Halloween is coming!

[thistle_chaser]

I changed my default icon by mistake, but know what? It's fitting for October, so I'm leaving it.

And to continue that trend, I have two scary links for you.

Talk about Ebola is a lot scarier when you add the The Walking Dead theme music behind it.

Click to view

(To be clear, I'm not scared of Ebola in general. Despite all the coverage it's getting in the

Comments

[ghost_light]

I love the new icon!

[thistle_chaser]

We match! :D

[beauty_forashes]

Despite all the coverage it's getting in the news, it's very, very, very hard to be infected by it.If it really is that hard, then how did a trained nurse wearing protective garb become infected? If someone sneezes on you in the subway, coughs into their hand and then touches a doorknob, then presto - you've handled bodily fluids. It's also contained in saliva, mucous and all other bodily fluids (http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/transmission/). The virus can live on surfaces for up to 15 minutes. To completely avoid bodily fluids, you'd have to be sure to be out of the range of a sneeze from an infected person (about 25 feet), which is going to be hard in our crowded cities. A sneeze contains bodily fluid, and sprays all over the place. It's not a virus that's only transmitted through blood/sexual contact like the AIDS virus. And, if catching it through contact is really that difficult, why are 100 people in the US being monitored that had simple contact with that

[voidmagus]

Subway? The place that makes crappy sandwiches? Why would I go there

[beauty_forashes]

Subway? The place that makes crappy sandwiches? Why would I go there?

LOL! Touché actually.

Much of the country doesn't have public transit.

Germany (and much of Europe in general) has a lot of public transit and it's very frequented by a lot of people. Broken skin, sure, but what about mucous membranes? How many people catch the flu while outside and without having immediate access to soap and water? Many of us do touch our eyes or lips without even thinking much about it. And ebola, at least this strain, has a 50% fatality rate so far. I realize there's a lot of hype and fear-mongering in the media, but on the reverse side there's a lot of placating of the masses too, saying it's so, so hard to actually catch. I don't think it's that hard to catch at all, and one person spreading the virus is enough to infect countless others, who in turn infect countless others, just as it happened with the AIDS epidemic. I'm not a fan of fear-mongering, but I don't think we're taking enough precautions to detain this in West Africa where it

[thistle_chaser]

but on the reverse side there's a lot of placating of the masses too, saying it's so, so hard to actually catch.

That's not placating of the masses, that's the truth. Ebola isn't new. Back in... 1995-ish I read a book about it saying the same thing. It's a scary disease, one that could easily cause panic, but it's hard to catch and spread.