Reaction to Ebola op-ed

Reaction to the Ebola op-ed

November 20, 2014 --

Phil

Ralph

On Nov 18, 2014, at 3:01 PM, Phil wrote:

Ms. Summers,

Training yes. Resources yes. Expertise, yes. Your solution to bring all patients to US smacks of colonialism and white man's burden. Also, it sets a dangerous precedent to nations that we will bankroll their mistakes e.g. appointing medical advisory positions based upon political reasons rather than merit. This would probably be placed upon the military who are already undermanned and over committed, and further degrade our military from its primary mission.

Regards,

Phil

Hi Mr. Phil,

Thanks for your message regarding my op-ed. I did not say that we should invade their countries, snatch them against their will and bring them here to treat them and when they recover make them our slaves. I said that we should "welcome" Ebola patients and we "should offer to bring" them here. Purely optional, but when you compare the mortality statistics between our countries, I think many, but not all, people would like to take the chance on coming here. West African countries are under a tremendous burden already trying to meet their current health needs, spending $100-200 per person per year compared to our $8900 per year. It's really hard to get out of poverty, if you've ever tried it. So while their governments may have lots of problems, that's no excuse for us not to help. Plus, this is enlightened self-interest! Ebola is going to come to the US whether we try to intervene now and stop the spread, or whether we wait months while barely helping only for it to become a global epidemic so big it will be extremely difficult to control. The best thing for our country is to try to stop this now. It happens to also be the best thing for west Africa, but even for people who only care about themselves, this is the best way to go. We must end Ebola now, and this is the easiest way to do it.

And while the military could help if it wanted to, I actually envisioned a private sector effort to take the lead, celebrities donating their planes to bring the infected here or to other developed countries, all hospitals that are now prepared to accept a handful of patients… The military doesn't have to be involved at all really.

Re: the white man's burden--I think it is the decent person's burden to try to take care of those who are less needy and to try to prevent the needless deaths of millions when it is within our power to do so.

Best regards,

Sandy Summers, RN, MSN, MPH

Ralph

On Nov 18, 2014, at 8:43 PM, Ralph wrote:

I agree with your concept. Since we have better equipment and expertise, we ought to treat as many patients as possible. But I am not sure it is logical to fly all those patients here. Might it not be more useful, both now and in the long term, to build a significant group of clinics near the epidemic? If the project were handled properly, those clinics might go on to make significant, ongoing contributions to many aspects of public health in West Africa.

Response

Hi Ralph,

Thank you for your message. There is nothing I'd like more than to build up huge numbers of clinics in West Africa, all of Africa, all of the developing world for that matter, and once the Ebola crisis is over they can use them for all the other health care crises they go through every day. It's just that I do not see how we can do this in time to stop the epidemic if the CDC predicts 1.4 million infections by January 20, 2015--that's right around the corner. We need immediate action! And then we should still build a mountain of clinics in Africa…

Thank you for writing!

Best regards,

Sandy
-----------------------------------------------------
Sandy Summers, RN, MSN, MPH

Maureen

On Nov 18, 2014, at 8:44 PM, Maureen wrote:

Dear Ms. Summers,

I am compelled to write you after reading your article: Ebola? Bring it on.

You claim that we should bring as many Ebola patients as possible here, as this is the best way to stop Ebola from spreading. And I quote " The best way to stop Ebola from spreading across the world is to contain it now by welcoming all infected patients here (or to other developed nations) where we are better able to provide excellent care and bring the outbreak under control." What you are suggesting, welcoming "all infected patients" here would be a huge, costly, and suicidal act for our health care system and the population of these United States as a whole. I for one do not want patients with Ebola imported here. I have read a lot of information regarding our preparedness to handle this virus. While it is true we do have an "excellent" health care system by most standards, our ability to treat patients with this disease is not in any way at the level for what you propose. I have read many articles from nurses who have been given only cursory instructions/training on how to deal with patients with Ebola. This type of disease is not typical for nurses in the United States to treat, so their knowledge is limited. They do not have adequate protective gear, and their are no uniform guidelines for the gear necessary for care of a patients with Ebola. The gear is expensive. Hospitals, without hard guidelines, will do what is least expensive in order to supply their nurses with necessary equipment. This will put nurses at risk. Even though there has been a limited number of Ebola patients in "developed" countries, it demonstrates the lack of training, and therefore skill and preparedness of the nurses to care for patients with Ebola, as it is the nurses who have become infected. I am in no way criticizing the nurses in our country. This is a matter of training and experience. The CDC says Ebola is a Biosafety level 4 virus. Such a virus, and a patient with said virus, require very specialized handling! There are only 4 hospitals in the US with units of this rating. In those 4 hospitals they have 19 beds which would be able to adequately handle an Ebola patient!

