Media Creates An Unnecessary Fear Of Ebola Virus In U.S.

I thought this Rasmussen Poll (done on August 1st and 2nd of a random national sample of 1,000 adults, with a 3 point margin of error) was interesting in sort of a shocking way. The shocking part was the huge number of people in the United States who now fear an outbreak of Ebola.

A whopping 58% of Americans say they are personally concerned about the disease caused by the Ebola virus -- and 46% (nearly half) thinks the Ebola virus will get loose among the general population in this country.

Let's be realistic. The Ebola virus has been killing Africans off and on now for a few decades, but not a single case of the disease Ebola causes has ever been found in the United States. The disease has no cure yet, but it is not as easy to catch as people seem to think. It is not an airborne virus that can be caught from an infected person sneezing or coughing in the general area (like the flu virus). The infection requires close (and usually extended) contact with an infected person.

That means an outbreak of the Ebola virus in the general population of the U.S. is extremely unlikely (you have a much better chance of being hit by lightening than catching Ebola in this country). And if an infected person was to arrive in this country, they (and those they had been in close contact with) would be quickly quarantined by health officials -- quashing any chance of an outbreak.

Why then, does nearly half of the population fear an outbreak of the Ebola virus in the United States? The reason, to me, is obvious -- because of the massive coverage of this virus by the media (especially the stories about the two Americans infected with Ebola being brought back to this country). The media, especially the TV cable news shows, have been doing segments on this story all day long for several days. Those stories give the impression that the virus is easily caught and spread, and there is a danger of it getting loose.

The stories enhance this false impression by showing the precautions taken in bringing those two Americans back -- including the biohazard suits being used by the doctors treating the victims. The truth, which doesn't come through in most of those stories, is that those suits and precautions are not to prevent an outbreak -- but to protect the medical professionals from getting the disease themselves (because they will be in close and extended contact with those two infected people).

The chance of an Ebola outbreak in the U.S. is extremely small -- almost non-existent. And the mainstream media has done a disservice to the people of this country by the way they have covered this story. They should be ashamed of themselves.