Ebola Still Scares Too Many Americans: Attention Should Be On Obesity, Heart Disease Instead
Despite President Obama’s, and many doctors’, repeated reassurance that Ebola will not spread throughout the United States, Americans are still fearful that it will be the next big epidemic. In fact, according to a new Gallup poll, 17 percent of Americans still believe the virus is a major health concern, putting it above cancer (10 percent), obesity (10 percent), heart disease (two percent), and AIDS (one percent).
There have so far only been four cases of Ebola and one death in the U.S., according to the World Health Organization. Except for Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person diagnosed here, every patient survived. Not only that, but the people who were being monitored for symptoms after possible contact with the Dallas nurses have all been cleared, and allowed to go about daily life again. In New York, where Dr. Craig Spencer was diagnosed and treated over three weeks ago, there have not yet been any new cases of the virus — he was surrounded by people the entire night before being diagnosed.
Believing that Ebola trumps those other diseases simply isn’t rational, even if it’s an unfamiliar disease with the potential to kill. In West Africa, where Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia have been hit with nearly 14,400 cases and 5,165 deaths, the virus has been able to spread because of a lack of resources in clinics and hospitals. A distrust in the government and health authorities, as well as traditional burial practices, which require people to touch the dead bodies, hasn’t made the crisis any better.
If this poll is any indication, Americans will likely stay far away from any hospital or area that is treating an Ebola patient — actually, many health care providers skipped work the day after Spencer was admitted. Put that together with a much more sophisticated health system, and there’s zero chance Ebola will spread in America like it has in West Africa.
Instead, we should be channeling all that concern over Ebola into the other aforementioned diseases, which kill many more Americans each year. Just imagine what would happen if the hysteria over Ebola was over obesity and heart disease — our country would be a whole lot less obese.