Ebola madness

Right after Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Rita hit Houston. Because of the experiences after Katrina, Houston went into temporary insanity. The whole city tried to evacuate even though Houston is not below ground level, even though Houston has withstood many hurricanes, even though there is no history to say that Houston is in any such danger. As a result some people needlessly died. The very supposed “better” approach turned out to be worse than simply handling it the old fashioned way.

The same thing is happening now with Ebola. So far, there have been two cases of infection in the USA. Both of those cases had extremely close contact with the victim. So far, there have been no other cases of infection, including the people who were in close contact with the first victim. So far, it seems to have taken extremely close contact with a victim in order to become infected.

But, that has not stopped the madness from spreading, just like with Hurricane Rita. Schools have been shut down on no more information than a teacher traveled on the same plane as an Ebola victim. A couple of workers have been fired simply because they were relatives of a person who was a chef at a restaurant at which a person who covered an Ebola story came to buy some soup. A person on vacation on a cruise ship has been placed in quarantine simply because he worked with one of the patients, but has shown no symptoms. A foreign country has said that they will not allow him to debark as a tourist.

Some of you will say that this is correct. But, you have given in to Ebola hysteria. Only two people have been shown to be positive, even though multiple people worked with the patient who dies and his samples passed through the Laboratory, etc. That means that many people were in contact and many people handled his samples, but only two have become infected. So, there is little reason for Ebola hysteria.

Having said that, Ebola must be treated seriously. We must immediately isolate anyone who begins to show the symptoms. But, our policies must be based on rational thought and medical experience. But, that is not what is happening. Despite the years of experience that Africa has had with Ebola, we ignore that experience. Instead, we are again spinning crazy theories of this disease than can be passed on simply by being in the near vicinity of anyone who has had Ebola, even if there is no contact.

We justify that based on the idea that we have no idea what is happening, that we must protect ourselves. Were we ready? No, we obviously are not fully ready. The WHO has admitted its failing as well. Nevertheless, this is not the zombie apocalypse. While there are no guarantees, the world does have some experience with dealing with Ebola. So far, there is no evidence that the worst case scenarios are anywhere near reality.

Will there be other infected people? Yes. Is there any evidence that there are, or are likely to be, widespread infections? No. So, let’s settle down and apply rational procedures. Irrational madness is not an appropriate response.