Ebola-A Real Threat or an Overreaction?

You sit down after a long day, throw your feet up on the coffee table, and turn on the afternoon news. The red sign flashes from the screen stating “Breaking News.” You listen intently to the words as the newscasters announce that there is a case of Ebola in the United States. You start to worry. You know that thousands of Africans have died from this terrible disease, but you never thought it would find its way to America. Not only that, but last week you watched the movie “Contagion,” and the thought of this deadly epidemic sweeping out populations begins to frighten you. Soon your mind is consumed and you become paranoid that you and your family could catch Ebola. What if America is again swept with an epidemic outbreak like the Black Plague?

 This question and fear has crept into the lives of many Americans causing them to get nervous over every little symptom they have assuming they have this deadly disease. This fear makes sense; we want our family and friends to be safe and healthy. We want our children and our children’s children to live long healthy lives. We don’t want to worry about a disease that spread from Africa. Yes, Ebola is a frightening disease in which we should take concern, but as we focus too much on the Ebola scare, our fears escalate and we receive unneeded worry an anxiety which can negatively effect those around us and causes us to forget about other prevalent diseases in which we could more easily prevent.

Frank Buni, a columnist for the New York Times, said, “Americans panic really well.” That is exactly what we have done in the last few months concerning Ebola. We have panicked, and we have focused all our fears and attention on stopping the spread of Ebola. I understand the fear. At first I was paranoid as well, but after I learned the facts I was able to calm down.  Ebola is an infectious fatal disease in which symptoms include fever, throwing up, and exhaustion. With this leading epidemic sweeping across the world, it is important that we do take control and precaution so it does not spread throughout the states. Luckily, it has a low contagion rate, which makes it easier for us to stay safe from it.  According to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, “Ebola isn't spread through the air, like the measles or flu. It requires close contact with some bodily fluid, such as blood or vomit, containing the virus” (Signs and Symptoms). This makes our chances less likely to catch the disease and it makes our odds higher of stopping the spread. As seen in the photo below, Ebola’s contagion rate is so low, that normally one person only effects two people, way less than that of measles or mumps.

 

Many Americans don’t understand that Ebola’s contagion rate is low making it not as easy for the virus to spread. According to the CDC, during the first week of the October, they received over 800 calls from worried Americans thinking that someone they knew was infected with the disease (Ahmed). Also, a Gallup Poll was sent out and asked Americans “What is the most urgent Health problem facing this country at the present time?” One in six Americans said that Ebola was America’s most urgent Health problem (Teng). If only these people were informed with the solid facts about how Ebola is spread. If they really understood how miniscule the chances are for it to quickly spread, many fears and concerns would be lessened and put to ease.

The Unnecessary Fear of Ebola

Cecilia Rokusek, a public health expert with Nova Southeastern University's Institute for Disaster and Emergency Preparedness in Florida stated, "I see Ebola as a significant threat in the specific regions that it has been identified in, certainly central and west Africa, but in my opinion, it's not an imminent threat for those in the United States"(Palmero). Because its contagion rate is so low, and it is not easy to catch, we Americans are not at high risk. So far we have had a total of four cases in which one person has died, and the other people were cured (2014). The United States has a population of 316.1 million people and there have been only 4 cases (United States Census Bureau).The outbreak is so minimal and it has ended, so why are Americans still so worried?

With the infection of only four people in the United States (2014), Americans have overreacted with unnecessary fear and precaution to prevent this possible epidemic. They have taken things to the absolute extreme to help calm their worries. Mel Robbins, a CNN legal analyst nicknamed this disease “Fear-bola.” She describes the symptoms: "Fear-bola attacks the part of the brain responsible for rational thinking. It starts with a low-grade concern about the two health care workers diagnosed with Ebola in Dallas and slowly builds into fear of a widespread epidemic in the United States"(Ahmed).  We have seen examples of this widespread over exaggerated fear multiple times. For example, Navaro College in Texas declined four applicants from their school because they were from Nigeria, a country with a population of 173.6 million, with only 19 reported cases of Ebola (2014). The applicant letter stated: "With sincere regret, I must report that Navarro College is not able to offer you acceptance for the Spring 2015 term," the letter read. "Unfortunately, Navarro College is not accepting international students from countries with confirmed Ebola cases"(Ahmed).

A little too precautious? I think yes. Because of Navarro College’s overreaction, they declined healthy, uninvolved students who had a desire to further their education. Although precautions are important, this one was taken too far and it impaired these students’ goal to go to college. This is not the only example of Americans being hysterical. A few months ago on an American Airlines flight, a passenger got sick and threw up. Overcome with worry, the flight attendants then asked her to stay in the bathroom for the rest of the flight (Ahmed). Can you imagine staying in one of those lavatories for longer than 30 minutes? I know, for me personally, I would get claustrophobic.  What if the plane hit bad turbulence? There are definitely no seatbelts in the lavatory. With another overreaction from Ebola, a passenger’s safety and comfort were put on hold. One last example with the Ebola fear is that of Jesuit High School in Portland, Oregon. Nine African student leaders were invited to come to the High School and attend for a week. They would be sponsored by the U.S. Department of State Pan-Africa Youth Leadership Program. Jesuit High school declined the visit of the students “out of fears that they had been exposed to Ebola” (Owen). Do you want to know what the ridiculous thing about this situation is? These students were from Republic of Congo, Niger and Ivory Coast, none of which have even been affected by Ebola! The precaution of the spread of Ebola was again taken too far.