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Center, Bethesda, Maryland, has 3 beds.
Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, has 10 beds.
Emory Hospital, Atlanta has 3 beds.
St Patricks Hospital, Missoula, Montana has 3 beds.

Unless you have a magic wand you can wave, there is no way your proposition will result in anything except the death of health care workers, the devastation of our health care system, and the loss of many America lives.

The head of a union of 185,000 nurses disagrees with your stance as well. She and her union members know the nurses in standard care hospitals (and the facilities themselves) are not prepared to care for patients with Ebola. Why don't you??

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/she-the-people/wp/2014/10/24/ebola-nightmare-for-nurses-as-union-demands-protection-for-their-members/

"Hospitals aren't ready for what may happen, Burger said. She cited the results of a study by NNU of more than 3,000 nurses at 1,000 hospitals around the country: 84 percent of nurses say their hospitals have not provided any kind of interactive training, 68 percent say their hospitals have not communicated any sort of policy regarding the admission and care of patients with Ebola, 46 percent say their hospitals do not have an adequate supply of impermeable or fluid-resistant gowns and 44 percent don't have enough protective eyewear."

If you are unaware of these facts and statistics, shame on you! If you are aware, and you still wrote this article, shame on you!

Sincerely,

Maureen

Response

Hi Ms. Maureen,

Thank you for your message. Yes, I have seen the publications by National Nurses United. Please understand that they are coming at the Ebola problem from a much different perspective. Their mission is to push hospitals to be as prepared as possible, and many of them have done so, which is why 100% of nurses at 100% of hospitals are not feeling ill-prepared. The flip side of that data is that many hospitals have gone into high gear to get prepared. Most cities have designated hospitals for Ebola patients. They have the equipment and they can arrange the facilities so as to provide excellent infection control. My perspective is a public health one, we spend 100 times as much on health care per person per year as do West African countries because we are 100 times wealthier. We have the facilities and the nurses. They do not. Even if our hospitals are not all prepared to the level as the four hospitals you mention, they are way more prepared to tackle this global health challenge than villages without running water, which is the situation on the ground in West Africa now.

Forty percent of people are not even being contained--all the beds are full. So they have bloody vomiting and diarrhea at home with no toilets, and are being cared for by their family members who don't even have a pair of gloves! This is a disaster for infection control.

Ebola is coming here whether we want it to or not. Either we bring the patients over now and try to halt it in its tracks or we abandon the West Africans, let them flail at a problem 1000 times bigger than they are able to handle, it spirals out of control, spreads across the world and in 6 months, the US is teeming with Ebola patients. This plan is a long-term strategy, but in the end it will save American lives and it will save American money.

Best regards,

Sandy Summers, RN, MSN, MPH

Arlene

On Nov 19, 2014, at 7:29 AM, Arlene wrote:

?Ms. Summers:

What an altruistic person you are! I trust if and when your wishes are given free reign that you will personally provide the financial and nursing resources needed to achieve your goals of making those Ebola patients well.

I hope if and when you become ill that you will not object to delay of getting treatment or surgery for many months because all the medical resources available have already been put to use for Ebola patients.

Hopefully you will not object to a large additional tax bill provided to you to fund your altruistic goals.

Since you are a very humanitarian person, I am sure that you will use your influence to make sure that when I and other non-Ebola patients need medical help and resources, you will see to it that we are given priority, since we are tax paying Americans who do not fit into your agenda.

Thanks for taking the time to read my views.

Arlene

Response

Hi Ms. Arlene,

Thank you for your message. I am curious about your reaction. Does everyone who has a policy suggestion have to pay for it entirely on their own? When presidents ask Congress to declare war, do they have to pay for the entire thing out of their personal bank accounts?

Imagine that you were born in West Africa, and you have two children and a mother you care for. You live in a village without running water. You have barely enough to eat and feed your children every day. Then your eldest child comes down with Ebola. The nearest health clinic is full of Ebola patients, they won't accept any more, so they send you back home to take care of your child, who is now having bloody vomiting and diarrhea in your home, because there is no indoor plumbing. Your younger child is 8 months old, crawling around in all this infected waste.

