Scarier Than Ebola

    On October 14, 2014, Frank Bruni an Op-Ed columnist in the New York Times newspaper wrote an article titled Scarier than Ebola. In that article he said: American panic really well, if they can only shift their eyes away from the media coverage of Ebola in Texas and answer the following question have you had your flu shot? Are you planning on one?

  

    According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, large numbers of Americans that were killed by the influenza flu which is a familiar disease and could’ve been prevented. Thousands of Americans dies in car accidents because more than half of them don’t wear seat-belts based on the federal analysis of 2012. 

   

    We have clear answers about how to reduce risks but we proceed on either ignoring them or forgetting about them. Ebola is frightening and the entire world should take care of that crisis in Africa and the United States should look after it. Americans are searching for answers about transmission and prevention yet we already have such answers and we should look for them instead of worrying about our imminent exposure to Ebola. 

  

     Jeffrey Duchin, chairman of the public health committee of the Infectious Diseases Society of America said that people are worrying a lot about things like Ebola that isn’t a general risk, if we just look at the causes of death in the United States everything is higher than Ebola. Stephen Morse, a professor of epidemiology at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health said that there’s a lot of vaccine-preventable diseases yet a lot of people don’t want their children to take it. Gary Baum a Hollywood reporter said according to his report, the percentage of kids vaccinated in Beverly Hills and Santa Monica are in line with immunization rates in developing countries like Chad and South Sudan. Finally, a Dallas pediatrician urged families to have their children vaccinated about diseases they can prevent and pointed out frequent hand washing. Ebola or no Ebola, it’s a responsible and frequently disregarded way to lessen health risks. 

   

     I find this article interesting to read, the arguments given are supported by numbers,facts and scientists. Ebola is mainly in Africa, there’s just one confirmed death case till now with Ebola in the United States, it’s just how the media points fingers to it and lights it up that makes the people stress and worry more about that disease. The media stimulates it to a point that now everyone thinks they’re infected with Ebola. People should simply get vaccinated and stay clean, this will clearly lower any health risk.