On December 12 the US Centers for Disease Control reported to the Office Management and Budget [OMB] that CDC expects to interview 3,400 US commercial airline passengers that were seated within 3 feet of an Ebola patient.
"so that CDC can better assess the risk to individuals who may have been exposed to a confirmed case of Ebola while traveling to or within the United States"
Using the conservative estimate that 8 airline passengers are seated within the 3 foot zone set out by the CDC, the CDC is expecting 425 actively infected Ebola patients to fly into the USA next year. We believe the Winter New Year time frame is the high risk period for these entries.
Just as CDC's short sighted Ebola risk assessment and PPE direction lead to the infections of two nurses in the Thomas Duncan Ebola case, the CDC has taken no steps to mitigate the Department of Defense's concern that Winter weather may facilitate a super flu like airborne spread of Ebola. As such, the CDC is counting on Ebola to only spread as it does in warm weather, ie close contact with the VERY sick.
Apparently even the fact that CDC just DOUBLED the number of expected Ebola exposures to US flyers is not enough to raise their concerns. In November the CDC had informed OMB that they expected to interview 1,700 commercial airline passengers, now exactly 1 month later CDC has doubled the number to 3,400 directly exposed airline passengers.
The CDC expects to interview these 3,400 people at 20 minutes each. CDC also informed OMB that CDC expects the 50,000 exposed people who were on these flights but seated further than 3 feet away from the Ebola patient, to call the CDC and be read a "script".
"this script assesses the risk of a plan passenger who was not in the immediate vicinity of the Ebola patient but still has concerns about the level of exposure and risk of contracting the virus."
Sources:
CDC December OMB Ebola emergency noticeCDC November OMB Ebola emergency notice
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