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Comment by tomelders | Hacker News Reader

I'm having a hard time accepting the "everyone should stop being stupid and stop panicking about Ebola" argument. To me, an uneducated observer, the problem only appears to be getting worse. And it has gotten significantly worse in spite of all the reassurances that it would not get worse.

i think a lot of the vitriol aimed at people who are worried and a little freaked out by Ebola is unfair. People have lost their minds over much easier to understand and less worrying issues before and those peoples concerns have been met with respectful, educated correction. Now it seems to have descended into name calling and ridicule.

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I don't see anybody panicking.

And if anything, I've seen calls for more resources, calls to "do more" about Ebola, etc. Mostly to control it in Africa.

There's the "We are losing the fight to contain Ebola" line, and there's the "it'll never spread outside west Africa" line. Both of which can be (And are, apparently) true - it may become endemic to West Africa, but much like Malaria, it won't be a threat to the developed world.

Nigeria was able to contain their outbreak and kept the levels to under 20 infected. This is a disease that needs 3rd world sanitation and medical care to thrive.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/01/health/ebola-outbreak-in-n...

I think that it's totally appropriate to be alarmed by Ebola and the damage it's doing to the people and communities affected. It seems like people understand person concern, and are more trying to discourage un-informed reactions. I don't mean I know better - just that I'm not trained in public health and neither are most of the people who are being alarmist.

The WHO has encouraged the international community to react more strongly to ebola, and I certainly support that. However, I can still look askance at people with no expertise who think we should all be more frightened / upset / etc.

Same here. There have been seemingly credible sources saying it will go nowhere and other seemingly credible sources saying we're too late to stop it from spreading. It's hard to figure out where to fall on this as an uneducated, relatively detached observer.

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