Tag Archives: Ebola

US

Bartender indicted for threatening to kill Speaker Boehner

6 Comments

A former bartender in Ohio has been indicted on the charge of threatening to kill House Speaker John Boehner.

Michael Hoyt, 44, worked as the bartender of the Wetherington Country Club in West Chester, Ohio, but he was fired in October. It was while working at this country club Hoyt had served drinks to Boehner for five years, according to WCPO Cincinnati.

Hoyt called police on Oct. 29, a week after being fired, and told the 911 dispatcher he blamed Boehner for his termination from the position.

When officers responded to Hoyt’s home, according to NBC News, Hoyt told the officers he believed he was Jesus Christ and that he also blamed Boehner for the Ebola outbreak. Court documents also show Hoyt claimed to hear voices coming from the speakers in his car and his home radio which told him Boehner was evil.

After being taken into custody, Hoyt was ordered by a judge to undergo a psychiatric evaluation at a facility run by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. According to FOX News, the FBI and U.S. Capitol Police believe Hoyt, “poses a current and ongoing credible threat” to Boehner.

Reuters also reports Hoyt had sent messages to Boehner’s wife, Debbie, which showed his anger at being fired from his position as the country club’s bartender. In the messages, Hoyt also said he could have easily killed Boehner previously by poisoning his drinks.

Michael Steel, a spokesman for Boehner, said Boehner  is “aware of the situation and sincerely thanks the FBI, the Capitol Police and the local authorities in Ohio for their efforts.”

It remains unclear as to why officials waited so long to indict Hoyt given the incident occurred on Oct. 29 and the complaint was filed on Nov. 6, while the indictment is dated Jan. 7.

US

As deadline nears, $1.1 trillion spending bill is agreed upon

8 Comments

To avoid a government shutdown, Republican and Democratic lawmakers have agreed on a $1.1 trillion spending bill.

The new bill was passed in part to avoid the looming political struggle surrounding President Obama’s new immigration policy.  By agreeing on the new spending bill, this struggle will be delayed for at least another month.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada told the AP, “The federal government’s going to run out of money in two days. … We’ve been trying to work with Republican leaders to avoid a shutdown.”

Republicans are responsible for negotiating the new spending bill which implements a number of new policy measures.  Some of the new measures include, according to Reuters, the easing of environmental regulations as well as regulations aimed at financial derivative trading.  The bill is also adding funds to fight the Islamic State militants as well as funds to help fight the spread of Ebola in West Africa.

According to Politico, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is receiving a $35 million budget increase from the new bill, bringing their total budget to $250 million.  The Securities and Exchanges Commission is also receiving a budget increase of $150 million, putting their budget close to $1.5 billion.

While some measures are added or changed, many of the original policy measures from the fiscal 2015 domestic spending plan are not hampered or hindered.  This means all government agencies are being funded through September 2015, except for the Department of Homeland Security which is only funded to Feb. 27.

One measure which was excluded from the new bill was the federal terrorism insurance measure passed after 9/11.  The insurance was up for a six-year extension, but instead of being included in the spending bill, the extension will be considered on its own at a later date.

Featured, Police State, US

Wisconsin Police Dept Ask Residents To Volunteer To Have Homes Searched For Guns

217 Comments

By Joshua Cook | Tsu | Facebook | Twitter 

According to Wisconsin Public Radio, Police in Beloit are asking city residents to volunteer to have police search their homes for guns, as part of a new effort to reduce gun violence.

Their police chief, Norm Jacobs, said he didn’t expect tons of volunteers, but he hopes the effort helps people to think about gun violence like an infectious disease like Ebola, and a home inspection would act like a vaccine to help build up the city’s immune system, reported WPR.

“Gun violence is as serious as the Ebola virus is being represented in the media, and we should fight it using the tools that we’ve learned from our health providers,” he said.

Jacobs thinks that some searches will result in the discovery of guns they didn’t know were in their own homes. He also said that guns linked to crimes could also be discovered.

“That’s really what we’re looking for. Maybe we’ll find a toy gun that’s been altered by a youngster in the house — and we know the tragedies that can occur there on occasion,” he added.

There have been seven gun homicides in Beloit, population 36,888, which is south of Janesville, on the Illinois/Wisconsin border.

Jacobs’ statement is so bizarre and should raise eyebrows for 2nd Amendment activists. Yes, we should fight domestic violence by educating the community but gun confiscation is not the answer. In the current environment where the police state is expanding and becoming more violent toward citizens, why would anyone “volunteer” and allow law enforcement to search their home? Is possible that this policy is just another “backdoor” gun control measure and attempt to circumvent the 4th Amendment?

