According to Shelby Buttimer Liberian film critic:
This is NOT the end of the world. As deadly
as Ebola is, it's actually rather terrible at
spreading itself.
1. It is only contagious via bodily fluid. The
best pandemic virus are spread through the air.
It's the most efficient way to get a whole plane
full of people sick. You have no more chance of
catching Ebola from sitting next to someone on a
plane or a train than you would of catching
Herpes. Not gonna happen.
Edited again: Some people are confused about
"airborne". Yes, if someone with active Ebola
coughs in your face, you can get Ebola that way
and I suppose that for the 2 seconds it's in the
air, it's "airborne". Ebola is not "airborne" n
the sense that a cold or flu virus is airborne in
that the virus can not hang around in the air
waiting to infect people, it can't survive in air
filters or on surfaces. A truly airborne virus can
infect a whole room full of people with one
person's cough. Ebola is not airborne.
The other tremendous disadvantage Ebola has is
that it doesn't typically cause coughing or
sneezing like a cold virus. It causes bleeding out
of various unpleasant orifices. That's certainly
very unpleasant, but doesn't spread the virus
like a good cough or sneeze.
2. It is only infectious once you are showing
symptoms. So even in the incubation period,
the person carrying it can't spread it. And when
the carrier starts showing symptoms, they're
incapacitated within hours. This is a terrible way
to spread disease. A really efficient pandemic
virus would give the person the sniffles and
slight headache for a week or so before taking
them out so that the person will ride the train,
go out to dinner, go to work, etc. Diseases
don't spread well when the person is at home
sick in bed while they're infectious.
3. The only reason Ebola has spread as much as
it has is because it started out in ideal disease-
spreading conditions - poor countries with poor
medical care, among people who have little trust
for their governing authorities, who generally
aren't sufficiently educated to understand the
importance of quarantine, and who have funeral
rituals which involve touching the dead body.
Ebola would never survive in the United States
or any other first world country with good
medical care and with the ability to quarantine
as needed.
Edited to add:
Can Ebola be transmitted by mosquitoes?
Nope. Mosquitoes aren't a natural host. Sure,
mosquitoes can bite people who have Ebola, but
the virus will die inside the mosquito. Same
with ticks and other biting insects.
Will Ebola become airborne? Almost certainly
not. The virus is incredibly delicate. Even if you
just dry out a bloody rag contaminated with
Ebola, the virus will die. And the virus hasn't
mutated significantly since it was found in 1976,
so the odds of it mutating to be able to survive
in the air are pretty darn slim. Not to mention
that Ebola doesn't cause coughing and sneezing,
two of the best ways for an airborne virus to
spread, even if it does become airborne on
some off chance.
Ebola is not intelligent, folks. Is it dangerous?
Sure. Is it deadly? Absolutely. Is it intelligent?
NO. Nor is it malicious. Ebola is not plotting
world domination any more than that cold that's
going around your office. It's just a virus. And
we know how to deal with it. The only reason
its survived this long is that it's popped up in
the best possible place for it to survive - a place
with terrible healthcare and with poor
sanitation. It will die out again and it won't
take over the world.
Don't panic. )