Aram Zucker-Scharff

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“The sheer increase in the media’s — and by extension, the country’s — attention span when Ebola made its way across the Atlantic is staggering. According to a Pew Research Center poll, it outranked protests in Hong Kong, the Secret Service’s troubles and airstrikes against ISIS by the U.S. as the story Americans focused on the most. Thirty-six percent reported that they paid “very close” attention to the story, up from 25% in mid-August. By comparison, it also eclipsed other outbreak-related stories, including mad cow disease in Europe, MERS in the Middle East and swine flu in Mexico and the U.S.

“Us” versus “them.” For Carrilho, the nature of the Western media hysteria over Ebola underscores a more pernicious trend in how the West views the rest of the world. More than any other event in recent memory, the Ebola epidemic has brought to light America’s lingering and simmering fear of “the other.” The media circus is doing more than perpetuating the idea that America may become victim to a deadly epidemic — they’re implying the country’s very purity is at risk. “

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– One Powerful Illustration Shows Exactly What’s Wrong With How the West Talks About Ebola.

“In a worst-case hypothetical scenario, should the outbreak continue with recent trends, the case burden could gain an additional 77,181 to 277,124 cases by the end of 2014.”

– The Mathematics of Ebola Trigger Stark Warnings: Act Now or Regret It.

“”The World Health Organization said the death toll had risen to 729 from 672, after 57 more people died during a four-day period between July 24 and 27 in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation. In the same period, 122 new cases were detected, bringing the total of confirmed and probably infected patients to 1,323. The toll is the highest in a single outbreak since the virus was identified almost four decades ago.””

– Sierra Leone Declares Health Emergency Over Ebola.