http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-09-15/ebola-epidemic-silver-lining-imf-bailouts-everyone
( Economic Hitmen , accompanied by US military ... )
The Ebola Epidemic Silver-Lining: IMF Bailouts For Everyone
Never waste a good crisis. While we already knew a major reason for The West chasing into Africa was to leverage its relatively low credit levels as the last bastion of Keynesian-stimulus-hope in the world(estimated at between $5 and $10 trillion in secured debt, using its extensive untapped resources as first-lien collateral). And so it is little surprise that, as The WSJ reports, The International Monetary Fund on Thursday warned the West African Ebola epidemic requires a "large scale" global intervention to control a crisis that is ravaging economies in the region. All three major Ebola-suffering countries were already in bailout programs ($200mm loan in 2012 for Guinea, $100mm loan for Sierra Leone, and $80mm credit facility for Liberia)but with the "world community taking forever to respond," The IMF is happy to step in and secure some assets / lend over $100mm more to each nation to fill financing gaps.
The International Monetary Fund on Thursday warned the West African Ebola epidemic requires a "large scale" global intervention to control a crisis that is ravaging economies in the region.The IMF, the world's emergency lender, said it is in talks to boost bailouts for Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia as the disaster slams economic output and overwhelms government financing."Beyond the human toll that this outbreak is exacting, the Ebola outbreak looks set to cause significant harm to the economies of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone," IMF spokesman William Murray said in a news conference Thursday.
This year was supposed to be a bright one for the three deeply poor governments bearing the brunt of West Africa's Ebola problem. After 50 unbroken years of dictatorial misrule, Guinea—a democracy since 2010—had planned to auction off a multibillion iron-ore concession. Liberia, scene of a horrific 14-year-long civil war, had begun auctioning off offshore oil blocks. Sierra Leone was set to be Africa's fastest-growing economy for the second time in three years, the IMF had projected.But now the fund estimates the epidemic will cut growth in Sierra Leone to 8% this year from a previous rate of 11.3%. Liberia's growth will more than halve to 2.5%. Guinea will see its prospects fall to 2.4% from a previously expected rate of 3.5%, the fund said.
So The IMF will lend them even more money, putting them in even more debt...
All three countries were already in bailout programs.The IMF approved a $200 million loan in 2012 for Guinea, a $100 million loan for Sierra Leone late last year and signed an $80 million credit facility for Liberia two years ago.The World Bank has also boosted its financing to the region, mobilizing a $230 million package for the three worst-hit countries, including $105 million in emergency grants.Each of the three countries faces a financing gap of between $100 million and $130 million due to the havoc hitting agriculture, trade and other commerce, the fund said.
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Finally, as we noted before, this move by The IMF appears to be exactly what they hoped for...
While those in the power and money echelons of the "developed" world scramble day after day to hold the pieces of the collapsing tower of cards in place (and manipulating public perception that all is well), knowing full well what the final outcome eventually will be, those who still have the capacity to look, and invest, in the future, are looking neither toward the US, nor Asia, and certainly not Europe, for one simple reason: there is no more incremental debt capacity at any level: sovereign, household, financial or corporate. Because without the ability to create debt out of thin air, be it on a secured or unsecured basis, the ability to "create" growth, at least in the current Keynesian paradigm, goes away with it.Yet there is one place where there is untapped credit creation potential, if not on an unsecured (i.e., future cash flow discounting), then certainly on a secured (hard asset collateral) basis. The place is Africa, and according to some estimates the continent, Africa can create between $5 and $10 trillion in secured debt, using its extensive untapped resources as first-lien collateral.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2757360/US-send-3-000-troops-Ebola-danger-zone-Obama-administration-shuffles-military-s-mission-Africa.html
US to send 3,000 troops to Ebola danger zone as Obama administration shuffles military's mission in Africa
- The Obama administration said late Monday night that the U.S. military will set up a command post in Monrovia, Liberia, the Ebola outbreak's epicenter
- 'This effort ... will involve an estimated 3,000 U.S. forces,' according to the White House
- Pentagon official says military will 'be the lead dog, and that will make a lot of people nervous. ... No one wants U.S. personnel enforcing someone else's martial law if things go south and the entire region is at risk'
- U.S. Africa Command warns servicemen and women: 'Avoid nonessential travel to Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia'
- Pentagon is drawing flak for sending 25-bed 'field-deployable hospital' that is meant to treat health care workers, not civilian victims
- The U.S. president will travel to the CDC in Atlanta on Tuesday for a briefing about his government's efforts to stem the tide overseas
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Some of what America's armed personnel will do in Liberia is unclear. The White House said 'many' of them will be stationed at an 'intermediate staging base' where they will supervise the movement of medical staff, supplies and heavy equipment.
