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<h1 id="page-title"> <big><big>Health Justice the Best Cure for
Ebola </big></big></h1>
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<div class="field-item even"><big><big><span
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datatype="xsd:dateTime"
content="2014-10-08T00:00:00-05:00">October 8, 2014</span></big></big></div>
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<div class="field-item even"><big><big><a
href="http://greenshadowcabinet.us/member-profile/8580">Margaret
Flowers, Walter Tsou, & Jill Stein</a></big></big></div>
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<p><big><big>The United States’ broken health system adds to
the risk of potentially catastrophic epidemic.</big></big></p>
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<p><big><big>Doctors <a
href="http://greenshadowcabinet.us/member-profile/4"
target="_blank">Margaret Flowers</a>, <a
href="http://greenshadowcabinet.us/member-profile/7523"
target="_blank">Walter Tsou</a>, and <a
href="http://greenshadowcabinet.us/member-profile/8580"
target="_blank">Jill Stein</a> of the Green Shadow
Cabinet comment on the U.S. health system in light of
the global epidemic and the first confirmed case in
Texas, Thomas Eric Duncan, who tragically died this
morning.</big></big></p>
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<p><big><big><a
href="http://greenshadowcabinet.us/member-profile/4"
target="_blank">Dr Margaret Flowers</a>, Green
Shadow Health Secretary:</big></big></p>
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</big></big>
<p><big><big>Ebola is going to test health systems around
the world in the coming months, and as we’ve seen in
Africa, the measure of the impact will correlate with
the ability of nations to implement universal public
health measures. Here in the United States, corporate
interest and its control of the political process has
created the most expensive and exclusionary health
system in the developed world. This is a dangerous
setting for an epidemic.</big></big></p>
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</big></big>
<p><big><big>We have a system designed first and foremost
for profit, not for better health outcomes. This has
not only created a sub-class of millions without
coverage, but has also fragmented the system into
private institutions, all with different systems and
technologies. A major outbreak in the U.S. of Ebola,
or some other disease, would find fertile incubation
conditions like those in poorer communities and would
be compounded by an uncoordinated response.</big></big></p>
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</big></big>
<p><big><big>If this happens there will be a call for
Government intervention, and those private health
profiteers who rallied against public health on
free-market ideological grounds, will demand
assistance - a taxpayer bailout. The risk of an
epidemic and its potential effect on markets should
shake Wall Street’s belief in perpetuating the cruel
and inefficient for-profit health system.</big></big></p>
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</big></big>
<p><big><big><a
href="http://greenshadowcabinet.us/member-profile/7523"
target="_blank">Dr. Walter Tsou</a>, Green Shadow
Surgeon General:</big></big></p>
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</big></big>
<p><big><big>Media outlets stated that the diagnosis was
missed because crucial travel information was not
relayed through the electronic medical records
system. But it was not widely publicized is that Mr.
Duncan was a Liberian national on a US visa. It is
very likely because US disallows Medicaid coverage for
the first five years of immigration that he was also
uninsured. What role did Thomas Duncan’s insurance
status play in his initial dismissal from the
emergency room?</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big>Unfortunately, this is not a rare occurrence.
Crowded housing conditions and barriers to health
care, there could be substantial risk - even
potentially a perfect storm in the making for Ebola to
take root in the U.S. There are several lessons being
driven home within the U.S. as around the world:</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<ul>
<li><big><big> First, our health care system which
explicitly discriminates against immigrants is a
disaster that is ill equipped to deal with uninsured
individuals with highly infectious diseases like
Ebola. Only a true single payer, universal health
care system, inclusive of all immigrants, documented
and undocumented, will be able to stop an epidemic.
</big></big></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><big><big> Second, our reliance on a for profit
pharmaceutical industry which concentrates its
research dollars on the chronic illnesses of wealthy
developed countries like the US means that tropical
diseases and filoviruses like Ebola and Marburg get
ignored with no research dollars for vaccines or
treatment for decades while we spend billions on
erectile dysfunction drugs. After long neglecting
the developing world, we are suddenly scrambling,
grasping for anything that could be a cure when we
should have been working for a cure for the past 30
years. </big></big></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><big><big> Third, we ignore public health at great
peril to our nation. There is almost nothing that
could bring a world power like China to its knees,
but in 2003 SARS did precisely that. China, who like
the U.S. had high health access inequality, found
that people with SARS like symptoms were not seeking
medical care because they could not afford the bill.
Instead they were spreading SARS throughout the
country. It was only after they instituted a policy
that all patients with respiratory symptoms would be
seen regardless of ability to pay were they able to
stop the epidemic. In a recognition of how important
public health was to their economy, they tripled the
budget of their CDC and built them a new campus. </big></big></li>
</ul>
<p><big><big>Green Shadow Cabinet President and physician, <a
href="http://greenshadowcabinet.us/member-profile/8580" target="_blank">Dr
Jill Stein</a>, says the Ebola outbreak clearly
demonstrated the need for health justice:</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big>The discussion of Ebola in the US has been
sorely lacking in a public health reality check, which
Dr. Flowers has raised. In fact, the massive gaps in
US health care create pockets of vulnerability, that
could seed local Ebola hot spots in the US.<br>
<br>
The missed diagnosis of the first US Ebola case in
Dallas is a red flag. This signal event resulted in a
tragic delay of treatment and isolation, exposing up
to 100 contacts, and potentially contributing to the
patient's death. The diagnosis was missed because
crucial information was not relayed through the
electronic medical records system. Unfortunately, this
is not a rare occurrence. Add to that crowded housing
conditions and barriers to health care, there could be
substantial risk - even potentially a perfect storm in
the making for Ebola to take root in the US.<br>
<br>
The lesson is being driven home within the US as
around the world: Health injustice anywhere is a
threat to health everywhere. A truly health-protective
response to Ebola should include urgent measures to
implement a Medicare-for-all health care system to
insure we are all protected from Ebola now and from
future epidemics that inevitably lie ahead.</big></big></p>
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