Some Things More Likely to Kill You Than Ebola

[kpete]

http://prospect.org/article/some-things-more-likely-kill-you-ebola

[cali]

1. so what?

None of the listed causes are a disease that is contagious and can kill within days, having a mortality rate of 50%+. I find these comparisons a bit disingenuous. I'm not suggesting panicking but these obvious attempts to prevent panic are so heavy handed and... dumb.

[TreasonousBastard]

3. If "lower respiratory disease" includes

influenza, we've had flu epidemics that made Ebola look like a runny nose. High mortality and extremely contagious is the combination to fear.

Oh, and the latest anti-vax crusade doesn't do squat for Ebola but sure helps the flu, scarlet fever, and other horrors to spread like wildfire.

But, hey, Ebola is the scare of the day that is the excuse to not not get vaccinated, wear our seatbelts, or leave guns around little children.

[cali]

4. it's ridiculous that anti-vaxxers are jumping on ebola as a reason not to vaccinate.

Not surprising, however. And sure, the Spanish flu was much worse, but that doesn't mean there isn't reason for concern re ebola. and concern is NOT panic. If we don't get the epidemic in West Africa under control, we have a real problem. As of now, it's raging out of control there. I pay attention to what MSF has to say, and they've been saying for months that it's imperative that we get the epidemic under control.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

2. The leading cause of death in America is missing from that chart.

Republicans holding governmental offices, and blocking or cutting regulations that protect workers and the environment, blocking or cutting funding for health-related research and treatments.

[Nye Bevan]

5. And in the early 1980s you could have made a similar chart for AIDs.

Which does not excuse how the Reagan administration downplayed the threat of it.

[Blue_Adept]

6. Yeah, but that's from 2011

It's a whole new world out there. Ebola's lurking around every corner waiting for you to lick it.