AFRICOM already warns its own personnel that they should 'avoid nonessential travel to Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia.'
And the Defense Department is concerned, one Pentagon official told MailOnline, about the public perceptions aroused when American G.I.s patrol ground zero in a disease outbreak that could plunge three or more countries into chaos if it worsens significantly.
Combat soldiers and Marines 'will be on hand and ready for anything,' said the official, who has knowledge of some, but not all, of the Ebola-related planning. 'But hopefully it will be all logistics and hospital-building.'
'The president has ordered us to help, and we're eager to do it,' he said. 'Now it looks like we're going to be the lead dog, and that's bound to make a lot of people nervous. It's understandable.'
'But no one wants U.S. personnel enforcing someone else's martial law if things go south and the entire region is at risk.'
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#Obama to announce country's expansion of resources to fight Ebola http://bit.ly/1u0e2yS
http://www.infowars.com/flashback-ebola-goes-airborne-causes-outbreak-in-medical-lab/
( Ebola has gone airborne in the past... )
FLASHBACK: EBOLA GOES AIRBORNE, CAUSES OUTBREAK IN MEDICAL LAB
Ebola mutated into an airborne virus back in 1989
Image Credits: Alex / Flickr
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A mutated Ebola virus likely spread through the ventilation system of a Virginia medical lab in 1989 and infected dozens of monkeys in separate research rooms, highlighting the current potential of an airborne Ebola strain killing millions of people.
In late 1989, cynomolgus monkeys from the Philippines delivered to Hazleton Research Products’ Primate Quarantine Unit in Reston, Va., began dying at an alarming rate, prompting HRP to euthanize all the monkeys in that shipment, but during the 10 days after the euthanization, other monkeys in separate rooms connected only by air ducts began dying as well, which was attributed to an Ebola strain that went airborne.
“Due to the spread of infection to animals in all parts of the quarantine facility, it is likely that Ebola Reston may have been spread by airborne transmission,” wrote Lisa A. Beltz in the book Emerging Infectious Diseases. “On several subsequent occasions during 1989, 1990 and 1996, Ebola Reston killed monkeys in colonies in the United States.”
“Some of the people at the colony in Texas and several of the workers at the facility in the Philippines also produced antibodies to the virus but did not become ill.”
The 1989 incident validates concerns that a new, airborne strain of Ebola could infect humans, and if such a mutated strain already exists, it would easily explain why Ebola is currently spreading so rapidly in Africa.
For one thing, because Ebola doesn’t replicate itself perfectly every time it infects a victim, each new infection represents a potential mutation of the disease.
“If certain mutations occurred, it would mean that just breathing would put one at risk of contracting Ebola,” wrote Michael T. Osterholm of the New York Times. “Infections could spread quickly to every part of the globe, as the H1N1 influenza virus did in 2009, after its birth in Mexico.”
And due to the severity of the current outbreak in western Africa, which is the worst in history, Ebola has had more chances to mutate in the past four months than in the past 500 years.
“What is not getting said publicly, despite briefings and discussions in the inner circles of the world’s public health agencies, is that we are in totally uncharted waters and that Mother Nature is the only force in charge of the crisis at this time,” journalistMac Slavo wrote.
What is known publicly, however, is that the State Department has taken the threat of Ebola so seriouslyit recently ordered 160,000 Hazmat suits, well over 100 times the number of federal workers currently in western Africa.
But just how large is the risk of Ebola mutating even further? Right now, it has the potential to infect – and kill – five million people in western Africa, according to a top German virologist.
“The right time to get this epidemic under control in these countries has been missed,” Jonas Schmidt-Chanasit of Hamburg’s Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine told Deutsche Welle. “That time was May and June; now it is too late.”
