Ebola vaccine is a fear-driven product, global health professor warns

(INTELLIHUB) — One university study shows that more than 50% of people are people willing to pay for an Ebola vaccine after the 2014 West African outbreak was highly publicized by western media causing a contagion scare.

A recent piece published by EurekAlert gives the details:

George Mason University researchers conducted a study during the height of the epidemic and found that a majority of participants (59.7 percent) would pay at least $1 for an Ebola Vaccine. Those who were willing to pay at least $1 had typically traveled internationally in the last 12 months, were interested in getting an Ebola vaccine, and believed that the U.S. government should spend money to control Ebola and assume worldwide leadership in confronting emerging epidemics.

The nationally representative survey of U.S. adults was published in January in Human Vaccines and Immunotherapeutics. It included questions on Ebola-related knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors as well as background information (e.g., demographics, international travel) to test for indicators of willingness to pay for a vaccine.

Dr. Julia Painter, an assistant professor in Mason’s Department of Global and Community Health (GCH) led the study with support from assistant professor Dr. Michael von Fricken; graduate student Suyane Viana de O. Mesquita (now an alumna of the Master of Public Health program); and professor Dr. Ralph J. DiClemente from Emory University.

“We believe this is the first study to assess willingness to pay for an Ebola vaccine in the United States,” Painter explains. “This is important because previous studies conducted in West Africa are not generalizable to the U.S. population. Once developed, a licensed vaccine against Ebola “We were unsure of what to expect. The actual risk of Ebola infection among the general U.S. population was low, which could have led to lack of willingness so spend money on a vaccine. On the other hand, the outbreak garnered extensive media coverage, leading to a national contagion of fear. This fear could have driven people to be willing to pay for a vaccine.”

The professor’s statements are profound and will likely one day become a reality.

Will the powers-that-be release the Ebola virus onto the U.S. populace in order to sell hundreds-of-millions of vaccines?

Will the powers-that-be release the #EbolaVirus onto the U.S. populace in order to sell hundreds-of-millions of vaccines? #contagion

— Intellihub (@intellihubnews) March 12, 2018

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Shepard Ambellas is an opinion journalist, analyst, and the founder and editor-in-chief of Intellihub News & Politics (Intellihub.com). Shepard is also known for producing Shade: The Motion Picture (2013) and appearing on Travel Channel’s America Declassified (2013). Shepard is a regular contributor to Infowars. Shepard is the leading journalist covering the Las Vegas Massacre, logging over 1100+ hours, 160+ reports, during his ongoing investigation. Read more from Shep’s World. Follow Shep on Facebook. Subscribe to Shep’s YouTube channel.

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“The Only Ones Who Don’t Seem To Understand Are The Economists,” Said The Economist

Presenting the latest weekly anecdote from Eric Peters, CIO of One River Asset Management

“The only ones who don’t seem to understand are the economists,” said the economist, a Nobel Laureate.

He was discussing the importance of narrative in society. “Economists talk about interest rates, price-to-earnings ratios, and obscure formulas as if we’ve arrived from a different planet. These things don’t drive people. Stories drive people.” Of course, economists may not know how to tell a good bedtime story, but they sure can put a room filled with middle-aged nerds to sleep.

Which may explain why sociologists, anthropologists, linguists and just about every other scientific group studies the importance of narrative, but not economists.

“I’m particularly intrigued by something coming out of the medical field called Mathematical Epidemiology,” he said, using a really complex term to describe the spread of infectious disease. “Scientists are becoming aware of the spread of thought viruses, memes, idea-microbes. It turns out they’re contagious just like diseases.”

The reason that ‘going viral’ is creeping into our language is that it’s become our reality. It’s how fake news spreads, infecting us all.

“The models have two inputs; contagion rate and recovery rate. Epidemics burn themselves out because people recover and become immune.”

Idea-epidemics follow a similar path. “Populism in the 1930s was an idea-epidemic that led to Fascism. The horrors of WWII sparked the spread of globalism, multi-nationalism, multi-culturalism. And these ideas appear now to have expended themselves,” he said, pivoting to The Donald.

“Trump is a story teller. He’s an example of narrative economics, the personification of a story.” And the economist paused, examining both hands.

“He might be bad or he might be good. He has no political experience. He talks openly, rejects political correctness. And he throws out theories that might even be right – we really just don’t know – because we’ve never heard them before.”

Which is today’s narrative.

* * *

And, as an added bonus, two fables:

Fables: “Trump embodies the spirit of Mandeville,” said the economic historian, reciting his 18th century poem - The Fable of the Bees - which argued that successful societies spend lavishly. “Keynes said the same thing when he described the paradox of thrift. Perhaps Trump can convince people to spend again,” he continued.

“Roosevelt told us that the only thing to fear is fear itself,” he said, reciting FDR’s 1933 inaugural address, set in the midst of a profound banking crisis.

“But then again, that didn’t really work, America remained mired in depression.”  

Fables II: “Then there’s Calvin Coolidge, who presided over the 1923-29 boom. He said the chief business of the American people is business,” continued the same economist.

“Coolidge cut taxes on the rich. Adopted policies broadly similar to Trump. Worked beautifully for him.” He left office just in time, the market crashed.

“There was Joe McCarthy,” he said. “A charismatic figure in the 1950s. The public found him amusing. They enjoyed his prosecution of Congress.”

But Joe drank his own Cool-Aide. “The public eventually turned sharply against him.”