 

Featured, Politics, US

Maine Obtains Court Order To Place Temporary Restrictions On Nurse Kaci Hickox

2 Comments

Fort Kent, Maine- Maine officials have obtained a court order to temporarily restrict the activity and movements of Kaci Hickox, a nurse fighting against a 21-day home quarantine request after returning from treating Ebola patients in Sierra Leone.

A temporary order from a district court does not require Hickox to remain inside her home. However, she has been ordered to remain at least three feet away from other people and must avoid public areas and work spaces. The order also restricts Hickox from leaving Fort Kent without first consulting and obtaining permission from state public health authorities.

The restrictions will remain in place until a hearing is held, which is expected to occur between three and ten days from today.

Hickox has been rejecting home quarantine procedures since returning to Maine after being quarantined in a tent in a New Jersey hospital. The nurse has continuously told reporters that she feels well and displays no symptoms of the Ebola virus.

Hickox told Matt Lauer earlier this week that she would go to court to challenge home quarantine restrictions. The state’s court order did not include a petition for a home quarantine but requests that she follow the order’s specific protocol.

Let us know what you think about mandatory quarantines in the survey below.

This survey will close on November 8th at 11:59 P.M. eastern.

Featured, Health, International, Politics, US

Nurse in Maine defies quarantine, may take case to court

8 Comments

Kaci Hickox has defied her home quarantine Thursday morning by going for a bike ride, and she has said she might take her case to court if her quarantine is not lifted.

“I truly believe this policy is not scientifically nor constitutionally just, and so I am not going to sit around and be bullied around by politicians and be forced to stay in my home when I am not a risk to the American public,” Hickox said from her home in Maine on Today, according to the Raw Story.

Hickox was in West Africa recently to help treat Ebola patients.  After testing negative for the virus upon her return from West Africa, Hickox was released from quarantine in New Jersey but placed back in quarantine upon her return to her home in Maine.  She has been fighting her quarantine since her return and told reporters, according to NBC News, “I hope that we can continue negotiations and work this out amicably… There is no legal action against me, so I’m free to go on a bike ride in my hometown.”

It is not clear how the state of Maine will respond to Hickox’s ride just yet.  According to the New York Times, state officials said they might consider a court order to enforce the quarantine if Hickox left her home.

Gov. Paul LePage (R-Maine), said Wednesday, “While we certainly respect the rights of one individual, we must be vigilant in protecting 1.3 million Mainers, as well as anyone who visits our great state.”

Mary Mayhew, the Maine Health Commissioner, has said, according to CNN, she does not trust the information she has received concerning Hickox’s health status, saying the information lacks “reliability” and “trustworthiness.”

Mayhew also does not understand why Hickox is challenging the quarantine.  “(This is) a reasonable request to ensure — out of an abundance of caution — that we are protecting the people of this state,” said Mayhew.  

Hickox will continue to fight the quarantine though, saying she believes she has science, as well as the US Constitution, on her side.

Featured, International, Politics, US

Nurse Kaci Hickox Will Not Comply With Additional 21-Day Home Quarantine

Video 25 Comments

Kaci Hickox, a nurse who was deemed at risk for carrying the Ebola virus and quarantined in a tent in New Jersey, is refusing to comply with an additional 21-day home quarantine at her residence in Maine and vowed to fight the quarantine policy in court if necessary.

Hickox returned to the United States last week after spending five weeks caring for Ebola patients in Sierra Leone. After arriving in New Jersey on last Friday, Hickox was isolated in a tent against her will at Newark’s University Hospital, although she tested negative for Ebola. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie defended the decision to mandate Hickox’s quarantine, saying “I don’t believe when you’re dealing with something as serious as this that we can count on a voluntary system. This is government’s job. If anything else, the government job is to protect safety and health of our citizens.”

Hickox has since returned to her home in Maine and said she will not abide by Maine’s quarantine policy, which is classified as voluntary although the state of Maine is prepared to enforce it.

Although Hickox said that she’s been exercising caution and avoiding contact with people, she has held to her reasoning that remaining in quarantine is “not scientifically nor constitutionally just.”

“You know, I don’t plan on sticking to the guidelines. I remain appalled by these home quarantine policies that have been forced upon me, even though I am in perfectly good health and feeling strong and have been this entire time completely symptom free. I’m thankful to be out of the tent in Newark, but I found myself in yet another prison, just in a different environment,” Hickox told Matt Lauer.