Wouldn't you hope for a little help right about now?

We are a rich country with SO many more resources than West African's can even imagine. Yes, it will be a challenge for us to try to carry out my plan. But when millions of West Africans have Ebola, which will be the case in the next couple months unless we act more strongly and decisively, then Ebola will also soon be spreading across our nation. Even if you don't care one iota about the West Africans, which is a shame, you could at least care about your own country. Ebola is coming our way sooner or later. If we bring patients here now and treat them and contain the virus, the chances of it spreading uncontrolled across the world are far, far less. And yes, I'd be happy to pay my fair share of taxes to try to stop this epidemic now. That's the beauty of taxes, we all chip in together and we can do some amazing things. Imagine where we'd be without them, dragging behind our horse and plow, home schooling our kids, providing our own police protection, fighting off invading nations on our own… I kind of appreciate the tax system. It allows our society to much greater than any of us can be on our own.

Best regards,

Sandy
-----------------------------------------------------
Sandy Summers, RN, MSN, MPH
Founder and Executive Director
The Truth About Nursing
Co-author: Saving Lives: Why the Media's Portrayal of Nursing Puts Us All at Risk
203 Churchwardens Rd.
Baltimore, Maryland 21212-2937 USA
phone 1-410-323-1100
fax 1-410-510-1790
ssummers@truthaboutnursing.org
www.truthaboutnursing.org

Christopher

On Nov 19, 2014, at 11:41 AM, Christopher wrote:

Hi Sandy,

I read your op-ed that was published in the Baltimore Sun. I thought it was well written and you offered reasoned arguments for the points you made. However I wanted to let you know how strenuously I disagree.

First I want to start by saying I appreciate how positive the article was about our profession. I wanted to re-read the article before sending you my comments, but I could not find it. The link doesn't take me directly to the story anymore.

The title of the piece bothered me. "Bring it on..." was reminiscent of how Bush 43 spoke of the Taliban, as though inviting attack. It is that type of arrogance and pride which usually precedes a fall.

I strenuously disagree with bringing any cases of Ebola to the US for treatment. Even our own citizens who are in West Africa that need treatment should be treated overseas. Drugs work just as well on that continent as they do on our soil.

If brave nurses and physicians want to go into harms way to help others, it would not be the first time. I commend them. I admire them. But let the providers make their own informed decision about how much risk they are willing to take. We need to think of the many who live here that could be exposed to Ebola. We should not make the decision to expose healthy people here to this high mortality disease if that can be prevented.

A question that I don't think you addressed is who will pay for this? We are already the world's police men. Why must we also be the world's healthcare providers? As the ACA will prove, we can't even afford healthcare for our own citizens--let alone the world.

Even though I disagree with you on this I would like to thank for your advocacy efforts.

Sincerely,

Christopher MSN, APN, FNP-BC

Response

Hi Christopher,

Thank you for your message.

The link to the op-ed is here for reference
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bs-ed-bring-on-ebola-20141118-story.html

I intentionally chose the swaggering title to try to reach people who think like soldiers who want to brandish guns and fight terrorists, and reach deep into the corners of their minds to see if I could create a sense of cognitive dissonance. I wanted to encourage people to try to muster some courage, to think about the problem rationally and discuss the best ways to resolve a very difficult situation.

You talk about drugs working as well on foreign soil as they do on our own. Christopher--you're a nurse! What about the value of quality nursing care on a patient's ability to get recover? Africa is desperate for nurses. They started out with only 1/10th the number of nurses that we have here (1:1000 ratio compared to our 1:100). And then the physical infrastructure is simply not there. Ebola patients cannot survive when they have only a 1:15 or 1:20 nurse-to-patient ratio inside the Ebola tents. To me, that is the biggest cause for the disparity between our 20% mortality rate for Ebola and Africa's 70% rate. Plus, they have very few labs, so they can rehydrate, but they can't measure electrolytes, and it's so hard to accurately replace and not kill somebody when you don't know their potassium level.

Re: preventing bringing Ebola here to keep people here healthy--Christopher, the CDC predicts that there will be 1.4 million cases of Ebola in West Africa in the next 2 months. If we address it now and swoop everybody up and absorb them into our enormous hospital system we could prevent these illnesses from happening. But if we do next to nothing, which is about what we're doing, then Ebola is going to spiral out of control across the world and this country will be full of Ebola patients. Ebola is coming here whether we bring patients here now, or whether they show up later once it is so prevalent in the world and they are everywhere.

