sábado, agosto 09, 2014

MICHAEL FUMENTO sobre el pánico exagerado en torno al ébola:

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 as Ebola has been killing.

Toss in syphilis, AIDS and lots of other diseases that routinely kill more people than Ebola is right now.

And, should Ebola come to America, it’s vanishingly unlikely to “break out.” Ebola is a lazy spreader. Even a cough or sneeze or sweat from an “active” case is harmless. Spreading the virus requires contact with large doses of bodily secretions such as blood or vomit.

In Africa, that makes the proportion of fatalities among health-care workers exceptionally high and thereby makes the illness seem more frightening. After all, they’re specialists. But in the ramshackle clinics these heroic folks have to work in, they often lack the most basic protective equipment.

Consider: In over four months since the latest Ebola outbreak was identified in Guinea, it has spread to only three other countries—all in sub-Saharan Africa. Flu can spread to three new countries in a day.

Leedlo entero.