Lauer told Hickox about a statement from Maine’s Health and Human Services Commissioner Mary Mayhew, which read that the state may “pursue legal authority if necessary to ensure risk is minimized for Mainers.”

Hickox maintained that “reasonable steps”, including self-monitoring measures like testing body temperature twice a day and undergoing testing upon appearance of symptoms, have been made by her and other health care workers. “These policies have worked in the past,” said Hickox.

When asked why she opposes quarantines, Hickox responded that “I truly believe this policy is not scientifically nor constitutionally just, and so I’m not going to sit around and be bullied around by politicians and be forced to stay in my home when I am not a risk to the American public.”

“Are you prepared to take legal action, not only against the state of New Jersey, but now the state of Maine if they decide to enforce this quarantine period?” asked Lauer.

“I’m not talking about New Jersey right now, but if the restrictions placed on me by the state of Maine are not lifted by Thursday morning, I will go to court to fight for my freedom,” Hickox replied.

Hickox’s attorney, Norman Seigel, added that the state of Maine has “no justification to quarantine Kaci” and echoed that they would challenge any court orders from Maine.

Judge Andrew Napolitano appeared on The Kelley File on Fox News Monday and said that it’s the responsibility of the government to prove that a person poses a public health risk. “We don’t have group guilt in America. We don’t have group punishment in America,” said Napolitano. “When the person confined challenges their confinement, the burden of proof, the obligation of demonstrating the propriety of the confinements, which is to the governments. And the government did not have any evidence with which to keep her confined once she challenged it.”

Let us know what you think about mandatory quarantines in the survey below.

Click Here For The Results

This survey will close on November 8th at 11:59 P.M. eastern.

Economy, Health, International, Politics, US

U.S. Ignores the CDC’s Advice on Ebola Prevention, Spends Over $39 Million on Less Important Programs

1 Comment

In the midst of the current Ebola outbreak, the United States is scrambling to find answers. Despite previous advice to fund centers that would monitor and contain possible outbreaks of the virus in other countries, and despite the current need for a vaccine, the U.S. is pouring over $39 million into other programs that appear insignificant in comparison to the Ebola virus.

The Washington Times reported that in 2008, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) suggested that the Obama administration “establish 18 regional disease detection centers around the world to adequately safeguard the U.S. from emerging health threats like Ebola.”

However, in 2014, the CDC has only 10 centers, none of which are in West Africa, the home to the latest outbreak of the Ebola virus.

In a previous memo from the CDC to the Obama transition team, the CDC described a plan that focused on being proactive, and using their disease detection centers to monitor “threats in hotspots overseas,” before they were able to spread to the United States.

“The existing centers have already proven their effectiveness and impact on detecting and responding to outbreaks including avian influenza, aflatoxin poisoning, Rift Valley fever, Ebola and Marburg virus outbreaks,” said the memo.

As previously reported, a recent audit of the United States Department of Homeland Security showed that if a potential pandemic were to occur, the U.S. would be “ill-prepared.” In addition to lacking the supplies needed to combat deadly viruses, such as Ebola, the United States has also not yet developed a vaccine.

The debate over how much money should be devoted to finding a cure for Ebola has ignited controversy among U.S. lawmakers. According to the Washington Times, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has lost $1.2 billion in funding over the last four years. Francis Collins, the Director of NIH, attributes the agency’s lack of vaccine to the budget cuts.

“Frankly, if we had not gone through our 10-year slide in research support, we probably would have had a vaccine in time for this that would’ve gone through clinical trials and would have been ready,” Collins said.

However, the Washington Free Beacon reported that it has “uncovered $39,643,352 worth of NIH studies within the past several years that have gone to questionable research.”

Instead of pouring money into a vaccine for Ebola, in 2014 NIH added an additional $670,567 to a study that seeks to find out why the majority of lesbians are obese, which now has a total price tag of $2,873,440.

The institute also devoted $2,075,611 to a program that promotes community choir for the elderly, and it continues to sponsor a number of studies that test the power of “text message interventions.”

One study, which has received $674,590, involves researchers sending text messages to drunk individuals at bars, in an attempt to get them to stop drinking. Another study involved researchers sending text messages to individuals who are considered obese, and encouraging them to lose weight. It has received $2,707,067 in funding.

The Washington Free Beacon reported that, although Health and Human Services will receive $8.6 million to research and test a possible vaccine for Ebola, they are only receiving “a fraction of NIH funding,” when compared to other programs.

