Yesterday, this story in the New York Post was making the rounds among conservatives on Twitter. In a nutshell, the Post reported that information on the CDC’s website said that Ebola could be spread with a sneeze or a cough:
"Nass pointed to CDC poster quietly released on its Web site saying #Ebola can be spread through 'droplets.'" http://t.co/4yyR0gBUlM
— ConservativeNotCrazy (@IAMMGraham) October 30, 2014
https://twitter.com/DRUDGE_REPORT/status/527801011272830976
CDC admits droplets from a sneeze could spread Ebola | New York Post http://t.co/DUZnwTRTSj
— Smart Girl Politics (@OfficialSGP) October 30, 2014
But not so fast. Now it seems the CDC has ratholed that which it once said was true but is now embarrassing. Via Sam Stein of the Huffington Post:
CDC scrubs Ebola website, replaces text to say no evidence disease spreads by coughing/sneezing http://t.co/q4KsFz8cqR via @ArthurDelaneyHP
— Sam Stein (@samstein) October 31, 2014
An excerpt from Stein’s piece:
The page was a PDF document that explained the difference between infections spread through the air or by droplets. The PDF had been taken down as of Thursday afternoon, with this message in its place: “The What’s the difference between infections spread through air or by droplets?Fact sheet is being updated and is currently unavailable. Please visitcdc.gov/Ebola for up-to-date information on Ebola.”
An earlier version of the page is still available in Google’s cache. It said that while Ebola is not “airborne” like chickenpox or tuberculosis, it can travel a few feet in the air inside droplets emitted when someone coughs or sneezes.
Do we really need to explain to America’s smartest doctors that the Internet is forever? Sheesh.
Conservatives were quick to jump on this latest bit of idiocy:
Absolute clusterf— of public health governance MT @ArthurDelaneyHP: CDC removing Ebola factoids from its website? http://t.co/woeLYaSFrb
— David Freddoso (@freddoso) October 30, 2014
https://twitter.com/seanmdav/status/528172943038496768
.@samsteinhp @arthurdelaneyhp CDC seems to be better at quarantining information than they are with people affected by infectious diseases.
— Can of Spam (@iDoLikeSpam) October 31, 2014
https://twitter.com/ClaySlape/status/528174777068834817
@samsteinhp @KatiePavlich @ArthurDelaneyHP CDC Chief should be fired but then again, he's taking orders from the Prez. So both should go.
— PRESIDENT Trump (Fan) (@mickeynu477) October 31, 2014
Of course they did. RT @hotairblog: CDC removed info on coughing and sneezing from Ebola Q&A http://t.co/nbD5BORKRU
— Jazz Shaw (@JazzShaw) October 31, 2014
Maybe the American public would feel better about free-range Ebola health workers if the entire CDC explanation on Ebola wasn’t a work in progress?
Related:
Feel better now? Dr. Tom Frieden explains how the CDC makes its ‘decisions’
CDC Director: Go for a jog in the park during Ebola ‘quarantine’
‘They didn’t answer’: Sharyl Attkisson questions CDC about Ebola bioterrorism safeguards
Obama, CDC won’t like S.E. Cupp’s truth-snark question about Ebola-exposed docs, so let’s ask it!
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