Does this mean we are all going to die soon?

[Virge]

Ray was right about Ebola being no stranger in the US.

Then Mike mentioned that anytime lips of an agent for the government are moving part of what they say is a lie. What Mike should have added to that is if those lips are moving about a crisis of any sort --- from a president accused of crimes to an outbreak of a disease to planes crashing into buildings half the crap they spout off is made up to soothe the fears of people who will believe anything as long as it sounds good. It's worth keeping in mind that the federal government is at least three time less efficient and effective in anything it tries to manage than state governments who are less effective and efficient than local city/county governments. If there's a serious ebola crisis in the US there will many states and local governments telling the feds to get the F**k out of the way. That's what my dad was talking about --- telling Ray and I that people here are already talking about it and that we might as well go ahead and stock up on supplies in case that happens.

You ought to be more concerned about this group being called ISIS or ISIL. They didn't pop up out of thin air. Ray and I knew about them in 2007 and they were around way before that. US government and our highly honest politicians have been ignoring them up until a few months ago and started off telling us they knew nothing about them until they showed up in Syria. They are lying and we cant trust one word they say about this group.

[Edward]

I'm not afraid. It couldn't be much worse than all the medical things I've already been through.

[LONDONER]

Interestingly the British nurse who contracted Ebola was treated with the experimental drug ZMapp and has now been discharged from hospital. However, it should be borne in mind that ZMapp is at the moment, only produced in small qualtities. It Ebola really does turn in to a pandemic I don't think that the drug could be produced in sufficient quantity.

[Cuddly]

Interestingly the British nurse who contracted Ebola was treated with the experimental drug ZMapp and has now been discharged from hospital. However, it should be borne in mind that ZMapp is at the moment, only produced in small qualtities. It Ebola really does turn in to a pandemic I don't think that the drug could be produced in sufficient quantity.

It's done by pharming, which is basically GMO, where you make something (plant, mice, whatever) express genes inserted into their genome. If I am understanding this and this correctly, they're getting mice and/or tobacco plants (Nicotiana) to create antibodies (which bind to the foreign object, here the ebola virus, with the purpose of identification and elimination by white blood cells). These antibodies (or the genes coding for them?) are then modified to work on us and harvested.
Eventhough pharming is a slower way of creating medicine, it's also very cost efficient, but should there ever be a need, I think we could produce plenty.

[ETOTE]

From what I understand, tobacco is the key ingredient in the production of the drug.
So apparently being a smoker could potentially save your life if you are exposed to the virus.

I like that name...ebola...has a nice ring to it.
If I ever have a daughter, I may name her ebola.

On the other hand, if one is in the know about what's really going on, I do find it quite hilariously ironic the miracle cure for this possible pandemic is found in tobacco and in fact manufactured in part by a commercial tobacco manufacturing company (aka cigarettes).

[sillyboy86]

I'm still not afraid for me or my country, but I'm worried for the populations of West Africa, and I think there's the possibility that Ebola would be a big problem for the "West of the world".

Actually it's funny (pathetic) how they're managing the problem here in Italy. We have hundreds if not thousands of immigrants from Africa every single day, but our government and media are like...Who cares? (And I don't add the racism, but I think there's more than a bit of racism around the whole situation..) And at the same time I follow the BBC etc...
Italy --> Meanwhile in the serious countries...

[Iceblink]

I do not spend a great time worrying about things like this. There have been many incidents in our world, even long before time of of any of us that are now living, that could have taken a turn in the wrong direction and brought an end to the world as we know it, in both our own doing and the doing of the forces of nature. If the time comes, it will come and there is nothing I can do it about. I only hope that if the end does come for us, I am one of the first to go and not one of the ones that struggle in extreme hardship, pain, and despair until the end. Maybe I feel this way because of my age and that, while there is a lot in this world I would still like to see, I have seen and experienced enough that I would not be leaving this earth with a feeling of a life unfilled.

One thing to remember about many of the world-ending scenarios we talk about, some like a comet or a nuclear war could possibly wipe us all from the face of earth, some others like a horrible pandemic or a complete economic collapse could kill off almost everyone in the world, it is likely a few will survive. There are some still living in tribal communities that have little contact with the outside world that would have their day-to-day lives barely effected by an economic collapse in the rest of the world and even a few in the mainstream of the world will crawl out of the doom and survive. In some of the worst diseases to effect the world, there are always some that, for some reason, are routinely exposed to these communicable diseases and just do not get them. Many of the possible world-ending scenarios will not end the world, but will end the world as we know it, but I am fairly certain that new world is something I would not want to be a part of.

[Cuddly]

So apparently being a smoker could potentially save your life if you are exposed to the virus.

No.

[ETOTE]

^say hello to my sarcasm

[meridannight]

In some of the worst diseases to effect the world, there are always some that, for some reason, are routinely exposed to these communicable diseases and just do not get them.

well, it's not ''just don't get them''. there's a physical reason why some individuals don't contract some diseases when coming into contact with them. for example, it is thought that some people in Europe survived the smallpox due to a genetic mutation they had. this is the same mutation that now renders some individuals resistant to certain strains of HIV. physiologically it is a mutation in a chemokine receptor protein gene that ultimately prevents HIV virus from entering the cell. if it can't enter the cell it can't replicate, can't survive in the body. those who are homozygous for this mutation are highly resistant to certain strains of HIV.

nobody is resistant or immune to everything though. but yeah, it takes a lot more than that to wipe out the human race.