Education, Health, Politics

EBOLA: Southern California college temporarily quarantined due to scare

10 Comments

CHULA VISTA, Calif., October 17, 2014– Thursday morning, sections of a California community college were quickly evacuated following one student’s claim that she and her family had been exposed to Ebola and quarantined. The female student made the claim to her instructor whom she had contacted to explain her absence.

The student’s report sent the Southwestern College campus in Chula Vista into lock-down. School officials shut down one building and issued a safety alert via text message to the student body.

The student who made the claim was temporarily isolated and quarantined. Meanwhile, approximately 50 other students and 2 faculty members were kept locked inside the building while the San Diego County Department of Health and Human Services was notified.

The student’s claim was later found to be false, following the evaluation of the student by a campus nurse. The student reportedly made the story up to prevent being dropped from a class due to an absence.

Public Information Officer Lillian Leopold stated, “Our campus nurse has thoroughly examined the student, and there is no expectation of Ebola.” 

The student reportedly recanted her story following the nurse’s diagnosis. Leopold stated, “This is now a student conduct manner and will be treated in accordance with the district’s policy and procedures.”

Follow Michael Lotfi on Facebook & Twitter.

Featured, US

Ben Swann Questions Rev. Jesse Jackson Over Claims of Racism in Ebola Treatment

Video 22 Comments

Washington, D.C- Media has been consumed with stories about the Ebola virus for weeks. Among the discussion have been claims that the first victim to die of the virus here in the United States, actually died because of racism.

Thomas Eric Duncan died last Wednesday. Soon after his death Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price and the Rev. Jesse Jackson both made statements that Duncan’s death was the result of racism.

Rev. Jackson wrote a blog for the Huffington Post in which he asserted this claim on several levels including his insistence that while white missionaries were given ZMAPP to combat the virus and yet Duncan was not.

Swann, who is guest anchoring at RT America this week interviewed Jackson and confronted him over the facts of the situation in comparison with his blog post. The question Swann wanted an answer to, was it racism and lack of privilege responsible for Duncan’s death or a misdiagnosis based on a variety of factors?

Health, International, US

First Ebola related death in the US confirmed

1 Comment

The first Ebola patient in the US has died at 7:51 a.m. on Wednesday, reports say.

Thomas Duncan, 42, was a Liberian man who had recently traveled to Africa, and was the first US citizen to have contracted the deadly virus.  Duncan died while in isolation care at the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital.

“It is with profound sadness and heartfelt disappointment that we must inform you of the death of Thomas Eric Duncan this morning at 7:51 am,” said a spokesman from the hospital in Dallas, according to the BBC.

In recent days, the New York Times reports Duncan’s condition had worsened from serious to critical condition.  Medical staff were on hand to support Duncan after this with fluids and electrolytes to replenish the lose of fluids which occurs when one is infected with Ebola.  Duncan was also being treated with an experimental drug, called brincidofovir, to help combat the virus.

Upon returning from his trip to Africa, Duncan went to the hospital complaining of a stomach ache and fever, but hospital staff failed to test for Ebola on this visit and sent Duncan home.  It was only days later when Duncan returned to the hospital that the virus was found to be in Duncan’s system.

According to CNN, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Thomas Frieden, offered his condolences to the Duncan family after this death.  “He is a face that we associate now with Ebola,” said Frieden.

According to the same report, in order to help prevent the spread of Ebola, the body of Duncan will be cremated.

As of now, Duncan’s family members and close to 50 other Dallas residents are being monitored after having come into either first or second degree contact with Duncan after he returned from Africa.

US

Theory Confirmed: Van Jones Wants Dems To Use Ebola Panic In Their Favor

11 Comments

 

 

Ebola shouldn’t be a partisan thing, right? But, it looks like the Democrats are trying to make it one. Or at least use people’s Ebola fears to boast their agenda.

Appearing on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos, former Obama official Van Jones posed that the Democrats should use Ebola in their midterm politicking.

He said:

Well, we’ve to get our base going. The other thing too is that we can’t let the Republicans get away with some of the stuff they’re doing this week,  just trying to bash Obama. Hey, you know, government is always your enemy until you need a friend. This Ebola thing is the best argument you can make for the kind of government that we believe in. A year ago Ted Cruz shut down America’s government, shut down the CDC over shenanigans. What if that happened this year? You got to start putting the Republicans on the defensive for the fact that they believe that you can take a wrecking ball to America’s government, never pay a price. Obamacare means that 8 million people who couldn’t have gone to the doctor last year, if they feel sick today, they would if they got Obama, they can go see the doctor. The Democrats have got to start talking like that.

