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NJ Senate Candidate Jeff Bell: ‘The Federal Government Hasn’t Handled A Single Thing Right’

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NJ Senate Candidate Jeff Bell: ‘The Federal Government Hasn’t Handled A Single Thing Right’
October 14, 2014 2:28 PM
By Dom Giordano

“This federal government is completely dysfunctional. They haven’t handled a single thing right and their idea is that they can impose a top down model on every issue, whether it’s monetary policy, disease control, the Common Core education standards and the Affordable Care Act above all.” Jeff Bell 

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Dom Giordano talked to New Jersey Senate Candidate Jeff Bell on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT. Bell, a Republican, is challenging incumbent Corey Booker in November’s election.

Bell claimed that Senator Booker supports all of President Obama’s economic policies and said rather than helping the middle class, they put them at a disadvantage.

“Most people don’t want to get into the Wall Street stock market casino and it’s a tremendously wearing thing for the middle class, not for the rich people. People that don’t need a loan find it very easy to get a loan at these low interest rates.”

He believes returning to the gold standard would stabilize the economy and boost small businesses.

“The gold standard is the system that levels the playing field. If you know what you’re money is going to be worth one year from now, two years from now, five years from now, then you can navigate. It’s a simpler world. You can get interest on savings. The long term interest rate is up, enough to get savings. Small business is the most important element, from and economic standpoint, that would be liberated because they have a difficulty getting lines of credit that are so low that community banks don’t want to make risky loans when they have so little return.”

Bell also insists the federal government is not equipped to handle crises like Ebola.

“This federal government is completely dysfunctional. They haven’t handled a single thing right and their idea is that they can impose a top down model on every issue, whether it’s monetary policy, disease control, the Common Core education standards and the Affordable Care Act above all.”

https://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2014/10/14/nj-senate-candidate-jeff-bell-the-federal-government-hasnt-handled-a-single-thing-right/

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DC Babble Outbreak

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CDC Director Thomas Frieden

DC Babble Outbreak
Oct 15 2014
Mike Huckabee

Two suspected Ebola patients, one in L.A. and one in Boston, fortunately tested negative, but they raised distrust among Americans that the CDC knows what it’s doing. And their own statements aren’t helping. Mike Huckabee

We don’t have an epidemic of Ebola, but we do seem to be suffering an outbreak of DC Babble…Two suspected Ebola patients, one in L.A. and one in Boston, fortunately tested negative, but they raised distrust among Americans that the CDC knows what it’s doing. And their own statements aren’t helping. First they assured us it wouldn’t come to the US, then that it was highly unlikely, then that it was unlikely to spread. Once it did spread on US soil, from the late patient in Dallas to a nurse who cared for him, CDC Director Thomas Frieden blamed the hospital. In a line worthy of the Pentagon babble from “M*A*S*H,” Frieden said, “I think the fact that we don’t know of a breach in protocol is concerning because clearly there was a breach in protocol.” That angered all caregivers, accusing them of making a mistake with no proof. And the hospital says the nurse wore protective gear at all times. So if all the protocols failed to stop the spread, maybe the protocol should’ve been to keep it out of the US in the first place.

https://www.mikehuckabee.com/2014/10/dc-babble-outbreak

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U.S. lacks a single standard for Ebola response

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U.S. lacks a single standard for Ebola response

 Larry Copeland, USA TODAY8:11 p.m. EDT October 12, 2014

Corrections and clarifications: A previous version of this timeline gave a different date for Thomas Eric Duncan’s first visit to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital. The hospital revised the date.

ATLANTA — As Thomas Eric Duncan’s family mourns the USA’s first Ebola death in Dallas, one question reverberates over a series of apparent missteps in the case: Who is in charge of the response to Ebola?

The answer seems to be — there really isn’t one person or agency. There is not a single national response.

The Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has emerged as the standard-bearer — and sometimes the scapegoat — on Ebola.

Public health is the purview of the states, and as the nation anticipates more Ebola cases, some experts say the way the United States handles public health is not up to the challenge.

“One of the things we have to understand is the federal, state and local public health relationships,” says Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. “Public health is inherently a state issue. The state really is in charge of public health at the state and local level. It’s a constitutional issue. The CDC can’t just walk in on these cases. They have to be invited in.”

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/10/12/examining-the-nations-ebola-response/17059283/

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CDC could quarantine U.S. citizens for weeks if they refuse Ebola screenings

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CDC could quarantine U.S. citizens for weeks if they refuse Ebola screenings
Non-citizens could be turned back
By Olivier Knox 3 hours ago Yahoo News

U.S. citizens who refuse to undergo the new screenings for Ebola at five major American airports could find themselves held in quarantine for up to three weeks, officials told Yahoo News on Thursday. Non-citizens who refuse the screenings could be quarantined or turned away from U.S. soil by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

The Obama Administration announced on Wednesday that it would soon require passengers from Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone — the countries at the epicenter of the deadly outbreak in West Africa — to answer questions about their potential exposure to the illness and to have their temperature taken upon arrival.

