Preparing for Ebola

Hopefully Ebola will prove controllable. but it never hurts to recognize potential threats and prepare, and given the incompetence of our government, that is never more true than now. Obviously, I saw Vox’s post on the curve, and that doesn’t look good.

First hand-washing. -Your amygdala triggers on the novel. If you never wore a watch, and suddenly put one on, your amygdala will keep tripping on the novel sensation on your wrist. Likewise, if you wash your hands frequently now, and get used to that fresh, sterile feeling that your hands get right after a wash, your amygdala will come to regard that clean feeling as normal, and it will flag when it doesn’t sense it. I cannot possibly eat anything now, if I haven’t just washed my hands. I cannot touch my lips, my eyes, or my nose, if my hands haven’t just been washed. They will feel dirty, and it will bother me immensely. Now is the time to begin training yourself. A little thing like that can make all the difference.

Also, you might want to begin to think now about how to strictly quarantine your household, in the event that Ebola does evolve and become more of a problem. One concern will be Ebola making it into a reservoir species within the country. Dogs appear able to be infected with Ebola (as can several other animals), and it is thought that they may be able to shed the virus and transmit it to humans while showing no symptoms of illness. That is of immense concern since it could facilitate the virus’ spread through reservoir species. In the early, pre-diagnosed stages of an infection, it is possible a caregiver could throw out towels with vomit on them, and once that garbage hits the street, mice, rats, foxes, cats, and raccoons will make a beeline for it, as will insects, which could end up eaten by bats, birds, or other animals. It is not impossible there is a mouse or rat that consumed some of Duncan’s vomit running around that housing complex in Dallas right now.

In America, raccoons often eat in groups and fight with each other, as do rats, and they will gravitate to stuff that smells good to dogs. If you walk your dog in your yard, and it smells where an infected raccoon/bat/rat defecated some blood in the grass, it is not impossible that your dog could catch Ebola, and shed some virus particles on you later on with a kiss or a nuzzle. Be ready to fence your yard, and contain your pets away from local wildlife. Obviously unless we get confirmation they can’t harbor Ebola, free ranging cats in your house are a bad idea, if this gets out of hand. Either get a litter box and keep them inside, or keep them outside and at a distance.

Given that Ebola can infect rodents , and New York City rat complaints are at an all time high, you can see where that could go. If it heads there, and worse the virus adapts to better infect rodents, it is not impossible that rats or mice could bring virus particles from a neighbor’s house into yours as they seek an occupied dwelling, shedding and spreading them in your “secure” clean zones when you are not around. Even if you’ve never seen a rat or mouse, you might still want to be ready to stock up on glue traps, to make sure if any rodent ever gets in your house, it is stopped dead in it’s tracks before it can do any damage, trapped physically without physical damage or body fluid release, and in such a way it can be disposed of as cleanly as possible.

Obviously, canned food and bottled water to allow sheltering in place, masks, gloves, goggles, sterilizing chemicals, a way to heat items moderately without damage for extended periods for sterilization (oven), and hooded protective gear would be needed as well, if things turn in that direction. This is all hopefully highly unlikely of course, but nobody knows how bad this could get, nor can that be predicted until it plays out. Now is when you want to think about how you would handle these things, so later you can either laugh at how paranoid you were – or execute your plan quickly, before stores run out. If this really hits, it will be panic.

Whether it is Ebola that is the next pandemic, or something much more transmissible that arises out of nowhere in the future, I believe Pestilence is coming, and it is increasingly clear nobody will save us. If this Ebola were able to transmit from patient to patient like a common cold, the news would appear much more dire right now, and none of the idiots we have in office would be able to do a thing to help us. We need to prepare, plan, and train our brains now, when we have the leeway to screw up. When the time comes, there will not be any leeway there.

PS – Finally, another interesting factoid, of totally unknown veracity or importance – some speculate Ebola may naturally exist within plants, and a similar filovirus may have been observed in a leafhopper in France, indicating that the virus might exist in plants. Presumably, it would then either infect herbivores who eat the plants, or enter insects that consume the plants, and these insects then transmit it to animals. I don’t buy it existing in plants based on the inability to infect any plants, but I do find myself wondering if the coincidence with a species of plant flowering might speak to an insect visiting the flowering plant for pollination purposes, and transferring the virus onto it, or being accidently consumed with the plant. Could a maggot grow in carrion, and then hatch into a fly that pollinates a flower? Of course, if it can be carried by insects, one has to wonder if it could make it into cockroaches in the city through garbage with vomit in it, or into flies at the dump. We are in a world of possibilities, many of them very bad right now. Having obsessive/compulsive insect control measures on hand, regardless of any problem, might be a very good idea as well.