The good news, however, is that the world now has what it believes will be a 100 per cent effective vaccine -- and 300,000 doses at the ready, all manufactured by Merck. [Back story, here.] Even a robust "ring vaccination" program throughout Bas-Uele province, in the northern part of the DRC (the affected country) will do nothing for those (dozens, potentially, already) who have contracted the full-on virus.
But we should be encouraged that a large epidemic in 2017 is now only a rather remote possibility -- assuming the vaccine still inactivates the virus, and that ebola itself hasn't stealthily-mutated -- to avoid the vaccine's killing instinct. I do think we have very good reason to be hopeful. From this evening's New York Times, then -- a bit:
. . . .Of the five blood samples taken from the newest suspected cases and analyzed by the Congolese National Institute of Biomedical Research, one tested positive for Ebola, according to the Health Ministry. Since April 22, the ministry has recorded nine suspected cases and three deaths.
Dr. Armand Sprecher, a public health specialist and Ebola expert who works with Doctors Without Borders — widely known by its French name, Médecins Sans Frontières, said by telephone from Brussels that unless a full investigation were conducted, it would be hard to know how severe the new outbreak could be. . . .
Do go do what ever it is you do -- this Sunday (or Saturday, or tonight), in meditation, communion, prayer or worship -- to ask for some biological favors -- to befall all the good people of the DRC. And in all of north central Africa, truth told. That's all I've got at the moment, as it has been quite a week for disturbing news, on many fronts. . . . sleep well all -- I'm out.
नमस्ते
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