Good news, from the NYTimes:
At least one chapter of the Ebola saga neared a close Sunday, as most of the dozens of people who had direct or indirect contact here with Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian man who died of Ebola, had been told by officials that they were no longer at risk of contracting the disease…
All of those whose monitoring was coming to an end had been potentially exposed to Mr. Duncan before he was admitted and put into isolation at the hospital on Sept. 28. They have been released from monitoring in stages. At least 14 of them had been released by Saturday. Others were released Sunday afternoon and some, like Ms. Troh, were released midnight Sunday. A few others may be released after Monday, officials said.
“It’s a significant hurdle for us to get over,” Mayor Mike Rawlings said. “It brings a little bounce in our step, because we know the science is working.”…
And, per NYMag, the hospital lab worker who went on a Carnival cruise has tested negative for the virus. The BBC reports:
The Spanish nurse who became the first person to contract Ebola outside West Africa has now tested negative for the virus, the Spanish government says.
The result suggests Teresa Romero, 44, is no longer infected – although a second test is required before she can be declared free of Ebola…
Meanwhile, European foreign ministers are due to meet in Luxembourg on Monday to discuss how to strengthen their response to the threat posed by the spread of the Ebola virus.
European nations have committed hundreds of millions pounds to help the West African nations of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea reinforce overstretched healthcare systems and mitigate the damage Ebola is doing to their economies.
But BBC Europe correspondent Damian Grammaticas says there is a growing realisation that there is an urgent need for more medical and military teams to be sent to the region, and for more laboratories and hospital facilities to be built.
He adds that the aim to isolate the virus – not the nations affected.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation is expected to declare Nigeria to be officially free of Ebola later on Monday, after six weeks with no reported cases… Senegal has already been declared free of the disease.
Also too, commentor & medical lab professional LAMH36 has volunteered to answer questions tonight at 8pm EDT.
***********
Apart from quietly unbunching some panties, what’s on the agenda as we start another week?
Baud
I’m sure we’ve all learned our lesson and will never engage in abject panic again.
And that goes double for the news media.
OzarkHillbilly
But, but, but, ISIS! 10 year olds crashing our borders! Benghazi! IRS! Guns! Wait a minute… Scratch that last one.
OzarkHillbilly
Oh, and for the record? We’re all still gonna die.
chopper
Ah, my favorite blog “Ebola Juice”.
Mustang Bobby
Back to work after a nice weekend in Lakeland, Florida, hanging out with a bunch of wealthy Republican antique car owners (at least the ones I talked to) at the Lake Mirror Classics show. Gas prices are falling — I saw at least one place with $2.99 for regular at a station in central Florida — which is good news for John McCain, and my 27-year-old Pontiac wagon got 23.32 mpg for the round trip. Not bad for a car with about 300,000 miles on it, including the driver.
Professor
So we are NOT all going to die from Ebola, then we are all going to die from an ISIS attack. I blame that crafty Obama’s strategy of bait and switch process. Now take that to the bank and cash it.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Professor: No, according to Joe Scar and Bill Kristol; we’re all gona die from Ebola(or Obola). This is because the doc who got Ebola doesn’t know how he got it.
Schlemazel
@Mustang Bobby:
Gas around here has been running between $2.87 & 2.95. I am not hearing anyone blaming Barry for this. The other piece that I note is we are told one reason we can’t raise the gas tax in Minnesota is we are already 11 cents higher than Wisconsin & it would make gas too expensive here. We just spent the weekend in that Walker-blighted land & saw no station under $3.19 with most in the upper 3.20’s. Maybe that 11 cent extra in tax saves us a bunch!
BTW – the #2 Gophers swept #1 Wisconsin 4-1 and 2-1(OT) so those national rankings will switch today back to their rightful places today.
gene108
The reporting, especially by cable news networks, is a critical failure of capitalism.
Saw something on CNN yesterday, at around 11:00 am, where they were talking about how ratings influence what gets on the news, and they basically said the
fear mongeringcoverage of Ebola is a ratings winner for them.Basically
quality controlresponsible journalism gets kicked to the curb, when networks have tomove productwin ratings, in order to charge advertisers more.OzarkHillbilly
@Mustang Bobby:
I’m beginning to worry about you.
Mustang Bobby
@OzarkHillbilly: I wore a silver cross and a clove of garlic. I was not infected.
ETA: I consider myself an insurgent among them.
Amir Khalid
So this Ebola !PANIC! is going to peter out soon, leaving the professional scaremongers with no scare to mong. The Latin American ISIS child terrorists gathering cross the border from Texas to take American jobs will at least be disease-free. This sounds like a positive development to me. America should rejoice.
Meanwhile, it’s coming down in buckets in KL so I can’t get out, to avoid the overpriced offerings of Red Lobster.
