Althouse: This is America.

October 12, 2014

This is America.

The dog lives.

31 comments:

Tyrone Slothrop said...: I hope the dog is being tested for Ebola. We have to know if it's safe to eat him.; 10/12/14, 6:38 PM
Fen said...: Uh-huh. That may have less to do with American values and more with the general incompetence of the CDC and the Obama administration.

If Ebola decide dogs make a wonderful host, we'll have generations of Ebola mutations swapping back and forth between humans and canines.

Might as well play Russian routlette.; 10/12/14, 6:41 PM
Megthered said...: Why evaluate the dog to see why they don't get the disease. It should be quarantined but not killed.; 10/12/14, 6:58 PM
Beth B said...: Seems to me, if you want people to trust and cooperate with governmental agencies in a crisis, it's probably a good idea to not immediately start euthanizing pets. There will be a whole lot less hesitation, hiding, and lying if people aren't afraid they risk their dogs being killed if they go to the hospital.

The government needs to tread very softly with the public if they want to avoid a panic and engender confidence. I also can't help but think that science could learn a whole lot more from a living quarantined dog than from the ashes of a dead one.; 10/12/14, 7:21 PM
Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...: Fen said...
That may have less to do with American values and more with the general incompetence of the CDC and the Obama administration.

I think that should read, incompetence of the Texas hospital. It is not that hard to contain this disease, if procedures are followed correctly. It is a very deadly disease, not a particularly contagious one.; 10/12/14, 7:47 PM
The Crack Emcee said...: The dog lives.

While people die like dogs and are ridiculed.

Strange country,...; 10/12/14, 7:48 PM
roger said...: " There were no immediate details on the name or type of dog. "

Well obviously it is a white European type of dog, who (which) needs to checks his (her)(it's) (or is it its) privilege.; 10/12/14, 7:52 PM
Diogenes of Sinope said...: They need to identify the person with Ebola so those who came in contact with her are aware.; 10/12/14, 8:01 PM
Titus said...: I have traveled all over the world (because I am fab) and the rest of the world has a different persepective on dogs than us.

Even in the U.S the value of a dog is different.

All the rescues in the Northeast, come from the South-natch.

The South has shitty dog owners.

New England loves and respects the dog.

tits.; 10/12/14, 8:03 PM
traditionalguy said...: Go Dogs!; 10/12/14, 8:14 PM
jimbino said...: Owning a dog has always been affront to the interests of your neighbors in so many ways: barking, shit everywhere and zoonoses. Only breeding kids is more offensive in this crowded world so short of resources and lebensraum, with ever-vanishing species.

True animal lovers don't own dogs any more than they own elephants.

Spending taxpayer money to take care of a dog is doubly affronting. I hope the Ebola patient, or the patient's estate, is presented with the large bill for medical and quarantine services!; 10/12/14, 8:26 PM
Meade said...: jimbino said...
"Owning a dog has always been affront to the interests of your neighbors in so many ways: barking, shit everywhere and zoonoses."

You need to find better neighbors with better dogs. My neighbors' dogs bark only when they should. They help keep the neighborhood safe.; 10/12/14, 8:58 PM
Big Mike said...: We don't know that Ebola can be carried by dogs, therefore it can't be carried by dogs.

Thus speaks the CDC.; 10/12/14, 9:15 PM
sojerofgod said...: jimbino; obviously not a dog lover.
Also obviously a city-boy.; 10/12/14, 9:26 PM
sojerofgod said...: OTOH, Personally I have no problem euthanizing a dog if it is a potential carrier of disease. But... has that been even asserted by any government with a smidgen of credibility? If dogs can carry Ebola and not contract the disease, how do they spread it if, as our sainted CDC insists, the disease is only spread via body fluids once the disease presents with symptoms? I know dogs and man are different, but disease vectors are generally not that different for the same pathogen.
Who's foolin' who here?; 10/12/14, 9:29 PM
Anonymous said...: Send the dog to North Korea.; 10/12/14, 9:40 PM
David said...: Sounds like the dog lives only if the human owner lives. If not all bets are off, doggie. Plus any doggie coughs or doggie fever and you are doggie toast.; 10/12/14, 9:49 PM
MaxedOutMama said...: We do know that dogs get the virus (because they develop antibodies) and it is possible they may transmit it:
http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/11/3/pdfs/04-0981.pdf

Dogs have been a suspected vector, and the paper explains why.

