ebola crisis – Memphis Flyer

Hey, remember Ebola? The disease that was going to kill us all in the weeks leading up to the November elections? Remember that guy who died in Houston? And that nurse who rode on an airplane, endangering the entire traveling American public? And that other nurse who rode her bike around New York state, infecting millions? Remember Senator Lindsey Graham’s adorable hysterics? Remember how the national media, particularly Fox News, tried to scare the crap out of us, day after day after day? Pay no attention to the experts! Block all air traffic from Africa! Quarantine everybody for 40 days! Thanks to Obama and Harry Reid, we’re all going to die!

Yeah.

Then, like magic, the day after the mid-term elections, the crisis ended. Being something of a cynic, I predicted what would happen in an October 30th column titled, “The Ebola ‘Crisis’ Isn’t.” The usual right-wing commenters took their shots: “When a community organizer president, a lawyer Ebola czar, and the ultra liberal editor of an entertainment weekly tell you there’s nothing to worry about, you can rest assured there’s not.” And, “The Flyer editor’s a doctor now … smart dude!”

No, I’m not a doctor, but I’ll take doctors’ and scientists’ opinions over those of Sean Hannity and various anonymous nuts, any day.

And speaking of nuts … what’s really nuts is what’s about to happen to Tennessee’s health-care system. Earlier this year, Governor Bill Haslam issued a directive to all state department heads to cut their budgets by seven percent. Last Friday, TennCare released its proposed new budget, which slices $165 million in spending. That number actually represents around $400 million in lost revenue, due to the subsequent loss in matching federal spending.

From The Tennessean: “The proposed budget eliminates grants to safety net hospitals, ends funding for programs for babies born with health problems, halts coverage of hospice services, and limits in-home assistance for the elderly to those poor enough to qualify for Supplemental Security Income. Doctors and other health providers would get hit with a 4 percent reimbursement reduction. Other cuts include funding for medicines and mental health services.”

Dave Chaney, a spokesman for the Tennessee Medical Association, said, “For more than 20 years, physicians have accepted very low rates to take care of patients, and the rates keep being cut as the cost of providing care goes up and the program continues to add people and covered services. That’s an unsustainable trend.” No doubt.

And of course, it’s all made even worse by the state’s ideology-driven refusal to participate in any variation of the Affordable Care Act. That foolishness is costing the state millions more in lost, no-risk health-care funding. Unfortunately, there’s no known cure for stupid.

Maybe it would help if we could drum up some Ebola cases in Chattanooga.

“He sounds kinda gay,” I said to my art director.

It was 1985. I was a young magazine editor living in Pittsburgh. I’d just gotten off the phone with a freelance writer who I’d agreed to meet for lunch. I was a liberal-thinking sort of fellow. I had no problem with gay people, though I didn’t know many back then.

“Lewis” and I had agreed to meet at a small restaurant near my office. It was a quiet place, perfect for conversation. I got there first.

Five minutes later, the front door burst open and a tall, thin, animated man came in and surveyed the room. He was wearing a beret and a long black coat. Around his neck was a six-foot-long scarf of many colors. He spotted me across the room and began to work his way through tables of diners, tossing his scarf over his shoulder as he approached. “THERE YOU ARE!” he boomed. “I’m SORRY I’m late! I’ve been running NIPPLES TO THE WIND all day, and I just can’t seem to catch up.” Heads turned, eyes rolled.

It was a hell of an entrance, and it led to a great friendship. I thought about Lewis again this week, as I read the latest fear-mongering news reports about the Ebola “epidemic.” Through my friendship with Lewis, I saw the horrific effects — second-hand, admittedly — of a real epidemic: AIDS. And there is no comparison.

In the 1980s, getting AIDS was a death sentence. And we had a president who didn’t even utter the name of the disease until five years after it had killed tens of thousands of Americans. I watched Lewis undergo the terrifying ritual of getting “the test,” going to the doctor to find out if he would live or die. He was negative, thankfully, but many of his friends were not. Most of them didn’t live more than a year or so. It was a dark and scary time.

Children who were HIV positive were turned away from school. Doctors who treated AIDS patients were shunned. Gay men were treated as pariahs. It took years for Americans to learn to deal with the epidemic in a rational manner. In the U.S. alone, 636,000 people have died from AIDS. World-wide, the death toll is 37 million, and the disease continues to kill. That’s an epidemic.

Ebola is a horrific disease with a 30 percent survival rate. It is ravaging three African countries with sub-standard medical and health facilities. We should be doing all we can to help stop the spread of the disease. But medical experts in the U.S. have assured us repeatedly that we are in no danger of an epidemic here. There have been four cases in the U.S. One person has died. Can we stop with the absurd over-reaction, please?

And can we please stop using the Ebola “crisis” for political gain? (Actually, I suspect much of the furor about Ebola will subside after the November 4th election. Which is a sad commentary, indeed, on the state of our electoral process.)

Yes, Ebola is scary, but we need to get a grip. Those of us of a certain age can remember what a real epidemic looks like. And this ain’t it. Not even close.