Faced with a level of public fear over spread of Ebola which some experts believe is irrational and others regard as simply media-fuelled, President Barack Obama on Saturday urged Americans not to give in to any hysteria over a possible epidemic.
Using his weekly radio and Internet address largely to calm public sentiments on this score, Obama said: “This is a serious disease, but we can’t give in to hysteria or fear — because that only makes it harder to get people the accurate information they need.”
“What we’re seeing now is not an “outbreak” or an “epidemic” of Ebola in America. We’re a nation of more than 300 million people,” he said, pointing to the fact there have been only three cases of Ebola diagnosed in the US. “Now, even one infection is too many. At the same time, we have to keep this in perspective. As our public health experts point out, every year thousands of Americans die from the flu,” he added.
Obama’s comments came as anxiety levels have been mounting over the past couple of days with reports of several hundred air passengers being monitored, a woman lab worker from Dallas being quarantined aboard a cruise ship and a woman who took ill near Pentagon being whisked away to a hospital.
Pentagon authorities shut down an entrance to the complex and a portion of the parking lot where the woman got off a shuttle bus and vomited. The fear level soared among fellow-passengers when she disclosed that she was recently in West Africa. By Friday evening, however, there was relief as the Inova Fairfax Hospital reported that the woman does not have Ebola.
But there was no immediate relief of the kind for holidaymakers, aboard a Caribbean cruise ship, following word that a Dallas woman lab worker who handled the blood examination of the deceased Ebola patient from liberia was on the ship. The cruise line said the woman is being kept in isolation on board the ship. Some of the terrified passengers were even reported to be crying.
Clearly, the Ebola scare knows no boundaries. So much so, the tiny Central American nation of Belize flatly turned down the US’s request to let the cruise ship dock at its port to enable evacuation of the woman and her companion by air. Faced with similar refusal to dock in Mexico, the ship is now headed back to Galveston, Texas, set to arrive there by Sunday morning.
In his speech, Obama sought to reassure people that “we know how to fight this disease” and recounted his administration’s step-up of medical efforts. The protocols in place, when followed, do work. He also sought to tell them that “Ebola is actually a difficult disease to catch” as it is not transmitted through the air like the flu.
“You cannot get it from just riding on a plane or a bus. The only way that a person can contract the disease is by coming into direct contact with the bodily fluids of somebody who is already showing symptoms,” Obama told his worried countrymen, adding: “I’ve met and hugged some of the doctors and nurses who’ve treated Ebola patients. I’ve met with an Ebola patient who recovered, right in the Oval Office. And I’m fine.”