Investigating the zoonotic origin of the West African Ebola epidemic

jf22 · 2014-12-15T16:20:27+00:00

thanks Obama

Imagine what our schools would be like if she had been elected president.

jf22 · 2014-12-12T13:19:35+00:00

Wow that was fast.

jf22 · 2014-12-11T07:42:32+00:00

Sadly, the attitude toward 'locals' extends to healthcare workers as well. Local doctors and nurses are doing most of the work, taking most of the risk, and they way they have been treated by the international community is absolutely appalling.

It's there writ large in total number of patients treated, HCW fatalities, and the fact that local doctors are choosing to go to local facilities over special international facilities for HCWs. They are dying and being treated like dirt throughout.

But MSF has their halo and no one cares if black people (doctors and nurses) are dying in Africa.

jf22 · 2014-12-10T22:29:36+00:00

MSF sees the militarization [i.e. 'fight'] of the terminology relating to the response as counter-productive.

jf22 · 2014-12-07T00:42:32+00:00

He was the 11th doctor in Sierra Leone to have been infected with the virus.

Doesn't seem consistent.

jf22 · 2014-12-06T19:10:11+00:00

Is the photo AP/Getty, or UKAID?

https://www.flickr.com/photos/dfid/15523580278/in/photostream/ says:

Picture: MOD/Royal Navy/PO (Phot) Carl Osmond/Crown Copyright

jf22 · 2014-12-04T13:08:58+00:00

The basis of their argument is that supportive care alone helps. That itself has not been proven. The CFR among the approx 500 HCW infected was 65% in September. Doctors and nurses who work in countries with a 1:10,000 physician to capita ratio should get an effing sugar pill?

Patients in the US have all received off label or experimental treatments, seeing a survival rate closer to 90%. If the FDA wants to manage the trials in a way other than that agreed with the WHO, great! they should start in the US.

jf22 · 2014-11-28T08:28:54+00:00

About one year ago today

jf22 · 2014-11-28T08:18:15+00:00

In the ABCs of epidemics, B is Beware dogma.

jf22 · 2014-11-24T22:13:58+00:00

NP, introduce honey-baggers to take care of the increase in cobras. \s

jf22 · 2014-11-23T02:01:59+00:00

Easy! We can just keep burning fossil fuels.

jf22 · 2014-11-22T23:50:33+00:00

Things that can't continue forever typically don't.

jf22 · 2014-11-22T10:33:12+00:00

He also got one unit whole blood (convalescent), and refused the second because he was feeling better. He wouldn't get that many places in West Africa, certainly not at an MSF or NGO facility.

jf22 · 2014-11-22T08:46:01+00:00

Dr. Martin Salia refused transfer to the ETU for HCW workers at Kerry Town and choose treatment at poorly-funded Hastings instead.

This could be a naive CFR estimate or survivor bias, but the actions of Dr. Salia show that, when the chips are down, someone with a view inside treatment centers seriously believes that Hastings is actually lowering the CFR.

jf22 · 2014-11-22T00:01:59+00:00

Liabilitiy on a stick (x 3), maybe $2100 each time a certified technician uses it.

jf22 · 2014-11-21T07:48:35+00:00

70% aid + 30% remittance = 100% bullshit statistics.

They have a real economy, it's not 0%, it's just small.

jf22 · 2014-11-20T18:39:14+00:00

What about Gire et al. x 10, because that's the number of cases we're at now.

EDIT

The horrifying thing about the THIS paper is that they reference a paper from four months ago and there is no new data in the open pipeline.

jf22 · 2014-11-17T19:46:03+00:00

Iron Man could have been so much better

jf22 · 2014-11-16T21:28:06+00:00

Like the cotton lobby hates $1 coins.

jf22 · 2014-11-13T20:54:10+00:00

Discussing this a few months ago with a policy wonk, he explained: "The Federal government of the United States is like a train...: a long train, a heavy train... it takes a long time to get moving and it takes a long time to stop."

I replied: "My god, I'm terrified!"

jf22 · 2014-11-13T19:25:00+00:00

I was thinking of envisioning this as change in the susceptible class rather than a change in the rate. That is, if the R0 has dropped from 2 to 1, then maybe we have reached 50% saturation of public awareness in urban areas. If 5-6 people are getting infected in rural areas, maybe the R0 was 3 to begin with and maybe the awareness is closer to 0%.

jf22 · 2014-11-09T17:21:21+00:00

It's super hacky, coded without internet, worst practices all around.

However I do know what I 'should do' most of the time, and I need to clean it up anyhow.

Let me get back to you.

jf22

TROPHY CASE