Watch Van Jones’ appearance on This Week with George Stephanopoulos here.

It’s an interesting correlation that was previously written about on BenSwann.com.

Seasoned insurance businessman Mike Papadopoulos said he thought that the Ebola panic will be used to increase Obamacare open enrollment, which begin Nov. 15.

“What a better way to get people to join Obamacare than putting an enormous amount of fear about a pandemic breaking out in the United States and needing health care?” said Papadopoulos.

“I would not put it past this administration.” he added.

Listen to the full interview below:
 

 

Health, International, US

Should travel from Ebola infected areas be banned?

3 Comments

WASHINGTON, D.C., October 6, 2014 – With the first diagnosis of an Ebola case occurring in Dallas, TX this past week, many Americans are calling for a ban on travel between the U.S. and Ebola ravished countries. Proponents of enacting a travel ban argue the action would protect Americans and prevent the deadly disease from further spreading across America.

However, top government health officials have opposed the measure claiming that shutting down our borders could be counterproductive to the fight against the disease globally, a statement that most have found to be non-sensical.

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal states, “The Obama administration keeps saying they won’t shut down flights. They instead say we should listen to ‘the experts. In fact, they said it would be counterproductive to stop these flights. That statement defies logic.”

The current travel policy requires travelers to answer a questionnaire regarding their exposure to Ebola, a policy that proved insufficient in the case of Thomas Duncan, the first patient to become ill with the disease in the United States.

Duncan lied about his exposure to Ebola while traveling to the States and had stated “no” in response to questions about whether he had cared for an Ebola patient or touched the body of someone who had died in an area affected by Ebola. Duncan had cared for a pregnant woman suffering from Ebola merely days before he departed for America.

Representative Tim Murphy (R-Pennsylvania) leads the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations and plans to conduct hearings on the travel policy this coming week.

Murphy stated, “Asking travelers to report their own activities at airports “has been a demonstrated failure, and it is nearly impossible to retrace steps to try and track down everyone who has been in contact with a carrier taking multiple international flights across the globe.”

The lack of border security within the United States coupled with the negligence of officials to ban travel between the U.S. and heavily infected areas of Africa has left many fearful of an increase in diseased individuals entering the country, a phenomenon that would surely spread the disease in the States and over-burden our healthcare infrastructure.

The United States could be seen as a haven to many citizens of countries hardest hit by the outbreak who have seen their own healthcare systems over-run, and availability of care diminish. Ebola has killed over 3,ooo people so far.

Follow Michael Lotfi on Facebook & Twitter.

Health, International, US

About 100 people were in contact with Dallas Ebola patient

1 Comment

Health officials in Texas are now reporting the patient in Dallas who has contracted the Ebola virus, has been in contact with approximately 100 people.

Erikka Neros, spokeswoman for the Dallas County Health and Human Services Department has said there are between 12 and 18 people who were in direct contact with the patient, while the number of “contact traces” is now 80.

All of those who came into some sort of contact with Thomas Duncan, the Ebola patient in question, are being monitored closely.

Carrie Williams, the Texas Department of State Health Services, said in a statement, according to NPR, “Out of an abundance of caution, we’re starting with this very wide net, including people who have had even brief encounters with the patient or the patient’s home. The number will drop as we focus in on those whose contact may represent a potential risk of infection.”

Initially, the number of those who came in contact with Duncan was closer to 18 people, according to RT.

An early report from the Dallas Morning News said Duncan arrived at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital on Sept. 25.  He told health staff at the time he was suffering from fever and stomach aches, and he had recently been to Liberia, one of the Ebola stricken nations in Africa.

CDC guidelines say Duncan should have been placed in isolation and tested for Ebola immediately, but the news of Duncan’s travel did not reach key medical staff at the hospital.  As a result, Duncan was given a combination of antibiotics and then sent home, according to FOX News.

The family of Duncan are amongst those being monitored, and Texas health officials have quarantined the family.  They are not allowed, under a state “control order,” to leave their home or have any contact with anyone outside of their home for 21 days, and all family members must be available at all times for health tests, according to USA Today.

If any of the family members break this “control order,” they could potentially face criminal charges.