Who will pay for this? Donations, taxes. The same people who are going to pay for it one way or the other. Ebola is going to cost a lot more money to everyone if we do nothing now than if we reach out and take care of all the infected now. If there are 5,000 or 10,000 people now infected, we can handle that. What is expensive is taking care of millions of people with Ebola.We need to act now.

Thanks again for your polite message. Not everybody who disagrees treats me politely, so I do appreciate that very much. Something I could try to emulate myself :)

Best regards,

Jack

On Nov 19, 2014, at 2:47 PM, Jack C. wrote:

Ms.Summers, I don't know what meds. you may have been on when you wrote your article but once your head clears (if that is possible) I suggest you rethink your remarks. If you have the skills to assist these people hop on a jet and have at it but leave the other 300+ million of us in the USA out of it! Failing that perhaps a few dozen infected housed with you in your freshly shrink-wrapped home would make you happy. That way when things get out of control the proper steps can be taken to dispose of the dead which will no doubt include YOU! I am sure you think I am uncaring and heartless but the truth of the matter is we need to take care of our own and not be the world's answer every time trouble breaks out in parts of the world that for the most part cheer every time a tragedy occurs to the foolish caring bleeding hearts here in America. This country is more than 17 trillion dollars in debt and going further in the hole by 500 million dollars every day so once the USA is bankrupt and we are the ones begging for help who will we turn to? I am not stupid and I know we need in this case to do something so it does not happen here as well, but your idea to import the problem is insane. I am thankful that your opinion and suggestions will never be mainstream thinking in this country but it just shows me once again that The Baltimore Sun will print anything that supports the ultra-liberal thinking faction that you no doubt are part of.
J.

Response

Hi Mr. Jack,

Thank you for your message. I do not take any mind, mood or personality altering medication or drugs, but sometimes I have a glass of wine for dinner. Since you wanted to know what I consume to affect my mind…

Does everyone who has a policy suggestion for our democracy have to pay for it with their own bank account or perform it with their own hands? Plenty of nurses are prepared and ready to take care of Ebola patients on our own soil. We should bring the patients to them. There are the resources here to do it and do it well, and they are less likely to get treated like terrorists when they have finished taking care of the patients, unlike how they treated Kaci Hickox, which was a travesty.

The Ebola crisis is going to cost our country a whole lot of money whether we want it to or not. If we do not contain the virus now--and it is totally out of control--then it will soon infect millions and make its way here in droves. The best way for that not to happen is to use our country's considerable resources to contain it now by bringing patients here and treating and containing them. We can do this! Have faith in the strength of our country, Mr. Curry. This war cannot be fought with guns, or by armies of men. It will be fought mostly by nurses, most of them women. I know many men are not comfortable considering how we are going to fight this different kind of war, but we nurses are fully capable of tackling this problem given the resources with which to do it.

And, thanks for the death wish!

All my best,

Wesley

On Nov 18, 2014, at 5:39 PM, Wesley wrote:

Sandy Summers -

You write in the Baltimore Sun: "I say bring Ebola on." Wow.

I simply cannot believe that a person of your education and dedication to public health would have such an outrageous and irresponsible sentence published in any public media.

I think the prevalence of Internet blogs, where people write whatever nonsense comes off the top of their heads without any accountability is to blame for this. There was a time when people who got published in any public media had to have some amount of balance and editorial sense applied to their comments. Sadly, in this era of extreme partisan far-left and far-right media, the word "balance" no longer has any media.

But honestly Ms. Summers, "I say bring Ebola on"?

It is not just "shock value," it is a total loss of balance and context with a certain group of Americans to urge the universe to bring ANY disease (let alone Ebola) "on." Wow. How terribly sad for you.

Perhaps one could understand this coming from an adolescent or someone without any education or (God I don't know), certainly not someone with any actual experience in health care, but really, how could you get such a statement published?

Even so, I don't blame you.

I blame the Baltimore Sun. That is why they have professional editors as gatekeepers for civil and rational comments. We all say things outrageous and things we would regret. The Baltimore Sun does not publish all of those outrageous comments, thank God.

Would the Baltimore Sun publish "bring Bubonic Plague on," "bring Smallpox on," "bring Anthrax on," etc.?

But the far-left media (and the far-right of course) has become so mentally challenged by their EXTREME partisanship, that even such obviously unbalanced comments like "I say bring Ebola on," can get approval by the far-left media editorial boards.

