Redefining “No direct Contact”
As you may have read few things to Hondo’s post a day ago about the DOD stating that there will be a portion of the deploying force that will have direct interaction with the Ebola virus. The DOD gave the following statement that this does not mean interaction with actively infected patients.
“In response to comments I made today about U.S. military personnel potentially coming in direct contact with Ebola infected individuals, specific to lab testing, I want to clarify my remarks. U.S. military personnel working in the labs are not interacting with patients, only samples. The testing labs are manned by highly skilled and trained personnel from the U.S. Naval Medical Research Center. These labs provide 24-hour turnaround results on samples received from area clinics and healthcare providers, with the capability to process up to 100 samples per day.”
Yet back in September the White House website published a article that stated that 65 Commissioned Officers who will be utilized to provide treatment of infected healthcare workers.
The United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps is preparing to deploy 65 Commissioned Corps officers to Liberia to manage and staff a previously announced Department of Defense (DoD) hospital to care for healthcare workers who become ill. The deployment roster will consist of administrators, clinicians, and support staff.
I start to worry when Commanders make the following statements about Ebola.
The fear and uneasiness for soldiers and their families is something brigade commander Colonel Heath Roscoe understands, but he feels the soldier’s education, training, and preparation will be enough to fight Ebola as well as any fear.
“I feel my soldiers are well trained,” said Roscoe. “There will be apprehension, but the more I read about (Ebola) the more comfortable I become about going over there.
It seems that form me the more I read gives me the exact opposite feeling about the situation. Not to mention the problems caused by fear of the outbreak. There is a video from the POV of a nurse on the front lines as he takes care of several patients and documents what seems to be a typical day.
A town hall meeting was held at Fort Hood on Monday for families of the soon-to-be deployed soldiers to talk about their concerns or fears about the mission into Africa. Roscoe said the soldiers being deployed are all very well-disciplined and will be taught to exercise good hygiene to keep Ebola risk low. Even in a worst-case scenario, Roscoe assured families their loved ones would be okay.
“If a soldier were to get Ebola over there, they will be okay because America will take care of them.”
“…”
Category: Big Army, Foreign Policy
“If a soldier were to get Ebola over there, they will be okay because America will take care of them.”
Does Roscoe even have a clue about the virulence of this disease, and what it does to a victim?
Nope. I am guessing he didn’t read the part where 45% of those afflicted with Ebola die, and those who live will have a lifetime of medical issues to deal with.
The Colonel is doing what he must in such a situation: displaying confidence, a “can-do” attitude,and trying to instill both in his troops. That’s necessary for success of the mission.
Unfortunately, the raw numbers cause one to question that “don’t worry, you’ll be alright, we’ll take care of you if you become sick” statement.
The mortality rate for this outbreak appears to be a touch under 50%. Prompt beginning of supportive treatment may cut that in half, but I’d be surprised if it did much more than that.
That’s still 25%. And many survivors are hardly “alright” afterwards. Some have long-term health issues after surviving.
There’s still no vaccine. All the anti-Ebola drugs that exist today are experimental, unproven, and thus of unknown worth in treatment. (Plasma/blood transfusion from an Ebola survivor is similarly unproven as therapy.) So if you catch it, essentially you either live or die on your own. All medicine can do currently is give fluids and try to keep you comfortable.
This deployment ain’t “business as usual”. And the troops know that – and they’re understandably concerned.
I get that military personnel trained to handle bio hazards are needed for this effort. I would guess that, akin to EOD personnel, their inherent or developed ability to deal straightforwardly with great risk, combined with their acquired knowledge, renders them superior to the rest of us mere mortals in facing the virus threat. As for the others of our people who will be in the viral cesspool, I could be more against it but I can’t imagine how. It is a huge mistake, in my view, and no amount of reassurance from someone who hasn’t been there and hasn’t done that eases concern.
I sure wouldn’t want to be on this deployment and I salute the men and women (and their families) who are tasked with this.
It would be nice to think that this is a well planned operation with clearly outlined objectives and a defined end state but so far I’m not in the least convinced and COL Roscoe isn’t helping. Imagine being a family member being told “If a soldier were to get Ebola over there, they will be okay because America will take care of them.” Perhaps he was talking about the Death Gratuity and SGLI?
Well-planned operation, Guard Burn? Hardly. I pointed that fact out nearly a month ago, and suggested an appropriate name for the deployment: OPERATION MASSIVE CLUSTER.
No, to my knowledge that isn’t the name DoD officially adopted for the operation. But it should be.
Either that, or maybe OPERATON SCFoaMF.
“I got a bad feeling about this.”
Are you trying to say that Charles has taken his fox out for a trot?
What about security? Right now, the only person to be “cured” of the disease was here in America. Do we not think the locals know that. How long till crowds head towards the American camp in hopes of a cure. They batter have an Infantry BN to pull guard duty. No offense to the non-combat arms side of the Army, but some of you are not the best at maintaining proper security when manning a perimeter.