Bob Schieffer gives self-certified ophthalmologist Rand Paul and his qualifications way too much credit on this Sunday's Face the Nation discussion of Ebola.
October 6, 2014

Someone needs to remind Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer that self-certified "trailblazer of freedom" Rand Paul, who created his own "National Board of Ophthalmology" is not a board-certified specialist, and to quit embarrassing himself on the air by pretending he's anything more than that.

It seems that Paul's fearmongering over the spread of the virus is playing well over at CBS these days, but Schieffer should not be forcing the NIH director to have to politely respond to his nonsense.

SCHIEFFER: Republican Senator Rand Paul, who is also an ophthalmologist, a medical doctor, says that we are underestimating in his works the transmissibility of this disease.

FAUCI: I don't think that there is data to tell us that that is a correct statement, with all due respect.

We have had experience since 1976 with how Ebola is transmitted. And it is clear it is transmitted by direct contact with body fluids, blood, diarrhea, vomit or what have you. And there is no indication that there is another insidious way that it is transmitted that we are missing, because of the experience we have had.

So we have really got to go with the evidence base. There is always hypothesis and surmising about that, but there is no scientific evidence.

SCHIEFFER: Well, he even goes so far as to say he is worried about us sending 3,000 Army troops over there. He says, can you imagine how easy it is for disease to spread on a ship, that they may come back and they might, you know, spread it among themselves and then to the rest of the country.

FAUCI: No.

I'm sorry, but that is really not a concern. First of all, the troops that are going over there are going to be fundamentally for logistic purposes, command, control, engineering, setting up the hospitals. They are well-trained. They will not be in direct risk of in the sense of contact with individuals.

And even if they are, the protocols are in place to prevent spread from there. So I don't and the Army does not have any real concern that those 3,000 to 4,000 troops are going to be in danger.

Until Rand Paul gives up his run for his Senate seat in Kentucky, he should not be taken seriously as a 2016 presidential contender and when he goes and gets his board certification from somewhere besides the "Rand Paul Committee to Certify Opthamologists Association" then maybe we can take a word he says on Ebola seriously as well.

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