The Watcher’s Council

Every week on Monday morning, the Council and our invited guests weigh in at the Watcher’s Forum with short takes on a major issue of the day, the culture or daily living. This week’s question: Why Do You Think Obama’s Actions On Ebola Have Been So Ineffective?

The Independent Sentinel: Mr. Obama is ineffective in handling Ebola because he sees everything as political. He doesn’t do anything for the right reasons.

Everything is done for political reasons with the goal of manipulating the public.

Mr. Obama has trouble making decisions. He’s a political coward. He’s so afraid of what people will say or how it might affect his political agenda that he can’t seem to do anything effectively. When he finally does act, it’s too little.

He has politicized every agency. Agencies are no longer doing what they are entrusted to do. Agencies we used to respect are now failures because they are working on the leftist political agenda.

Obama’s a political animal without the usual moral strictures.

He is always a day late and a dollar short and will continue to be for the next two years.

Simply Jews: Frankly, it is hard for me to blame the current POTUS in a situation like this.

The whole heavy and creaky government juggernaut is not a creation of the last POTUS but of many decades of out of control growth, decay and increasing inefficiency.

Besides, vigilance and preparedness is not something the government institutions are known for – in any country of this world.

I am not a natural born optimist, so in my opinion, things will get much worse before everyone in the health system will get a handle on what is exactly the right thing to do and stop doing stupid things. This is, unfortunately, the human way of learning.

JoshuaPundit: Honestly? I don’t think he cares about anything but the politics. Ron Kain is simply a partisan hack operative who can be relied on to toe the party line and keep things as buried as much as possible.  Dr. Thomas Frieden was a little too obvious and kept tripping over his own stupid tongue, so the regime wants him out of the spotlight.

Two things, BTW that very few people are discussing. First, the connection between the appearance of Ebola and other infectious diseases like Enterovirus D68(AKA EV-D68) and the president’s open borders policy. EV-D68 has already killed half a dozen Americans and there are currently over 500 cases in hospitals all over America, particularly in areas where the White House shipped illegal migrants without any in depth health screening from Central America, where there has been a major outbreak of the disease.

And second, given previous actions by this president, the racial aspect. I would happily be wrong about this, but I have a feeling that if Ebola was endemic in Ireland or Poland rather than West Africa, not only would there be a strict travel ban in place already, but I doubt we’d have 3,000 U.S. troops in Dublin or Warsaw exposing themselves to infection.

Laura Rambeau Lee, Right Reason: President Obama never fails to put politics ahead of everything else, especially when there is a good crisis to manage. CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden’s inability to convince us that a travel ban is not necessary to prevent others from bringing the virus here only helped to fuel the hysteria of a possible epidemic in America. Whatever happened to erring on the side of caution, at least until we know exactly how the two nurses in Texas contracted Ebola from Thomas Eric Duncan?

Dr. Frieden couldn’t sell the Administration’s talking points. The media has been relentless in its coverage and furthering the hysteria. Caving to political pressure President Obama appointed political insider Ron Klain as his “Ebola response coordinator”; a man with no medical experience or credentials. Presumably they believe he will do a better job with the talking points than Dr. Frieden. It’s not about getting control of the situation; it is about getting control of the narrative.

On a positive note, the CDC policy of contact tracing seems to be working. Today (Sunday) is day 21 and we have not heard of any of Mr. Duncan’s family members or other contacts, or any other health care workers who were in contact with Mr. Duncan, developing symptoms to indicate they contracted Ebola.

Hopefully we have seen the end of this latest crisis.

The Right Planet: ONE WORD: POLITICS! The Obama Administration handling of the Ebola issue is not just ineffective … it’s criminal. Let’s just apply a little common sense here and stick to the who, what, why, where, when and how.

Shall we?

We have a deadly virus called Ebola. We know viruses can mutate, and often do over time. There are several species or genus of Ebola, from what I understand–namely Ebola Zaire, Ebola Sudan, Ebola Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Ebola Bundibuygo (Uganda). I find the regional nature of the Ebola species rather intriguing. I would assume the deadly virus is quite virulent, and is able to adapt to a wide range of environmental factors, considering the outbreaks have steadily increased since 1976, and across numerous regions.

There had been a rather linear and steady increase in Ebola deaths since the first case appeared in South Sudan in 1976. But Ebola deaths have increased dramatically in 2014. Fatalities caused by the Ebola virus steadily began to rise during the month of May, and then a dramatic and alarming increase in Ebola deaths began in mid-July 2014. The concern now is there could be an exponential increase in deaths if the Ebola outbreak is not contained.

But I’ll leave all that to the epidemiologists and infectious disease experts … which brings me to President Obama appointing Ronald Klain as the “Ebola Czar.”

Are you kidding me?

Without even going off on a rant about the whole unconstitutional nature of the “czar” regime, one would think the president would appoint an expert in epidemiology with an extensive medical background. This is not the time for a “revolutionary change agent.” Ebola is a disease. The appointment of a extreme-left political hack is nothing more than Obama employing his former debate coach to help manage his public relations in order to protect his precious political image, when the focus should be on preventing a possible pandemic.

One thing I’ve heard from some medical experts is the Ebola virus is being spread because of the “opening up” of travel within western and central Africa. So, would it not be logical to listen to the medical experts and restrict travel in the affected and effected regions? It’s not like the travel bans would be permanent. It makes no sense to me that a patient infected with Ebola must be quarantined here in order to prevent others from becoming infected, yet the administration refuses to quarantine Ebola at its point of origin, in western Africa–which is the only real way to isolate the virus, that I’m aware of.

Up until now, the Ebola virus was isolated to Africa. But now, the virus has killed a Spanish nurse and a man in Texas. Will we have new species of Ebola now? Like Ebola Spain and Ebola Texas? The consistent minimizing of serious threats by the president screams to me that he is far more concerned about his firm hold on power than he is about doing the right thing. Banning travel in western Africa is not a “racial issue.” Ebola is no respecter of race; it will kill a white man just as fast as it will kill a black man. But, apparently the only person Barack Obama listens to is … Barack Obama.

 GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD: Unbelievably Jay Vee.

Selecting an organizational partisan hack (no matter how great at organizing) shows 44 and his posse are all politics all the time. Cats like General PAce (Retd) from the Marine Corps or even somedobby like former TN Senator Bill Frist (who by happy double chance is a doctor AND has been to West Africa bunches of times) would maybe might be more better.

It’s like the longest running gag on Jack Ass – and we the people are the punch line.

The Glittering Eye: They’re only ineffective if you believe there are real material risks posed by Ebola in this country. If you think that the only risks are psychological or political ones, what he’s been doing have been effective. Under pressure to “do something”, he’s committed troops to West Africa, presumably to build hospitals without staff or equipment. They certainly don’t have the training to treat patients or even handle dead bodies.

That’s how I interpret the appointment of Ron Klain as “Ebola czar”. His job is clearly to keep the story tamped down until after the November elections to minimize the damage it might do to Democratic chances of holding the Senate.

Well, there you have it!

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