7 November 2014

Will Monday’s Flathead Ebola forum inform or patronize?

Updated at 18:59:50 MST. The Flathead County Health Department now has a bare bones Ebola page. See updated links below.

Updated 9 November at 9:40:37 MST. A winter storm watch is in effect until 1800 MST on 10 November, when the forum is scheduled to commence. Check to make sure the meeting has not been canceled before heading for the meeting hall.

Actually, it might do both. That’s why I plan to attend, my unhappiness with the poor acoustics at FVCC’s Arts and Technology Building notwithstanding. It begins at 1800 and ends at 1930 MST. For details, please consult Flathead Regional Medical Center’s meeting announcement.

Gov. Steve Bullock just announced Montana’s Centers for Disease Control based protocols for dealing with Ebola, so the meeting is timely. Unlike Maine, New Jersey, and New York Governors LePage, Christie, and Cuomo, who could be cast as Larry, Curly, and Moe, in The Three Stooges Meet Ebola, Bullock hasn’t made a fool of himself by trying to imprison everyone with a connection to Africa in a quarantine camp with Gitmo levels of security. Still, he and everyone in public health want to assure the public that the situation is under control, so there’s always the danger that calm presentations of the science will be replaced or supplemented by the “now, now, don’t worry your pretty little head; trust us” approach that infuriates people and causes some to further distrust authority.

Indeed, KRMC recently rankled me (story 1, story 2) with its indiscriminate attack on local bloggers. I hope that hostility, which was unwarranted and counterproductive — KRMC needs to work with bloggers — has been reviewed and upon further reflection, rejected.

Some Ebola and public health resources used by Flathead Memo

U.S. Centers for Disease Control website on Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever.

U.S. National Institutes of Health website on Ebola. The NIH are more research oriented than the CDC.

Doctors Without Borders. The nongovernmental agency that I think sets the gold standard for in-the-field treatment of Ebola. DWB Ebola pages.

The Centers for Law & the Public’s Health. A joint project of Johns Hopkins and Georgetown Universities. No longer active, but provides archival information up to 2009.

O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law. The Georgetown University project that replaced publichealthlaw.net.

Montana’s Department of Public Health and Human Services. MT DPHHS has an Ebola page to which I suspect many county health departments will direct people.

Flathead County Health Department. I couldn’t find any Ebola information here, but perhaps I missed it. Updated at 18:58:20 MST. The FCHD now has a bare bones Ebola page.

Kalispell Regional Medical Center. KRMC’s Ebola page seems to be the place to start.