I fell prey to a written satire for about an hour today. It was cute well written article, but fake. It was funny enough that I even shared it with a close friend or two before I realized it was fake. I am pretty thorough when it comes to vetting articles I read or before clicking on links people send me. The article I read was a cute story about a famous food having a manufacturing problem. Unfortunately it was written so well that it could become a modern myth that most people believe it true. For example that redheads are becoming extinct. Entirely not true, but if you google it, it would be difficult to weed through the articles to find the truth (all the the misleading articles all lead back to a single source, which was a hoax). So what does that have to do with Ebola? Well by accident I happen to have studied or read a bit about infectious diseases/ viruses. Reading up on the current outbreak I discover that there are a lot of websites with terrifyingly incorrect information. One website took the information for a different virus and just changed the name and presented it as actual information about Ebola. I am not going to teach you about Ebola. I am gonna talk to you about fear. You should fear Ebola the same amount you should fear hosting a dinner party at your house and accidentally using dirty plates. Here in the USA you wash your plates constantly, and if you were throwing a special dinner, chances are you pulled everything out to check it before the guest arrive. Now instead of washing dishes, picture American hospitals. Sanitized constantly, fresh linen, disposable stuff into biohazard containment to be sterilized. Now imagine countries that dont have that kind of hospital care. That is what has allowed the outbreaks to spread. What is standard everyday practice at even our immediate care centers would be enough prevent the spread of Ebola. Your house is safe. Unless you go out of the way to catch Ebola you are safe. The doctors who contracted Ebola are essentially the same as the firefighters who went in to Chernobyl, or running into a burning building. They were working in less than American standard sanitary conditions, because they were needed. They were saving peoples lives at the risk of their own. So it makes me angry that folks are talking about them in anyway but as heroes. What I have been reading online is much more contagious that Ebola, it is a fresh out break of fear. Fear and ignorance that was last really seen on this scale in the United States with a thing called, at the time, AIDS. Are you old enough to remember when that was going to wipe us off the map? Were you aware enough to notice how many people and groups of people became outcast lepers unsupported to die alone, even by medical professionals? Do you remember how much the fear crippled society? Well the beginnings of the fear pandemic is back. So. Quit it. The plane carrying the sick into the USA, even if it crashed would not unleash the virus. If a caregiver for those sick in Atlanta, was to accidentally prick themselves with an infected needle would not let the virus out. There is a cure for ignorance and fear, it is good information from reliable sources. Sadly fear and bad information is more contagious than calm and educated. I am obviously likely fall prey to well written satire, I am very unlikely to fall for scare articles, because I dont believe in feeding my fears, I am all about feeding my humor. I will not lie, sick people scare me. Which is why I take extra care in taking the time to find good sources of information. The fear of my own mortality is uncomfortable enough without folks hyping up the crazy talk.
Posted on: Mon, 04 Aug 2014 03:44:05 +0000
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