Drudge Report is Pushing Yet Another Crackpot AAPS Doctor Making Claims About Ebola

Misinformation campaign courtesy of AAPS
Health • Views: 42,399

Yesterday, I posted about how Drudge was spreading all kinds of misinformation about the current outbreak of enterovirus D68. That misinformation was courtesy of the AAPS, which is a crank organization with ties to both Rand and Ron Paul, filled with racists and xenophobes.

Well, the AAPS is back in the Drudge headlines courtesy of WND.

Today, Drudge is linking to WND and an article where a different AAPS doctor is being cited in claiming that it’s irresponsible to send US soldiers to West Africa to support the efforts to stop the Ebola pandemic.

According to WND (link donotlink’d), Lee Hieb, it’s now apparently irresponsible for President Obama to send troops to provide logistics to help stop the Ebola epidemic across West Africa.

“You can see that these doctors, who are highly trained people, got themselves infected,” said Dr. Lee Hieb, former president of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons. “So sending troops into an area, if they’re dealing one-on-one with a patient, they’re not going to be able to protect themselves very well. It’s not easy to [prevent transmission], because you get tired and you get careless and you make some simple mistakes. All it takes is one virus particle.”

Dr. Hieb said quarantine measures should be taken to control the outbreak and prevent Ebola from coming to America.

“You don’t get Ebola from Europe,” she told WND. “You get Ebola from Africa. And it’s a really simple formula: Don’t let people fly to America if they’ve been to areas where there’s an outbreak. When there’s an outbreak, stop air [traffic] flow.”

It’s still more purposeful misinformation since the US mission will not put the troops in direct contact with those with the virus. It’s a logistics, training, and support mission for those who are providing direct medical assistance.

It’s not without risk, but the troops going in are there supporting CDC, USAID, and other agencies providing assistance.

One of the reasons that doctors, nurses, and other caregivers are getting infected in Africa is because they are running into a shortage of proper facilities and isolation equipment to protect themselves and others from the disease. US troops have MOPP gear, which is designed to protect from a wide range of chemical, nuclear, and biological contaminants. They’re bringing those with them.

And who exactly is this Doctor Lee Hieb? She’s running for Governor in Iowa, wants to repeal common core (among many other government programs), and adheres to the same wingnutty principles that the AAPS spreads.

I’ve fixed a couple of spelling errors, but also ran a Google search for the AAPS, and among their latest exploits are suing to get Obamacare repealed, which have failed. The 7th Circuit is the latest to toss one of their suits. In fact, it was Judge Richard Posner who unleashed a can of whoop-ass on the AAPS astroturfing group, as Charles Pierce notes.

Today, Judge Richard Posner drove this logic home. “You’re suggesting a breathtaking expansion of jurisdiction, aren’t you?” he asked. “You’re suggesting that anyone with a potential economic injury from a law can bring a suit. Where would you stop?”

“The stopping point is if someone is not being regulated by a particular statute,” plaintiff’s attorney Andrew Schlafly replied. “This is a regulation of the medical field, not some remote tax.” He then argued that people forced to buy insurance will never seek out cash practices in order to avoid paying for healthcare twice. This did not satisfy Posner. “That’s like saying people who get food stamps don’t pay as much for groceries.

They also think that the so-called war on coal won’t save lives, even though the science proves that reducing emissions will improve public health downwind (to say nothing of reducing incidence of black lung for those who are mining it (reduce the reliance, you reduce the need to mine it).

You’ll notice that the same names keep cropping up in relation to AAPS, whether it’s the Pauls (Ron or Rand), Schlafly, and assorted right wing outlets that use the AAPS to make it think that their positions hold merit when they’re logic- and fact-challenged.

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Last updated: 2023-04-04 11:11 am PDT
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