Science or Superstition—Ebola and Crowdsourcing Wisdom

I don’t pay much attention to the chatter on the news—I don’t watch the talking heads and don’t follow the conversations and popular topics.

With that said, I see now that there is a enormous number of people who are being convinced that Ebola is some ginormous threat to The American Way of Life, and that hysteria is called for, and that the end is near.

I’m sorry, but are you guys all nuts?

Ebola is a deadly disease, yes. It spreads through human contact and exchange of bodily fluids. It kills about 90% of the people who are infected. It’s bad news.

But it is not a monster of unknown shape.

You get Ebola in limited ways: you must be in contact with a person with Ebola, or in contact with the emissions of a person with Ebola, such as blood or mucus.

You can contain Ebola through some difficult measures—you must be suited up, and your clothing must be carefully and rigorously sanitized, and all infected areas must be sprayed with bleach to kill the virus.

Some extraordinary methods are needed in order to isolate Ebola victims, and some extensive means are required to deal with the clean-up, but it is not a mystery.

It appears that tens of millions of people in America today are being stamped into fear by a pack of talking heads who want you to listen to them so they can be “popular.” The right-wing media is helping with this nonsense, but there are also shouting heads in the middle as well.

Ebola is something we have to deal with. It’s taking its toll in West Africa. We should offer aid and assistance in tamping it down in order that the countries there do not collapse through exhaustion and hysteria, and also in order that we do not see a mutation in the virus that might make it more deadly.

But the craziness being espoused, mostly by the right-wing media and shared by those who are gullible to the fact-free assertions of the right-wing media, needs to stop.

Stop.

Take a breath.

Relax. Slow down. Think about the actual circumstances.

An infected man came to America and died. A nurse treating him in the early chaotic days has been infected.

That’s it.

We’ll treat this and figure out how it all happened.

Stop seeing this as something that has no meaning, or, even more stupidly, seeing this as something plotted by the Evil Government in order to put you in prison camps.

I don’t know whether everyone who’s repeating these stories is insane and truly believes this nonsense they’re spouting, or if they’re just trying to stir up trouble.

But it’s nowhere near as bad as the right-wing media thinks it is.

And then ask yourself this: why is the right wing all fired up about this disease which is manageable through public safety and health measures, when the right wing has been doing its best to destroy the public health system? The right wing won’t allow the Surgeon General to be voted on in the Senate. The right wing cuts funding for public health and safety. The right wing fights against a public health system and public health access.

And now you are listening to the right wing about how to fight Ebola?

Who is crazier, the one who speaks crazy things or the one who believes the crazy things that are spoken?