Ebola infections might reach 1.4 million by January, are you worried?

[NovemberJoseph]

So the first case of Ebola was diagnosed in the U. S in Texas yesterday. The CDC Predicts that the number of people infected can reach up to 1.4 million by January. The death rate is 50-90% once your diagnosed. Are you scared?

I'm not. It isn't airborne, it only spreads through bodily fluids. People say it spreads so rapidly in countries like Africa because of their poor health care and stuff, and that (U. S and other wealthish countries) shouldn't worry. But even if that wasn't true, I wouldn't be scared, I'd just wear gloves to the gym and more gloves and a mask everywhere else and keep my condom game strong.

We're all gonna die

Wtf is Ebola omg :o

Nothing to worry about

Ebola re-animates corpses so we are fucked

[jacquesvol]

If you go by media coverage and public sentiment, the most important public-health problem in the United States right now is Ebola. Though the virus has infected only two people here, a recent poll found that forty per cent of Americans see Ebola as a “major or moderate threat” to public health.
...
Meanwhile, over the past month, another infectious disease, Enterovirus D68, has made its way into the headlines. The virus causes respiratory problems, often severe, in children, and, in rare cases, kids infected with the virus have come down with muscle paralysis (it’s still not known whether the virus is actually causing the paralysis). So far, almost six hundred children, in forty-five states, have been infected by the virus, and though most have recovered quickly, five have died. Anxiety among parents has grown so much that some now wonder if we’ve been worrying too much about Ebola, and not enough about enterovirus.
In reality, we’re worrying too much about both Ebola and EV-D68, and too little about an infectious disease that is much more likely to inflict serious damage on the U. S. I’m talking, of course, about the flu. We know, based on past experience, that the upcoming flu season will kill thousands of Americans and send hundreds of thousands to the hospital. Yet the press seems relatively diffident about raising an alarm about this threat; its flu coverage has none of the high-pitched anxiety that suffuses writing about Ebola or EV-D68. EV-D68 has provoked headlines like “How Well is Sacramento Prepared for Ebola, Enterovirus Outbreak?” and “What Scares You More—Enterovirus D-68 or Ebola?” No one is asking “What Scares You More: Ebola or the Flu?”

[jacquesvol]

They probably should. As we know, the flu can be deadly—according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the average annual death toll from influenza between 1976 and 2007 was more than twenty-three thousand. And unlike Ebola and EV-D68, for which there are no vaccines or real treatments, flu can almost always be prevented, or at least mitigated, if you get a flu shot. Stoking public concern about the flu could actually do some good, by encouraging people to get vaccinated. Instead, the media cover EV-D68 and Ebola as if they’re massive threats to our well-being even though they likely aren’t, and even though the average person can do little to prevent them anyway.

[jacquesvol]

The reasons for this difference in coverage reveal how we think about risk and how our thinking shapes public-health outcomes. The Enterovirus isn’t new—it was first identified in 1962—but this strain is novel; we’ve never seen an outbreak of this size before (and that is, to be sure, something that should worry public-health officials). Novelty can make a problem scarier, and more newsworthy. And while Ebola has received more attention than EV-D68, the fact that the two diseases have appeared in the U. S. at the same time, and that we don’t have a vaccine for either one, has contributed to the sense that we’re being beset by new invaders. Finally, the fact that EV-D-68 affects children almost exclusively makes it seem more threatening. As Daniel Levitin writes in his new book, “The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload,” we have a “culturally universal and innate” impulse “to protect our young, even the young of those not related to us.”
www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/dont-forget-flu

[jacquesvol]

And this stat is about 14 million in AFRICA, under African conditions, African health care, African lack of doctors -NOT in the USA.

[TadCurious]

It's absolutely insane and criminal that the president hasn't closed all ports of entry to persons traveling from West Africa. This "ground zero case" should never have been allowed into the country. We don't know yet how many people he may have infected, and we have a government that isn't fulfilling its most basic responsibility to protect the public health.

[KSmiles4U]

Someone will have to sneeze blood, mucus or vomit in your face/mouth for you to catch it. How disgusting is that. Simple as such, cover you mouth when you sneeze and avoid contact with people if you're the one about to vomit or sneeze OR are aware someone is about to vomit or sneeze. Its harder to catch than majority of colds and influenzas... Not that big of a deal really.

