DEADLY DUMBING DOWN

The result of abandoning the proper teaching of geography?

With a hat tip to Barnhardt:

“He said he was from Liberia, not Africa…”

From this thread over at Lucianne.com. Emphases mine.

Reply 29 – Posted by: gone2pot, 10/3/2014 5:50:33 PM (No. 10030644)
It´s us. We are the reason for the panic. We vote for it, educate our kids with it, watch it on TV, “like” and “follow” it, and listen to its music. Here´s anecdotal evidence; my wife´s hospital is caddy corner to Dallas Presby, home of the ebola incident. The docs at her hospital left Presby to start a new, less screwed up system. So, they know Presby and keep in contact with former colleagues. Well, according to the old Presby docs, the thirty-something Dallas Presby nurse´s answer to the CDC was, “He said he was from Liberia, not Africa.” So, next time you want to believe the tin foil hat conspiracy theory answer, remember instead that we ARE that stupid and our stupidity is why we create the cases for panic.

Is the above anecdote true? I don't know, but it could be.  And I don't mean only with regard to the aforementioned nurse!  It's not out of the question that a doctor wouldn't know that Liberia is in Africa.

I myself so often see the dumbing-down — and not only among the middle-school and high-school students I teach: here we are in the Information Age with many people lacking enough sense or intellectual curiosity to look up something when the information is at their fingertips via Google search; at the same time, these same people are keen to update their Facebook status or check their email at every possible opportunity.

Now, about that triage nurse in the emergency department....

I do not blame her for not recognizing that Mr. Duncan had Ebola Virus on his first visit to the hospital.  His temperature wasn't high enough according to the protocol then in effect, and he lied to her and said that he had not been around anyone who was sick.  Let us keep in mind that Mr. Duncan lied on those forms in Liberia, too.