Is It Just Me Or…

Apparently we don’t have enough to deal with right now between the wars in the Middle East, a dysfunctional White House and thousands of children streaming over our southern border. On top of all that, we now have an Ebola outbreak to contend with.

You’ve probably been following the story. More than 1,300 people in West Africa have been infected, and a majority of them have died from the deadly virus. Two American healthcare workers who were working for Christian charities in Liberia have also been infected. They’ve both been flown to Emory University Hospital in Georgia, where they are receiving treatment for the deadly disease.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has assured the public that direct contact with the bodily fluids of someone carrying the virus is needed to contract Ebola. We’ve also been assured that the virus is not airborne. You may have noticed that, in TV commentary about the outbreak, experts have been shaking their heads when talking about average folks who express skepticism about the virus being totally contained. Given the failures of so many experts in a variety of fields in recent years, I understand their skepticism.

For example, I find it curious that, in all the interviews that I’ve seen with CDC spokesmen, not one questioner has asked the question that has repeatedly come to my mind: Why should we trust your experts?

In the last three months, the CDC has been caught mishandling three different pathogens—anthrax, avian flu and small pox. In the case of small pox, the deadly virus was stored in vials and misplaced for decades.

That’s not very reassuring. What’s more, viruses can mutate. Why hasn’t anyone asked why we should be sure the Ebola virus won’t mutate and become airborne? Out of curiosity, I googled “could Ebola become airborne” and received hundreds of articles arguing that it could, including a 2012 piece suggesting that it may already be airborne between animals.

Here’s another problem: Many studies have found that in spite of all precautions medical personnel are told to follow in regards to washing their hands, not using their cell phones in the operating room, etc., a depressingly large number don’t follow the rules. This unhygienic behavior is a major contributor to the spread of antibiotic-resistant pathogens.

It has been suggested that flights from certain West African countries be cancelled until the outbreak is controlled. Again, we have been assured by the experts that this is not necessary. Several CDC spokesmen have pointed out that people arriving from those countries are monitored closely upon arriving in the U.S. That sounds like a good idea, but can we really feel good about the government being able to monitor airport arrivals when everyone knows it cannot monitor arrivals on the southern border?

I understand that the CDC doesn’t want to spread rumors that might cause panic. But the U.S. government’s involvement in healthcare in recent years hardly makes me confident that it will be able to resolve this crisis.