The result of abandoning the proper teaching of geography?
With a hat tip to Barnhardt:
“He said he was from Liberia, not Africa…”Is the above anecdote true? I don't know, but it could be. And I don't mean only with regard to the aforementioned nurse! It's not out of the question that a doctor wouldn't know that Liberia is in Africa.
From this thread over at Lucianne.com. Emphases mine.
Reply 29 – Posted by: gone2pot, 10/3/2014 5:50:33 PM (No. 10030644)
It´s us. We are the reason for the panic. We vote for it, educate our kids with it, watch it on TV, “like” and “follow” it, and listen to its music. Here´s anecdotal evidence; my wife´s hospital is caddy corner to Dallas Presby, home of the ebola incident. The docs at her hospital left Presby to start a new, less screwed up system. So, they know Presby and keep in contact with former colleagues. Well, according to the old Presby docs, the thirty-something Dallas Presby nurse´s answer to the CDC was, “He said he was from Liberia, not Africa.” So, next time you want to believe the tin foil hat conspiracy theory answer, remember instead that we ARE that stupid and our stupidity is why we create the cases for panic.
I myself so often see the dumbing-down — and not only among the middle-school and high-school students I teach: here we are in the Information Age with many people lacking enough sense or intellectual curiosity to look up something when the information is at their fingertips via Google search; at the same time, these same people are keen to update their Facebook status or check their email at every possible opportunity.
Now, about that triage nurse in the emergency department....
I do not blame her for not recognizing that Mr. Duncan had Ebola Virus on his first visit to the hospital. His temperature wasn't high enough according to the protocol then in effect, and he lied to her and said that he had not been around anyone who was sick. Let us keep in mind that Mr. Duncan lied on those forms in Liberia, too.
How can anyone in THIS country particularly not know that Liberia is in Africa. It's so intertwined with our own history. It's beyond belief.
ReplyDeleteBaysider,
DeleteAbout four years ago, I did a Helen Keller unit with my middle school class. As part of the introduction to the unit, I asked who knew who Helen Keller was and who didn't. Two parents didn't know! I kid you not! Both of these parents had degrees in English -- and not from Podunk College, either.
What Z just said. And in this age where we are all focused on disadvantages and disabilities they missed THE story of overcomers?
DeleteBaysider,
DeleteHelen Keller's The Story of My Life used to be required reading in all schools in America. That book is no longer on the lists!
Also, for a long time, the book was the #1 bestselling nonfiction book. I'm not sure when it fell from favor.
Simply because we are not concerned with much beyond our own creature comforts. Victims of comfort.
DeleteYes, Liberia is intertwined with our history. I was taken by how little attention the death of "Baby Doc" Duvalier received or the sorry history of our involvement in Haiti, an island that was critical to our gaining freedom from England. But that isn't taught either.
Until we have more students like the ones in Colorado who protested the dumbing down of their AP history we aren't going to have an educated populace.
@z -- Blindfolding the children and having them identify from touch a classmate...etc. I'm afraid we don't teach anything of that sort anymore
-----
How can we? Can you map that experience to a standardized test?
No, then pitch it out.
The right has to take some responsibility for this situation.
They didn't know HELEN KELLER? I covered Helen Keller in my preschool classes! Blindfolding the children and having them identify from touch a classmate...etc. I'm afraid we don't teach anything of that sort anymore; too much time spent on building self confidence and teaching about man made climate change, etc. How sad.
ReplyDelete"Liberia, not Africa..."
I don't blame the nurse either, AOW; he didn't present as that sick at first. One doctor yesterday said that it was a bumpy start to recognizing what's going on with Ebola here, but it all served to wake us up and, hopefully, we will not err again. For a change, MAYBE Americans will err on the side of our protection:? I hope so.
Preschool is a good time for it. You didn't have to go into the fact that she was a brilliant mind and a socialist.
DeleteProbably didn't cover her support for Margaret Sanger either.