[pr3ttybr0wn]

I don't believe that it isn't airborne. maybe this is just the conspiracy talking but if it isn't airborne then why is it spreading so rapidly. I don't believe these people are just spitting and bleeding on each other. that's scary

sars and swine flu ain't shit compared to this. this is a hemorrhagic fever. I can't think of a worse way to die.

[NovemberJoseph]

Lowkey I kinda had the same suspicions. It seems to be airborne already, I mean a news camera team got infected with Ebola while reporting in Liberia I think and I'm sure they avoided contact with infected bodily fluids at all times.

[Kris85]

Nope. I don't let myself get spooked over the hype. I didn't when H1N1 was going around. Me and my kids even got that flu and we came out ok. The media portrays it to be much worse than it normally is

[NovemberJoseph]

lol I was in middle school when the whole swine flue epidemic started, I was scared Af 😂😂😂

[delrey]

Everyone is overreacting, I don't think it's going to get nowhere near that bad. It could possibly wipe out Africa but United States has a good modern infrastructure so it'll be hard to transmit here, my guess is like only 5 people will get infected then it'll be gone. Nothing to worry about.

[Realistic07]

i have had multiple strains of the flue and swine flue and haven't really been affected much so i'm not really that worried. I know it's a very different kind of virus, but if it's my time then its my time and all i can do is live my life and try my best to be safe.

[PinkAcid]

im not too worried, i do think its really really dumb of the uk and the us not to have closed their borders to people travelling from ebola infected countries or refuse entry to people who have entered an ebola infected country in the last year though as its just asking for something like this to happen. we aren't equipped for an outbreak, we ran out of the only drug/vaccine that seems to work (z mapp) after 2 or 3 people.

[RationalMale]

So the Center for Disease Control predicts up to 1.4 million cases in what, three months, but you think somehow it won't happen because we've got good infrastructure and it only spreads by sneezes/bodily fluids, like that?

You do realize the CDC is probably aware of American infrastructure and the amount of hand soap/bathrooms we have when it calculated that, right?

[NovemberJoseph]

It doesn't spread by sneezes. And they didn't predict that to be the number of infected by January, that's a prediction of the possible number of infected if Ebola continues to spread at the rate it is now and no work is done to prevent it.

[RationalMale]

actually given that sneezes create a "mist" of that person's saliva, yes, sneezes will transmit things that are not airborne by themselves.

[NovemberJoseph]

True. But still, not nearly as contagious as the swine flu, but we survived that. I think we're safe

[likeleavesontrees]

I'm definitely scared!!! 1.4 million by January? Ahhhhh!

[JulieXO]

Okay who the fuck voted D? XD
I think the Ebola virus is a serious problem a we should worry about it, but saying we're all gonna die is taking it a bit too far.

[NovemberJoseph]

Some people came back from the dead after dying from ebola, lol look it up

[JulieXO]

This is the internet, I don't really consider it a reliable source of information :)

[ThatChicGirl]

Exactly, it isn't air born, so it's not that bad. Just read your last paragraph again, I agree.

[RightNow]

I'm a little concerned, but not worried. Plus, I don't think that there will be 1.4 million cases by January 2015. I have heard that they created a vaccine that will prevent/cure it. I smell something fishy!!!

[ihatethiswebsite]

Every single disease gets blown out of proportion just like the bird flu and h1n1 and lots of other ones. This disease doesn't spread that easily so I'm not worried about.

[RedThread]

The flu infects and kills more people every year than Ebola does. Seriously stop buying into the hype.. Check out jacquesvol's answer for more info.

[NovemberJoseph]

Sorry Bruh this question is 18 days old, the hype got to me :/ im a hype beast

[Barbosa]

I'm still waiting for the SARS vrius from the early 2000's and Swine Flu from a few years ago, Ebola can fuck right off and queue up in an orderly manner.

[Kris85]

Lol exactly.

[Invoker]

Well, time to cut out my social life... oh wait.

[NovemberJoseph]

LOL.

[heavensgift2girls]

I am not worried. The media is always trying to frighten people with some sort of virus.

[bidear]

im scared this will be the newest epidemic that kills most of us.. im scarred

[AustinMan]

What in the world is this question doing in the Sexual Behavior topic? Go away!

[musicbrain5]

It's because he said the word condom. The system put it here automatically.

[NovemberJoseph]

I know wtf, I actually put health and fitness... thanks for letting me know.

[NovemberJoseph]

@musicbrain5

[SomethingWicked]

'Condom game strong', hah. Also, not worried.

[altair212]

well i need to get laid fast huh

[goretcki]

The media just likes to scare us.