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Scientist who discovered Ebola calls rising viral pandemic an ‘unimaginable catastrophe’

scientist-who-discovered-ebola-calls-rising-viral-pandemic-an-unimaginable-catastrophe

The scientist who discovered the Ebola virus in 1976 after a pilot brought him a blood sample from a Belgian nun who had mysteriously fallen ill in Zaire says the disease has pandemic potential and he now fears that the world is on the edge of an "unimaginable catastrophe."

In an interview with Britain's The Guardian newspaper, the scientist, Peter Piot, who was a researcher in a lab in Antwerp when he made his discovery, discussed a number of things related to his discovery, recalling the details with remarkable clarity:

I still remember exactly. One day in September, a pilot from Sabena Airlines brought us a shiny blue Thermos and a letter from a doctor in Kinshasa in what was then Zaire. In the Thermos, he wrote, there was a blood sample from a Belgian nun who had recently fallen ill from a mysterious sickness in Yambuku, a remote village in the northern part of the country. He asked us to test the sample for yellow fever.

When asked how he and his fellow researchers protected themselves from what is a highly contagious disease, Piot said at the time they "had no idea how dangerous" it was. Further, he said there were, at the time, no high-security labs for such work in Belgium.

"We just wore our white lab coats and protective gloves," he said. "When we opened the Thermos, the ice inside had largely melted and one of the vials had broken. Blood and glass shards were floating in the ice water. We fished the other, intact, test tube out of the slop and began examining the blood for pathogens, using the methods that were standard at the time."

'I thought I was infected'

At first, it appears as though Piot and his fellow researchers believed the disease might be yellow fever, but they quickly ascertained that it was not, adding that tests for Lassa fever and typhoid were also negative.

"What, then, could it be? Our hopes were dependent on being able to isolate the virus from the sample," he said.

In order to do that, Piot and his team injected it into mice and lab other lab animals, but for a number of days, nothing happened. The team began to believe that the pathogen, whatever it was, had been damaged by insufficiently cooled temperature inside the Thermos.

"But then one animal after the next began to die. We began to realise that the sample contained something quite deadly," Piot told The Guardian.

Still, Piot and his team continued to work. They received additional blood samples from the nun, who had since died as well, and the virus began to draw more attention.

"When we were just about able to begin examining the virus under an electron microscope, the World Health Organisation instructed us to send all of our samples to a high-security lab in England," he said. "But my boss at the time wanted to bring our work to conclusion no matter what."

I really never thought it could get this bad

Piot said his boss grabbed a vial containing the virus to look at it, but he dropped it on a colleague's foot; the vial shattered, and there was fear that the colleague — and Piot and his team — would become infected. But they didn't.

When Piot's team mapped the virus with the electron microscope, they were baffled.

"The virus that we had spent so much time searching for was very big, very long and worm-like. It had no similarities with yellow fever," he said. "Rather, it looked like the extremely dangerous Marburg virus which, like ebola, causes a haemorrhagic fever. In the 1960s the virus killed several laboratory workers in Marburg, Germany."

At a later date, Piot did come down with some symptoms that he thought might have been related to Ebola — a high fever, headache and some diarrhea — but they cleared up within a day.

Asked if the world has lost control of the outbreak, Piot responded:

I have always been an optimist and I think that we now have no other choice than to try everything, really everything. It's good that the United States and some other countries are finally beginning to help. But Germany or even Belgium, for example, must do a lot more. And it should be clear to all of us: This isn't just an epidemic any more. This is a humanitarian catastrophe. We don't just need care personnel, but also logistics experts, trucks, jeeps and foodstuffs. Such an epidemic can destabilise entire regions. I can only hope that we will be able to get it under control. I really never thought that it could get this bad.

You can read the full interview here.

To learn more about how to prepare for a potential Ebola crisis in the U.S., be sure to check out: BioDefense.com.

Sources:

http://www.theguardian.com
http://www.naturalnews.com
http://toprightnews.com
http://science.naturalnews.com

Written by J.D. Heyes (NaturalNews)

Featured image: CDC director exits Ebola treatment unit, August 27, 2014. Image credit: CDC (via Flickr)

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7 Comments

  1. I think a US Army major, a miltary spokesman, not knowing tghe microphone was still on after giving a press briefing on ebola in Washington, DC two week ago said it best, when he voiced:, “we’re screwed.”

