Could Ebola become Obama’s Katrina?

If the Ebola “crisis” explodes and spreads to the U.S., as some people fear, will it produce the same kind of political backlash that Hurricane Katrina had on the final years of the George W. Bush administration?

Although totally different — one an act of nature, the other a deadly virus with a very high mortality rate — the way they are handled (or not) is critical. And subject to interpretation.

Then, as now, critics of both presidents say they appeared clueless at first, then acted too slowly. Bush was blamed for not understanding the magnitude of the hurricane that slammed into New Orleans and other Gulf Coast cities. Obama is being blamed by some for not moving quickly enough, and for not barring travelers from West Africa from coming to the U.S. He’s also taken flak for naming a political operative — a former aide to Vice President Joe Biden — as the Ebola Czar.

The Ebola scare criticism isn’t directed at the President alone. Texas governor Rick Perry (a potential 2016 presidential contender) has taken heat for leaving for Europe the day a Dallas nurse, who cared for a Liberian visitor who died in hospital, was sent to the National Institutes of Health for monitoring.

Following Katrina, backers of the President said the public didn’t understand the magnitude of a once-in-a-lifetime hurricane hitting a below-level, unprepared city.

Supporters of President Barack Obama, including many key medical types, say that a White House insider with political chops is the ideal person to coordinate the anti-Ebola effort. They also say channeling visitors from West Africa through five U.S. airports — rather than banning them from the country — makes it easier to track them in this country.

So what do people inside the government think about what the government is doing? As expected, opinion is divided:

• An employee of the National Institutes of Health said this:

  If all of the hospitals could have a “granny pad” or M*A*S*H Unit set-up in the hospitals’ parking lots, more “business-as-usual” could continue on without the possibility of infecting patients in the hospital.” He said that the hospital closest to the NIH campus “has a minimum protocol” and no agreement with the NIH. He also said it was a disappointment that the new Ebola Czar is not a medical professional.

• A retired, but still very active fed had this comment:

  “This is getting some ‘legs’ and it is possible we ain’t seen nothing yet. The big problem will be if panic sets in (people keeping their kids home from school, refusing to ride subways, etc.).

  “And we still aren’t getting what I would call authoritative info on exactly what bodily fluids in exactly what concentrations, etc., make one vulnerable. This is not a respiratory disease, so nothing like as transmittable as the flu, but will people sit or stand calmly in a bus or train or plane while others around them sneeze?

  “Let’s just hope with fingers crossed that ISIS/ISIL stays home.” — W. F.

• “With all the Ebola hysteria and media misinformation, what are they doing about flu and shingles? More people get sick from or die of those two conditions than Ebola. Shouldn’t more attention be paid to them?” — Ashton

NEARLY USELESS FACTOID:

By Michael O’Connell

Bing Crosby narrated the 1949 Disney animated adaptation of Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.”

Source: Disney Wikia

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