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October 17th, 2014
09:54 PM ET
Belize rejects possible Ebola patient
Wolf Blitzer talks to the State Department spokeswoman, Marie Harf, about Belize rejecting a possible Ebola patient in their country.
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Post by: Filed under: Ebola • Health • International affairs • Marie Harf • State Department • Wolf Blitzer |
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I applaud Belize government for caring about its citizens, unlike the US government. For about nine months I have been considering moving to Belize from Georgia where my family has lived for eight generations. My concern for the government corruption of America has turned to white hot hatred. I feel as if I am fleeing America just as people fled the Nazis in Europe and my forefathers fled religious persecution in England in the 1600s. Hope to be moved to Belize by February. So sad to be leaving the country I once loved, but am so excited about your beautiful country – almost paradise!
Belize is not remotely equipped to deal with a situation like Ebola, if something were to go wrong, such as the Texas hospital or the clipboard guy. The fact is Belize is not that far from Mexico, who potentially has better means to deal with a situation like Ebola, who was willing to work with the US. I am sure there are hospitals in the US who refused to take on the nurses from Texas, not because they are heartless but because they know they are not equipped to take on the challenge.
If the country chose to not bite off more than they can chew, is not an act of selfishness but instead, a humble way to say they cannot. If something were to go wrong in Belize, how much would the US invest in sending drugs and equipment to the country?
Belize is a small country with a population of about 310,00 people and is about the size of Massachusetts. It is an extremely poor country that is often out of the simplest medications that people in the U.S. take for granted. Simple antibiotics like penicillin.We know nothing about protective clothes, we have no isolation room set up. We are lucky if we see a Doctor after waiting hours with everyone else that is sick. We simply were not equipped to help the U.S. out. Stop saying you are disappointed unless you are in the other countries shoes. How sad that you are making Beliize look like we did not want to help when in reality we could not help to insure our own peoples safety. Shame on you
Well as we Belizeans would say...dat da lone rass...why should be put our citizens in danger when even here in the US we cannot seem to contain or even at this point show how either of these nurses contracted ebola? If the CDC cannot figure it out, how in the world will my small, little homeland be able to figure out and contain this. I am proud of our government for standing their ground and saying "no" loudly and clearly.
Marie Harf, our government made a decision BASED ON INFORMATION AND SCIENCE. If your very own people can't control their health workers from being contaminated (with full body suits and advance equipment) then, how do you expect my third world country (which is a jewel) to handle this situation. Then you mention procedure...so tell me what went wrong with your procedure that has contaminated two of your workers? And possibly a third. Also, We have limited resources! We can't put our people at risk for one person. We did a decision for the greater good of OUR PEOPLE!! And if you can't understand that, then your intelligence is at question.
Dissapointed in Belize...... Here Wolf and State Department lady, hold on to this grenade for me. It doesn't have the pin on but if you just hold the lever down nothing will happen. I'll go get the pin and bring it back tomorrow. I think that before we go passing judgement on a country, we must consider many variables including cultural differences and economics. Take a look at how much resources the US is throwing towards protecting its people from Ebola. Compare that to a country like Belize whose GDP is about ten thousand times less that of the US and you would see why a country would not want to take an chances with Ebola, no matter who minute the chances of something going wrong are. Go ahead hold the grenade for a bit.