You seem like a really responsible and dedicated person.

I am sorry that you can't see how wrong and unbalanced such comments are. I only hope that God does not take you seriously, and I pray to God that no one ever has to read those words back to you.

Wesley

Response

On Tue, Nov 18, 2014 at 6:40 PM, Sandy Summers <ssummers@truthaboutnursing.org> wrote:

Hi Mr. Wesley,

Thank you for your message. Your message is long, but you actually don't give one single reason as to why my argument is wrong.

And just to clarify, I was not suggesting that we facilitate in the spread of Ebola for goodness sake. I am suggesting that we contain it by bringing infected people here. Right now 40% of infected people are not even treated or contained, so they linger in their homes, and in their villages with family members taking care of them. They have vomiting and diarrhea just wherever, because sanitation is extremely lacking when the countries are so poor. When this is the current state of affairs, it should be no shock to you when by January 20, 2015 the CDC has predicted we will have 1.4 million people infected with Ebola. That is not an endpoint! This is a huge global crisis. Strong, decisive actions are necessary if we want to prevent a spread of Ebola across our own country. Because with 1.4 million people infected by January anywhere in the world, an epidemic here is not far behind.

If you can't see your way forward to do this for the Africans, you should do it for yourself. This is enlightened self interest. Since you bring up God, what do you think she would do in the face of this crisis? Just ignore all those patients and leave them to die unaided when our country is so strong and so rich that we could swoop up everybody in need, absorb them into our massive health system, treat them, allowing the majority to live so we can end the global epidemic?

I stand behind my words. God help us all, Mr. Dodds, if you think that wishful thinking is going to solve this crisis.

Best regards,

Wesley Part II

On Nov 19, 2014, at 4:59 PM, Wesley wrote:

lSandy Summers -
I agree that we need to help the people in West Africa.
But we cannot help them by: bankrupting the American people,

The title of the article is: "Ebola? Bring it on," based on your sentence: "I say bring Ebola on."
with a "shareline" of "Want to contain Ebola? Bring all the infected patients here for treatment."

I think it is extreme to suggest we should bring all the West Africa Ebola patients to the USA.
We know for a fact that this would cost $2.5 to $5 billion just bringing them here, as it cost $1 million for 2 patients.
Keeping 5 to 10 thousand of people infected with Ebola in the USA would be a logistical nightmare, not to mention the extreme risk in terms of public safety to the American people.
This would be the tip of the iceberg. The USA talks a big game in terms of medical facilities.
The reality is they barely had the medical facilities to treat a handful of Ebola patients, let alone hundreds, or thousands as your article suggests, not to mention 10s of thousands.

Such a wild plan of action would also prompt a Constitutional crisis and it would surely get President Obama impeached.

None of this would actually help contain Ebola, because if this was even discussed, both the Democrats and Republicans would be moving for President Obama's impeachment, and Democrats would be pushing VP Biden to make a case for the 25th Amendment.

I don't blame you for your passion in seeking to help the suffering people in West Africa, which I really respect and admire.

But responsible editors of Baltimore Sun should know better and have some context in publishing wild statement.

Response

Hi Mr. Wesley,

I can't see how it would take so much money to transport a patient from Africa to here. If we have several patients per plane, things will certainly be more affordable. Even so, this is a long-term strategy aimed at preventative health. It will be cheaper and save more American lives to treat the Africans now.

Ebola is already a logistical nightmare and an extreme threat to the health of the U.S. It's just that the outbreak hasn't happened here yet. But if we continue to do next to nothing to help, it will certainly arrive.

I do not know why such a humanitarian gesture would cause a Constitutional crisis except that some politicians create problems when they are not there purely for political gain. Is it really unconstitutional to help people and put into action a long-term plan that will preserve the health of our nation?

There are hospitals in each city across the U.S. that have been designated as the Ebola treatment centers in each city. Patients do not have to be located at just 4 hospitals. We have an enormous health system full of educated nurses who can absorb the patients.

