The Fear of Ebola
The appearance of the first case of Ebola in the U.S. caught health authorities by surprise. They now want to find out how the virus was caught by the nurse who treated the Liberian patient who died in Texas.
This case has the Dallas hospital where the infection happened and where the nurse is interned on high alert. The hospital will determine exactly what happened and why the safety protocols applied by medical personnel when treating Ebola patients failed.
This begs rethinking the steps to be followed in these cases, as Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said yesterday.
It is time to remain calm as we confront a disease that has claimed 4,000 lives in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. Extreme poverty and lack of sanitation resources are a breeding ground for the virus which, scientists have determined, spreads through bodily fluids.
Those who are not calm are the shameless politicians who, in the midst of the electoral campaign, are trying to turn a health concern into an immigration issue.
There is not one single case of Ebola reported in Latin America. Still, this is an insignificant detail for those interested in scaring the ill-informed with lies based on the most profound ignorance.
How else could anyone explain the reason Scott Brown, a New Hampshire Republican candidate for the Senate, who bases his opposition to undocumented immigrants on the alleged possibility that they could be carrying Ebola?
Meanwhile, North Carolina GOP candidate for the Senate Thom Tillis said a few days ago that the border with Mexico needed to be closed to avoid the spread of the disease. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY,) for his part, said that the southern border was not safe enough to keep the virus out of the U.S.
In instances when we face troubles such as Ebola, it is important to stay informed of what the health authorities say and to follow their instructions calmly. Let’s leave hysteria to these Republican candidates who take advantage of any opportunity to scare their voters with the ghost of the undocumented migrants
