Thursday, December 18, 2014

Catching Ebola online

Surely not, I hear you say. You can't get Ebola from the internet! But yes you can. The biggest potential source for Ebola in the world today is the Internet.

Nobody is ever satisfied with what they have. Everybody wants more, wants it cheaper, better and faster. Amazon is playing with drones to get goods to internet shoppers within hours. The faster goods travel, the less chance of diseases carried on the goods of perishing on the way there is.

Let's look at camera gear as an example. It's made largely in poorer areas of China though some things come from the Middle East and Africa. Given that many diseases can live for several days outside of the body, a disease such as Ebola, originating in Africa could end up in America or in Britain within days. Flying at 37,000 feet will freeze all pathogens as aircraft holds are rarely pressurized or temperature controlled. Upon landing the pathogens unfreeze and become dangerous again.

The cheap item from eBay could be a fast way to the grave. Buy Liberian diamonds with 10% extra free Ebola. Buy that cheap photo gizmo from China with 15% free Ebola.

Have no doubt, Ebola is coming to a neighborhood near you sometime soon. There have already been cases in the US and the UK, doubtless too in Australia, France, Germany, Russia etc. It may not always be carried on a camera or by a roving photographer or by an errant tourist. It may come as a biological weapon from the likes of al-Quaeda, Sendero Luminoso, Mabion Glyndwr, Hamas or any one of the myriad of terrorist groups around the world.

The best thing YOU can do to protect YOURSELF is to cease buying cheap trinkets online or cheap trinkets made by Ebola-contaminated labor forces outside your own country. Be safe, buy domestic.

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