna stay really tough for a long long time.
Mental note to sling a few quid in the direction of Médecins Sans Frontières next time I've anything spare to give.
I hope her situation is as unique as it seems because if hundreds of thousands of west Africans are also having these health crises things are gonna stay really tough for a long long time.
Mental note to sling a few quid in the direction of Médecins Sans Frontières next time I've anything spare to give.
SilverSpur said:
Well she seems to have the disease again. So if she, with all the medical assistance she's having, can't shake this disease, how on earth can they claim the tens of thousands exposed in African countries but survived the outbreak be guaranteed clear?
They can't. There's one sort of possible saving grace: Pauline Cafferkey had the highest viral load of Ebola ever mentioned. It's basically certain that people as sick as she was but who did not have access to the healthcare she received (so, all of them) would have all died. So it may be that some of this longer term stuff is related to how very, very poorly she was - even by Ebola standards of 'very poorly'.
That said, MSF's annual report mentions a multitude of less-life-threatening problems occurring in Ebola survivors.
Part of the outbreak being clear will be a) at what stage someone carrying the virus can give it to other people - if it's still in your brain but it's no longer in your blood, even postmortem you're an awful lot less likely to give it to anyone else and b) whether everyone surviving has either had it, is naturally immune or has been vaccinated.
Halmyre said:
Apparently she's tested negative for ebola.
Poor woman, for the rest of her life, the slightest cough or runny nose and she's going to end up being hauled off to hospital.
Wonder what the police escort was all about? How did they get involved? The conspiracy theories start here...
Police escort not unusual if someone needs an urgent transfer and/or has to go a long way and being stopped en route has the capacity for whatever reason to be a safety problem. Poor woman, for the rest of her life, the slightest cough or runny nose and she's going to end up being hauled off to hospital.
Wonder what the police escort was all about? How did they get involved? The conspiracy theories start here...
Can't imagine much more of a potential safety problem than someone in the crowded UK having what was at the time reasonably feared to be some sort of ebola outbreak/recurrence…
FlyingMeeces said:
Police escort not unusual if someone needs an urgent transfer and/or has to go a long way and being stopped en route has the capacity for whatever reason to be a safety problem.
Can't imagine much more of a potential safety problem than someone in the crowded UK having what was at the time reasonably feared to be some sort of ebola outbreak/recurrence…
How much is this woman going to cost the tax payer? Can't imagine much more of a potential safety problem than someone in the crowded UK having what was at the time reasonably feared to be some sort of ebola outbreak/recurrence…
s3fella said:
FlyingMeeces said:
Police escort not unusual if someone needs an urgent transfer and/or has to go a long way and being stopped en route has the capacity for whatever reason to be a safety problem.
Can't imagine much more of a potential safety problem than someone in the crowded UK having what was at the time reasonably feared to be some sort of ebola outbreak/recurrence…
How much is this woman going to cost the tax payer? Can't imagine much more of a potential safety problem than someone in the crowded UK having what was at the time reasonably feared to be some sort of ebola outbreak/recurrence…
s3fella said:
FlyingMeeces said:
Police escort not unusual if someone needs an urgent transfer and/or has to go a long way and being stopped en route has the capacity for whatever reason to be a safety problem.
Can't imagine much more of a potential safety problem than someone in the crowded UK having what was at the time reasonably feared to be some sort of ebola outbreak/recurrence…
How much is this woman going to cost the tax payer? Can't imagine much more of a potential safety problem than someone in the crowded UK having what was at the time reasonably feared to be some sort of ebola outbreak/recurrence…
Would you also like to oo I dunno offer an opinion about the ongoing care of severely injured servicemen and women? They cost us a few bob too.
All the stuff used in the care of Pauline Cafferkey has to be kept in readiness, because we've known for longer than we've been a single unified bloody country that there are some horrible, terrifying diseases out there whose sufferers need special care and prevention of the possibility of transmission of those diseases to others. We've known that for far longer than there's been germ theory. That special intensive care bed, the staff, the ambulance - it didn't get built specially for her, those staff weren't trained up out of the ether specially for her, what is now the Hospital for Tropical Diseases ain't new to this rodeo.
So it's pretty nonsensical to put a pound sign over her head, the system only works at all with a great deal of redundancy built in ready to pick up the slack at very short notice. Which, thankfully, it did!
s3fella said:
FlyingMeeces said:
Police escort not unusual if someone needs an urgent transfer and/or has to go a long way and being stopped en route has the capacity for whatever reason to be a safety problem.
Can't imagine much more of a potential safety problem than someone in the crowded UK having what was at the time reasonably feared to be some sort of ebola outbreak/recurrence…
How much is this woman going to cost the tax payer? Can't imagine much more of a potential safety problem than someone in the crowded UK having what was at the time reasonably feared to be some sort of ebola outbreak/recurrence…
king needs and we shouldn't even slightly question it. I don't know from whence it came, but I get a whiff of a smell hanging over this story, that of a devious woman sneaking through official channels, whereas the real story should be why such a shoddy and chaotic screening procedure was set up in the first place. There was a lengthy news item about it on Radio Scotland a few weeks back; the impression I got from it was that the screening operation was a total shambles.
hornetrider said:
s3fella said:
How much is this woman going to cost the tax payer?
And how much have you cost the tax payer? Prick.k all, and by a massive margin in fact. And you are probably the same.It's a genuine question. If you read about the whole scenario of this team going out, you will see that there have clearly been massive errors of judgment from the get go, and poor implementation of policies and safeguards. Or she would not have caught it. As for the wrong temp reading before the trip home and what's happened since, I'm rather clsoe to someone who is a GP and did a residency in tropical medicine, and it is laughable some of what has gone on.