Officials unveiled the new rules hours after the only patient thus far diagnosed with Ebola on U.S. soil, Thomas Eric Duncan, died of the illness. Neighbors said he helped a pregnant woman in Liberia get to a hospital, where she was turned away from a crowded Ebola treatment ward. Liberian government officials said they planned to prosecute him for lying on health forms by denying any contact with an Ebola patient.

https://news.yahoo.com/cdc-could-quarantine-u-s–citizens-for-weeks-if-they-refuse-ebola-screenings-230534518.html

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Newly Vigilant, U.S. Will Screen Fliers for Ebola

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Newly Vigilant, U.S. Will Screen Fliers for Ebola

By SABRINA TAVERNISEOCT. 8, 2014

ATLANTA — Federal health officials will require temperature checks for the first time at five major American airports for people arriving from the three West African countries hardest hit by the deadly Ebolavirus. However, health experts said the measures were more likely to calm a worried public than to prevent many people with Ebola from entering the country.

Still, they constitute the first large-scale attempt to improve security at American ports of entry since the virus arrived on American soil last month.

They are also a notable policy shift at a time of rising concern about the disease. Public health officials had initially resisted the move, saying such checks would be an unnecessary use of thinly stretched resources. But pressure for tougher action mounted. Republicans sharply criticized President Obama for what they called a lax response. Many, including Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, have suggested looking at air travel restrictions from West Africa, something the administration has rejected.

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/09/us/newly-vigilant-us-is-to-screen-fliers-for-ebola.html?src=twr&_r=0

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CDC multitasking hurts Ebola fight

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CDC multitasking hurts Ebola fight: Column
Glenn Harlan Reynolds5:07 p.m. EDT October 5, 2014

Disease control shouldn’t extend to playground safety and occupational hazards.

“You had one job!” is the punchline on a popularInternet meme involving organizational screw-ups. Now critics are saying something similar about the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in response the agency’s handling of the Ebola outbreak. Unfortunately, it’s not true. While we’d be better off if the CDC only had one job — you know, controlling disease— the CDC has taken on all sorts of jobs unrelated to that task. Jobs that seem to have distracted its management and led to a performance that even the establishment calls “rocky.” Going forward, we need to learn this lesson, for the CDC, for other agencies, and for the government as a whole.

Ebola, as fans of The Hot Zone know, is nothing new, and neither are worries about it spreading beyond its usual range. And disease control experts have long known that the key to stopping it is finding people who were exposed, tracing their contacts, and keeping them under observation until they are past the disease’s incubation period, and keeping anyone actively contagious under quarantine until they have died or recovered.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2014/10/05/ebola-cdc-jobs-tasks-multitasking-thomas-duncan-column/16766801/

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CDC Officials Meet Flight After Passenger Shows Possible Ebola Symptoms

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CDC Officials Meet Flight After Passenger Shows Possible Ebola Symptoms

Oct 4, 2014, 1:40 PM ET
By AARON KATERSKY and JOSH MARGOLIN

A United Airlines flight from Brussels was met by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials today at Newark Liberty International Airport after a passenger on board believed to be from Liberia exhibited possible signs of Ebola.

The passenger was traveling with his daughter on United Flight 998 and both were removed from the plane by CDC crew in full hazmat gear.

The passenger suspected of possibly having Ebola was taken to University Hospital in Newark for further evaluation. Upon his arrival, the emergency room there was not accepting any other patients for four hours.

A senior federal official said the passenger was exhibiting “flu-like symptoms.”

According to an official briefed on the situation, preliminary information was that the passenger was vomiting on flight but did not display most of the other symptoms.

https://abcnews.go.com/Health/cdc-officials-meet-flight-passenger-shows-ebola-symptoms/story?id=25965383

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CDC director: Travel ban could make Ebola outbreak worse

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CDC director: Travel ban could make Ebola outbreak worse
By Cameron Joseph – 10/04/14 01:17 PM EDT

A travel ban to the countries facing an Ebola outbreak could paradoxically make the problem worse, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Tom Frieden said during a Saturday press conference.

Frieden said the CDC would consider any and all precautions, but warned that a travel ban could make it harder to get medical care and aid workers to regions dealing with the outbreak.

He said that had already occurred when African Union aid workers tried to get to Liberia but were stuck in a neighboring country for days because of a travel ban.

“Their ability to get there was delayed by about a week because their flight was canceled and they were stuck in a neighboring country,” he said.

Frieden also said the CDC has experienced a spike in reported potential cases of Ebola following the first diagnosis of a patient in the U.S. in Dallas earlier this week, saying the rise in concern was a good thing but that he remained the only patient who has been identified as suffering from the disease. Two patients who were initially identified as having potential Ebola symptoms in the Washington, D.C. area were ruled to not have the disease on Saturday.

