h/t gates of ViennaWe're now witnessing the worst Ebola epidemic ever. It's spun "out of control," warns one of the world's most influential newspapers. What's not to be afraid of? Well, Ebola.
As always, count on the World Health Organization's (WHO) Director Margaret Cho to make the worst of any epidemic. "If the situation continues to deteriorate, the consequences can be catastrophic in terms of lost lives but also severe socioeconomic disruption and a high risk of spread to other countries," she said.
Assuming that WHO is more competent than other UN agencies makes an ass of you and me?
Here's a rule of thumb about diseases: The rarer and less likely they are to kill you; the more hype they get. The New York Times ran more than 2,000 articles on SARS, which ultimately killed zero Americans.
Previous epidemics were smaller, but that didn't stop them from becoming epidemic hysteria. I should know: My first article about Ebola hysteria appeared during the 1996 outbreak, with more articles during a subsequent outbreak 13 years ago!
This is only the deadliest outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease because past ones were so tiny. At this writing, there have been 1,711 reported cases in Africa and 932 deaths. That's too many. Still no suspected cases that didn't originate in those four countries and mortality rate remains 55 percent.
But every day about 600 sub-Saharan Africans die of tuberculosis, and contagious diarrhea claims the lives of 2,195 children, the vast majority of them in sub-Saharan Africa. Malaria kills twice as many people each day than total Ebola kills.