Claim: The Feds/CDC are "disappearing" Ebola patients across the US.

[occams rusty scissor]

The latest panic re Ebola is propagating through the CT webs at the moment, largely thanks to Infowars dropping this "bombshell" http://www.infowars.com/doctor-feds-disappearing-suspected-ebola-patients-across-u-s/.

Essentially, the story claims that a Dr James Lawrenzi, who is a family GP and NOT a virologist, Ebola specialist or consultant to the CDC etc. (on any of the info that I can find on him), states he was told by another Doctor that a patient with Ebola like symptoms came into a hospital only to 'disappear' the next day. The following day another patient with similar symptoms was admitted to hospital but 'disappeared' in similar fashion.

The good Doctor then deduces from this that:

“These patients are disappearing, they’re doing something with the patients and God knows where they’re going,” said the doctor.

Asked why authorities were engaged in an apparent cover-up, Lawrenzi speculated that the CDC was attempting to prevent hysteria, noting that workers at his own clinics had been told not to use the word “Ebola,” just as 911 dispatchers in New York have been banned from using the term, or to reveal any information about a possible Ebola case.

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There is also a video interview with said Dr and AJ on the link above which, to be fair, I haven't been able to view yet due to internet issues.

The story pretty much debunks itself as it openly mentions that Lawrenzi didn't see this with his own eyes, merely heard it from 'another doctor' who is not named. It then also states that the two patients had been diagnosed with Malaria and Typhoid before stating hospitals are trying to reduce hysteria about Ebola. Reading between the lines, it appears the Doctor wants his 15 minutes of fame.

My issue with this story, and reason for opening the thread, is that the story then goes on to say:

“When flu season hits, people are going to be coming into the hospital for flu or Ebola, they’re not going to know what they have….it’s going to be a nightmare, every doctor I’ve spoken with is terrified of this fall,” said Lawrenzi.

“They’re preparing for something,” he added, speculating that the endgame could be medical martial law or the Obama administration’s complete takeover of the medical system.

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and that this type of story could actually scare people into to not going to hospital for treatment of severe illness in case they are 'disappeared' for having "Ebola like symptoms". At best, it's a pointless lie to grab attention, at worst it's irresponsible and could cost lives.

 

[deirdre]

hmm.. IF the third hand story is true, perhaps they were sent here

A team of specially trained volunteers at the University of Kansas Hospital was created in July in handling the virus. http://www.ksla.com/story/26734234/university-of-kansas-hospital-increase-ebola-preparedness

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sounds like this hospital had 2 very reported 'possible cases' in the right time frame.

the second patient:

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — A man who was admitted Monday to the University of Kansas Hospital suffering from diarrhea and who worked recently near Africa's west coast does not have Ebola, the hospital said Tuesday afternoon.
.................
The patient, who is in his 40s.................

Norman said the patient, who probably has a tropical disease such as typhus, is showing improvement. http://www.khi.org/news/2014/oct/14/ku-hospital-patient-admitted-monday-does-not-have-/

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and the first patient:

The case is the second time a patient has been tested for possible Ebola at KU Hospital. About seven weeks ago, a 23-year-old man who had been in Sierra Leone in Western Africa showed up at the hospital worried that he had Ebola. That man had experienced brutal chills, fever and muscle aches, all symptoms of Ebola. But tests showed he had a severe bout of malaria and never had Ebola. http://www.kansas.com/news/state/article2713390.html

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[Pete Tar]

At best, it's a pointless lie to grab attention, at worst it's irresponsible and could cost lives.

And is precisely the sort of fear that led to the ebola outbreak being worse than it could have been if people didn't have superstitious fear of hospitals.
That doctor should be severely reprimanded for spreading this.

 

[occams rusty scissor]

And is precisely the sort of fear that led to the ebola outbreak being worse than it could have been if people didn't have superstitious fear of hospitals.
That doctor should be severely reprimanded for spreading this.

My thoughts exactly - someone in his position should know better. And I'm willing to bet that since Deirdre was able to track down that info so quickly, using open sources, that it wouldn't have been too much of a stretch for the dr to make his own internal enquiries and quickly find the answer.

 

[Bill]

At best, it's a pointless lie to grab attention, at worst it's irresponsible and could cost lives.

When has that ever been a concern of Infowars or its ilk?

