Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 06:05 pm
After it had been confirmed that a doctor in New York City had tested positive for Ebola, conservatives reignited their fear mongering and Obama-blaming over the disease. Craig Spencer, an emergency room physician in New York, had recently returned from a trip in West Africa where he was working with Doctors Without Borders treating Ebola patients. Spencer was placed into isolation when he reported a fever of 103 Thursday morning. The night before he spent the evening bowling and took a taxi home. Mainstream media covered the story breathlessly and without interruption Thursday evening.
Spencer is the first new confirmed case of Ebola in the United States in nearly two weeks. The potential spread of the disease in Dallas and Ohio looks to be fully contained. Dallas-area nurses Nina Pham and Amber Vinson, who contracted the disease while caring for Thomas Eric Duncan, are both improving as they are being cared for in isolation. Vinson is now clear of the disease but it still being held for further monitoring. Duncan, a Liberian resident who traveled to Dallas last month, died from the disease. No one else who was in contact with Duncan, Pham or Vinson has shown signs of infection.
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For a while, it looked like the panic over Ebola was finally going to die down. President Obama placated Republicans by naming an Ebola czar. The calls for travel bans to and from West Africa had died down. (There are some restrictions concerning destinations now in place.) With no new cases popping up in the States, the media had moved on to other stories. However, the NYC infection brought the crazies back out of the woodwork. Among them was Nick Muzin, Deputy Chief of Staff for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). On Thursday evening, Muzin sent a tweet blaming Obamacare for the spread of Ebola. Muzin quickly deleted the tweet. However, others had already saved it for posterity.
Deputy Chief of Staff for Ted Cruz tweeted and deleted this: pic.twitter.com/RefFzFgj0D
— Anthony De Rosa (@AntDeRosa) October 24, 2014
Muniz later claimed that he was try trying to be sarcastic and that it didn’t come across well in the tweet.
Earlier tweet was a bad joke, my sarcasm did not translate well online. Deleted. — Nick Muzin (@nickmuzin) October 24, 2014
Considering that Muzin works for Cruz, who has been on a crusade to blame Obamacare for all of society’s ills since entering the Senate, I doubt seriously this was just a bad joke gone awry. More likely, Muzin was catching so much flak that he was told to delete it and offer an ‘explanation’ immediately. Muzin probably thought he was just following Cruz’s lead when it comes to Cruz’s Obamacare message and tried to impress his boss.
While Muniz just wanted to smear Obamacare by using Ebola, professional troll and wannabe president Donald Trump said that President Obama needs to resign immediately because of this latest Ebola case.
If this doctor, who so recklessly flew into New York from West Africa,has Ebola,then Obama should apologize to the American people & resign!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 23, 2014
Ebola has been confirmed in N.Y.C., with officials frantically trying to find all of the people and things he had contact with.Obama’s fault
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 24, 2014
I have been saying for weeks for President Obama to stop the flights from West Africa. So simple, but he refused. A TOTAL incompetent!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 24, 2014
Mind you, it has already been stated to Republicans calling for travel bans to and from West Africa that there are no direct flights between the countries experiencing outbreaks of Ebola and the United States. Experts have also pointed out that placing restrictions on travel to and from those countries make it more likely that the disease will rage further within those borders and potentially spread quicker into surrounding countries and the world. However, nobody wants to hear that while they are busy spreading fear and panic.
Republicans want the narrative to be that Obama and Democrats are bringing Ebola into this country. We need to vote out Democrats and force Obama to resign. With this new case, they’ve been given a new chance to drive the crazy train into Election Day.
Justin Baragona is the Managing Editor at Politicus Sports as well as Senior Editor at PoliticusUSA. He was a political writer for 411Mania.com before joining PoliticusUSA. Politically, Justin considers himself a liberal but also a realist and pragmatist. Currently, Justin lives in St. Louis, MO and is married. Besides writing, he also runs his own business after spending a number of years in the corporate world. You can follow Justin on Twitter either with his personal handle (@justinbaragona) or the Sports site’s (@PoliticusSports).
