(Via The Federalist)  […]   See, in 2004, Congress passed The Project Bioshield Act. The text of that legislation authorized up to $5,593,000,000 in new spending by NIH for the purpose of purchasing vaccines that would be used in the event of a bioterrorist attack. A major part of the plan was to allow stockpiling and distribution of vaccines.

Just two years later, Congress passed the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act, which created a new assistant secretary for preparedness and response to oversee medical efforts and called for a National Health Security Strategy. The Act established Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority as the focal point within HHS for medical efforts to protect the American civilian population against naturally occurring threats to public health. It specifically says this authority was established to give “an integrated, systematic approach to the development and purchase of the necessary vaccines, drugs, therapies, and diagnostic tools for public health medical emergencies.”

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We pointed this out yesterday after we noticed Paul Begala begin the talking point. But we ran out of time to write about it.  Thankfully Eric Erickson expands on the nonsensical narrative…

@PaulBegala Dear Paul, how much did President Obama request for the NIH in his 2015 fiscal year budget proposal? Thought so, take a seat.

— TheLastRefuge (@TheLastRefuge2) October 13, 2014

[…] To this end, the Administration’s FY 2015 budget request for the NIH is $30.362 billion, $211 million, or 0.7 percent, above the FY 2014 level.  [NIH Testimony to appropriations] 

Erickson uses the CDC 2014 budget appropriations to drive home the same point.
Erickson […]  The latest Democratic attack is pretty straightforward in its insanity. Because the GOP won’t let the Democrats spend more money, people are getting Ebola. The Democrats would have you believe that the very same government that could not build an Obamacare website with hundreds of millions of dollars could somehow cure Ebola yesterday with more money.
There is just one problem: facts. (more…)

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — A patient with a high fever and other serious symptoms contacted and then entered The University of Kansas Hospital on Monday morning.
The hospital says that the patient recently worked on a medical boat off the west coast of Africa and has a low-to-moderate risk of Ebola.
According to a news release, the patient is being kept in strict isolation and tests are being done to determine a diagnosis. Dr. Lee Norman, chief medical officer of the hospital, says that there are many other diseases that fit the patient’s symptoms, but the hospital is following guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control to determine whether the patient has Ebola or not. (more…)

UPDATE: On the nightly broadcast of NBC Nightly News, Brian Williams read the following statement from Dr. Snyderman:

“While under voluntary quarantine guidelines, which called for our team to avoid public contact for 21 days, members of our group violated those guidelines and understand that our quarantine is now mandatory until 21 days have passed. We remain healthy and our temperatures are normal.
“As a health professional I know that we have no symptoms and pose no risk to the public, but I am deeply sorry for the concerns this episode caused. We are thrilled that Ashoka is getting better and our thoughts continue to be with the thousands affected by Ebola whose stories we all went to cover.”  (Video HERE)

I doubt there’s a more apropos example of pontificating elitism on display.  Only this one comes with the potential for severe consequences.

An NBC news cameraman was diagnosed with Ebola during a trip to West Africa as part of team NBC’s coverage of the crisis.
As a result, and out of an abundance of caution, the entire production crew and staff agreed to self-isolate, quarantine, for a period of 21 days – until they could be cleared and no longer considered a risk of carrying the deadly disease.
Apparently NBC’s chief medical correspondent, Dr. Nancy Snyderman, didn’t like the plan. She took her potentially infected self to a restaurant in New Jersey. Exhibiting a level of selfishness, consistently seen within the professional elitist class of rabid liberals, Dr Snyderman violated the quarantine and exposed hundreds of people to the risk of infection. (more…)

The aspect of interest is her being exceptionally well trained (TCU) and having a full four years experience prior to the encounter with patient ZERO.

DALLAS — A Dallas nurse diagnosed with the Ebola virus over the weekend is a former Texas Christian University student identified by a family member as 26-year-old Nina Pham.
The family reached out to News 8 Monday morning and shared an image of the nurse who grew up in Fort Worth.

A health care worker at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas, Pham became infected while treating Thomas Eric Duncan, who died from the virus days before the nurse’s diagnosis.
Pham graduated from TCU’s nursing program in 2010 and is the first person to contract the disease while in the Unites States. (more…)

Australia’s Prime Minister has refused to commit personnel to battle ebola directly inside Africa, although the country has committed $18 million in financial resources to assist West Africa contain the outbreak.
The Australian news agency reports that “growth is out of control” and cases in Liberia are doubling every 15 – 20 days.
It is important to be aware that these models are based on known or reported cases – however, all medical personnel have affirmed that no one truly knows the number of actual cases, because many rural areas are refusing to cooperate with investigators.

Dark blue shows the number of actual cases while light blue is projections for the next four weeks.

IT’S the deadliest Ebola outbreak the world has seen — claiming more than 4033 lives and infecting double that as it rampages around the world. (link)
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https://twitter.com/DRUDGE_REPORT/status/521462911001055233
We can’t begin to say how infuriating this is. Friday the first U.S. troops arrived in Monrovia to begin setting up aid for Liberian healthcare workers within the Ebola “Hot Zone”. Today those same healthcare workers go on strike.

“Beginning tomorrow we will be on a nationwide strike in every hospital and every health centre including ETUs (Ebola Treatment Units),” said Joseph Tamba, chairman of the health workers’ union.

There is NO DOUBT they have taken the opportunity of our U.S. arrival to remove themselves from the risk inherent in the care of Ebola patients. This will put additional pressure on our military to fill the caregiver void.
Insufferable !

It has been a challenging pill to swallow to see 4,000 of our servicemen and women dispatched into a dangerous region on a humanitarian effort when little to no support is coming from Western “allies”. Add to that the pure selfishness of the Liberian opportunists which further endangers our troops, and the entire situation is beyond insufferable. (more…)

(Reuters) – At Fort Campbell in Kentucky, spouses of U.S. soldiers headed to Liberia seem to be lingering just a bit longer than usual after pre-deployment briefings, hungry for information about Ebola.
For these families, the virus is raising a different kind of anxiety than the one they have weathered during 13 years of ground war in Afghanistan and Iraq. They want to know how the military can keep soldiers safe from the epidemic, a new addition to the Army’s long list of threats.

“Ebola is a different problem set that the division hasn’t (faced) before,” said Major General Gary Volesky, who will soon head to Liberia along with soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division. (more…)

Update 3:45pm:  “Ebola Nurse has a pet”:
(CBS) […]  Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings reiterated this information, saying that the citizens of the city are safe. “We have a plan in place to send hazmat units into the patient’s apartment,” he said, noting that the individual’s car has already been decontaminated. There is also a pet at the home that needs to be removed.

The patient lives in the 5700 block of Marquita Avenue in Dallas. Rawlings has been walking around the neighborhood on Sunday morning to help ease fears and answer the questions of concerned residents.
Dallas officials knocked on doors, made automated phone calls and passed out fliers to notify people within a four-block radius of the health care worker’s apartment complex about the situation, though they said there was no reason for neighbors to be concerned.
Dallas police officers stood guard outside the complex Sunday and told people not to go inside. One said an industrial barrel outside contained hazardous waste taken from inside the building. Nearby residents periodically came out of their homes to ask about the commotion.  (link – CBS)
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(CNN) — [Breaking news update, posted at 11:32 a.m. ET]

“The (Ebola treatment) protocols work. … But we know that even a single lapse or breach can result in infection,” Dr. Tom Frieden, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, said Sunday.

According to CNN, the health care worker is a female nurse:(CNN) — [Breaking news update, posted at 10:32 a.m. ET]
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