Ebola

For fear of starting a facebook fight, I have to rant here.  I hope you'll forgive me.  As a resident of DFW, I find it difficult to keep quiet.  I have a flight out of DFW in the near future.  If anyone has reason to panic I do.

But I'm not.  Not really.

The Ebola panic is both outrageous and hilarious.  I found an excellent speech Shepard Smith posted yesterday.

It's about damn time someone in the media spoke up the way Mr. Smith did.  For those who haven't seen it, please watch:

Okay, now that we're on the same page, I'll continue.  Mr. Smith makes some excellent points.  Ebola is a serious disease.  The CDC had some big missteps with the first US cases.  But it is absolutely not time to panic.  It is not time to flee.  It is not time to burn everything down.

Here's a good infographic about ebola:

Both of the women who caught Ebola on US soil were health care workers.  That's good and bad news.  Bad, because clearly whatever protocols were in place failed.  Good, because we can fix that.  Also good, because that means Ebola hasn't broken containment to the general public.

So, for now, everybody just relax.

I read a facebook post from a colleague, which is what has prompted this post.

No one is taking the US Ebola cases lightly.  No one is scoffing at the seriousness of this disease.

Have mistakes been made?  Yes.

Are they easy to fix?  Yes.

Is this a disaster?  Not in the US.  We have the technology and know-how to deal with this disease.

It's a disease we've known about for a long time and we've known how to deal with it.  Unfortunately, the people in Africa aren't nearly as lucky.  They are the ones we need to worry about.  They are the ones in serious need of help.

Here in in the United States, this doesn't even come close to a crisis.

So take a minute, get the facts, and breathe.  To the idiots who think we're all doomed, please shut up.  You aren't making this any easier and you are in fact taking away from the real crisis in Africa.

This is not a time to panic.

Wash your hands and keep calm.  Panic will solve nothing.

Take care!