The Ebola Outbreak

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa has now claimed 4,000 lives and shows no sign of ending anytime soon.

In the US the first diagnosed case of Ebola was a man returning to Texas from Liberia. The patient was originally misdiagnosed at a Dallas hospital (they were probably too busy saying "how about them Cowboys") and sent home with antibiotics.

The man later died from the disease and now a healthcare worker that treated that man at the same Dallas hospital has been diagnosed with the virus. This is the first case of someone catching the virus in the continental US.

Three other false alarms, one in Frisco Texas, one in Boston Massachusetts and one at Newark Airport in New Jersey, made temporary headlines.

So what's the deal here? Should we be worried? Worried yes, in a state of panic, despite attempts by Fox News and other to create one, not so much.

My biggest cause for concern is I'm detecting a bad case of "too much arrogance and not enough caution" from Center for Disease Control (CDC) spokesmen.

They're making it sound like they have everything under control despite not seeming to be doing very much. The healthcare worker in Dallas should shake them up because either (1) the safety protocols were broken which is bad or (2) the safety protocols aren't as effective as we'd like to think which is REALLY bad.

All in all there are far too many people making statements and writing articles about how there's really nothing to be concerned about. When lots of people start telling me I have no reason to be concerned, I get concerned. Don't tell me, show me.