DeleteDuck,
DeleteIn the Helen Keller unit that I did with middle schoolers, I mentioned only a few of Keller's ideas about politics and sociology; after all, the points of the unit weren't biography per se but rather other themes which I specifically emphasized (overcoming adversity and tough love, the latter relating to Annie Sullivan, of course).
On the other hand, with the high school, I made specific mention of some Leftist ideas that Helen Keller found enchanting.
Just sayin'.
The human race may
ReplyDeletebe as great as they say,
But i wouldn't be missed,
If it ceased to exist!
FT,
DeleteSeems that way now, certainly.
DRUDGE HEALTH ALARM HEADLINES:
ReplyDeleteEbola Patient's Girlfriend Overwhelmed by Quarantine...
Pinkeye Was Only Symptom in Child Killed by Enterovirus...
Man dies from Marburg in Uganda...
FT,
DeleteUnlike Ebola, Marburg has already been weaponized -- decades ago.
As for Entervirus D68, I will have a post on that topic later this week.
Personal note: I have to wonder if I had EV D68 the first week in September. I was so sick.
DeleteThe student who gave it to me had just returned from Boston.
Just sayin'.
PS: There have recently been cases of adult EV D68.
Comprehensive article...Out of Control: How the World's Health Organizations Failed to Stop the Ebola Disaster.
ReplyDeleteNote: Dr. Tom Frieden, head of the CDC, is an Obama appointee (June 2009).
ReplyDeleteCompetent?
God, I hope so!
But I have my doubts.
He may be serving as another of Obama's mouthpieces.
many people lacking enough sense or intellectual curiosity to look up something when the information is at their fingertips via Google search
ReplyDeleteRemember the old days of encyclopedias? I marvel every day of the amount of information at our fingertips - literally.
I run into people all the time at work who, when asking about something, have never thought to do research online. It astounds me.
I am more worried about this Judge Clay Jenkins who is running around as the legal enforcer in chief in Texas. Refusing to even follow basic protocols for infectious diseases. A drone of the administration.
ReplyDeleteJim,
ReplyDeleteThank you!
I hope that others here will read that link, too!
Of course it could be true. We're a society that thrives on pablum from cable media. Investigative and educational journalism is dead
ReplyDeleteCable media? It's probably worse than that. We have a portion of the population getting their news from TMZ and Access Hollywood
DeleteDuck,
DeleteWe have a portion of the population getting their news from TMZ and Access Hollywood
Indeed. Pathetic, really.
I'm not taking issue with anything in this excellent post. But I do want to point out that many more hospitals are now designed with dual use wards where rooms can be turned into isolation rooms when needed. This means the key mechanical systems are designed into the spaces along with other key factors in keeping them isolated. The rub being .... do they practice rapid conversions of these spaces so staff and facilities people are easily familiar with the process?
ReplyDeleteBaysider,
ReplyDeleteTo my knowledge, no "public" hospitals have held even one seminar on how to cope with hemorrhagic fevers. Have they held drills on rapid conversions?
I hope that Tammy Swofford will comment to this blog post. She has first-hand knowledge about hospitals' capabilities and training sessions.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteanother 'rub' is 'did they catch the Ebola early enough to bother putting him in a special room? Or has damage been done already
ReplyDeleteNot too off topic, I hope; I found it so odd that they're now announcing a child has died from Entero Virus....when, we heard the first child had died, then four children were announced dead from it. Today, it's "the first child to die from it"....
ReplyDeleteZ,
DeleteWhat do Americans believe? Probably that "the first child to die from it".
Apparently, many have sickened and recovered, but I don't know how long those recoveries took or if respiratory systems were permanently damaged.
There has been one confirmed death from the virus.
DeleteThree other deaths haven't been definitively attributed to the virus. In the case of he girl who died i Rhode Island the cause of death is considered to be a staph infection rather than enterovirus.
Duck,
DeleteA staph infection on top of EV D68?
"Unlike Ebola, Marburg has already been weaponized..."
ReplyDeleteAOW, from everything I understand, Ebola is not a good agent for a bio-terror weapon. The Soviets attempted this in the late '70's and were unsuccessful. This doesn't mean it can't be done, but the effects would be extremely limited compared to Anthrax.