Steeplejack (tablet)
Just woke up a while ago to feed the goddamn housecat, who thinks that like her apex predator ancestors she must hunt her prey in the predawn gloom. She will not listen when I tell her that the landscape teems with Fancyfeastius turkeygrillii (also F. chickensii, F. seafoodmedleyii and other species) that may be taken at any reasonable time of the day.
different-church-lady
What if that Ebola is just HIDING? Huh? Have they thought of that?
OzarkHillbilly
@Mustang Bobby: Ahhh…. garlic. Still I would avoid such incursions in the future. Unlike Ebola, Republicanism is a truly horrible disease, and the cure rate is less than 50%
Mustang Bobby
@OzarkHillbilly: I’ve been inoculated since 1960.
Here’s some photos of the show, including my car in the first one, then those of some of my friends who also came up from Miami.
satby
@Mustang Bobby: Nice!
Baud
I’m afraid of not being afraid.
OzarkHillbilly
@Mustang Bobby: Love that ’59 Olds.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: Easy cure for that, turn on FOX News.
debbie
@Baud:
Yeah, toss the surgical masks in with the duct tape and plastic tarps. That panic pile just keeps growing.
Patrick
I love the cartoon. I just goes to show how incredibly screwed-up our priorities as a society are.
d58826
The GOP buy’s therir knickers already knoted. It saves time when going into outrage mode or getting up in the morning whichever comes first.
Baud
@d58826:
And pre-soiled!
Elizabelle
@Amir Khalid:
Hoping you are right. They create something when need be (Benghazi!), but 24/7 of Ebola is unsustainable.
mai naem
@OzarkHillbilly: 27% have been found to have a resistant form of Republicanitis. Unfortunately,this form have Republicanitis also appears to have dementia as one of its primary symptoms.
@different-church-lady: Well, duh, Ebola! is hiding Benghazi! and as you all know Benghazi! was hiding the IRS! which was hiding Fast and Furious!. F&F! was obviously hiding Obummers KenyanLongFormBirthCertificate!
OzarkHillbilly
You gotta be f’n kidding me.
“The Walter White figurine comes packaged with a duffle bag filled with presumably pre-laundered non-sequential banknotes and a tiny bag of (fake) crystal meth, while the Jesse Pinkman figure sports a gas mask, teaching children an important lesson about the dangers of inhaling the noxious byproducts of the methamphetamine production process.”
In other news, the Onion is laying off 4 dozen writers.
NotMax
Back in the day, we had to trudge barefoot uphill through the snow in order to not contract Swine Flu.
@Mustang Bobby
Nice pix. Things change: At one time, it seemed as if it was legally mandatory to include at least one shot of a Studebaker from any classic auto event.
Always suspected the ’59 Olds tail light had an influence of some designs seen in Star Trek..
@Ozark Hillbilly
One of the family cars at one point was a ’57 Olds, whose tripartite tail light design was eerily reminiscent of the thing on the end of the eye stalk in the War of the Worlds movie.
Mustang Bobby
@NotMax: There was a whole city block in the Open show dedicated to Studebaker Avantis. Only one, though, was a 1963 model. The rest were Avanti II’s and their progeny. There was also an entire block of Cobras… but not the genuine article, which would run close to a million bucks a pop. These were very nicely crafted Fauxbras. Some of the most interesting cars were in the Open show, including some beautiful street rods.
Belafon
@Mustang Bobby: I paid $2.79 on Friday in Ebola central (Dallas), and it’s down to $2.77 this morning.
SteveinSC
I see Jeff Flake’s son Tanner is back in the news, being “cited” for his Christian compassion for animals.”
FlipYrWhig
@Belafon: Careful. I heard that ISIS is rigging gas pumps so that when you pull the trigger on the nozzle a needle comes out and injects you with Ebola.
Eric U.
@Schlemazel: I saw gas for 2.65 in Virginia. I’m not quite smart enough to figure out how prices work though, I think I paid 2.90. I think Virginia cut its gas tax so that the roads would deteriorate. Meanwhile, next door in West Virginia, gas was well over $3 and the stations seem busy enough. Who is going to drive 10 miles to save that small amount of money? i suspect that putting a gas station near a state line is a bad idea because of potential problems with taxes
d58826
As the most scientifically advanced nation in the world quakes in terror before its one case of imported Ebola and two cases of secondary infection, Nigeria has contained it’s outbreak. Maybe they know something we don’t? Or they just don’t have to put up with GOP/rightwing fear mongering. I wonder how the Goopers would have reacted if Obama had appointed the Nigerian health minister as his Ebola czar. After all, the guy has a track record of eradicating the disease from his country.
OzarkHillbilly
@NotMax: I remember those tail lights and as one who was terrified by the movie, I was sure our whole car was about to be vaporized every time I saw them.
