By David Stillwell

So I have had to take a step back from my previous rant about Ebola and Texas Nurses. A couple of things have popped up today that I think need to be clarified. The first is that there is a gross difference between what the CDC defines “Airborne” and what the World Health Organization and Dr’s without Boarders define as “Airborne.” Sadly, from the nation with what should clearly be the world’s best healthcare the CDC definition is lacking. Even the degree by which those mysterious protocols have been breached were nowhere near as comprehensive as those from the World Health Organization. (Thank you to readers who brought this point to light)

I spent some time today verifying the licenses of both RNs and each had at least three years of experience working as an RN. Each year, and in fact each day, a nurse is faced with all kinds of diseases, pathogens, bacteria, and virus. While the public is very conscious of the term Ebola, there are plenty of other diseases, bacteria, pathogens, and viruses that we face every day. Nurses work on the front line of healthcare, and most manage to avoid contracting HIV, Hepatitis, the common flu, as well as MSRA. So what is it about Ebola that has everyone freaked out?

Historically, this phobia of disease is reminiscent of the entire AIDS epidemic in the early 80’s, the scare over Anthrax in the late 90’s, the Bird flu, West Nile Virus, Lymes Disease… and that list just keeps building. The Preppers are stocking up on isolation kits; the public is grocery shopping in masks. Every time a kid coughs people stop breathing. My God! We have lived with brown recluse spiders for as long as we have been here. Still every single spider bite that comes into the ER is from a brown recluse spider, even in California where there are NONE. People are afraid that every snake is poisonous. There are only a handful in the United States that are poison. People need to just calm down.

What the focus needs to be about is understanding how disease is spread. So imagine you are Amber Vinson or Nina Pham, and you have been caring for a patient who has Ebola. What do you do after work? Do you right the light rail home? Do you get in your car and drive home? Think about all of the people with which those two nurses could have come into contact. Each of those people has a family, friends, children, lovers, husbands, wives who may now also be carrying the Ebola virus. Then you have two air planes full of people who traveled with these nurses and they two may now have the Ebola virus. The potential for the virus to spread is just multiplying every time two people meet. Will it hit the prostitutes, escort and random tricks and spread like crazy?

The potential is INSANE. Why am I so calm about this? It may be that I am an introvert, and I work from home. I don’t have to come into contact with people, so I feel pretty safe. The real point that I am trying to make is that we are way too focused on Ebola. We are so focused on Ebola that heart disease, cancer, smoking, drinking, driving drunk, and even eating hot dogs kills more people every year than Ebola has killed in the past 30 years. Did you know that 400 people die each year from choking on hot dogs So far that is 399 more than have died from Ebola in the United States? Should we be concerned about Ebola? Yes, we should. Is it time to panic? No, not yet. I mean the government has not even unleashed FEMA yet, and we know how much help they were during Hurricane Katrina. The CDC is on the case and so far; they have not been able to find a breach in protocol despite the fact that they are sure there was one. Ebola may be the only reason politicians decide not to have debates this upcoming election and who knows. Under the current medical crisis, all the states look red. It’s your call though. For me, I am not quite ready to panic over this.

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