Health, International, Politics, US

Ebola Virus Has Mutated Rapidly Since Latest Outbreak

3 Comments

The latest outbreak of the Ebola virus has caused an epidemic that is flooding West Africa. On Thursday, a new study published in the journal Science, shows that the current outbreak of the Ebola virus has mutated rapidly, which impedes finding a cure for the disease.

The current epidemic has killed more than 1,500 people in four countries, and although it is moving quickly, the Washington Post reported that the results from the latest study “offer new insights into the origins of the largest and most deadly Ebola outbreak in history.”

The first outbreak of the Ebola virus was in 1976. According to the New York Times, Scientists believe “bats are the natural reservoir for the virus,” and that humans originally caught the virus “from eating food that bats have drooled or defecated on, or by coming in contact with surfaces covered in infected bat droppings and then touching their eyes or mouths.”

Doctors Without Borders reported that the current outbreak seems to have started “in a village near Guéckédou, Guinea, where bat hunting is common.”

The recent study on the virus was conducted in June, by health officials in Sierra Leone who worked with scientists at Harvard University. They sequenced the 99 Ebola genomes from 78 individuals in Sierra Leone who had been diagnosed with the virus.

According to the Washington Post, five of the paper’s more than 50 co-authors died from Ebola before publication which shows the toll the virus has taken on both the general public, and health workers.

The lead author of the study, and a computational biologist at Harvard University, Pardis Sabeti, reported that the Ebola virus twice the mutations spreading through humans it West Africa, than it did while spreading through animals in the last decade. “We’ve found over 250 mutations that are changing in real time as we’re watching,” Sabeti said.

“In general, these viruses are amazing because they are these tiny things that can do a lot of damage,” said Sabeti. “The more time you give a virus to mutate and the more human-to-human transmission you see, the more opportunities you give it to fall upon some [mutation] that could make it more easily transmissible or more pathogenic.”

An infectious disease reporter at Harvard, and one of the study’s co-authors, Stephen Gire, reported that through the study they “uncovered more than 300 genetic clues about what sets this outbreak apart from previous outbreaks.”

“Although we don’t know whether these differences are related to the severity of the current outbreak, by sharing these data with the research community, we hope to speed up our understanding of this epidemic and support global efforts to contain it,” Gire said.

Ebola has been called one of the world’s most deadly diseases by Doctors without Borders, due to the fact that it is “a highly infectious virus that can kill up to 90 percent of the people who catch it.” They went on to write that although the World Health Organization has declared the current Ebola epidemic an “international public health emergency,” the international effort to stem the outbreak has been “dangerously inadequate.”

Health, International, Politics

Ebola fears rise as Liberian clinic is attacked and looted

1 Comment

As patients were being treated for Ebola in a quarantined clinic of Monrovia, Liberia, citizens from the surrounding neighborhoods stormed the facility while at least 30 patients, and other clinic workers, fled the grounds this past Saturday.

Looters stole mattresses, bloodstained sheets, and other medical equipment from the quarantined clinic.  These supplies, which could potentially be infected with the Ebola virus, were then carried to the surrounding neighborhoods where some 50,000 people live.

According to CNN, the assailants had no desire to free patients from the facility, rather, the citizens who stormed and looted the facility did not want the clinic there in the first place.

Yahoo News is also reporting the people who attacked the clinic were armed with clubs, and while they stormed the clinic shouted “there’s no Ebola.”

Liberian National Police spokesman Sam Collins also told CNN on Sunday, “It was an attack from people afraid of Ebola… Everybody is afraid.”

According to the Washington Post, the area surrounding the clinic is known as the West Point slum.  Residents of the slum were angry at how infected individuals from all over Monrovia were being brought to the clinic in the destitute area.

The virus has killed approximately 1,145, and infected some 2,000 in the surrounding nations of Guinea, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, and Liberia.  However, the Liberian Information Minister Lewis Brown has called the raid on the facility, according to ABC News, the “greatest setback” of the campaign to stop the virus.

The virus  is known to spread through the exchange of bodily fluids, and while medical authorities are trying to spread this knowledge throughout the area, many misconceptions are still prevalent in communities.  One of the most prevalent fallacies about the virus is that doctors from the West, who are supposed to be treating the virus, are responsible for spreading it.

While the virus is spreading at a slow rate, the World Health Organization has recommended no restrictions be put on trade items or travel to or from the infected countries.  Instead, WHO urges infected countries to screen people who are leaving their country for the virus, but the spread of the disease through airline travel is unlikely.  WHO is also recommending people who are known to be infected not to travel at all.

The clinic has yet to reopen and police have since restored order to the area.