If the Dallas-Ebola patient knew or at least suspected he had Ebola before boarding that plane to

[apples and oranges]

the United States, should there be consequences? How many people did he expose? Hundreds? Thousands? Is anyone investigating the time table of his flight into the US? Was the ticket purchased weeks in advance or at the last minute?

[LeftyMom]

1. Unless he joined the mile high club he likely didn't "expose" any of them. It's spread by fluids.

It's not like the flu, you're not contagious until you're symptomatic.

[MohRokTah]

3. Because it's so easy to clean your hands after using an aircraft toilet.

At least there's the requirement that the patient is symptomatic with Ebola to be contagious.

As far as we know.

Viruses can mutate. Let's hope that any mutations with this one weakens its ability to be transmitted.

[LeftyMom]

5. People keep looking for increasingly unlikely reasons to panic.

The flu could mutate and kill millions too, but lay people don't freak out about that. Ebola combines a lot of things Americans are wildly irrational about: disease, bodily fluids, poverty, people of color. What it doesn't feature is a transmission mechanism that's going to do well in a first world society.

[MohRokTah]

6. The Flu HAS mutated and killed millions.

It's happened before.

It will happen again.

It's a fact of life.

I'd rather see a mutated form of Ebola that is even more difficult to transmit, as my post you responded to expresses.

[LeftyMom]

7. That's my point. Nobody panics about that, and it's entirely more likely.

Ebola panic is irrational if you live in the developed world.

[MohRokTah]

8. Which again...

is why I hope any mutation actually makes transmission LESS likely.

[LisaL]

9. How do viruses mutate?

Viruses want to survive, so mutation that makes transmission less likely is not effective.
It's the other way around.

[MohRokTah]

10. Mutations occur randomly.

We have a single case in the US.

It is as likely that the virus contained in a single person in the US to mutate in a form that is unviable for transmission as a mutation that makes transmission easier.

The mutation which makes transmission less likely is unlikely to survive

The mutation which makes transmission more likely is likely to survive.

In a population of a single affected individual, either mutation is as likely to occur.

Again, mutations are random. It can go in any direction, but the outcome is limited due to the population size.

Mutations are not determinate on viability, only the survivability of such mutations are determinate on viability.

[MFM008]

19. The 1918 flu

Was almost as bad as the black death in 1300s. It will happen again is a given.

[Barack_America]

18. Not only do they not freak out about it, they refuse to get vaccinated.

Can't trust big pharma and all. But I'm sure they'd gladly accept an Ebola vaccine if it were available.

[LisaL]

2. He was supposedly still in an incubation period when he got onto the plane.

So he wouldn't know he had it. Now, whether he knew that he was exposed to it (anyone close to him getting sick?) that is another story.

[scarletwoman]

4. Oh, FFS! Get a fucking grip!

[apples and oranges]

11. Your vote is for no consequences. Got it!

[scarletwoman]

13. No, my vote is for rational thinking.

I'm not the least bit fond of panicky fear-mongering.

However messed up our economic system is, the U.S. is not a third world country.

[LisaL]

14. So we are immune from the infectious diseases because we are not a third world country?

[scarletwoman]

15. Forget it. Go ahead and freak out if that's what gets you off.

Obviously, there's no difference at all between conditions in the U.S. and those in west Africa.

[jwirr]

12. While there might be a desire for consequences - this is also the fastest way to keep people from

asking for help.

[WillowTree]

16. I swear, every friggin' relative Chicken Little ever had is hanging out at DU tonight.

He was asymptomatic until 4 days after he arrived here. Why would he know or even suspect that he had it?

The man is critically ill. It would be nice if a few more folks would be thinking the good thought for him instead of trying to find a way to fear and/or demonize him.

[Barack_America]

17. You might get the flu on Friday, better not go to work tomorrow.

Don't want to infect your coworkers with a disease you don't yet know you have.