National Feral Cat Day; Thoughts on Ebola

Today is, as I wrote on Tuesday, National Feral Cat Day.  If you care about cats, and wish to help the feral ones, please visit the website for Alley Cat Allies at http://www.alleycat.org  or call and/or visit your local Humane Society for information regarding TNR programs.  You'll feel better for doing it.
    I was not impressed with the response of the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital's to the first visit of Mr Thomas Eric Duncan, sending the man home with antibiotics after he arrived at the Emergency Room for care, and, as this story keeps unraveling, with more victims of poor procedural directives being announced positive for the ebola virus, I find my trust in our medical system failing rapidly.  I worked in a hospital for over eight years - a tertiary care teaching hospital.  I learned early in my job (as a unit secretary) that handling any type of lab work required gloves.  I learned some lower-level infectious disease handling protocols, and how to avoid contamination and cross-contamination.  Luckily, I never had to deal with a patient who was in total isolation - but I remember the seriousness of following set protocols for safety.
   I was speechless when I learned of the second healthcare worker's plane trip to another state to visit her mother and fiance, and then of her return to Texas on another flight, when she was known to be running a fever.  I'm sorry, but speaking as a lay person, even I know that was sheer idiocy.   As these stories unwind, I continue to shake my head in dismay - where the heck is common sense?
   I think the last straw for me, today, was seeing the news headline that there might be a chocolate shortage because much of the world's supply of cocoa beans comes from Western Africa; specifically in the countries hardest hit by this round of the ebola outbreak.  Yes, we all like chocolate - but the lives of human beings are so much more important than the world supply of chocolate!
  I think that every developed country in the world should be rushing to the aid of those countries in West Africa that are being decimated (and more) by the ebola virus.  We, the world, humanity as a whole, need to quash this outbreak of disease.  We need to study it.  We need to learn how to fight it.  We need to find a vaccine against it, or a remedy for it.  We need to wipe this disease out - eradicate it.  The United States of America and other leading countries should be spear-heading a joint health task force to combat and defeat ebola.  I wish it would happen over night...
   When I think about our quest for treatments and remedies for Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, every type of cancer, diabetes, heart disease, ALS, MS, MD, and all the other illnesses that strike us down, I feel small - less than gnat-sized.  But, if all of humanity would work together to defeat all of the awful health threats in the world, I believe that we would be triumphant.  I'll do my part - will you?