<p>“I am Liberian. I am not a virus.” campaign has started to combat the stigma.</p>
<p><a href=“'I am a Liberian, not a virus': west Africans hit back against Ebola stigma | Liberia | The Guardian”>http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/22/ebola-liberia-not-virus-stigma</a></p>
<p>My D said that some parents are freaking out about West African international students who have been living healthily on campus for months and attended US high schools before that. I’m wondering if those whose kids have roommates from Texas or Ohio are equally concerned.</p>
<p>The level of ignorance in this country is staggering.</p>
<p>Did you see the one of the woman who had been in Africa, in a country nowhere near the ebola-ravaged countries, several months ago. Has been back in the US since that time. Presented to the hospital to ber checked for ebola due to symptoms of fatigue and nausea. Ebola test negative. Pregnancy test positive.</p>
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<p>No it’s not – there is no country where the majority are not ignorant of new things. </p>
<p>scholarme, I am not comparing the U.S. to other countries. And anyway–most of this has nothing to do with being able to comprehend “new things.” Thinking West Africa is part of Europe? Ignorant. Freaking out about people who haven’t been exposed to Ebola? Ignorant. A lot of the ignorance has more to do with lack of understanding of geography than anything else.</p>
<p>Sally, it’s one of my pet peeves when people run down their own country & countrymen - I didn’t like it when I was in my home country, and I don’t like it in my adopted country. I notice it’s usually the higher social strata who do it and the sentiment is directed at those other people not as educated or fortunate as they are. I always felt it lacked empathy and compassion. Not saying you are any of that, you are of course entitled to your own opinion. Your comment just happened to hit one of my peeves. Carry on.</p>
<p>“In remission” - cute!! </p>
<p>I understand where you are coming from, scholarme. If we didn’t live in such polarizing times we could all get behind the idea of improving education for everyone rather than embracing the dumbing down of our populace. And it’s not a socioeconomic criticism–there are people of all social strata who seem willfully ignorant here.</p>
<p>^ Right, like the parents in Maine who insisted that a principal who had recently travelled to Zambia, a country as far from Liberia as Portland ME is from the Azores or Houston from Panama, quarantine himself to protect their children. sigh…</p>
<p>I agree that ignorance about geography is partly to blame. I can understand not knowing the entire continent of Africa exactly right. But there are a lot of Americans - A LOT- who don’t understand that Europe is not part of Africa, or who can even find the United States on a world map. That’s “staggering” ignorance imo.</p>
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<p>You’d think they could have taken just a moment of their time to look on a world map before insisting a professional be denied his freedom to move about or work . “Okay, where is Zambia…oh, okay, I see it. Oh. No worries.”</p>
<p>It’s bigger than ignorance about geography and the frustration crosses SES lines.</p>
<p>Btw, my kid was in Africa about 5 months ago and now has a cold.</p>
<p>For me one of the worst aspects of the ignorance is the pride some people seem to take in it.</p>
<p>I saw a great one on my Facebook newsfeed today…</p>
<p>“More Americans have been married to Kim Kardashian than have died from Ebola.”</p>
<p>I posted that earlier today on the other ebola thread, sooz!</p>
<p>As an aside, not understanding why there are 2 separate ebola threads. They do overlap quite a bit. Parsing out what is deemed “hysteria” seems unnecesssary, IMO. </p>
<p>I think part of the problem is that people become inured to familiar risks while novel risks spark their interest. On another thread about college campus safety someone posted about a friend who lives in a dangerous area of their city yet is afraid to send their child on a trip to Brussels (where statistically they would be much safer than at home.) This is how we get people failing to get their kids inoculated for very real risks like chicken pox yet freaking out about ebola.</p>
<p>People seem to not mind deadly risks as long as they feel in control of the risks. Bacon won’t make you die a quick and gruesome death and, as was pointed out, is a choice. Most Americans are much less likely to succumb to Ebola than massive injuries sustained driving under the influence, while texting or without a seatbelt or as a result of keeping unsecured firearms in the home. People see those as risks that they are choosing. Even HIV is a disease with a longer trajectory and that Americans see as based on choice. This airborne thing seems to me to be a transmission method that transcends personal contact and makes regular people feel more vulnerable to outside influences. Choosing not to vaccinate against deadly childhood diseases makes people feel powerful and in control of their destinies. Ditto the firearms. Strange people coming from countries that couldn’t even be found on a map if you tried bearing freaky diseases is way more scary than being lofted through your windshield at 70 mph.</p>
<p>(the deadly bacon was on the other thread I think, but whatever 
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<p>Igloo started this one in high hopes that the anti-panic crowd would move here and will not debunk the speculations and FUD posted in the other one. </p>
<p>But the fear, uncertainty and doubt is clearly on both threads, so why not merge them instead of feeding the repetition?</p>