NotMax
@Mustang Bobby
’63 Avanti? On the showroom floor, the ne plus ultra of futuristic coolness.
If you’ve ever seen the film Putney Swope, it includes what is arguably the ugliest American production car ever. No, not the Edsel, it was a 1959 Chrysler Imperial limo. (Here’s a promo pic of a sportier model which used more pink paint than the Barbie accessories factory has yet.)
Elizabelle
@NotMax:
If you haven’t, you must click on NotMax’s second example, the pink one.
Moonlight and magnolias and casual racism, anyone?
Elizabelle
@Mustang Bobby:
We are going to have polarization in our political life until this obsolete model heads for the great garage in the sky.
Kathleen
Let’s start a betting pool on the next Blama-Obama-Rama that is percolating.
Let’s see, “The IRS is manufacturing 2014 Tax Returns with Ebola so that Obummer can take everyone’s guns and Big Gulps to spread his commie/nazi/Islamofascist/treasonous agenda to distract us from Benghazi and voter fraud caused by the blahs. Because FEMA camps and stuff.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
So now we can panic over
Falling gas prices.
d58826
43 more people in Texas have had the extremely bad manners of being cleared of the Ebola virus so they are out of quarantine. At this rate there will be nothing left of the Great Obama Plague for the GOP to cry about. An outcome ( the non-plague part) that we all can be thankful for.
OzarkHillbilly
@d58826: Thank Dog for Rick Perry. He has saved America once again.
Mustang Bobby
@NotMax: Oh, the Imperial. So well-named. It bespoke Cold War superiority.
Now as for the Edsel: it was so overdone that it went beyond ugly to uberkitsch. Pipe this example of the Edsel Bermuda, the only fake-wood-grain Edsel wagon offering ever. A restored-to-original model sells for up to $50,000 if you can find one.
lol
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Remember the end of the Clinton administration, when our economic overlords were upset that we were going to pay the debt off too fast?
You just have to wire your brain for Republicans. Then whatever happens is always bad news for Democrats (who are in disarray) and good news for John McCain.
d58826
@OzarkHillbilly: And he was able to do it while vacationing in Europe!!!!!! What a leader.
rikyrah
Chicago Folks….Suburban Cook County…..Illinois Folks…
EARLY VOTING BEGINS TODAY!!
Now, if you missed the deadline for registering to vote, you can go GRACE PERIOD VOTING- which mean you register to vote and vote at the same time. Grace Period is now possible THRU ELECTION DAY!
Here are the Hours for Voting from now until Election Day:
City of Chicago Folks, here’s your information:
ALL 51 City of Chicago Early Voting Sites are now open for Grace Period Voting.
LIST OF ALL 51 CITY OF CHICAGO EARLY VOTING SITES
Suburban Cook County, here’s your information:
ALL Suburban Cook County Early Voting Sites are now open for Grace Period Voting.
LIST OF ALL SUBURBAN COOK COUNTY EARLY VOTING SITES
Now, remember, when you go to Early Vote or Grace Period Voter,you will need ID. Grace Period voters need two pieces of ID. Here is the list of acceptable ID.
Neither needs to be a photo ID, but one must include your current address. Acceptable forms of ID include:
Illinois driver’s license
Illinois state ID
Employee or student ID
Credit card
Social security card
Birth certificate
Utility bill in applicant’s name
Mail postmarked to the applicant
Valid U.S. passport
Public aid ID card
Lease or rental contract
Here is the WILL COUNTY information.
Here is the DUPAGE COUNTY information.
If you have kids or family that might need Mail (Absentee) Ballots, and the person has an Illinois Drivers License/State ID, you can order a mail ballot ONLINE.
COOK COUNTY
DUPAGE COUNTY
WILL COUNTY
……………………………………..
The big election in Illinois is for Governor. You don’t have to like Governor Pat Quinn, but just remember this, almost 700 thousand in Illinois have been helped because of the full implementation of Obamacare in this state. Of that, over 460,000 were helped because of the Medicaid Expansion. Rauner has already said that he would NOT have done that..because THAT is who he is. So, think on THAT. If Rauner had been Governor, nearly a HALF MILLION PEOPLE in this state – the WORKING POOR – would be without access to BASIC healthcare. Rauner also doesn’t believe in the minimum wage. Just thought you should know.
rikyrah
please take my voting information comment out of moderation. thank you.
tazj
The fear mongering about the debt during the worst part of the recession has always driven me crazy. Most of the pundits on television today were around during the Clinton years and certainly should be able to remember what happened then. I was pretty young and certainly had better things to do with my time than ruminate about the national debt, but I still have a vague recollection of the debt hysterics that went on at the time, and they can’t remember that when the economy grew everything turned out fine.
