Talk:West African Ebola virus epidemic timeline/Archive 1

Orphaned references in 2014 Ebola virus disease epidemic timeline

I check pages listed in Category:Pages with incorrect ref formatting to try to fix reference errors. One of the things I do is look for content for orphaned references in wikilinked articles. I have found content for some of 2014 Ebola virus disease epidemic timeline's orphans, the problem is that I found more than one version. I can't determine which (if any) is correct for this article, so I am asking for a sentient editor to look it over and copy the correct ref content into this article.

Reference named "Tracing Ebola’s Breakout to an African 2-Year-Old":

From Meliandou: Grady, Denise; Fink, Sheri (2014-08-09). "Tracing Ebola's Breakout to an African 2-Year-Old". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 14 August 2014. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
From Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa: Grady, Denise; Fink, Sheri (9 August 2014). "Tracing Ebola's Breakout to an African 2-Year-Old". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 14 August 2014. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)

I apologize if any of the above are effectively identical; I am just a simple computer program, so I can't determine whether minor differences are significant or not. AnomieBOT ⚡ 17:06, 11 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Checked - looks OK to me. Am I sufficiently sentient, I wonder?Robertpedley (talk) 21:32, 13 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Remove DR of Congo

The virus in DR of Congo is not from this strain, I do not think it should be listed. AmericanXplorer13 (talk) 17:59, 13 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

We could also just remove "epidemic" from the title and have this article cover the timeline of Ebola in 2014. Given the likelyhood that this outbreak will continue for some time (certainly in to 2015), we may need a timeline for each year henceforth. - Floydian ^τ _¢ 19:52, 13 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Non sequitur. It is indeed an epidemic. And related strains bear mention: Viruses mutate. kencf0618 (talk) 20:44, 13 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

This article should shadow the Ebola_virus_epidemic_in_West_Africa article. Therefore

It is not appropriate to include 2014 in the title - much discussion of this in the talk page over there!
However the title should include "West Africa"
Title should not contain "disease", there is no other possibility for an "epidemic"
It is not appropriate to mention Marburg, Congo etc.

Robertpedley (talk) 21:42, 13 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Non-sequitar? How so, its certainly not from nonsense. I'm merely suggesting we choose one of two possible coverages for this article:

Timeline of West African Ebola virus disease epidemic - covering the unfolding the West African outbreak, including the imported cases to Spain and the United States. No mention of Congo outbreak, which is divergent from an earlier strain, and not a mutated variant of the WA outbreak.
Timeline of Ebola virus disease in 2014 - covering Ebola virus disease in 2014, including all outbreaks and related variants of ebolavirus (ie. Marburg/Congo)

In either case note that I have reordered the wording of the title, as readers should be able to type "Timeline of Ebola" to get results, rather than the less intuitive "2014 Ebola". The article title should contain disease, as there are two correct terms: Ebolavirus (the virion) and Ebola virus disease (the effect of the virus on the human body). It's time we stopped regarding these articles individually, but rather as a part of a larger topic. - Floydian ^τ _¢ 17:31, 14 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Another timeline source

Guardian newspaper, published 15 October here CNN, published 14 October here Probably not new information, though. Robertpedley (talk) 12:40, 15 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Switzerland and Medecins Sans Frontieres?

Should responses made by MSF really be categorized under 'Switzerland' on the timeline? I feel like the organization doesn't really represent Switzerland as a nation, but there isn't another icon to put them under. 173.79.70.155 (talk) 01:35, 16 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I'd regard this belonging in Guinea.... alternatively is there an MSF flag or logo? I'm not sure that I am keen on the multiplicity of flags, it's visually interesting but I don't think it helps understanding. There's probably something about it in the WP style guide. Robertpedley (talk) 11:36, 16 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Icons Art LaPella (talk) 15:05, 17 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I'm lost. Is there anything in there that actually mentions MSF? All that I want to know is whether there's a flag icon that can be a better substitute for Switzerland's. 173.79.70.155 (talk) 17:27, 17 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

No need. MSF is based in Switzerland. Their logo presumably isn't available for Wikipedia. And they are on the front line... kencf0618 (talk) 21:28, 17 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Hmm... I might ask whether it's really necessary to label them 'Switzerland,' then. Would

Médecins Sans Frontières be unecessary? 173.79.70.155 (talk) 23:51, 17 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Good suggestion. I've made the change. kencf0618 (talk) 07:26, 19 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Number of entries per month

As at mid October we have:

Dec 2013 - 1 entry
Mar 2014 - 4 entries
May - 1
June - 2
July - 5
August - 17
September - 7
October (part way) - 12

There's obviously a lack of detail near the beginning ... everyone says the world should have paid attention to this at the early stages. And I think there's a risk too much detail towards the end, need to focus on significant developments only.Robertpedley (talk) 11:46, 16 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Visiting the main page concerning the epidemic, there's literally nothing at all dated anywhere between December 2013 and March 2014--there isn't much to write about. Besides, the WHO only began reporting on the outbreak in March so sourcing for anything before then would be harder. 173.79.70.155 (talk) 20:42, 16 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

It's the nature of the beast. I've contributed a great deal to 2009 flu pandemic timeline, not least because at my job we were at one point trans-shipping Federal material such as body bags, anachronistic vaccines, etc. during the worrisome early stages of the pandemic. The initial stages of the EVD epidemic shall be fleshed out, but the Wikipedia-ready citations for those early days are naturally deeply bureaucratic and rather thin on the ground. (That said, citations from the media of Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Senegal anyone?) kencf0618 (talk) 21:54, 17 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I'm on holiday at the moment, with poor internet & only Android devices which are lousy for editing. When I get back home I'll go through history of the "Epidemic" page and root out some older stuff - unless someone else does it before me! Agree there's not much to say about Dec thru to March because it was under the radar.Robertpedley (talk) 20:32, 23 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Please stop with the bare url citations

Properly reference them! I will be fixing them as I have much time to spare, but please consider this. Burklemore1 (talk) 05:16, 24 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Scale of Article

Even with editorial parsing the scale of the timeline is going to become enormous. Do we include every tweak of every state's quarantine policy? Hickox's bicycle ride? I'm a devoted Wikipedia inclusionist, but where does it end? If and when EVD is officially declared by the WHO to have become endemic or pandemic in portions of West Africa? kencf0618 (talk) 16:39, 1 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Removed paragraph

I have removed a paragraph regarding AFP, because the source says

- CORRECTION: This piece originally and inadvertently suggested that The Associated Press and other news organizations were in agreement “not to report on suspected cases of Ebola in the United States until a positive viral RNA test is completed.” I regret this misinterpretation. In fact, AP is in no agreement with other outlets regarding news coverage. AP’s own position is that it will still report some suspected cases of Ebola if they cause enough disruption, even if there’s no confirmation the person has Ebola.^[1]

--Melaen (talk) 13:20, 21 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Milestones

In the December 2014 section, I added a milestone for the outbreak surpassing 18,000 cases, and used the UN flag symbol. I think having the boundary-crossings will be helpful for readers later when pouring through the list. I didn't add a ref because I couldn't find the one mentioning 18k (and some editor has nixed the one from the Outbreak article itself).--Раціональне анархіст (talk) 04:37, 15 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

External links modified (January 2018)

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^ "Liberian Traveler At Duke Hospital Shows Preliminary Negative Result For Ebola". Forbes Magazine. November 2, 2014. Retrieved November 5, 2014.

[1] "Liberian Traveler At Duke Hospital Shows Preliminary Negative Result For Ebola". Forbes Magazine. November 2, 2014. Retrieved November 5, 2014.

[1]