L
ately, Americans sound like a bunch of irrational nincompoops.Yes, I said it. The recent mass hysteria over three — yes, three — confirmed cases of Ebola sent Americans into a frenzy. Airline passengers are showing up to airports in homemade Hazmat suits, cable news is treating Ebola as if it’s spread to every corner of the contiguous U.S. and now ABC is prepping a miniseries based on the book “The Hot Zone.”
For the love of all that is holy, can we all please calm down?
Yes, Ebola is a terrifying virus that can kill with incredible speed and viciousness. Although the response to the initial infection in Dallas is frustrating, we have more to fear from our own panic than the virus itself. Sadly, fear, panic and mistrust seem to be the normal state of affairs in post-9/11 America, and the true effects are starting to rear their ugly heads.
A large percentage of UF students were in elementary school on September 11, 2001, a day that forever changed our country. It’s likely you’ve spent the majority of your life living in fear of terrorists, immigrants, exotic diseases and either Democrats or Republicans — depending on your political persuasion. Fear is paralyzing this nation and preventing us from accomplishing anything significant, which is a far more frightening prospect than three people contracting Ebola in the U.S.
Despite the spread of fear and loathing to every corner of the country, the recent influx of Ebola panic in the media gives us all an opportunity to finally end a decade of artificially induced fright. The news may spread the narrative that society is on the brink of a chaotic meltdown, but we don’t have to listen.
In no way should we ignore threats to our country. We should do a better job preparing for the possibility of deadly infectious diseases, terrorist attacks and even another financial crisis, but we shouldn’t sacrifice our sanity as a result. We laugh at the doomsday predictors who grace television screens, but recently Americans have demonstrated that we’re woefully unprepared for a disaster.
Floridians are encouraged to prepare for hurricanes each and every year, but if a storm threatens us, it appears no one heeded the words of the government or forecasters.
People rush to grocery and hardware stores, stocking up on enough food and supplies to last until hurricane season in the year 2167. During the last hurricane threat, someone out there probably bought enough AA batteries to power a small country for a year.
That’s not preparing — that’s insanity.
Put plainly, it’s a gross overreaction to a serious event, and it’s further evidence of how unprepared we all are. Three Ebola diagnoses in the U.S. should not generate the panic and fear we see. There’s no reason to wear a Hazmat suit on your next flight or withhold your child from school because one student 2,000 miles away may have been exposed to Ebola. That’s panic and overreaction, not preparation.
If you’re panicking about Ebola, are you also panicking about the flu? We’ve had confirmed cases of the flu at UF — including that of a friend of mine — yet how many of you losing your sanity about Ebola received your free flu shot from the Student Health Care Center? Getting a flu shot to protect yourself and subsequently prevent the spread of the flu is preparation and something we should do every year. It’s the same rationale behind preparing for hurricanes, even if one doesn’t hit Florida for another generation.
Will Ebola spread and become the apocalyptic nightmare people fear? Probably not, but anxiety over a potential outbreak can ultimately hinder response and lead us down a more dangerous and threatening path. We can and should be prepared — within reason — for possible disasters, but if we succumb to fear, it seems likely our reactions to real crises may prove truly disastrous.
Joel Mendelson is a UF grad student in political campaigning. His columns usually appear on Wednesdays.
[A version of this story ran on page 3 on 10/21/2014]