  2. Tom Frieden says other Dallas hospital staff could have been exposed to virus after female employee tests positive for Ebola

    ——————————————————————————–

    Dear Dr. Tom Frieden

    There is more that must be done,

    Wrong quarantine strategy has no chance of defeating Ebola’s epidemiological characteristics.

    The strategy behind the method described shown here overlooks the fact that Ebola is contagious for up to three fever-free weeks from contracting the Ebola viron. The carrier can spread the virus for three weeks followed by the fever and rash after which 50% to 90% have just two more weeks to live. The strategy of quarantining at the first manifestation of fever and then tracing and quarantining everyone who has had contact with that person going back 21 days is impossible. Statistics, probability theory, and economic game theory and derivatives pricing principles are at work here. There are different possible quarantine strategies that can be “played” against Ebola — the one outlined in this video will loose every time given the free movement and mixing that occurs among those not traced as having been in close contact with those manifesting symptoms after 2 to 21 days of being contagious without fever. This is especially true when 150 passengers a day are entering the US from West Africa. Only one Q strategy beats an epidemic to rival the Black Death (in both absolute death terms and proportion-to-population terms) and that is for national quarantine for at least 25 days in which everyone self-quarantines under the assumption that he himself is a carrier and everyone else is a carrier — with public gatherings stopped — school suspended along with concerts, business conventions, church meetings, and so forth. Entry into the US population pool and Exit from it must both be curtailed — trucks of food and essentials, container ships, railroads etc. with rules for drivers and ships crews. government assistance will be necessary to provide purchasing power to people suddenly without income. Of course it would be best if all countries did this at the same time — to minimize the economic disruption to one 21 day period. This is called a Macro Quarantine or a “Universal Quarantine” After the 25 days are over all existing carriers will have manifested their symptoms, been located and quarantined — while the rest of the country, and the rest of other countries will now know which regions are carrier free. The certified carrier-free locations are then free to communicate with other carrier-free locations. This Macro-quarantine strategy does not replace the strategy described above, which is a “micro strategy” but the two must work together. the Macro-strategy addresses the problem of asymptomatic carriers in their first 2 to 21 days of infection; the micro strategy handles carriers one their infection has manifested. With both we have a chance. But if the CDC and other authorities persist in relying on micro-quarantine strategy alone plus vaccination and if the Ebola virus now spreading does indeed have the characteristics reported in medical books and now generally known — then pandemic reducing national and world populations by more than half is highly likely.

    ——————————————————————————–

    The man who died in Dallas was the first person known to have brought in Ebola not as a patient being transported. The Ebola virus was transmitted from him a resident of Dallas. Therefore the known record of Ebola victims carriers who entered the country without symptoms who then transmitted the virus to an American resident is now at 100 percent. Who else have both of these individuals infected and who will they infect?

    The CDC does not ask this question and they ignore it when others ask. They just wait for symptoms, then confine, then trace back to find who that person has been with. With a time period in which someone with the virus can tranmist the disease to others is as long as three weeks the possibilities of infection are stupendous.

    Tell me. Since you are not going to say anything about this danger to anyone, can you at least suggest someone I can talk to to get some action in forcing the government and the private CDC corporation to change their practices.

    Dick Eastman
    Yakima, Washington

  3. From Ghana: Ebola is not real and the only people who have gotten sick are those who have received treatments and injections from the Red Cross
    People in the Western World need to know what’s happening here in West Africa. THEY ARE LYING!!! “Ebola” as a virus does NOT Exist and is NOT “Spread”. The Red Cross has brought a disease to 4 specific countries for 4 specific reasons and it is only contracted by those who receive treatments and injections from the Red Cross. That is why Liberians and Nigerians have begun kicking the Red Cross out of their countries and reporting in the news the truth. Now bear with me:

    REASONS:

    Most people jump to “depopulation” which is no doubt always on the mind of the West when it comes to Africa. But I assure you Africa can NEVER be depopulated by killing 160 people a day when thousands are born per day. So the real reasons are much more tangible.

