After weeks of happy talking the American people with patronizing and arrogant reassurances, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is now dealing with a potential nightmare scenario after it was revealed Wednesday that the day prior to being diagnosed, an Ebola patient flew on a passenger plane with 132 passengers.
The CDC has announced that the second healthcare worker diagnosed with Ebola traveled by air Oct. 13, the day before she first reported symptoms.
The CDC is now reaching out to all passengers who flew on Frontier Airlines flight 1143 Cleveland to Dallas/Fort Worth. The flight landed at 8:16 p.m. CT.
The CDC is asking all 132 passengers on the flight to call 1 800-CDC INFO (1 800 232-4636). Public health professionals will begin interviewing passengers about the flight after 1 p.m. ET.
Authorities are reassuring people that the patient exhibited no Ebola symptoms during the flight. They are also reassuring us that Ebola is not an airborne disease. These reassurances came just hours after authorities reassured us that this particular patient, a Dallas nurse who treated the now-deceased Thomas Duncan, lived alone and everyone who had been in contact with her was under watch.
Earlier today, the CDC admitted it had failed to send teams to the outbreak location with the necessary equipment, protocols and procedures to stop further spread of the disease. In other words, the CDC failed at the one basic job Americans expect them to do.
Nurses at the Dallas hospital say they did not have the proper equipment to protect themselves. They also say no protocols were in place to handle infected waste. Now two of then have Ebola and one just flew on a passenger plane.
Where was the CDC?
You could say that this is all reminiscent of a Hollywood thriller, except that in the movies the government is portrayed as competent.
John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC
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