Ebola: I'm dumbfounded...

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62. read this ny times q&a; the virus does not spread readily

Q

Can I get Ebola from public transportation? As in, if a passenger coughed into their hand and then held onto the pole, and then another passenger held onto that pole and inadvertently wiped their eye?

A
The answer is no. Someone with Ebola is really, really sick. They’re seeking hospital care. It is unlikely they are riding the bus. They are not going to work. The virus is spread by bodily fluid contact: by blood, by vomit. When it’s being spread by sweat or urine, you’re practically at the dead body stage. So it’s not transmitted the way that colds could be, by touching a pole in a subway or bus.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/10/03/ebola-ask-well-spread-public-transit/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0

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you're only really contagious when you're in the actively very, very sick stage, not at all likely to take a bus in the first place.

while passing the disease along via a surface such as metal is theoretically possible, in practice it just doesn't happen that way. by far the vast majority of transmissions have been to people in direct care of someone who is actively very sick with ebola, i.e., in the bleeding and vomiting stage.