Not to sound insensitive, but it's primarily isolated to the poor regions of West Africa. Not exactly a strategic region, or a particularly important one, in relation to western politics. It's not like China (labor source, manufacturing) or Mexico (next door neighbor to the US) or the Middle East (oil).

If a large breakout happens somewhere else, it will get more attention, but right now, most governments are probably thinking "we have our own shit to deal with"

It's a tragedy we should work to stop. It doesn't pose a massive threat to the West, but that doesn't mean we should ignore it. I do believe there has been a lot of media spin on the issue, giving it more attention than something like Malaria (which is a much greater threat to public health in Africa) but it's still an important issue.

AIDS kills way more Africans than Ebola. Then again, so do malnutrition, heatstroke, and civil war. Let's just say Africa, for the moment, is farqued.

And if you're just talking about here in the States, no. My redneck, PTSD-having neighbor carries a gun to mow his lawn. I'm much more concerned about assholes like that than a viral outbreak I can avoid by not consuming someone else's blood.

My wife is a nurse who works on the floor where people in isolation are kept. Also hospitals are chronically understaffed because corporate healthcare is substandard.

So yeah I care about. Especially as it has arrived in Ohio and the authorities have completely botched its containment.

+1 to Putin. Not on the substandard part (well, maybe on average, yes), but on the chronically understaffed bit.

I would hope that they don't bring potential Ebola patients to hospitals that aren't' prepared for it.

Also fuck the CDC for releasing the nurse's name to the public. That's a violation of the law. CDC does not have anybody who has gotten ebola because they wear space suits, while nurses who care for patients wear thin gowns.

Sorry, I don't mean to say I don't care about the epidemic elsewhere. I'm merely suggesting that the media coverages we're seeing right now is way out of proportion to the actual threat. I feel its yet another distraction from the issues we really should care about, and should be demanding our media to cover.

what is the threat?

How can you determine what that is?

Yellowjacket: If you knew anything about what is happening in Guinea-Conakry, Sierra Leone and Liberia, you wouldn't be saying that.

Let me put it a different way. Which is more likely to do me harm: the chance of contracting ebola, or the ongoing crusade by the wealthy and powerful to maintain their wealth and power at the expense of everybody else that has been happening for the last... oh... 6000 years or so?

I'm not trying to say we shouldn't care at all - I'm saying this is yet another in a long chain of promoting fear and distraction, and in the grand scheme of things its significance is far overshadowed by its media coverage. Until next week, when a fresh now thing we're supposed to care about comes along.

I promise you this... 3 weeks from now no media station is going to be even mentioning ebola. Feel free to mark your calendar if you like, and call bs on old YJ if I'm wrong.

I personally feel like YJ has a point. Though, I'd put it more at two months than 3 weeks. MSF, WHO and the rest will have the outbreak under control by the end of the year. Its already disappeared in Senegal and Nigeria, and I had heard that Guinea was getting it under control.

Honestly, there are more important things that we should be dealing with. The growing inequality in the developed world, ISIS, developing treatments for diseases that kill many, many more people than Ebola ever will, etc.

Yellowjacket: Your question wasn't about the U. S. media . . .

goldfinger0303: It never really happened in Senegal or Nigeria. But it has recently creeped into all three capitals of Freetown, Monrovia and Conakry, which is very bad news. And speaking of Guinea, look what I just found, published 8 hours ago:
http://qz.com/282643/ebola-is-getting-worse-in-guinea-and-no-ones-paying-any-attention/

Interesting. I just knew that the outbreak started there and Guinea had the least cases of the three main countries. There's been no news, so I figured it was winding down

I'm thinking other powerful countries have a certain death rate will occur and they will help, not now, they are trying to enrich themselves while ebola is raging

Disease proves better than most things that the entire world is interconnected, as much as xenophobes would wish otherwise. Ebola isn't really a threat to the USA, but the totally inadequate response the outside world has given it shows just exactly how a deadly pathogen could arise in a place people don't care about for cynical reasons, spread beyond the ability to contain it, then jump the borders and cause mayhem to everyone. All of which could be avoided by ponying up the resources to strengthen the health systems of poor countries like Sierra Leone. As it turns out, the right thing is also the most sensible thing to do, every time, unless all you care about is the next election I guess. But if you care about yourself, your children, your country and our race, then what to do with such problems as poverty, disease, war, or any other is clear.

Ebola is a case in poit refutation of isolationists.

And yeah I don't think it will be contained by the end of the year, unless we seriously step up our commitment. But knowing how much energy our leaders tend to have, especially when it comes to sending people to Africa, realistically, it's past the point of no return. It's going to be an absolute catastrophe.

@JECE I know. That's what I meant the OP to be about, but I can definitely see how it's been interpreted as just me scoffing at the whole thing. Not my intent.

Guys a very interesting insight into lives of some people who seem genuinely ignorant of world events.
If you are not sure how serious the threat is and how concerned your govt are look how much money they have already spent tracking down people from one flight that an infected nurse traveled on, if one of those people is infected then multiply it up the number of people to be tracked. Unchecked this has the ability to kill untold millions.
Millions of dollars are being spent on this already, this is a big deal, the uncertainty about the spread is hitting shares which indirectly impacts your pensions.
Troops and medical staff have been deployed, 1000's of them
I would seriously suggest you guys look at your news sources, don't die of ignorance.

Shep from fox news of all places puts it very eloquently:

http://www.vox.com/xpress/2014/10/15/6984867/ebola-shep-smith-fox-news