Many were not in agreement of these NHS staff going out there in the manner that they did, clearly it was not safe for them and the rest of us were picking up the bill at the time, and now since.
As for a police escort for a f
king cold? Do YOU get that level of service? Cos I don't. Pricks3fella said:
hornetrider said:
s3fella said:
How much is this woman going to cost the tax payer?
And how much have you cost the tax payer? Prick.k all, and by a massive margin in fact. And you are probably the same.king whip-round.p1stonhead said:
As much as she fking needs and we shouldn't even slightly question it.
And yet, day in day out, the NHS, who she works for and that we pay for make EXACTLY such decisions, with people who are more ill than she is. She was rushed to hospital with police escort for what appears to be a cold, ffs. king needs and we shouldn't even slightly question it. I know closely a GP with patients who are unable to get NHS treatment and medication paid for who die as a result. Sadly, many per year. In some cases, they are willing to pay for treatment themselves, but cannot get it. Some go abroad for it instead.
This whole idea was poorly planned and clearly poorly implemented. Not all the medical fraternity thinks this woman is a selfless hero, you know. No one wishes her anything but good health, but it all has to be paid for and my question is entirely valid. The weighing up of costs vs reward is made DAY IN DAY OUT within the NHS, but I have to say, if you think we are all treated equally, you are sadly wrong.
Slightly off topic, but my father in law had an "accident", of his own making, with a mini digger and hurt his knee. As a self employed builder you'd think he would have insurance but no, his wife is a nurse at A and E. He had a meniscal tear and yet was operated on within 24 hours of the accident, an accident he had fire service to attend and was air ambulanced out. For a flipping meniscal tear (bucket handle). Instead of the usual fracture clinic, 3 weeks wait for MRI (if lucky) and 4 month wait for the op, his MRI was same day, and he was shoehorned in to see NHS consultant on his private consult list. My in laws are extremely proud of this special service (he also had his carpel tunnel op done via this premium service), but my wife and I are embarrassed by it.
I even wrote to the hospital where MIL works to complain about it and had to chase a response to be told that FIL received an "appropriate level of care". Too f
king right he did! Our neighbour up the road, A and E Reg, tells us tails of strings pulled to get his mother diagnosed and onto regiment of radio and chemo all within 9 days of complaining of a sore tummy when in Portugal on holiday with them.
If you know anyone in the NHS, ask them, honestly if they have ever called in a favour here and there. See that they say if you think my experience is isolated.
And as for people saying about her "staring death in the face" etc, yes, fine if you see it that way, it was certainly highly risky which is why many did not support it. You then say we should spend whatever they like on her, WITHOUT QUESTION. But doe a search about some of the ex servicemen, shot or blown up, who day in day out were staring death in the face, sometimes, not so long ago, with inadequate resources and equipment, See what sort of help they get. Do they get "whatever is needed without even questioning it"? Because the answer is a resounding NO. Check out what the compo is that such people can get. And ask where their police escorts are when they don't feel well.
If this was a regular Joe Schmoo with Ebola, would you say the same, "spend what is needed without question?" I think not!
s3fella said:
p1stonhead said:
As much as she fking needs and we shouldn't even slightly question it.
And yet, day in day out, the NHS, who she works for and that we pay for make EXACTLY such decisions, with people who are more ill than she is. She was rushed to hospital with police escort for what appears to be a cold, ffs. king needs and we shouldn't even slightly question it. I know closely a GP with patients who are unable to get NHS treatment and medication paid for who die as a result. Sadly, many per year. In some cases, they are willing to pay for treatment themselves, but cannot get it. Some go abroad for it instead.
This whole idea was poorly planned and clearly poorly implemented. Not all the medical fraternity thinks this woman is a selfless hero, you know. No one wishes her anything but good health, but it all has to be paid for and my question is entirely valid. The weighing up of costs vs reward is made DAY IN DAY OUT within the NHS, but I have to say, if you think we are all treated equally, you are sadly wrong.
Slightly off topic, but my father in law had an "accident", of his own making, with a mini digger and hurt his knee. As a self employed builder you'd think he would have insurance but no, his wife is a nurse at A and E. He had a meniscal tear and yet was operated on within 24 hours of the accident, an accident he had fire service to attend and was air ambulanced out. For a flipping meniscal tear (bucket handle). Instead of the usual fracture clinic, 3 weeks wait for MRI (if lucky) and 4 month wait for the op, his MRI was same day, and he was shoehorned in to see NHS consultant on his private consult list. My in laws are extremely proud of this special service (he also had his carpel tunnel op done via this premium service), but my wife and I are embarrassed by it.
I even wrote to the hospital where MIL works to complain about it and had to chase a response to be told that FIL received an "appropriate level of care". Too f
king right he did! Our neighbour up the road, A and E Reg, tells us tails of strings pulled to get his mother diagnosed and onto regiment of radio and chemo all within 9 days of complaining of a sore tummy when in Portugal on holiday with them.
If you know anyone in the NHS, ask them, honestly if they have ever called in a favour here and there. See that they say if you think my experience is isolated.
And as for people saying about her "staring death in the face" etc, yes, fine if you see it that way, it was certainly highly risky which is why many did not support it. You then say we should spend whatever they like on her, WITHOUT QUESTION. But doe a search about some of the ex servicemen, shot or blown up, who day in day out were staring death in the face, sometimes, not so long ago, with inadequate resources and equipment, See what sort of help they get. Do they get "whatever is needed without even questioning it"? Because the answer is a resounding NO. Check out what the compo is that such people can get. And ask where their police escorts are when they don't feel well.
If this was a regular Joe Schmoo with Ebola, would you say the same, "spend what is needed without question?" I think not!
The political show of an escort was just that. It cost no more to have the escort than not. They were driving anyway, and no kittens were killed, or delayed in the process. Honest.
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