In the case of Typhoid Mary

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this is probably the most useless comparison ever made on this board.

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Maybe your attempt to rebut my hypothetical question is actually far more useless. I'm not persuaded by your certainty.

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Ebola is a viral infection that has a very distinct course. You either die from it, or your body "defeats" the virus and you are no longer infectious.

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For instance, what is to say someone's particular metabolism is able to stretch out the full-blown infectious stage to a point where they are mostly functional and moving around among a wide variety of people - like at a school or a mall or a hospital. Sneezing, coughing, sweating, vomiting in the streets... but not rapidly dying. What do we really know for certain about this disease?

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There is no such thing as an asymptomatic chronic carrier of ebola in human populations.

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OK, forgive me for using a descriptive that doesn't fit the profile. Let's say mildly to moderately symptomatic but not overcome by the virus; functional enough to go to work, travel by bus or subway, come in contact with lots of people for a longer time than perhaps a medical textbook would predict. Die later than would be expected. Maybe the virus mutates. Would you then see the parallel?

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Let's say mildly to moderately symptomatic but not overcome by the virus; functional enough to go to work, travel by bus or subway, come in contact with lots of people for a longer time than perhaps a medical textbook would predict. Die later than would be expected. Maybe the virus mutates. Would you then see the parallel?

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No, because such a person would either die or get better in a matter of weeks. Typhoid Mary was a LIFETIME carrier of salmonella typhi. Your entire thread hinges on what we would do if someone had to be "imprisoned" against their will for long periods of time.

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Roger Klarvin

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Well, what if a SPACE ALIEN from the planet Ebolian 7 were to come to earth, take human form, and walk around with ebola? He, being from aother galaxy is IMMUNE.

What THEN, smarty pants?

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No, because such a person would either die or get better in a matter of weeks.

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In a textbook scenario. Sometimes as Jeff Goldblum's character in Jurassic Park said, "Life will find a way." I assume that applies to viruses as well as dinosaurs.And also people who are on some level infected (but not yet overcome) by ebola. In real life, there are variables and unforeseen consequences that the textbooks don't take into consideration when giving out the certainties.

I am not in a box about Typhoid Mary, nor did I put this up to suggest the people around the Liberian guy in Dallas be put in bondage or anything such as you seem to be wanting me to have said (I didn't).

Like it or not, agree or not, I used her name in the way of a metaphor, to suggest that we really don't know how far a person symptomatic or only mildly/moderately so can go, in the midst of others - to infect, spread, or in some other way bring that virus around.

And thus I am not persuaded or soothed by the "certainties" that political operatives and medical staff members from Presby Health Center offer us. Plus, I am a Presbyterian.

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Given that viruses are not life, I can stop you right there

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I knew you were going to say that. You can't pick up on metaphors or similies very easily, can you. I had you pegged as a science guy from the very first post. Lol.

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But in the end, the person is not going to be walking around spreading the virus for months or years.

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Would you kindly let go of the fundamentalist interpretation of how Typhoid Mary did what she did and accept that however similar or different, she did what she did? Be that for weeks, months, years. Obviously in West Africa, something is spreading the virus. Obviously not all of our hospitals, clinics, health care workers are alert enough to connect dots - maybe in part because they are so well-assured that it can't happen here (see Dallas). Obviously our ports of entry or borders are not screening entrants for such things as "were you recently in West Africa" or noticing stamps on passports because we're not really thinking this stuff can just walk, fly into our midst. Typhoid Marys can fly in from Liberia, visit relatives in Dallas or your own particular home town, and then become debilitated by their disease after being symptomatic for some period of time and being among other human beings. Right?

Viruses can find a way. Like as life.

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Someone with a real understanding of the subject explains why it is not realistic.

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Do you realize that a few months ago, people with real understanding of this disease (not all of them) were assuring us that it would hardly be possible for ebola to cross over from West Africa into the United States?

I'm glad you're willing to be assured.

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Not a single person with a real understanding EVER said an infected person getting on a plane and landing here was "hardly possible". Not one. You made that up.

What has consistently been said is that there is no way that we would see outbreaks like over there.

More people will die of FOOD POISONING in the U.S. this month than will die of ebola this decade.

More people will die in car crashes in the U.S. TODAY than will die from ebola this year.

More people will die from falling off of ladders i the U.S. this year than will die from ebola this decade

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You are all wrong. I have it on good authority from my FB cousin that allowing ebola in is a giant ruse to fool people into taking an ebola vaccine that doesn't work but will in fact, sicken people and contribute to population control while making vaccine companies tons of money.

That sounds far more plausible than any of the bull shite in this thread.

What happens when aliens come and replace our bodily fluids with mind control kiquid?