The Ebola "conspiracy"

Ebola is loose and conspiracy theorists are having quite a time with it.

Not that it takes much to set them off, but you know what I mean.

Well where to start? First off, I've read a theory that Ebola has actually been turned into a bioweapon. Agents of the United States government, long ago so the theory posits, took a vial of blood from an Ebola patient and set about manufacturing a weapon from it. That's just for starters.

Epoch Times reports other theories from conservative "thinker" (as he is called on the site) Allen West, a guy named Dave Mihalovic who writes at a site called Prevent Disease, and then even conspiracy whackjob theorist, Alex Jones weighs in on the matter. West urges the American citizenry to call for the President to investigate any potential link between Ebola and the scores of immigrant children who appeared on our southern border this past summer. “We need to analyze and assess if there is a connection between this respiratory illness — and ensuing paralysis — with the recent dispersion of illegal alien children to the area,” he writes.

Funny thing though, Al. If you are infected with Ebola, you don't do a whole lot of walking around once you're showing symptoms. All of the children of which you speak walked here. If you recall, those patients infected with Ebola who did show up here in the United States got here by plane. Add to that the fact that there are no cases of the virus in Mexico and Central America...points of origin for the refugee children in question...and it becomes highly unlikely that they had anything to do with the outbreak. Moving on.

Mihalovic casts a skeptical eye on the fact that an Ebola vaccine has been produced so quickly. "It typically takes several years from the point of initial vaccine development to human clinical trials, a process which the manufacturers claim is being done in weeks and months. The only way it would have been possible was through years of planning and procurement," he says. While I don't have a problem with drug companies coming up with an azoth so quickly (in fact, it's essentially a good thing), the motive of profit doesn't let me dismiss Mihalovic so quickly. With the media frenzy around the outbreak and such poorly informed people (shades of the early days of HIV), I can see a big push for people to "get their vaccinations...for a small fee of course."

The aforementioned Alex Jones sees the outbreak as...what else?...a "false flag operation" that is a prelude to martial law. Of course. The government's been planning it for years. Let's take a look.




I'm just going to let that settle in with you for a moment.

Others still wonder about the timing of this whole outbreak and its arrival, albeit in a limited form, on our shores. A man just recently broke into the White House and penetrated further into the building than he had should have. Come to think of it, he wasn't supposed to get past the fence. This has caused members of the African American community to call into question just how carefully the first black president of the U.S. is being guarded.  The U.S. is currently engaged in military operations against ISIS, a ruthless terrorist organization that was kicked out of al Qaeda for being "too extreme." Now, a man has returned from Liberia infected with Ebola, somehow getting through all health screening protocols at the airport.

Were one of the paranoid variety, you might think that we are being tested. Probed for the weaknesses in our security apparati. "How far can you get into the White House before they stop you? Can an infected individual make it into the United States through airport security and become a walking bioweapon?" Perhaps.

Yet most conspiracy theories seldom make it past the test of Occam's Razor. What is more deadly, to my way of thinking at any rate, is ignorance. We are already beginning to see borderline panic and irrational assertions. One GOP member tweeted something to the effect that once an individual is diagnosed with Ebola, the action should be "humane execution" and immediate sterilization of the affected area. "That will save lives" he says.

Yes. Very reminiscent of the nascent days of HIV.

Have you handled the saliva, blood, feces, mucus, or any other bodily fluid of someone with Ebola? Then no. You don't have Ebola.

Thankfully, conspiracy theories are just that. In the meantime, the United States and especially Africa have far more serious...and deadly...matters to deal with.


 

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