http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ivan-eland/public-worry-over-remote_b_6021700.html

Ivan Eland Senior Fellow and Director of the Center on Peace & Liberty, The Independent Institute

Public Worry Over Remote Threats

Posted: 10/21/2014

The breathless news coverage of the minuscule number of people in the United States that have so far contracted the Ebola virus has led to a typical irrational response in some quarters. For example, schools have been closed, and the public and thus some politicians support a travel ban of people from the affected West African countries, even though health professionals have said that this "solution" might make things worse. Despite such professionals repeating often that Ebola is inefficiently transmitted, that West Africa has a much lower level of general health care than does the United States, and that therefore the American problem is likely to be only contagion among the health workers tending to the very small number of victims rather than in the general population, many people are still nervous that they or their family will catch the virus.