Monday, November 21, 2016

Officials designate Omaha, NE as possible flashpoint for the next impending zombie apocalypse

Government officials have designated Omaha as a dumping ground for taking people infected with BSL-4 agents
An emergency medical drill took place on Friday, designating the City of Omaha as one of only a handful of cities across the nation willing to accept multiple patients infected with the world's most deadly contagious infectious diseases.

Nebraska Medicine's willingness to take in more than one patient at a time infected
with a BSL-4 agent is taking a big risk of losing containment of the contagion
It sounds like a science fiction fantasy scenario of the beginning of the next zombie apocalypse as seen on TV shows like The Walking Dead, but as one of only a handful of bio-safety level 4 (BSL-4) containment centers around the world willing to take in more than one patient infected with the world's most deadly infectious diseases at a time, Omaha may be a likely potential flash point or hot zone for the spread of the next global pandemic of epic proportions.

Only two years ago, Omaha's Nebraska Medicine was on the front lines taking in and treating patients from West Africa infected with the deadly Ebola virus during the worst outbreak of the virus in recorded history. Three patients diagnosed with the virus were brought into Omaha, and two survived. Luckily for us, the virus didn't break containment.




Now government officials have designated Omaha as the nation's dumping ground for next major plague because Omaha is relatively isolated from the U.S.'s most populated urban centers on both coasts, and the folks who live in the heartland of America are considered much more expendable, compared to the city folks along the eastern seaboard and west coast, should a deadly contagion break containment.

An asymptomatic Thomas Eric Duncan arriving in Dallas
from Liberia in 2014
A Boeing 747 landed at Epply Airfield on Friday simulating a disaster drill carrying three mock patients from Liberia that had the Ebola virus. But frankly, a 747 seemed a bit large for just three patients, so officials may have been preparing Omaha to accept dozens—if not hundreds—of infected patients who would likely be turned away from large urban medical centers in America's major populated urban centers.

The scenario seemed to be a practice run for Nebraska Medicine and local emergency responders to actually triaging mass casualties from a enormous infectious disease outbreak on American soil, such as the one that nearly happened in Dallas, Texas, when an infected Liberian national, Thomas Eric Duncan, got through customs onto a plane crossing international borders before becoming ill from the virus in Dallas in 2014.

That incident proved, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that even America's hospitals cannot handle even one patient infected with a BSL-4 agent.

There are a lot of candidate tropical viruses (BSL-3 and 4) out there that are considered much more contagious and just as deadly as Ebola virus, such as H5N1 avian flu, Nipah, Hendra, SARS, MERS, Marburg, small pox, etc., and some that could even turn people into zombies (e.g., lyssaviruses.)


And it appears if any one of those very scary outbreaks occurs in the U.S. again, the likelihood of those infected with the deadly infectious agents will be headed straight toward Omaha is highly likely.


In any case, officials are preparing for the worst, and they've designated that worst case scenario to happen inside Omaha, Nebraska, which should give you some cause for alarm.

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