WIRED
Chilling photos from the front lines of the Ebola outbreak http://wrd.cm/YD0QGV
Liberian president sacks ten officials for staying out of country during #EbolaOutbreak
http://bbc.in/1y0vUQm
Larry Zilliox
As #Ebola explodes, Liberia’s sick must fend for themselves http://wapo.st/1xZ7dDW via @washingtonpost
http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2014-09-09/sierra-leone-to-visit-every-home-to-track-down-ebola-dead/5729036
More than 20,000 volunteers will go door-to-door as part of a three-day curfew to identify Ebola victims and remove bodies
GETTY IMAGES/MOHAMMED ELSHAMY, FILE PHOTOS
Volunteers in Sierra Leone are to visit every home in the country of 6 million to track down people with Ebola and remove dead bodies.
Steven Ngaoja, the head of the country's Ebola Emergency Operations Centre, said more than 20,000 volunteers would go door-to-door as part of a three-day curfew.
He said every house in the country would be visited from September 19 to 21.
"About 21,400 trained volunteers will be involved in the house-to-house sensitisation activity," he said.
"Likely Ebola cases will be identified or dead bodies will be referred to contact tracing, referral or burial teams."
The worst-ever outbreak of Ebola has claimed 491 lives in Sierra Leone, one of three countries at the epicentre of the epidemic which has so far killed more than 2,000 people.
The government announced on the weekend that pedestrians and vehicles would be barred from the streets, except on essential business, for 72 hours starting from September 19 "to ensure that the dreaded disease is checked".
Mr Ngaoja said president Ernest Bai Koroma would address the nation on September 18, officially declaring a "sit-at-home three days for family reflection, prayers and education while families will be visited by campaign teams".
"We have no choice but to go into it with great commitment and determination," Mr Koroma said in a nationwide address broadcast on Monday.
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http://www.infowars.com/virologist-its-too-late-ebola-will-kill-5-million/
VIROLOGIST: ‘IT’S TOO LATE, EBOLA WILL KILL 5 MILLION’
Expert says virus will infect entire population of African countries
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A top German virologist has caused shockwaves by asserting that it’s too late to halt the spread of Ebola in Sierra Leone and Liberia and that five million people will die, noting that efforts should now be focused on stopping the transmission of the virus to other countries.
Jonas Schmidt-Chanasit of the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine in Hamburg told Germany’s Deutsche Welle that hope is all but lost for the inhabitants of Sierra Leone and Liberia and that the virus will only “burn itself out” when it has infected the entire population and killed five million people.
“The right time to get this epidemic under control in these countries has been missed,” said Schmidt-Chanasit. “That time was May and June. “Now it is too late.”
The current Ebola outbreak in West Africa has killed over 2200 people, with Liberia and Sierra Leone accounting for over 1700 of those fatalities.
While calling for “massive help” from the international community to prevent Ebola appearing in other countries like Nigeria and Senegal, Schmidt-Chanasit warns that getting a grip on the epidemic in Liberia and Sierra Leone is a departure from reality.
German aid organization Welthungerhilfe blasted Schmidt-Chanasit for his comments, with Sierra Leone based coordinator Jochen Moninger labeling his statements, “dangerous and moreover, not correct.” However, Moninger acknowledged that Schmidt-Chanasit’s assessment may be accurate in the case of Liberia.
The World Health Organization refused to comment on Schmidt-Chanasit’s remarks.
Although Ebola continues to rage in five African countries, media coverage of the epidemic has waned, despite evidence that the virus has mutated.
As we reported last month, former FDA official Scott Gottlieb, M.D. warned that if the virus was to hit the United States, the CDC would enact emergency procedures which could lead to healthy Americans who show no symptoms of the diseased being forcibly detained for an indefinite period of time.
Scientists in Canada and Canada’s Public Health Agency have both acknowledged that the virus has likely gone airborne at least to a limited degree, while the CDC has urged airline staff to take steps to prevent the airborne spread of the virus, including giving suspected Ebola victims surgical masks as well as directing staff to “not use compressed air, which might spread infectious material through the air.”
Tweets......
Dr. Olivet Buck dies of Ebola in Sierra Leone after WHO denies funds for evacuation http://nbcnews.to/1uC9Zu0
Dying of Ebola at the hospital door in Liberia http://nyti.ms/1AGPr4h
Ebola could hit 15 countries across Africa and put 22m at risk, study finds http://dailym.ai/1qJbR3T
WHO issues desperate plea for medical staff and supplies as #Ebola death toll reaches 2,400 http://gu.com/p/4xgce/tw
Daily Mirror
Bill Gates donates £31million to fight Ebola http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/bill-gates-donates-31million-help-4197996 … pic.twitter.com/wWVGNAvlkC
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