Thursday, October 02, 2014

RAND PAUL IS AN EBOLA TRUTHER

Media insiders, here's your hip, sophisticated poster boy for Republicanism 2.0:
Glenn [Beck] interviewed Senator Rand Paul on radio today to talk about some key elections and the outbreak of the Ebola virus here in the United States. Paul thinks it's a huge mistake to downplay the threat of an epidemic, and believes political correctness is what's hampering a real discussion from taking place....

"I do think you have to be concerned. It's an incredibly transmissible disease that everyone is downplaying, saying it's hard to catch. Well, we have physicians and health workers who are catching it who are completely gloved down and taking every precaution and they're still getting it. So, yes, I'm very concerned about this. I think at the very least there needs to be a discussion about airline travel between the countries that have the raging disease," he [said].
Of course, that's not what's going on. Here's the truth:
Health care workers in poor nations often do not have enough protective gear to keep them safe from being infected with blood-borne viruses such as Ebola and HIV, a new study shows.

While the study was conducted before the current Ebola outbreak began in West Africa last spring, its findings are confirmed in statistics released Monday [August 25, 2014] by the World Health Organization (WHO)....

"In many cases, medical staff are at risk because no protective equipment is available -- not even gloves and face masks," the WHO statement added.

However, in the study reported online Aug. 26 in the journal Tropical Medicine and International Health, Johns Hopkins researchers found these shortages existed long before this latest Ebola outbreak.

In Liberia, only 56 percent of hospitals had protective eyewear for doctors and nurses and only 63 percent had sterile gloves. In Sierra Leone, those figures were 30 percent and 70 percent, respectively, the researchers found....
The mainstream press hates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and is just dying to anoint someone, anyone, as the modern, hipster embodiment of a rejuvenated GOP. Rand Paul, with his groovy dudebro libertarianism, is the one the insider journos have pinned the most hopes on. Well, yeah, this Ebola trutherism is hip, but it's hip the way vaccine skepticism is hip among upscale parents.

And who knows -- maybe that is the future of hipsterism. Maybe the GOP should add "Republicans are anti-vaxxers" to that "Republicans have tattoos and beards" ad they just did. But if that's the future, we're doomed as a society.

14 comments:

Victor said...

This mop-topped dude-bro is a joke!
A bad one.

If it wasn't for OK's two dim-wit's, this idiot would be the lowest watt bulb in a pretty low watt Senate.

Anonymous said...

Does Ebola trutherism mean someone doesn't understand something about Ebola? I'm either missing something about Paul's statements, or you using "trutherism" in a fundamentally dishonest way.

Steve M. said...

He's calling into question the well-established scientific understanding of how Ebola is transmitted and how its transmission can be prevented. That's trutherism, just as it's trutherism to say that it's physically impossible for planes to cause the Twin Towers to fall.

Philo Vaihinger said...

Um, no. He's saying quite correctly that if your method of staying safe requires thousands of people to do everything right you are not safe. People f up. They do not do everything right. Not even in Texas, as we saw. And he's right about those visas. People will be fleeing here, and they will bring the disease, as this one fellow did.

Philo Vaihinger said...

The 9/11 truthers said the US government was behind the attacks.

Who says the government is behind Ebola?

Louis Farrakhan, who is publicly insisting it's a disease - just like AIDS, he says - invented by whites to target and kill blacks.

Nothing to say on this blog about that?

Steve M. said...

Um, no. He's saying quite correctly that if your method of staying safe requires thousands of people to do everything right you are not safe.

Um, no, Philo, you're wrong. He says: "Well, we have physicians and health workers who are catching it who are completely gloved down and taking every precaution and they're still getting it." He has no evidence of that, whereas we absolutely have evidence that we have physicians and health workers catching it who are not completely gloved down and not able to take every precaution.

Better reading comprehension, please.

Steve M. said...

And as for your other point, you're just making up a meaning of "trutherism" to suit your point, Philo. It's perfectly acceptable to call Andrew Sullivan a "Trig truther" because he suspects Trig is not Sarah Palin's baby. No government cover-up would be involved there.

And don't give me any of that "You denounce A but I demand you denounce B!!!" bullshit. It's my blog. I discuss what I choose. I'll happily ban you.

Victor said...

Donb't ban Philo, Steve.

There's some wheat there in all of his chaff.

He's not Dennis "The Stalker."

M. Bouffant said...

Louis Farrakhan, who is publicly insisting it's a disease - just like AIDS, he says - invented by whites to target and kill blacks.

Nothing to say on this blog about that?


Are you unable to tell the difference between a loud-mouthed (but powerless, other than the attention given him by people like you) buffoon who is not in the Senate & a loud-mouthed buffoon who is a Senator & who is being touted as a 2016 presidential candidate?

And if you've been laboring under the impression that Farrakhan is some hero of the left, you can stop now, because he isn't.

That being said, the very second Farrakhan's elected to the Senate I will start paying attention to whatever idiocy flaps from his gums.

Philo Vaihinger said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Philo Vaihinger said...

Farrakhan powerless? Oh, my. None so blind.

But Steve M was half right on the other point. I did miss what RP was saying.

But I didn't miss on the truthers.

According to a later post of Steve's, Rev Louis (why does Limbaugh call him "Calypso Louie"?) has been joined by many of the loonier right.

And the cluster-f that is the world's handling of Ebola continues, everywhere but also in Texas.

Why would you think I regard LF as a hero of the left?

Philo Vaihinger said...

Victor, how charming. I didn't know you cared.

As for me, I agree with Steve M (and various people who write comments) sometimes but not always, and just as others may comment harshly, even outrageously, on what I write I may do the same to them.

But it is Steve's blog, just as he says.

Steve M. said...

why does Limbaugh call him "Calypso Louie"?

Because he used to be a calypso singer.

Philo Vaihinger said...

Ah. Perfect training for his current job as leader of America's most interesting religion.