Instead, they all squealed about the stimulus-I’m looking at you Gloria Borger, feigning concern about our children’s future. You know, people are actually raising children now, and could use help. As a child who grew up benefitting from food stamps, and later using Pell grants for college this a pet peeve of mine.
I’m sure this will come as no surprise to any of you that elderly people are coming to the ER because they’re scared they might have Ebola, when they have a cold. This started happening last week according to my ER doc husband. Thank you, FOX news.
SiubhanDuinne
@Mustang Bobby:
I filled up for $2.99 just yesterday in metro Atlanta. Only a couple of weeks ago I paid $3.29 at the same place. Nice while it lasts.
catclub
@different-church-lady:
Actually it does, in men’s balls. A curious fact that stuck in my head. You could look it up.
catclub
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Falling gas prices are the most useless economic signal! Sometimes it is cheaper supply – which is good except for that global warming thing. Sometimes it is falling demand – which would be great if it was due to increased energy efficiency, but is usually due to poor economies and people losing their jobs. (They drive less when they have no job.)
d58826
@tazj: As a babyboomer I have been telling my millennial nieces that my generation has screwed them royally and then we piss and moan when they don’t appreaciate what we have done for/to them. Hopefully this link to an article on slate works. It makes the same point. To put it in a nut shell the boomer’s parents gave us the interstate highway system and we are giving our kids and grandkids pot holes and rusty bridges.For a generation that marched for civil rights and against the war in Vietnam and claimed they could do a better job than previous generations we have failed miserably.
href=”http://www.salon.com/2014/10/20/baby_boomers_ruined_america_why_blaming_millennials_is_misguided_and_annoying” rel=”nofollow”>
Tenar Darell
@tazj: Ebola is contagious through the teevee! Why is your husband hiding this from you? It’s a conspiracy! /joke (But also, we’re doomed. Seriously how can the Onion write the news now?)
Origuy
@Amir Khalid:
Why would you go to Red Lobster when you have Nando’s there?
Nando’s does Mozambique peri-peri chicken. I got hooked on it in Carlisle, England. The closest one to me is Vancouver and the only ones in the US are in the DC area. I was looking forward to eating at one in Ottawa, but I had to cancel my trip there.
FlipYrWhig
@Tenar Darell: It’s like The Ring. You watch the video of people talking about Ebola, and then you have it.
chopper
lol, and in the ‘wait, what?’ file, a top story on google news is this CNN bit about how all this ebola hysteria is dumb. seriously, CNN? all-ebola-all-the-time CNN?
Joel Hanes
@NotMax:
the ugliest American production car ever.
Nah.
1978 AMC Pacer
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_EWHALwCFKn8/SjdTbZEpK7I/AAAAAAAAAHs/TzYBtl_Oopw/s400/106_119.jpg
catclub
@Joel Hanes: Pontiac Aztec gives the Pacer a run for its money.
an abortion on wheels.
Joel Hanes
@catclub:
Yes, it’s close.
Barbara
@gene108: My now-retired SIL used to be a newspaper editor in a town several states away that had a hatchet murderer on the loose. She and my BIL were visiting and she was quite excited by the case because it was selling papers like crazy.
The problem was, she kept going over every detail of the murders over diner no matter how I tried to change the topic. I finally stopped and said, “My kid has an anxiety disorder. Could we please talk about something else?” She looked over at her eight year old nephew and finally got it (of course, you shouldn’t be talking such gory stuff in front of any eight year old but she is childless and freely admits she somewhat clueless about kids in general).
But you know what they say, If it bleeds, it leads. All too true of Ebola.
PaulW
can we fucking execute the fucking bastard who invented fucking autoplay ads?
PaulW
@rikyrah:
Oh, yeah, good point rikyrah.
It’s early voting in Florida as well.
GET THE VOTE OUT PEOPLE!!!
Ella in New Mexico
Just got back home after puling three 13-hour shifts at “What Are You Worried About We Are Absolutely Ready for Ebola We’re Having a One-Hour Training on Wednesday” Medical Center…
only to find John Cole continuing to make a serious issue wrought with complex, conflicting and still-absent facts blended with a bit too much historical 20/20 hindsight, apocalyptic freakout and just a SMIDGEN of lack of empathy for the people forced to make real-time decisions in that environment
ALL ABOUT HIM BEING RIGHT SO NANNY-NANNY BOO-BOO. https://balloon-juice.com/2014/10/18/gee-that-wasnt-hard/
/sigh/
Somebody totally missed ALL the pointz.
But I still love him anyway.
Bob In Portland
Is this a signal of Germany softening the NATO wall against Russia?
Ruckus
@catclub:
You think it’s bad to look at you should have been forced to ride in one.
SWMBO
@PaulW: Yes.