I want to address Ebola mania today. Or to quote the Bard: Much ado about nothing.

Now don't misunderstand Charley Nelson (that's me). In West Africa Ebola is a very serious problem. Our worries and our prayers should certainly be for the many people living there infected and at risk. But as a problem in the USA, Ebola is virtually non-existent. You wouldn't know that by listening to some of our politicians and members of the media, however. You'd think we were living in Europe in the 1350s fighting off the Black Plague.
 

A few stats here. And a bit of common sense. So far we've had four cases of Ebola in the U.S. and one death. That is hardly a plague. Compare that to around 10,000 deaths a year from drunk driving and around 30,000 deaths a year because of the flu. No one has suggested yet (have they?) that we ought to start quarantining people who neglected to get a flu shot this year. Yet you are more at risk from these people than anyone in the U.S. with Ebola.
 

"But Charley," people say to me, "it got out of control in Africa so it could get out of control here!" Well, no, actually. It couldn't. Ebola is not an airborne virus. It is passed through bodily fluids. In third world areas where sanitation is not great and medical facilities aren't modernized, the disease can become a serious problem. That isn't going to happen here.

 

Yet some politicians are playing this for all it's worth! "Oh my God! Obama has let the disease get completely out of control." Oh, yeah. Four cases and one death. Run for the hills. I for one would much rather see Obama and congress work on ways to cut down on drunk driving deaths instead of fretting away over a non-existent plague.
 

Oh, and Governor Christie? Instead of playing doctor with a disease you obviously know very little about, why don't you go back to doing something your are good at? Like causing traffic jams.