Before we get into our usual dose of economic news and trying to make a buck in a world-gone-mad, we should begin with a huge WTF for CDC officials.
As you can see in this video from YouTube, it appears that unprotected workers were involved in washing down the sidewalk outside the residence in Dallas where Patient Zero was; a sidewalk where P-0 had reportedly puked…
This is getting huge traction on the net this morning as people are asking what is going on?
Oh, and the apartment sanitizing crew for the apartment has been turned away reports CNN.
While the TV talking-heads are assuring us that all is OK with this, we offer this extract from the Public Health Agency of Canada which has a useful summary of Ebola data here.
PHYSICAL INACTIVATION: Ebola are moderately thermolabile and can be inactivated by heating for 30 minutes to 60 minutes at 60°C, boiling for 5 minutes, or gamma irradiation (1.2 x106 rads to 1.27 x106 rads) combined with 1% glutaraldehyde Footnote 10 Footnote 48 Footnote 50. Ebolavirus has also been determined to be moderately sensitive to UVC radiation Footnote 51.
SURVIVAL OUTSIDE HOST: Filoviruses have been reported capable to survive for weeks in blood and can also survive on contaminated surfaces, particularly at low temperatures (4°C) Footnote 52 Footnote 61. One study could not recover any Ebolavirus from experimentally contaminated surfaces (plastic, metal or glass) at room temperature Footnote 61. In another study, Ebolavirus dried onto glass, polymeric silicone rubber, or painted aluminum alloy is able to survive in the dark for several hours under ambient conditions (between 20 and 250C and 30–40% relative humidity) (amount of virus reduced to 37% after 15.4 hours), but is less stable than some other viral hemorrhagic fevers (Lassa) Footnote 53. When dried in tissue culture media onto glass and stored at 4 °C, Zaire ebolavirus survived for over 50 days Footnote 61. This information is based on experimental findings only and not based on observations in nature. This information is intended to be used to support local risk assessments in a laboratory setting.
A study on transmission of ebolavirus from fomites in an isolation ward concludes that the risk of transmission is low when recommended infection control guidelines for viral hemorrhagic fevers are followed Footnote 64. Infection control protocols included decontamination of floors with 0.5% bleach daily and decontamination of visibly contaminated surfaces with 0.05% bleach as necessary.
I will let you make up your own mind based on the data from a source believed reliable. (If you can’t trust Canada, who can you trust?)
All of which gets us around to the next shocker: We’ve learned from a non-federal government source that there are only two labs currently testing Ebola samples. One is the State health department lab in Austin and the other is at CDC headquarters.
This official (in a comparably-sized city to Dallas) tells me officials are trying to decide if they should set up local testing in his city. There are two sides to it: CDFC wants to maintain control on the one hand, but if that adds time-delay into the mix, then that’s a serious thing.
And, as mentioned yesterday, CDC was real “late to the party” getting training materials out to US hospitals; October 1 when we’ve known it’s coming seems inexcusable.
Meantime, the WaPo reports that four people have been quarantined and over 100 may have had contact withy P-0.
And if the training screw-up and wash-down questions aren’t bad enough, the CDC chief is supporting the corporate line when he says “We can’t shut down borders.”
And that is another pant load of crap. Of course we can shut down all our borders, it’s just that we’re such a lazy-ass weak-willed, corp-whipped, sissified country we don’t have the will to do what’s needed. Political correctness rules the Ebola response…
Which is why I am pessimistic on future prospects. I’ll bite my public tongue…
Here’s a source for the plane flight trips patient-zero was on. This should have been out on the 28th, but don’t let me get started on how slow information kills in situations like this.
Our Peoplenomics.com report tomorrow is “Ebola Prepperdemic: Keeping Ahead of the Curve.” More than anything, we’re focused on how to minimize contact and getting ready for possible isolation.
About That Jobs Report
The market was already primed to open up 70 points before the jobs report came out…so here’s what the investor community was looking for:
Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 248,000 in September, and the unemployment rate declined to 5.9 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment increased in professional and business services, retail trade, and health care. Household Survey Data In September, the unemployment rate declined by 0.2 percentage point to 5.9 percent. The number of unemployed persons decreased by 329,000 to 9.3 million.
Over the year, the unemployment rate and the number of unemployed persons were down by 1.3 percentage points and 1.9 million, respectively. (See table A-1.) Among the major worker groups, unemployment rates declined in September for adult men (5.3 percent), whites (5.1 percent), and Hispanics (6.9 percent). The rates for adult women (5.5 percent), teenagers (20.0 percent), and blacks (11.0 percent) showed little change over the month. The jobless rate for Asians was 4.3 percent (not seasonally adjusted), little changed from a year earlier.
Oh, and yes, this is exactly why I told you that we would have a good-sized drop.
But not without a price: The labor participation rate fell a 10th to 62.7% of the workforce.
Plus 97-thousand were just raptured-out of the workforce.
And if you think that’s a bit cynical of me, you should wait till I tell you that the figures included 701-thousand jobs being “made up” out of statistical thin air in the CES Birth/Death Model for the month. Gimme a hallelujah and pass the Kool-Aid on that one!
Average wages dropped a penny and the A-15/ U6 unemployment number dropped to 11.8%.
Is it good enough for Wall St.? Heck yes…futures are up 75 on the Dow.
Attention Spy Agencies
China’s rubbing your nose in it: Not only do they have interesting sat-photos of Mount Ontake popping off in Japan, but they also have a quick way to get images through administrative channels.
Japanese media report 60+ dead now from that eruption.
What’s a War-Free Bombing?
A fine question people in Oztralia might want to ask PM Tony Abbott as Oz has decided to bomb in Iraq.
The real deal: ISIS is nearly ready to launch an attack on Baghdad and the only way to stop that will be what? Boots on the ground.
Of course that would be war and the creepy congressoids have been neutered, so no telling how ugly this will get.