A lot of times, fear can be a good thing. Fear is beneficial when it helps people practice safer health techniques, but when it is taken too far, it can cause problems for the general public. Gene Beresin, a Harvard psychiatry professor, described the fear that has come with the cases of Ebola: “Fear is causing unnecessary reactions, oftentimes by parents and school officials, and a social rejection of those who in no way could have caught Ebola” (Sanburn). With the examples previously given, we see that this worry has caused much rejection and embarrassment for innocent, healthy people. There are numerous other accounts of this rejection as well. We cannot allow our fears to surpass our common logic. Like the cartoon below, instead of quarantining those with Ebola like symptoms, we should contain our fear and worries, and make sure they don’t become unnecessary.

 

                            

Kaci Hickkox, a nurse from Maine, fought back against the hysteria of the freaking out Americans and the government in October (Worland). Hickkox, a nurse, was in Sierra Leon and treated patients that were infected with the disease. When she came back from her trip, the government had her tested for the disease. After being tested for Ebola, her results came back negative and she was Ebola free. Although the test results said that she was completely healthy and had no signs of Ebola, the public still freaked out and the state government ordered her to be quarantined for 21 Days. She was quarantined against her wishes. Imagine yourself in her shoes. How would you react knowing that you were Ebola free, but you still had to be quarantined in your home for 21 days? I think all of use would go crazy. Instead of following the rules, Hickkox fought the system and left her house. She willingly went on a bike ride and let all the world see that she was not going to be ruled by the exaggerated fears of the government. She was Ebola-free. The overreaction to the case with Kari Hickkox caused her an unneeded feeling of rejection from the public. If the public could have just relaxed a little, Hickkox could have been saved a whole lot of stress and annoyance.

What has Ebola caused us to Neglect?

By overreacting to the Ebola disease, we have forgotten about other dangerous diseases that could be easily prevented. Lisa Maragakis, associate hospital epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, compared the Ebola scare to Americans' fear of fear of flying. She said “Although many people are afraid to fly, far more people are killed in cars” (Szabo). This applies perfectly with the Ebola scare. Although all our time and energy has been focused on Ebola, many more people are killed through other diseases. Think of the flu. Each year the flu can kill up to 49,000 people, sending over 200,000 to the hospital. Because the flu just seems like the common cold, we have completely forgotten the precautions that we can take for it like getting the vaccine. The CDC said that only 34% of adults between the ages 18-64 received the flu shot (Levy). If we could only increase that number by a few percent and focus more of our efforts on preventing the flu, many more lives could remain healthy.

            With the news continually playing stories and giving information about Ebola, it is easy to get sucked into it. You mean to sit down for 10 minutes, but then next thing you know you have been watching CNN for an hour getting every update you can about this disease. As you watch you eat a large bag of potato chips. You plan on only eating a couple of bites, but then all of the sudden you realize the bag is empty. You ate the whole. Whoops! Excessive eating also causes another prevalent disease, cardiovascular disease. According to CDC, Cardiovascular disease is the number one cause of death among Americans. Last year over 596,577 died from it (Signs and Symptoms).  Cardiovascular disease could easily be prevented with healthy eating, daily exercise, limiting the use of alcohol, and staying away from drugs. These are all doable things, yet we fail to do anything about them. As one of the leading killers of Americans, why don’t we freak out about this disease like we have Ebola? If only we could shift more of our focus to diseases we could prevent, Americans would be healthier and safer in the long run. I love this cartoon below. It not only could be an American sitting on the couch watching the evening news, but it clearly presents many Americans view on Ebola right now. They are so focus and concerned for the spread of Ebola that they forget about other life threating diseases that are more rampant, that could kill them.

          

Other public health concerns more prevalent than Ebola, include death by car accident. More than half of the deaths from car accidents were caused by not wearing a seatbelt (Doucleff). CDC counts that more than 2.2 million people each year are treated in an emergency for not wearing their seatbelts (Seat Belts: Get the Facts). Something as simple as buckling up could impact the safety of the lives of thousands of people. Then we have skin cancer. Everyone knows the importance of wearing sunscreen when they go outside, yet each year people crave to get kissed by the sun and fail to use it. This increases his or her risks for skin cancer. On average 10,000 people die each year from skin cancer, yet if we only took control, we could lower this death rate. There are so many things we could do to prevent other deadly public health risks, yet we consume our minds with anxiety about Ebola. If only we shifted our concern and also focused on other harmful diseases that we could prevent the spread of. When it comes down to it, we all have the same goal, and that is to keep people safe and healthy.

I’m not saying it is a bad thing to worry about Ebola or focus on preventing it from spreading, I just think it is important that we don’t over exaggerate our fears which could cause us to forget about other deadly diseases and the feelings of others.  Whatever causes us to overreact and forget about others feelings and other deadly diseases negatively impacts the general public. We’ve seen the results of ostracizing innocent people because of being worried about Ebola. We have also seen the results of focusing so much on Ebola that we forget about the other sicknesses like the flu, cardiovascular disease, and skin cancer. If we could all just come together and find a happy medium, we could all win. .Jeffrey Duchin, the chairman of the public health committee of the Infectious Diseases Society of America explains how we shouldn’t focus all our concern on Ebola, he says “Just look at causes of death in the United States. Everything is higher than Ebola, and there are things that we can do about many of them.”  If all the other public health concerns are higher than Ebola, then why are we wasting our worries on it? If we changed our concerns and focused on living healthier and focused on what things we can prevent, thousands of lives would be changed and saved.