 

[Hevach]

hmm.. IF the third hand story is true, perhaps they were sent here

This does seem pretty reasonable - a possible case was moved from Saginaw to another hosptial, and very little information was provided to the media. They later released a statement that the patient had ebola-like symptoms and was that were later determined to be dysentery, and while the local hospital is prepared to deal with an ebola patient, doing so ties up too much of their isolation capacity and they then can't take in immunocompromised patients. They'd decided that an ebola patient would be more likely to survive transport than an immunocompromised one and bounced him somewhere.

With a certain level of emergency, they can do this without consent from the patient or prior notification to the family, so there can be a difficult encounter when the family finds out the wrong way.


I just have to say, "ebola-like symptoms" is just an awful term. Before the whole bleeding-from-every-pore starts, it's aches, fever, chills, upper respiratory symptoms, and diarrhea. Those things are basically symptoms of EVERYTHING, because a lot of them aren't even caused by the diseases but your body going haywire while reacting to them.

Just on this page, I see typhus, malaria, "or other tropical diseases," and dysentery. From the ebola thread I heard food poisoning and flu have caused ebola scares. Everything from AIDS to Taco Bell causes aches, fever, chills, UR, and diarrhea.

 

[occams rusty scissor]

When has that ever been a concern of Infowars or its ilk?

Very true, I just see this from as being more harmful than their normal CT stuff which is relatively harmless fantasy. Creating the belief that if you show up to hospital looking a bit Ebola-ish May equate to your "disappearance" may prevent someone with potentially life threatening illness from seeking treatment.

Especially, as Hevach points out, given that just about everything can make a person look like an Ebola case.

 

[occams rusty scissor]

This does seem pretty reasonable - a possible case was moved from Saginaw to another hosptial, and very little information was provided to the media. They later released a statement that the patient had ebola-like symptoms and was that were later determined to be dysentery, and while the local hospital is prepared to deal with an ebola patient, doing so ties up too much of their isolation capacity and they then can't take in immunocompromised patients. They'd decided that an ebola patient would be more likely to survive transport than an immunocompromised one and bounced him somewhere.

With a certain level of emergency, they can do this without consent from the patient or prior notification to the family, so there can be a difficult encounter when the family finds out the wrong way.

Yep, completely get that it would be reasonable for a hospital to do that. Which I guess is kind of the point- IW/AJ have done what they do best and gone with 2+2=5.

Slightly off topic but I found it ironic that there was another story on the site that same day re the accidental use of the emergency broadcast system, which IW criticised:

How sensible is it that the feds ‘mistakenly’ sent out an emergency alert – potentially causing panic – amidst national concerns about the Ebola outbreak in the United States?

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Yeah, how dare they cause needless panic about Ebola!

 

[E**]

Right at the end of the interview Dr. Lawrenci mentions Colloidal silver. I thought about posting this myself but not much to really debunk since it's just typical Alex Jones sensationalism. It's comical watching Alex hem and haw for hours pretending like he's in agony over this info, repeating the same thing over and over "I know another well known prominent doctor--with a lab coat and everything!--who also confided this info to me but he won't come on my show, just take my word for it"

It's all second hand info as usual.

 

[occams rusty scissor]

Right at the end of the interview Dr. Lawrenci mentions Colloidal silver. I thought about posting this myself but not much to really debunk since it's just typical Alex Jones sensationalism. It's comical watching Alex hem and haw for hours pretending like he's in agony over this info, repeating the same thing over and over "I know another well known prominent doctor--with a lab coat and everything!--who also confided this info to me but he won't come on my show, just take my word for it"

It's all second hand info as usual.

Interesting - I don't know of a lot of drs these days who hold much faith in colloidal silver as a cure all, especially for Ebola. Maybe mixing it with snake oil makes it more effective?

 

[Bill]

"I know another well known prominent doctor--with a lab coat and everything!--who also confided this info to me but he won't come on my show, just take my word for it"

It's all second hand info as usual.

Prominent Doctor, by the journalistic standards of Infowars, could just mean he stands out from the other doctors by saying really stupid things and the lab coat could have really long arms with buckles to keep the Prominent Doctor from hurting himself and others.

 

[E**]

Interesting - I don't know of a lot of drs these days who hold much faith in colloidal silver as a cure all, especially for Ebola. Maybe mixing it with snake oil makes it more effective?

What I thought was sneaky is Lawrency didn't claim Collodial silver cured ebola he just said something like to stock up on it. Considering he mainly specializes in the skin and muscles and Collodial silver does have some limited effects in vitro I wonder if he sells any at his clinic as ointment or something.