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/219786-cdc-director-travel-ban-could-make-ebola-outbreak-worse

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N.J. hospitals are well prepared to fight Ebola, state medical officials say

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N.J. hospitals are well prepared to fight Ebola, state medical officials say

OCTOBER 4, 2014    LAST UPDATED: SATURDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2014, 1:21 AM
BY JAMES M. O’NEILL
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD

New Jersey’s 71 hospitals have the space and equipment, and their medical staffs are trained, to react to any patient with a suspected case of Ebola, including moving them to an isolation room immediately, state health officials say.

Since early August, the Health Department has held conference calls and issued alerts to share and review protocol for handling patients who may be carrying the virus.

And in the past few weeks, North Jersey hospitals have run drills simulating cases of patients checking into their emergency rooms saying they had recently been in West Africa — where the recent Ebola outbreak is centered — to ensure that they isolate such patients for treatment, officials say.

Local ERs have installed signs at their check-in areas asking patients to let staff know immediately if they have traveled recently to the region and have fever and other Ebola-related symptoms, such as vomiting, diarrhea and severe headache.

Officials say the case of Ebola in Dallas this week — where information that the patient had been in West Africa was apparently not transferred to medical staff — only reinforced the need for hospitals to take down the travel history of anyone showing signs of the illness.

“There’s definitely a heightened sense of awareness about this, and hospitals will certainly learn the lesson from the Dallas case about the importance of communicating critical information,” said Shannon Davila, an infection-control nurse with the New Jersey Hospital Association.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/nj-state-news/n-j-hospitals-well-prepared-to-fight-ebola-1.1102418#sthash.VQGu8aJQ.dpuf

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Dallas Ebola case spurs concern about hospital readiness

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Dallas Ebola case spurs concern about hospital readiness

A D.C.-area hospital admitted a patient with symptoms and a travel history associated with Ebola.

By Lena H. Sun, Brady Dennis and Elahe Izadi October 3 at 10:52 PM    

A Washington-area hospital announced Friday that it had admitted a patient with symptoms and a travel history associated with Ebola. The case has not been confirmed, but the number of similar incidents around the country and a confirmed Ebola patient in Dallas have spurred concerns about whether U.S. hospitals are as prepared to deal with the virus as federal officials insist they are.

Since July, hospitals around the country have reported more than 100 cases involving Ebola-like symptoms to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, officials there said. Only one patient so far — Thomas Duncan in Dallas — has been diagnosed with Ebola.

But in addition to lapses at the Dallas hospital where Duncan is being treated, officials say they are fielding inquiries from hospitals and health workers that make it clear that serious questions remain about how to properly and safely care for potential Ebola patients.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/dallas-ebola-case-spurs-concern-about-hospital-readiness/2014/10/03/4afa10b2-4b30-11e4-a046-120a8a855cca_story.html

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Scrutiny in Texas to Detect Whether Ebola Has Spread

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Scrutiny in Texas to Detect Whether Ebola Has Spread

By MANNY FERNANDEZ and NORIMITSU ONISHIOCT. 1, 2014

DALLAS — The man who has become the first Ebola patient to develop symptoms in the United States told officials at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital last Friday that he had just arrived from West Africa but was not admitted that day because that information was not passed along at the hospital, officials acknowledged Wednesday.

The man, Thomas E. Duncan, was sent home under the mistaken belief that he had only a mild fever, a hospital administrator said; the information that he had traveled from Liberia, one of the nations at the heart of the Ebola epidemic, was overlooked.

Mr. Duncan came back to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital on Sunday and was admitted for treatment, but in those two days in between, his contacts with a number of people — including five schoolchildren and the medics who helped transport him to the hospital — potentially exposed them to Ebola, forcing officials to monitor and isolate them in their homes and to begin a thorough cleaning of the schools the students attended. Mr. Duncan is now in serious but stable condition.

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/02/us/after-ebola-case-in-dallas-health-officials-seek-those-who-had-contact-with-patient.html?_r=0

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CDC: Working to identify anyone who had contact with sick patient during infectious period

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CDC: Working to identify anyone who had contact with sick patient during infectious period

Everett Rosenfeld | @Ev_Rosenfeld

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the first case of Ebola in the United States at a Tuesday news conference.

The CDC said that the patient had come from Liberia, and did not show any symptoms when he arrived in the United States on Sept. 20. The organization said it is closely monitoring the situation.

“It is certainly possible that someone who had contact with this individual…could develop Ebola in the coming weeks,” said Tom Frieden, the CDC’s director. “But there is no doubt in my mind that we will stop it here.”

Frieden said public health officials will be working to identify all of those who may have had contact with the patient while he could have been infectious. Once identified, these individuals will be monitored for 21 days to see if they develop symptoms, Frieden said.

https://www.cnbc.com/id/102046854