Is Ebola the Black Death of our time?, is it already out of control?

Honestly, I'm beginning to worry quite a bit as the epidemic spreads from Far West Africa to Nigeria and now also to the Persian Gulf (a woman in Dubai on her way to India, reported today by RIA) and very possibly Albania (where the victims arrived from Eritrea via Greece and surely other countries). Whatever the possible experimental treatments, the infection is pretty much deadly and physicians and other healthcare workers are getting infected even with all precautions, suggesting that transmission of this clade of ebola is much more likely than what was known before. 

How did the epidemic begin?

Nobody knows. There was never before any Ebola in West Africa before nor there has ever been so many people infected in such a short time. All this, together with the "Ebola attack" slip of some US undersecretary-or-something, the past reports of the Trilateral Commission having debated genocide in Africa (or just in general for the World's poor), and the suspicious existence of an "experimental" effective medicine in the USA (necessary for any biological attack to be under control by the attacker), has fueled rumors and speculations about the epidemic being engineered (and then of course all eyes look to Washington, where else?)

The main counter-evidence is that the epidemic has begun in two West African states that have very close ties with Washington (both freed slaves' colonies). Also at the moment there is no conclusive evidence, so I remain agnostic. 

Whatever the case the epidemic is clearly unprecedented. And is spreading fast. With such a virulence it could not be otherwise in our hyper-globalized World. If in much less interconnected and massified historical circumstances highly virulent epidemics spread massively, for example the Black Death, today anything comparable has to spread without any possible effective barrier.

There's nothing that can stop Chaos. Order and safety are just illusions. 

Liberian authorities facilitated the spread to Nigeria

The vector of the transmission was Patrick Sawyer, a US-Liberian citizen with status of consultant at the Liberian Ministry of Finances. The Liberian authorities knew that he was infected with the ebola virus but cleared him for travel anyway (→ Global Research). 

Sawyer planned to fly back to Minnesota (USA) after stopping in Lagos but he never made it. He could well have brought the virus to North America. But worry, yes, because if not now and if not him, someone else will eventually. 

Whatever the case the scandal of Sawyer's clearance by the Liberian Deputy Minister of Finance, Sebastian Omar (pictured), who has shown no repentance whatsoever (→ Daily Post of Nigeria), has shattered African media, but remained censored in the Western propaganda machinery. 

Nigerian authorities have blamed Sawyer but they have so far avoided to blame the actual culprits: the Liberian Government. 

And Lagos, the largest African city, is a global crossroads from where the epidemic no doubt will spread to other countries and continents. Kenya has already suspended all entrances from the three affected countries: Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria. This is no doubt a necessary safety measure but let's think about the economic implications: as the epidemic spreads from place to place, more and more countries will become liable to such preventive measures. Of course in practical terms it is almost certainly impossible to fully control the global migration of the virus but authorities will reasonably try to implement such quarantine measures, what will hinder the economy and even possibly strain diplomatic relations. 

Most dramatic forecast as the epidemic becomes a global pandemic

In any case, there's no way to stop it if the virus transmission is partly airborne, as seems to be the case (→ Public Health Agency of Canada), airports and airplanes will behave as main contagion nexuses and soon the epidemic will arrive to some place near where you live. In the worst case, it may well kill the vast majority of Humankind. But, even if it does not, even if there is some sort of effective or partly effective remedy that may keep the pandemic under control (particularly for the rich most likely), the social and economic reality of Late Capitalism will be dramatically altered. 

At the very least border controls will be dramatically incremented (and fascist xenophobic trends will be fed by the very natural feeling of panic) and global traveling "normality" will be put under very strict controls. Forget about holidays anywhere far away, forget about intercontinental business traveling, forget even about customs union... when an epidemic like this one sets on, every other person is a potential threat. But, then again, if you are the one infected, you may want to avoid responsibility and pretend to be healthy because otherwise you know you will be effectively imprisoned in maximum security hospital room (or similar). Without any hope of effective treatment and with the effective reality of stigmatization of the rare survivors already happening, for many attempting to go through it on their own biological resistance (or hopes of it) may be extremely tempting. 

This was no doubt the case of Patrick Sawyer. But there will be many others like him. And surely there will be many others like Omar who don't assume their responsibilities and allow the epidemic to spread knowingly. 

The more interconnected a city is, the more likely that ebola will reach it soon. And then it will act as vortex for further spread. Hardly any conceivable extreme precaution will be enough.

And each precautionary step taken will hinder the globalized economy, triggering all other sorts of social ills. This is the kind of positive feedback that cannot really be brought under control, not in any way I can imagine: it is damned if you do, damned if you don't. One way you harm the economy and only have a slim chance of preventing the propagation of the pandemic, the other way you favor the pandemic, what no doubt will cost dearly to the economy as well.

 


Update:

I forgot to mention but Guinea is also affected and has declared the State of Emergency, following the initiative taken by Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Allegedly the Nigerian sprout seems under control - but who knows?

Another European case has been possibly detected in Alicante (Valencian Country): an immigrant from Nigeria was put under Ebola protocol in a hospital, as well as his sister, who brought him there (although she shows no symptoms).

Sources[es]: Webguerrillero, Russia Today.