Not getting sick from it may be as simple as their higher body temperature. A zoonotic (transfers from environmental sources to humans) infection is a threat, and so unless the dog is later proven virus-free by testing, the dog could not be permitted back out of a lab environment in the US, because you cannot take the risk of the dog passing the virus on to other dogs or other animals in the environment.

Sometimes life really sucks, but that doesn't mean we are entitled to ignore scientific evidence like this.

Human beings who have asymptomatic Ebola infections can infect others, but only under limited circumstances. It is very possible that a dog may transiently catch the virus, shed it, and then clear it.; 10/12/14, 9:49 PM
rcocean said...: "Strange country,..."

Crack,

The USA and France seem to have bad for you. I'd suggest Liberia or Hati. No racism there.; 10/12/14, 10:00 PM
rcocean said...: Jimbino is obviously a Commie. All real American love dogs.; 10/12/14, 10:02 PM
Clark said...: Jimbino, I wasn't particularly offended by the dog comment. To each his own. The comment about children demonstrated so much stupidity that I can't help but suggest a solution: think globally, act locally, kill yourself.; 10/12/14, 10:11 PM
JPS said...: Jimbino,

"Only breeding kids is more offensive in this crowded world so short of resources and lebensraum, with ever-vanishing species."

Breeding kids? That's sick!; 10/12/14, 10:54 PM
The Crack Emcee said...: rcocean,

"Crack,

The USA and France seem to have bad for you. I'd suggest Liberia or Hati. No racism there."

No, just places whites have already destroyed.

How generous of you,...; 10/12/14, 11:58 PM
Jaq said...: Wow, jimbino and Crack in the same thread. Call Beowulf, it's a troll's nest!; 10/13/14, 5:54 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "All the rescues in the Northeast, come from the South-natch."

Puppy mill dogs, laundered through self-love. How nice for you! So fluffy, your little Fluffy.; 10/13/14, 7:52 AM
tim maguire said...: The Crack Emcee said...
The dog lives.

While people die like dogs and are ridiculed.

Strange country,...

Kill the dog. Because racism.

Thanks Crack.; 10/13/14, 8:35 AM
Peter said...: It seems to me that Patient One in the USA, Thomas Eric Duncan, could have been quarantined along with all those who came in direct contact with him, for at least a few weeks until he either died or recovered?

Yes, CDC would need to find volunteers to go into quarantine with him, but (esp. if there are some incentives) that seems doable?

And Saturday's (?) Journal-Sentinel has a photo of two young men in an airport, fresh off their flight from Liberia.

It's true that in general people tend to over-react to low probability, high negative consequence events but here there seems to be under-reaction.

Perhaps the probability of spread into the community in the USA is still low, but the potential for harm is immense and the risk surely isn't zero. Is there any excuse for not keeping that probability as low as possible, consistent with humane treatment? If so, what could it possibly be?; 10/13/14, 8:38 AM
Paul said...: Yup...this is America, where a dog's life is more valuable than that of an unborn child...; 10/13/14, 8:49 AM
Alexander said...: Africans coming to America, pass on Ebola to Americans.

Whites racist for not killing dog.

I'm impressed by how highly Crack really thinks of white people. And make no mistake: if white people were even a fraction as evil, brutal, and remorseless as Crack pretends they are, Crack would look at the situation of an African bringing an infectious pandemic to the United States and consider what the locals' reaction would be. Afterall, how would you deal with a any-excuse-for-a-genocide population if there was a risk that someone who looked a lot more like you than like then led to one...two...twenty...a thousand of theirs dying painfully in a pool of their own blood-stained vomit.

My guess is you'd get out of dodge. But of course, Crack thinks we're actually a restrained and civilized folk, and unlike say, our friends in Missouri, are capable of cause-and-effect such that we won't go around indiscriminately torching homes just because a dark face peeks out the window.; 10/13/14, 9:06 AM
Anonymous said...: That crackhead guy got in with the predictable comment before I could. Poor me.

Anyway, here's my audacious comment, hope you like it....

"Save the dog's life, let the black man die like a dog.

Goddamn America!"; 10/13/14, 11:43 AM
dbp said...: "" There were no immediate details on the name or type of dog. ""

Update: Nina Pham

It would take a hard heart to kill a Blenheim Cavalier.; 10/14/14, 10:56 AM