Beltway Insider: Ebola Dominates Divides Democrats, Strategy Ignites; Ebola Nurse Home; Klain Begins

President Obama faced another intense week with every action, or lack thereof, scrutinized as the United States has its second confirmed case of Ebola carried by a medical professional arriving from West Africa through an allegedly secured transportation hub.

 

According to Gallup, President Obama’s job approval, over the past week, increased three percentage points to 43% of those polled who approve of his effectiveness as President and those who disapprove of his effectiveness as President also dropped two percentage point to 53%. 

Ebola Divides Unified Democratic Party

The once staunchly unified Democratic Party has seen its fair share of erosion as President Obama faces scrutiny from both parties, especially as the mid-term elections are less than two weeks away, over the mishandling of the Ebola crisis.

President Obama has continued to reiterate his federally mandated actions are in the best interest of the American citizens.

States, however, have the authority to operate autonomously with the governors and if need be the state supreme courts voicing the final opinion. Nowhere is this more evident than in the early days of voter referendums allowing same sex couples to marry legally. Additionally, voters are now seeing the same decisions faced on the legalization of marijuana issue.

Ebola has brought the same states rights’ issue to the forefront as Governors of New York and New Jersey have chosen to mandate action in opposition of President Obama’s edicts.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, (R) have announced the initiation of mandatory 21 day quarantine for any person returning from known West African countries.

Although opposite politically, both men see the White House strategy of prevention after the fact, as detrimental to the safety of the citizens they are sworn to protect within their respected states.

The Ebola virus, contrary to other voices who believe the two politicians represent the hysteria and Ebola mongering fringe, has the potential to be as lethal as Super Storm Sandy or Hurricane Katrina which decimated New Orleans.

“If there’s a silver lining in all the attention that the Ebola situation has received over the last several weeks, it’s a reminder of how important our public health systems are.  And in many ways, what this has done is elevated that importance.  There may come a time, sometime in the future, where we are dealing with an airborne disease that is much easier to catch and is deadly,” the president said.

The loss of life, which fortunately has not occurred in the early stages of U.S. exposure, also has the potential to destroy communities as the AIDs virus that also was traced to a flight attendant who engaged in sexual activity with an animal.

Now, 35million global cases of HIV/AIDS later, finally it is classified as a global pandemic. The outrage of those targeting the Governors of any state who decide an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, need only to remember those who died from the onslaught of the GAY disease or the 4H infection as AIDS was originally identified.

New York City with double ports of entry, two international air transportation hubs servicing the New York City area and New Jersey with one represent a logistical nightmare as the cities must also monitor sea ports of entry.

The voices who rose in concern over the AIDS virus as it steamrolled the GAY community, targeting friends lovers, brothers, need to stand and silence the voices who are calling preventive measures as mongering.

Political parties have no place in determining the preventive measures, as sorry to say, Ebola has no preference as to political party or affiliation.

The Big Business of Ebola

Ebola in its most lethal strain, of which the United States in its first month fighting the highly deadly and dangerous killer has yet to witness, is at the bottom of the infectious diseases prediction chain in that it is a silent killer, picking and choosing it targets randomly, killing some quickly, others a slow and tortuous all within days of becoming symptomatic.

Nearly 1billion dollars are allocated on a federal level to address the various AIDS programs, research and development, Medicaid and other federally based health insurance platforms to care for United States citizens who with the majority of federal dollars going to sub-Saharan Africa where AIDS is still rampant and uncontrollable. 

In addition to a global health crisis, Ebola poses the potential threat of bankrupting some and conversely creating vast wealth for others.

Research, now a global challenge, has already generated more than 300million in pledges become as President Obama initiated discussions with other countries equally effected and formed an additional global coalition to procure the needed monies to jumpstart research of the cause and development of a cure.

The President has held discussions with eight of his counterparts in recent days, and those eight countries have pledged at least $300 million in financial contributions to date which is why this administration has been so focused on marshaling the global resources needed to tackle this virus at its source in West Africa from around the world the past few weeks,” Eric Schultz, Principal Deputy White House Press Secretary.

The monies will not be liquated into direct African engagement although it is more likely a global medical coalition will be formed with medical specialist from around the word representing the countries of investment.

No person expects the call for calm to prevail, as the president would prefer Americans implement similar tactics associated with prevention after contracting the diseases.

Ebola Demarcation Line, Five City Epicenters, Travel Bans and Homeland Security

The Department of Homeland Security has been designated the point person on the Ebola Travel Bans and restrictions on the federal level.

