United States

VOICE OF AMERICAN                                                                                           Nov.12, 2012
By Carla Babb
PENTAGON--The U.S. military says it is scaling back its planned Ebola response deployments to West Africa from 4,000 troops to 3,000. 

FILE- Members of the U.S. Department of Defense's Ebola Military Medical Support Team go through special training at San Antonio Military Medical Center.

Major General Gary Volesky, who heads the U.S. military's response to the Ebola outbreak, said in a call to reporters at the Pentagon from Liberia the United States does not need 4,000 troops to fight Ebola in West Africa.  He said the troop total will increase from about 2,200 today to just under 3,000 by mid-December.

"There is a lot of capacity here that we did not know about before, and so that enabled us to reduce the forces that we thought we originally had to bring," said Volesky....

See complete story
http://www.voanews.com/content/us-scales-back-ebola-response-numbers/2518196.html

Link to Defense Department announcement

Like AIDS before it, Ebola Isn't explained clearly by officials

 NEW YORK TIMES                                                                         Nov. 11, 2014

People shun the infected and their contacts; some demand quarantines. Conspiracy theorists contend the virus escaped from government laboratories.

CBS NEWS                                                                                             Nov. 11, 2014

By Jonathan  Berr

About 20,000 nurses walked off the job today in California as part of a two-day series of events across the country organized by National Nurses United. The country's largest such union is aiming to draw attention to what it sees as inadequate preparation at most hospitals to treat Ebola cases.

"Nurses, who have been willing to stand by the patients whether it's the flu, whether it's Ebola, whether it's cancer, are now being asked to put themselves in harm's way unprotected, unguarded," said NNU Executive Director Rose Ann DeMoro, in a statement.

The NNU has targeted Kaiser Permanente, the biggest nonprofit health insurer in the U.S., over what it claims is an "erosion in patient care." The strike affected 86 Kaiser Permanente hospitals and clinics along with two other California hospitals. Another 400 registered nurses in Providence Hospital in Washington, D.C., are set to walk off the job tomorrow.

The organization is demanding that nurses and other care givers who interact with Ebola patients be given full-body hazmat suits that leaves no skin exposed or unprotected, along with air-purifying respirators that meet stringent standards of the National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health.

FORBES MAGAZINE                              NOV. 11, 2014
By Tevi Troy, President, American Health Policy Institute

Ebola has killed over 5,000 people, roiled U.S. hospitals, and shaken the faith of Americans in the government’s ability to respond. At the same time, and below the radar, U.S. companies are responding to Ebola with a variety of steps to protect themselves, their employees, and their operations.

The most important element of communicating the threat of the Ebola outbreak for both the government and corporate leaders is to provide factual information while also preventing panic and fear. There have been 5,000 false alarm cases of Ebola as people flock to U.S. emergency rooms out of fear that their common cold or seasonal flu symptoms are early manifestations of the Ebola virus. This hysteria not only has potential mental and physical health implications, but also economic implications. Fear may incentivize some people to change their behavior, whether through cancelling flights and vacation plans or visiting the doctor and stocking up on medications. Furthermore, treating suspected Ebola patients, even if they don’t pan out, is expensive and labor intensive for hospitals.