Stupidest Men On The Internet Just Vomiting Ebola Errrewhere

Stupidest Man in the World Jim Hoft and Stupidest Guest-Blogger in the World Kristinn Taylor have done their part to help Americans concerned about the Texas Ebola case . They cut right through all the facts and medical information out there, and get straight to the screaming fits of panic we've all been longing for. On Wednesday, Hoft posted this headline,designed to clearly and calmly inform his readers of the simple facts: "BREAKING>>> Dallas Ebola Patient VOMITED WILDLY Outside Apartment On Way to Hospital."And then, Thursday,Hoft ran a Taylor storythat set some new records for sheer dishonest bullshittery: "What Quarantine?… Photos Show MEN CLEANING TX EBOLA VOMIT Without SUITS!"

As Charles Johnson over at Little Green Footballs explains, Taylor outdoes himself in making ridiculous claims about photos that he cribbed from Dallas station WFAA and from Reuters. The main thing you need to know about these photos, Johnson reminds us, is that they were both taken Thursday, October 2 -- four days after patient Thomas Duncan vomited on the sidewalk on Sunday, September 28. Johnson efficiently sums up Taylor's brilliant logic:

Do these idiots really believe that the vomit just sat there on the sidewalk for five days? The stupidity is mind-boggling. What these photos show are workers hosing down a sidewalk, like workers do every single day in every city in the United States. And even if there had been vomit there, the Ebola virus does not survive outside the body more than a few hours.

Just to follow up on that, we checked the CDC fact sheet on this:

How long does Ebola live outside the body?Ebola is killed with hospital-grade disinfectants (such as household bleach). Ebola on dried on surfaces such as doorknobs and countertops can survive for several hours; however, virus in body fluids (such as blood) can survive up to several days at room temperature.

Now, we haven't actually seen anything specific about what was done with the vomit Sunday, but we're willing to go out on a limb and bet that some bright person hit on the idea of pouring bleach on it. We cannot verify that, but we assume that health officials in Dallas are smarter than Jim Hoft, Kristinn Taylor, or the panicked idiots of Twitter give them credit for.

So here's Taylor's first photo and text:

Ebola laced vomit! Ebola laced vomit! Only one teensy thing wrong with that -- the description is completely made up. The WFAA tweet that the photo is taken from says only "HD Chopper 8 caught crews cleaning the sidewalk outside the Ivy Apartments where the #Ebola patient stayed." That's it -- no vomit at all, except in Taylor's fevered imagination. And here's a second photo, with more imaginary vomit:

Once again, the caption of the original photo -- which Taylor accurately reproduces below the picture -- says nothing at all about vomit. But there had to be vomit! Gateway Pundit already reported that Duncan VOMITED WILDLY all over America!

And remember, for these photos to be even remotely scary, you have to believe that it never occurred to the Centers for Disease Control or to Texas's entire public health apparatus to pour some bleach on a puddle of vomit, which they also left untouched for several days. Which, after all, you'd pretty much expect from Obama's CDC. 

[ Gateway Pundit via Little Green Footballs ]