With the Eastern Seaboard as the main port of entry for the millions of travelers President Obama has indicated 94% of West Africans when traveling to the United States will have a final destination point of one of these five cities: Chicago, New York City, New Jersey (cities near West African communities within Newark, and due to proximity to New York airports cities along the Hudson, in Hudson and Essex Counties), Atlanta and Dallas.

These cities have become known as Ebola Epicenters. Without issuing stern preparedness statements, as that is absent from the White House, opting in favor of calm assuredness that all is being done to prevent the threat.

“The travel ban at this point, the President has concluded, again, on the advice of scientists and public health experts, that it would put the American people at greater risk, not less.  The travel restrictions, however, that are being announced today strengthen the measures that are in place to protect the American public because it ensures that individuals who are traveling on commercial airlines to the United States are funneled to these five airports where there is personnel available to pull them aside and ensure that they get proper screening before entering this country,” said Josh Earnest, White House Press Secretary.

With that in mind, dedicated diligence should be exercised by citizens. A single case of Ebola has been reported and confirmed in Nebraska.

No known cases have been reported in the western half of the United States.

Ebola Nurse Home

Nina Pham, the first transmission of Ebola in the United States has returned to her North Texas home and hospital after being declared Ebola free from the National Center Health Institute.

Pham contracted the disease after providing care for Thomas Eric Duncan, who later died from the effects of Ebola. Duncan entered the United States after lying on his medical screening card. Duncan, known as Index Case; U.S. Case 1, is the first person to have received medical care in any city with the United States.

Pham, a nurse at Dallas Presbyterian contracted the potentially fatal disease within a week of Duncan’s death. Quarantined, Pham was later moved to the National Institutes of Health's Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, where she had been hospitalized since she arrived October 16 from Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas.

Declaring her Ebola free, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases,the Nation’s top Infectious disease specialist effectually told Americans, the disease can be contracted even by those who exercise the most caution  and does not always result in death.

NYC Doctor Contracts Ebola; Returns to Harlem

This being as a second U.S. case, Dr. Craig Spencer, on assignment with Doctors Without Borders recently returned to the New York City area, and immediately sought care after experiencing symptoms. He has been admitted into New York Bellevue hospital, one of eight designated Ebola Hospitals in the New York City area.

Calls for calm seems to be the request of the day, coming from all fronts, the White House which has done little to lead the prevention team, concentrating primarily on adding an additional feat of eradicating the dreaded Ebola Virus, which couldn’t be accomplished if the virus had remained in West Africa, where it had stayed over the last ten presidencies.

“The CDC announced today that it’s going to take some additional steps to provide information to states so that they can actively monitor what’s taking place with those persons for a period of 21 days in order to protect the citizens of their various states, and will continue to put in place additional measures as they make sense in order to assure that we don’t see a continuing spread of this disease,” the president said.

Local New York City media have reported a large amount of staff members have taken sick days as opposed to caring for Dr. Spencer. Nurses and other medical personnel with direct contact to the patient have developed a buddy system with one administering care and the other concentrating solely on the administering medical professional to ensure that no breeches occur.

Obama has remained diligent in his effort to keep the communication channels open as needed.

“The President spoke by telephone Thursday night with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and, separately, with New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio regarding the diagnosis of an Ebola case in New York City. The President noted the extensive preparations that New York City and, in particular, Bellevue Hospital Center, where the patient is being treated, have undertaken to prepare for this contingency. They discussed the deployment of officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), some of whom were already on the ground in New York City, and the President noted that an additional CDC response team would be in New York City by late Thursday night,” the released statement read.

White House Formalizes Robert Klain Position

Ebola Czar, Robert Klain, a recently named Obama appointee, has officially begun his duties. As a former lobbyist and White House insider his appointment approval time was dramatically reduced without the necessary Senate hearings and house and senate approvals.

“Mr. Klain will start on Wednesday.  He will be our -- coordinating the administration’s whole-of-government Ebola response.  He will report directly to the President’s Homeland Security Advisor, Lisa Monaco, and the President’s National Security Advisor, Susan Rice.  He’s going to ensure that efforts to protect the American people by detecting, isolating and treating Ebola patients in this country are properly integrated but don’t distract from the aggressive commitment to stopping Ebola at its source in West Africa,” said Eric Schultz, Principal Deputy White House Press Secretary.

Klain is to be the spokesperson in the President’s whole of government approach, which technically translates as every office and mandate are coordinated and a single, silo or uniformed, non competing message with accompanying action is presented and implemented.

For more information on President Barack Obama: www.whitehouse.gov

Sources: Whitehouse.org, Wikipedia.com, 

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