Best regards,

Sandy

Robert

On Nov 19, 2014, at 5:05 PM, robert andrews <irishagentrunner@yahoo.com> wrote:

Obviously you are a liberal democrat to think the way you do. Have you ever heard of a developing nation as becoming developed. None ever have developed because morons live in them. Eight health care workers were murdered in a village in Guinea when they were trying to have the people there understand about ebola. No one went to prison, was arrested or executed for these murders. It is just the way it is and the murderers are free of hopefully dead and in Hell. The "village" where the murders took place has no police force and never will have one. These morons in West africa are too dumb to even know that there needs to be lawlessness and not 3,000 BC behavior. You want the US to bring all infected morons to this country for treatment. You must be friggin crazy. We could just surround the countries with troops and kill anyone who tries to leave. Question: Why are these countries so backward? These countries are some of the oldest in the world and yet they are totally uncivilized. Pres. Obama said that ebola would never come to this country and almost immediately after he said this we received out first ebola infected patient. How nice! The doctor in New York who toured around Manhattan for days while infected yet knowing he was not feeling good is a fine example of even a doctor sloughing off the disease. How many citizens (TAXPAYERS) are you willing to sacrifice by bringing these morons to our country. Let them die in their own country. The head of CDC even stated on TV that the disease would eventually burn itself out in those countries once it ran out of victims. So let it die out. If you think that we should help the other countries who have done absolutely nothing to help any other country ever, then leave your family and go there but please never come back. The CDC has shown its vast incompetence as the director stumbled numerous times during hearings about the disease. We do not need bleeding heart liberals like you. Incompetence in the medical profession is frightening and you are frightening. Please don't ask others to go to africa to save these morons but buck up and ask others to follow YOU. I know people like you are all show and no go. You talk the talk but I am sure that a fine liberal like you do not walk the walk ..

Response

Dear Mr. Andrews,

Thank you for your message. You sound really angry at the Africans. It's hard to get out of poverty, I'm not sure if you tried it before, but when nations are in poverty, it's hard just to send everyone to school, because there are no schools, no teachers and so people in their ignorance will do horrible things. I blame poverty and the unwillingness of the developed world to help. There is no reason billions of people should have to live in poverty when the developed world has so much.

People who have been infected with Ebola are not a danger to others until they come down with symptoms. So riding the subway on Tuesday is not actually a hazard to your fellow riders if you develop symptoms on Thursday. If you ride the subway on Thursday and vomit on people, yes, then there's a problem. But the NY physician did not do that. When he discovered a fever he immediately got hospitalized and contained. We must not treat health workers returning from caring for Ebola patients like terrorists for goodness sake. They are heroes, reaching out to help people in need. Putting themselves at risk so they can make the world a better place. They are the last people who deserve to be treated with such contempt.

I saw the head of the CDC speak at the Congressional hearings for many hours. I thought he did a great job. It is very difficult to be grilled before Congress and on television and try to respond perfectly every time. Viewers are often used to watching television programs that are scripted, rehearsed and each scene is filmed many times over. When people are being grilled and live, I do not think it is fair to expect the same level of polish. He's a human being working hard to do the right thing, you know.

And the suggestion that we let Ebola die out, oh my gosh, that's pretty harsh. These too are people with families who love them, just like I hope you have. What if they were to say that about the state of Maryland? Just seal the borders with Pennsylvania, DC and Virginia. Keep us all in here until we infect each other and die lying in our own bloody vomit and diarrhea without anyone to help us. Many people would find that harsh treatment for insects, never mind their fellow human beings.

Even setting aside the harshness of such a plan, the borders in between African countries are very porous and it is unrealistic to think we could contain Ebola that way. It will spread, Mr. Andrews, whether we like it or not. The best way to prevent the spread is to contain and treat all infected patients, one by one. There are not the facilities or nurses in West Africa to do that. So I believe the best way to do that is to bring patients here where there are enough nurses and facilities to get the job done and get it done humanely.

As far as walking the walk, my personal situation is not one where I can presently go volunteer in Africa, or else I would. But I have taken care of a great number of patients with contagious illnesses. It can be nerve-wracking at times, but everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and since nurses are on the front line in that mission, I have tried my best as I know nurses today are trying as they take care of Ebola patients. The Africans deserve to be treated humanely even if they haven't had the benefit of much education, even if they are poor and even if they are black!

Best regards,

Billie

The only thing dumber than your suggestion is the stupid Sun Papers printing it!

Questions--who will pay to transport 14,000-15,000 (latest numbers) of Ebola infected people to this country--who will pay for their hospital care or burial. What happens after they are treated?

I will NOT contribute one penny to these stupid, irresponsible people--their children are dying around them from starvation and disease and yet---they are strong and well enough to have sex and bear more children they cannot take care of. How can anyone be that stupid and uncaring. The best way to help these third world countries is STERILAZTION to keep them from reproducing like roaches--to that cause, I would contribute!

Response