Should Americans be worried about Ebola?

It seems like an ignorant question with an obvious answer, as if I asked if you want extra cheese on your Whopper. However, a lot of Americans seem to be shrugging off Ebola like it is completely insignificant. 

Thank God the internet allows us all to speak.

Shep Smith of Fox News came out earlier this week and announced to the world that Americans should have no fear of catching Ebola. He said there is no outbreak in America and that any and all worries over if we'll catch the disease are unfounded paranoia. If you didn't watch the video, it's on YouTube. 

Part of that statement is true. Ebola is not a direct danger to Americans... at this moment. If you aren't or haven't been direct contact with those with Ebola, you won't get it. Be that as it may, saying you are not at all in danger from Ebola is a very short-sighted thought. 

This month alone we have doubled the amount of confirmed cases of Ebola according to the CDC website. Ebola went from having 112 confirmed cases and 70 deaths world-wide from March 2014 to April 2014. As of October, we were standing at 4,600 confirmed cases and 2,300 deaths. Right now it is October 18th and as it was updated on October 15th, we stood at 8,997 cases accompanied by 4,493 deaths. I've heard projections that put us at 10,000 cases per week in January of 2015. Yes, as of this moment we only have 3 confirmed cases in America. As of this moment you should not be concerned about your family getting sick from those 3 cases.

However, as the situation in West Africa worsens, our chances of getting an outbreak increases. Those remaining 4,500 cases of Ebola aren't all sitting together in some village waiting to die. They are travelling. Our government and others are not grounding planes. They aren't anchoring boats. Just as Thomas Eric Duncan left Liberia knowing he had the disease, others are able to do the same. 

Sure, we're doing temperature checks to board airplanes, but it's been established that something as simple as Tylenol can hide the Ebola fever long enough for you to board the plane. Ebola also lies dormant in your system for up to 21 days prior to you showing symptoms. Not only could I transmit the disease and be on the other side of the world before I'm showing symptoms, I could also have a new job and make new friends to spread it to.

Watch how I word this next part, because I want to be clear. The CDC believes Ebola is airborne. Notice that I did not say that Ebola is airborne. I do not work with the CDC and I have no medical knowledge. I said the CDC believes it is airborne. I only came to this conclusion by their actions.

Lets break that down. I know you're anxious to call bullshit, but just pay attention. According to what the CDC has told us, Ebola is transmitted in pretty much the same exact way as AIDs is. Both are transmitted by bodily fluids, which means if you don't sleep with a person who has the disease or get their blood/sweat/spit on you, you should be fine. Simple enough. If that's the case, why have I never heard of them contacting everyone on an airplane because an AIDs patient was on the plane? That's what we're doing for the plane Amber Vinson was on. Not only that, the two male strippers who were sitting near her have now been asked to be in a temporary quarantine state where they don't take any public transportation. Why's that? They didn't get her blood on them. They didn't sleep with her. Why should we treat this different than AIDs, if it's transmitted the same way? Unless you think it's airborne.

I'm not saying there is anything you can do, nor am I attempting to cause panic. I'm simply a regular guy who uses rational common sense to think things through. Take them as gospel or as a grain of salt. They're just my thoughts.