The Washington Post misses the most important lesson of Ebola and AIDS and gonorrhea and the like — stupid people do stupid things and the more stupid people you let into your country, the more stupid the results.<\/p>\n
WP reports<\/a>:<\/p>\n \nA year after it began, the Ebola epidemic in West Africa continues to be unpredictable, forcing governments and aid groups to improvise strategies as they chase a virus that is unencumbered by borders or bureaucracy.<\/p>\n The people fighting Ebola are coming up with lists of lessons learned \u2014 not only for the current battle, which has killed more than 7,500 people and is far from over, but also for future outbreaks of deadly contagions.<\/p>\n Many of the lessons are surprising and specific \u2014 the color of body bags turns out to be important, as does the design of Ebola clinics. The most common-sense lesson is that all Ebola is local; solutions can\u2019t be dictated from Geneva or New York.<\/p>\n The broader and more ominous lesson is that global health organizations aren\u2019t ready for a pandemic. There are countless conferences, reports and carefully wrought strategies for stopping epidemics, but this terrible year has demonstrated how hard it is to get resources \u2014 even something as simple as bars of soap and buckets of bleach \u2014 to vulnerable people on the front line of an explosive disease outbreak.<\/p>\n * LESSON: Rely on the local leadership<\/p>\n * LESSON: Be sensitive to peoples\u2019 cultures<\/p>\n * LESSON: Simple changes can yield significant results<\/p>\n * LESSON: Speed and agility matter more than size<\/p>\n * LESSON: We\u2019re all connected \u2014 and unprepared for the consequences<\/p>\n * LESSON: An ounce of prevention<\/p>\n * LESSON: Keep fear in check<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Dr. Linda Gottfredson wrote about the correlation<\/a> of IQ with early death.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Washington Post misses the most important lesson of Ebola and AIDS and gonorrhea and the like — stupid people do stupid things and the more stupid people you let into your country, the more stupid the results. WP reports: … Continue reading