AOW,
ReplyDeleteWhile this example is significant, it is certainly not the worst example of ignorance that I've seem, demonstrated by someone alleged to be educated, lately. This seems like something that should have been covered by, at least, the 7th grade. Our children spend 13 years in K-12 so what other than an artificial sense of self-esteem and PC nonsense are they taught? Surely there must be something else but what is it? Thankfully YOU offer an alternative to whatever that is.
Jon,
DeleteIt's not merely a matter of what is taught, but what "sticks"! For something "to stick," effective teaching must occur.
Many times, it seems to me that our education system, for all its bragging about critical thinking, actually destroys children's natural curiosity and natural learning process. I've analyzed the latter quite a bit via neurology, and a plethora of teaching mistakes are being made -- specifically relating to the corpus collosum.
The Obama Administration is inept. Obama himself has a weird fascination with Africa and doesn't want it to be wiped out by a disease capable of killing half the people on the planet. Nobody wants any of that but as President of the United States, it's high time for his fascination to be tempered with a strong dose of reality.
ReplyDeleteEven when they try to do something evil, they usually F-it up -- the gang that can't shoot straight are Marxist to the core, pro-Islamist, and gender-confused to the point that they need to be hospitalized rather than running a country. Then there's poor senile old Slow Joe Biden, a heartbeat away from the presidency.
My hospital, has provided zero training for an ebola incident. Yes, I am at a major regional powerhouse.
ReplyDeleteAnd now - a nurse who was part of the team which cared for the Spanish priest who was brought back to Spain - has ebola.
Of course, the ANA (American Nurses Association) has put out a press release blathering about R.N.s reassuring the public about Ebola.
Here is the deal. Ebola is not the flu. Stay home, drink fluids, and get rest. Nope. Ebola kills the host or weakens and can cause incomparable damage to the host. Our miracle drug supply is pretty well depleted. Might as well just take a lil' Vitamin C for your Ebola. I believe adults can handle the truth. And adults can decide if it is time to panic. I am an R.N. in the Dallas market. I have a very, very healthy fear of Ebola.
I'm reminded of Jodie Foster's line in The Silence of the Lambs: "FBI, you're safe!" and the hostage's appropriate response (Look it up for yourself).
DeleteOf course, the hostage was not safe because Clarice Starling didn't know where the murderer was or the layout of the murderer's house.
Comment from the link that Jim left earlier today:
ReplyDeleteThe way Ebola epidemics have always burned themselves out in the past is through difficulty of movement the afflicted populations faced. You might see a group in a remote village that was devastated by the outbreak but travel by foot is slow and they would die before spreading it to other groups. This time, major city centers are affected and the numbers will continue to climb. Add air travel and the disease has gone worldwide. We have to slow down its movement.
Now that it is in metropolitan areas with limited health facilities the spread may become geometric.
DeleteI'm surprised that Nigeria and other bordering nations have apparently been able to limit exposure.
It may well be that the worst thing we can do is assume that we can quarantine the disease and not take precautions.
Duck,
DeleteIt may well be that the worst thing we can do is assume that we can quarantine the disease and not take precautions.
I agree.
My view: quarantine, including banning flights from the Ebola Hot Zone, and take precautions.
Brooks Bros?
DeleteI'm guessing Armani, FT.
HOW DOES THIS MAKE GOOD SENSE FOR OUR PUBLIC HEALTH? See U.S. working on new screenings for Ebola but no travel ban -- SAYS OBAMA.
ReplyDeleteMany sock puppet, nonexistent thought.
ReplyDeleteCouriosity dead. Lemmings, sea of ignorance.
Blame it on the bi-racial guy elected by an American majority.
Rock on fringies.
From Dallas Senior Center Workers Quarantined After Ebola Exposure:
ReplyDeleteDALLAS (CBS 11 NEWS) – CBS 11 News has learned that two of the four acquaintances closest to Ebola victim Thomas Eric Duncan are employed at a North Dallas residence facility.
Is this why? Texas Ebola patient's friend has been told he can return to work as nursing assistant