Chad’s Morning Brief: Wendy Davis Continues Attack on Abbott, Ebola Labeled the Worst Health Emergency in Modern Times, and Other Top Stories
Here is your Morning Brief for the morning of October 14, 2014.
Wendy Davis
Wendy Davis has decided, for some reason, to continue her attacks on Greg Abbott and his disability. That despite numerous Republicans and Democrats denouncing her wheelchair attack ad. According to the Washington Post, Davis kept it up on Monday.
Wendy Davis is not backing down from her controversial wheelchair ad. Not even a little.
Flanked by two people in wheelchairs and one with cerebral palsy, Davis on Monday doubled down on her strategy at one of the oddest press conferences of the cycle. Davis basically repeated the contents of the ad (somewhat robotically at times), painting state Attorney General Greg Abbott (R), who is in a wheelchair, as someone who is on the wrong side of the American with Disabilities Act and works against the disabled community.
"This ad is about one thing and one thing only: it’s about hypocrisy," Davis said, adding that Abbott sued after he was paralyzed when a tree fell on him while running. "Greg Abbott has shown time and time again that he has worked to deny that same justice to others." Davis added that Abbott, who leads her in fundraising and in the polls by about 10 points, lacks leadership and empathy. “It’s about building upon our own experiences and using them to champion the causes of others and seeing the young man with cerebral palsy as your son," Davis said.
Her aides insist that Abbott's disability is fair game because he has raised the issue of his disability in other ads. "A guy in a wheelchair can move faster than traffic on some roads in Texas," he says in one ad making the case for fixing Texas's traffic problems.
Wendy Davis continues to make herself look bad and it will show on election day.
You can read the full story by clicking on the link above.
Ebola
The World Health Organization is now saying that Ebola is the worst health emergency we have seen in modern times according to the AP.
The World Health Organization called the Ebola outbreak "the most severe, acute health emergency seen in modern times" on Monday but also said that economic disruptions can be curbed if people are adequately informed to prevent irrational moves to dodge infection.
WHO Director-General Margaret Chan, citing World Bank figures, said 90 percent of economic costs of any outbreak "come from irrational and disorganized efforts of the public to avoid infection."
Staffers of the global health organization "are very well aware that fear of infection has spread around the world much faster than the virus," Chan said in a statement read out to a regional health conference in the Philippine capital, Manila.
"We are seeing, right now, how this virus can disrupt economies and societies around the world," she said, but added that adequately educating the public was a "good defense strategy" and would allow governments to prevent economic disruptions.
The Ebola epidemic has killed more than 4,000 people, mostly in the West African countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, according to WHO figures published last week.
Chan did not specify those steps but praised the Philippines for holding an anti-Ebola summit last week which was joined by government health officials and private sector representatives, warning that the Southeast Asian country was vulnerable due to the large number of Filipinos working abroad.
While bracing for Ebola, health officials should continue to focus on major health threats, including non-communicable diseases, she said.
You can read the full story by clicking on the link above.
Other Must Read Links:
These and many more topics coming up on today’s edition of The Chad Hasty Show. Tune in mornings 8:30-11am on News/Talk 790 KFYO, streaming online at kfyo.com, and now on your iPhone and Android device with the radioPup App. All guest interviews can be heard online in our podcast section after the show at kfyo.com.
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