    Reason 1: This vaccine implemented sickness being “called” Ebola was introduced into West Africa for the end goal of getting troops on the ground in Nigeria, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. If you remember America was just trying to get into Nigeria for “Boko Haram” #BULLSHIT but that fell apart when Nigerians started telling the truth. There ARE NO GIRLS MISSING. Global support fell through the floor, and a new reason was needed to get troops into Nigeria and steal the new oil reserves they have discovered.

    Reason 2: Sierra Leone is the World’s Largest Supplier of Diamonds. For the past 4 months they have been on strike, refusing to provide diamonds due to horrible working conditions and slave pay. The West will not pay a fair wage for the resources because the idea is to keep these people surviving on rice bags and foreign aid so that they remain a source of cheap slave labor forever. A reason was also needed to get troops on the ground in Sierra Leone to force an end to the diamond miners strikes. This is not the first time this has been done. When miners refuse to work troops are sent in and even if they have to kill and replace them all, the only desire is to get diamonds back flowing out of the country.

    Of course to launch multiple campaigns to invade these countries separately would be way too fishy. But something like “Ebola” allows access to an entire area simultaneously…

    Reason 3: In addition to stealing Nigerian oil, and forcing Sierra Leone back to mining, troops have also been sent in to FORCE vaccinations (Deadly “Ebola” Poison) onto those Africans who are not foolish enough to take them willingly.

    3000 troops are being sent in to make sure that this “poison” continues to spread, because again it is only spread through vaccination. As more and more news articles are released as they have been in Liberia, informing the populous of the US lies and manipulation, more and more Africans are refusing to visit the Red Cross. Troops will force these vaccinations upon the people to ensure the visible appearance of an Ebola pandemic. In addition to this they will protect the Red Cross from the Liberians and Nigerians who have been rightfully ejecting them from their countries.

    Reason 4: Last but not least, the APPEARANCE of this Ebola “pandemic” (should Americans not catch on) will be used to scare the countless millions into taking an “Ebola vaccine” which in reality is the pandemic. Already they have started with stories of how it has been brought to the U.S. and has appeared in Dallas, how white doctors were cured but black infected are not being allowed to be treated, etc.

    ALL that will do is make blacks STRIVE to get the vaccine, because it appears that the “cure” is being held back from blacks. They will run out in droves to get it and then there will be serious problems. With all we have seen revealed about vaccines this year you would think we learned our lesson. All I can do is hope so, Because they rely on our ignorance to complete their agendas.

    Ask yourself: If Ebola really was spread from person to person, instead of controlled spread through vaccination – then WHY would the CDC and the US Government continue to allow flights in and out of these countries with absolutely no regulation, Or At All? We have got to start thinking and sharing information globally because they do not give the true perspective of the people who live here in West Africa. They are lying for their own benefit and there aren’t enough voices out there with a platform to help share our reality. Hundreds of thousands have been killed, paralyzed and disabled by these and other “new” vaccines all over the world and we are finally becoming aware of it. Now what will we do with all this information?

  4. Are the elite already preparing for the coming cold; whether mini or full blown ice age? When the population of Africa is reduced massively (started with Malaria then AIDS and now Ebola), then you know its getting closer. The whole of Europe (people with enough money to buy their ticket to salvation) plus Scandinavia will migrate into Africa, the Russians and those from the Baltic States will migrate into the Middle East, and the Canadians and Americans will go south too, into Mexico and South America. With crop destroying snow and cold reaching as far south as Texas, there won’t be much of the US usable for agriculture. The race for genetically modified crops that can withstand drought, flood and cold is another obvious sign that someone at the top of the pyramid is getting worried. Just as a warm week in June doesn’t forecast a great summer, then a warm couple of decades in the late 20th century doesn’t forecast runaway global warming, and anyone who thinks it does is either easily suggestible or ‘on the make’! Mr Crichton saw through the hyperbole and we must also. Shutting down coal fired powerplants is saving the coal for the long winter to come, for the few hundred million people who will survive. Those Georgia Guidestones tell the truth but weave it into a slightly cryptic prediction. Around 500 million is the number expected to survive; whether they can survive for the next 90,000 years is, at present, an unanswerable conundrum. I predict that at the end of the next ice age, man will migrate ‘out of Africa’ back into Europe, and the Stone Age and Bronze Age will happen all over again, just as it’s been happening for over a million years or more.

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