# And so it begins! (The apocalypse) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 25, 2014, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-so-it-begins-the-apocalypse/694023 "2014-07-25T14:10:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Happy\_Fun\_Ball](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_fun_ball/32/17664_2.png) [@Happy\_Fun\_Ball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Fun_Ball)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2014, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-so-it-begins-the-apocalypse/694023/1 "2014-07-25T14:10:03Z")
[It is only a matter of time now](http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/25/us-health-ebola-africa-idUSKBN0FU1DB20140725). Anybody want to go in on a chartered jet to Madagascar? ---
**Author:** ![August\_West](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/august_west/32/18069_2.png) [@August\_West](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/August_West)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2014, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-so-it-begins-the-apocalypse/694023/2 "2014-07-25T14:50:12Z")
Wow, I love my family but there’s no way I’m crashing in and stealing a family member from the Ebola ward. Any way we can stop all commercial flights within 250 miles of this area? Please? ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2014, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-so-it-begins-the-apocalypse/694023/3 "2014-07-25T15:16:39Z")
> [@Happy\_Fun\_Ball](#): > > Anybody want to go in on a chartered jet to Madagascar? Too late, they’ve almost certainly closed their ports by now. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2014, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-so-it-begins-the-apocalypse/694023/4 "2014-07-25T17:46:52Z")
> [@Happy\_Fun\_Ball](#): > > [It is only a matter of time now](http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/25/us-health-ebola-africa-idUSKBN0FU1DB20140725). > > Anybody want to go in on a chartered jet to Madagascar? That’s like 5,000 miles from the place cited in the story. In fact, Sierra Leone is closer to Miami than to Madagascar. But I’ve already been to both places (Madagascar and Sierra Leone) and never got sick, and there have always been a lot more things to worry about then Ebola. Like, Malaria , which kills more than a half a million people every year, at least half of them in Africa… ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Fun\_Ball](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_fun_ball/32/17664_2.png) [@Happy\_Fun\_Ball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Fun_Ball)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2014, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-so-it-begins-the-apocalypse/694023/5 "2014-07-25T18:23:01Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > That’s like 5,000 miles from the place cited in the story. In fact, Sierra Leone is closer to Miami than to Madagascar. But I’ve already been to both places (Madagascar and Sierra Leone) and never got sick, and there have always been a lot more things to worry about then Ebola. Like, Malaria , which kills more than a half a million people every year, at least half of them in Africa… [Shut down everything!](http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/shut-down-everything) ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2014, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-so-it-begins-the-apocalypse/694023/6 "2014-07-26T17:47:42Z")
> [@Happy\_Fun\_Ball](#): > > [Shut down everything!](http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/shut-down-everything) You mean I somehow slept through the online flash game Pandemic II, and am now doomed to be ignorant of all relevant thread topics, even those that have the appearance of relating to actual historical and geographical facts? ---
**Author:** ![JoseB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/joseb/32/1530_2.png) [@JoseB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoseB)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2014, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-so-it-begins-the-apocalypse/694023/7 "2014-07-26T23:39:06Z")
Well, the woman in question died shortly after surrendering voluntarily to the authorities. Also, there was a Liberian man who was detected as having Ebola after arriving to Lagos airport in Nigeria. He is now also dead, and the rest of the passengers in his airplane are being tracked. Link from the BBC: [http://m.bbc.com/news/world-africa-28505061](http://m.bbc.com/news/world-africa-28505061) ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2014, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-so-it-begins-the-apocalypse/694023/8 "2014-07-26T23:45:32Z")
[![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/WUAvTn3uz5w/hqdefault.jpg "The Stand, intro (Don't fear the reaper)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUAvTn3uz5w) ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2014, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-so-it-begins-the-apocalypse/694023/9 "2014-07-27T00:06:43Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > Like, Malaria , which kills more than a half a million people every year, at least half of them in Africa… Malaria isn’t contagious. Unless a swarm of Anopheles hitch a ride on a Sierra National flight, we don’t have to worry much about malaria spreading to the European general population. But one person with ebola, undetected, on a flight to say Schiphol, and we are royally fucked. ---
**Author:** ![No\_umlaut\_for\_U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ea5d25/32.png) [@No\_umlaut\_for\_U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/No_umlaut_for_U)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2014, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-so-it-begins-the-apocalypse/694023/10 "2014-07-27T00:30:37Z")
Right now I feel like a character just prior to the action in **On the Beach**. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2014, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-so-it-begins-the-apocalypse/694023/11 "2014-07-27T01:02:52Z")
Ebola is a “Hot” disease. It so contagious and so quickly deadly, it burns itself out before it can infect more that people in a local area. That’s not to say it won’t kill thousands in a big city, but it really doesn’t travel well. But a few cases will usually drive people into their homes. Those that are exposed will die. The household who weren’t infected will live. If someone has symptoms and attemps to fly somewhere that individual would die at the airport. The symptoms are quick and very scary. The person bleeds from every orifice, even the eyes. Death comes within a day or two. I thought this thread was going to be about the pristine river in China that suddenly ran [blood red](http://www.nbcnews.com/news/asia/mysterious-river-runs-blood-red-china-n165551). The tests showed some, probably a clothing manufacturer, illegally dumped a huge load of dye. ---
**Author:** ![Sal\_Ammoniac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@Sal\_Ammoniac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sal_Ammoniac)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2014, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-so-it-begins-the-apocalypse/694023/12 "2014-07-28T21:03:37Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Malaria isn’t contagious. Unless a swarm of Anopheles hitch a ride on a Sierra National flight, we don’t have to worry much about malaria spreading to the European general population. But one person with ebola, undetected, on a flight to say Schiphol, and we are royally fucked. But consider: Freetown has a million people, an iffy public-health system, and a certain number of known Ebola cases. Has had for months, in fact. And yet, it’s not like the Black Death passing through, where the dead are piling up faster than they can be buried. Ebola is contagious, but not \*that \*contagious, clearly.