By Ashley-Kate McCann
Contributing Writer
With media outlets publishing less news on Ebola, there has been a dip in the scare tactics that had been so common in the preceding weeks. What was clearly more prevalent than the disease was the fear being spread about the “outbreak” of the disease.
According to a Washington Post poll, two-thirds of Americans were worried Ebola will become widespread in the US. Republicans called for a travel ban to stop the spread of Ebola in the United States.
CNN coined the state of panic “Fear-bola”, which presents symptoms of irrational thinking and “builds into fear of a widespread epidemic in the United States.”
According to NPR, as of October 20, Nigeria and Senegal were declared Ebola free, the end of the “epidemic” seemed in sight. Looking back, the question to be asked is: why did the media report the disease as if it was impacting the United States as heavily as it was in West Africa?
More than 4,500 people have died of the disease in West Africa, and less than a handful of people have died in the US, yet the media coverage of the report suggested that the disease is everywhere and could easily affect a large portion of the US population.
In fact Forbes notes, rather than the disease being a death sentence, there is an 80 percent survival rate in the US, compared to a 30 percent survival rate in places like Guinea. The reason for such a low survival rate in West Africa is due to the poor healthcare systems.
The media focus should not have been on scaremongering the people of the United States, but presenting the facts about the potential to contact the disease. Ebola is not viral, and according to the World Health Organization, Ebola is spread through bodily fluids, and “humans are not infectious until they develop symptoms.”
The people most likely to contract the virus were those who had travelled to West Africa or are healthcare workers in these regions.
If mainstream media focused on the impact this disease was having on West Africa because of lack of aid, poor nutrition, poor healthcare systems, more people may have been more willing to donate to help those in need therefore decrease the devastation caused by the disease and improve the lives of the African people.
Ashley-Kate McCann is a contributing writer for The Bona Venture. Her email is mccanna14@bonaventure.edu
