Thoughts on Ebola

The Ebola Microbe,
an adorable collection
of stuffed animals
shaped like microscopic
organisms.
Great gag gifts.

Ebola. The virus inciting fear in America. I can't keep track of the numbers, but a lot of people have died from it in Africa, one guy died in the USA, a few Americans were cured and survived to tell the tale, a few are currently in treatment, and a handful are being "monitored" or whatever the hell that means.

The yelly news media's coverage of Ebola is displaying everything I loathe about the news these days.

For one thing, they won't shut up about it. It's everywhere in the national news, and I'm sure it's on everyone's local stations too, I'm sure we are not an isolated case of reporting. Every single night, local news programs, who really don't have ANYTHING to worry about at this point, dedicate at least 5 minutes (1/6th of their program, remember) to talking about Ebola. Last week, KSDK had to have a segment to talk about the paranoia and fear about Ebola... that was caused due to the fact that they won't stop talking about Ebola! Does no one else see the relationship here? Cause and effect? Anyone?

Then last Friday, with the announcement of a person in NYC testing positive for ebola (which was bound to happen, it's NYC) the Today Show called in "experts" to talk about it. They started their report about what the man did the previous day, which included riding the Subway and going bowling. Then they talked to an actual doctor who said "Well, you can't catch Ebola until someone is showing symptoms." Which completely discounts everything they were just talking about, that were all things he did before he got sick! Today the conversation turned to a nurse who was quarantined because she 'might' be infected. One politician says it was unreasonable, one politician says it was completely justified. Oh waaaaa. Personally I think she's just whining and needs to get over it. But it brings me to my next point: Why in the world are they interviewing politicians about ebola? Why aren't they talking to, I don't know, doctors? And ONLY doctors? Or people in the medical field?

The news has successfully turned everyone into a bunch of whiney ebola-fear-ers. The proof was in the pudding last week as I was in Columbia for my checkup, when a lady got in the elevator. Myself and a nurse were already in there, and the lady proceeded to ask the nurse "Are you guys prepared for Ebola?" We are in for an interesting flu season, my friends. Since Ebola starts out with a fever—the same way a flu usually does—I predict many people are going to flip their shit and rush to the ER claiming they have Ebola. You just watch.

Vox has circulated the following graphic many times since the panic started:

vox.com

Calm down people. You don't have Ebola.

David Brooks wrote an interesting opinion piece about why Ebola is scaring everyone to death, and he argues that it is our culture's evasion of dealing with death itself. I feel that if the media actually aimed to inform and educate the masses, instead of trying to keep them gobbling up their news like Cookie Monster eating cookies, this might have turned out differently. For now, I'm done with the news. I am going to avoid it like the plague for a while. Or, rather, avoid it like it's Ebola...

There you have it, everything I hate about the news: non-stop coverage every day, inciting fear, discounting facts, and the public ignoring the facts even when presented with them. Gah!

John Stewart at The Daily Show summed it up quite nicely in this brilliant piece. Click here to view it.

PS—My favorite Microbe is the MRSA guy. He's the "superbug" so he wears a superhero cape, haha. Come on, you gotta laugh. Plus he's kind of cute.