Theological Implications Of Ebola: Praying For A Cure? Creating A Scientific Cure?

"The Faith-Shattering Lisbon Earthquake, Fire And Tsunami Of 1755"
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-faith-shattering-lisbon-earthquake.html

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Alan: I have nothing against petitionary prayer. Indeed, it is a source of continual amazement that my mainstream Catholic church leads the congregation in petitions that are consistently enlightened and uplifting - petitions whose generosity and commitment to The Common Good are found nowhere else in my daily life - certainly not in s.o.p. politics where pragmatic need to placate partisan selfishness is as unsettling as a stiff dose of ipecac.  It is also true that God has yet to restore an amputated limb although human effort draws ever nearer this goal. The world is at a crossroad. Will we continue traditional submission to absolutist visions of God? Or will we see ourselves as co-creators whose mission is to incarnate The Word? I hope the latter vision prevails and believe one purpose of petitionary prayer is to keep us conscious of our goals while the Magnum Mysterium of God-Love strengthens human effort to "put flesh on those bones." 

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"Why Does God Allow A Disease That Denies Dying Children Human Touch?"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/09/ebola-why-does-god-allow-disease-that.html

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"Natural History is the antidote for piety."
Gregory Bateson
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_Bateson

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"Ebola Teaches Us The Surpassing Value Of Education"
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/09/viewed-dispassionately-ebola-teaches-us.html

"Since God Can't Heal Amputees, Mankind Will: The Future Of Christian Theology"
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/07/since-god-cant-heal-amputees-mankind.html

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Teilhard de Chardin SJ
Jesuit paleontologist and cosmologist
"Research is adoration."
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/07/teilhard-de-chardin-sj.html

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Canada to donate experimental vaccine to WHO. 

Anjali Cordeiro and Simeon Bennett in Bloomberg

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As WHO convenes ethics panel, who should get experimental Ebola drugs? "The use of an experimental drug to treat two Americans diagnosed with Ebola is raising ethical questions about who gets first access to unproven new therapies for the deadly disease. But some health experts fear debate over extremely limited doses will distract from tried-and-true measures to curb the growing outbreak — things like more rapidly identifying and isolating the sick. The World Health Organization is convening a meeting of medical ethicists next week to examine what it calls 'the responsible thing to do' about whatever supplies eventually may become available of a medicine that's never been tested in people." Lauran Neergaard in the Associated Press.

What are some other key ethical questions? "Typically, new drugs go through years of trials before being approved for wide distribution. Even if the potential benefits far outweigh the risks, plenty of other questions remain. Given the limited quantities of many experimental drugs, how would authorities decide who receives it? Who would pay for it? Who is responsible if a drug does more harm than good?" Brady Dennis and Lenny Bernstein in The Washington Post.

Quotable: "I think we've got to let the science guide us....I don't think all the information is in on whether this drug is helpful." — President Obama, arguing for improving public-health infrastructure to tackle the Ebola outbreak instead of speeding up delivery of experimental drugs. Margaret Talev and Lisa Lerer in Bloomberg.

Boston-area firm also has experimental drug it wants to try out on patients flown to U.S. "Sarepta Therapeutics says it has enough doses of its injectible drug — AVI-7537 — to treat about two dozen patients within a week and could ramp up a supply for another 100 patients within a few months. Such a move would be highly risky, but in the case of such a dangerous disease, the risks could be worth it in the eyes of some patients and their doctors." Tracy Jan and Felice J. Freyer in The Boston Globe.

So does a Japanese company. "Fujifilm’s U.S. partner MediVector Inc. in Boston is in talks with the Food and Drug Administration to submit an application to begin using the drug in humans for Ebola, according to Department of Defense spokeswoman Amy Derrick-Frost. If successful, the drug would be one of the first allowed by U.S. regulators to fight the deadly disease in humans." Cynthia Koons, Kanoko Matsuyama and Robert Langreth in Bloomberg.