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- Wait, that's not what really happened though, is it? Despite how the mainstream media at the time had wished to push it, the situation with Ebola was not the end of the world, nor was it horribly out of control (Sun, et al.). It was actually handled fairly competently despite catching many off guard at the time and yet it was sold as this story of a world-ending disease getting entirely out of hand. The mainstream media employed many biases in their portrayal of the disease including narrative, visual, and bad news bias. This devastating depiction of such an event likely didn't fail to leave a lasting impact though. When an actually world threatening disease came along in Covid-19, many failed to listen to much of the safety guidelines suggested for it which led to a great deal of untimely deaths. This decision, to disregard health protocols, was perhaps influenced by the media depiction, yet ultimate disappointment, of diseases such as Ebola, a real life example of the boy who cried wolf. Before discussing that however, let us first look at the real story behind Ebola.
- Now, if one were to have caught it, Ebola would have proven to be quite the dangerous adversary indeed. One research paper titled Misconceptions and Rumors about Ebola Virus... notes that the symptoms of the virus may include acute fever along with gastrointestinal symptoms, fatigue...,and in most severe cases Ebola often results in organ failure (Muzembo, et al.). That sounds quite serious and it certainly is. Upon catching Ebola, death may definitely seem closer than it was before, especially since it has up to a 90% fatality rate as The Washington Post explained. Yet, one must notice the post's clever use of wording there. They wrote up to which is not to mean the average. In reality, as also explained by Misconceptions and Rumors about Ebola Virus... the Ebola virus' average case fatality rate is 50% (range, 25–90%) (Muzembo, et al.). This rate, coming from a very general range, is clearly a lot lower than the previously reported 90% which, while not inaccurate, was clearly reporting only a limited scope of the information so as to make Ebola seem scarier. Thus, we see an example of the news' narrative bias in play. Truthfully, what this excerpt from this research paper proves is that Ebola wasn't the instant death sentence it was depicted as.
- Still, a 50% fatality average is quite high. What's most important to remember in that case however, is that the likelihood of even catching it was pretty low. Ebola clearly wasn't reported with much objectivity in mind, so it shouldn't be much of a shocker to know that many weren't even fully aware of how it was really spread. According to the previously cited research paper by Muzembo, et al., Ebola is transmitted to humans through contact with blood or bodily fluids from an infected animal or patient(1) but one of the primary misconceptions about the virus was that Ebola could be spread through the air(9). This misconception could likely have been born from the high volume of reporting done on the subject in turn causing people to view it as a more serious issue that simply must warrant all of this airtime. In reality, Ebola was simply bad news, and bad news sells. Thus, we see bad news bias here in action. Many were not the most well informed on the situation and, as a result, ended up fearing more than they ought to have.
- the chances of an Ebola outbreak here in the United States are extremely low. We’ve been taking the necessary precautions... In the unlikely event that someone with Ebola does reach our shores, we’ve taken new measures so that we’re prepared here at home.
- But what he said about the viruses lack of danger wasn't what got reported. What was reported was his administrations quick response to the virus and said response was promptly turned into a reason to worry as such a quick response must have indicated some form of greater danger after all. Combined with the visual reporting on the issue, with each article showing beat up hospital wards stuffed with bodies, indicating visual bias on the media's part, and people's fears were certainly far from quelled
- It's probably not much of a secret that a disease spread by bodily fluids is much harder to catch than one that's airborne but as long as it's around, it can still be caught. The question then becomes how much of a presence did it have in the US specifically and the answer is not that much. Despite what Washington Post journalists Lena Sun, et al., would have you believe when making claims such as The Ebola epidemic has now reached across the Atlantic Ocean to a hospital in Texas, where a Liberian man has tested positive for the virus., the spread of the virus in the US was quite limited. This was thanks in part to the quick efforts of the CDC, WHO, and then-president Barrack Obama. Obama was quite certain of the viruses lack of danger for the average US citizen when he said the above:
- Unfortunately, a little bit of unwarranted fear over several years wasn't the only negative side effect of the overselling of Ebola. Another, more recent, article from the Washington Post titled He didn’t take covid-19 seriously. Being hospitalized ‘made a believer’ out of him by Marisa Iati tells the story of a man who hadn't taken covid seriously until he came down with a nasty case of it. Noted by the article are the man and his friends thoughts about the situation prior to catching the serious ailment, how they felt at the onset of the pandemic like the constant crush of coronavirus news might be just a lot of crying wolf. While the example here didn't end in a death, many other similar cases did and that shows true danger of reporting something as far more serious than it really is. Coverage as to the level Ebola got must be relegated to threats only on the level of Covid 19 or we run the risk of making serious issues seem trivial.
- To conclude, the Ebola epidemic was reported very poorly. It was oversold as this crisis of international proportions that would wash a wave of death over the land. In reality, its true nature, while dangerous, was ultimatley overblown by the news media trying to sell a story. Thus, as a result of this faulty coverage, when a much more serious threat in covid came to be in 2019, many blew it off as Ebola had already set a dangerous standard. The ultimate takeaway from this whole ordeal remains that we should not oversell the less important lest the important become less so.
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