[Perspectives] Ebola: transforming fear into appropriate action

It is interesting that so many of the experts who proffered guidance on outbreak control during the west African Ebola crisis had no previous field experience of Ebola, with some seeming to lack understanding of Ebola epidemiology. They, along with others, seeded and perpetuated fear, with statements that ranged from predicting that this high mortality pathogen could become endemic in humans if not rapidly contained, and declaring the need for a vaccine if the outbreak were to be effectively stopped, through to the prediction that patient numbers would continue to increase exponentially, requiring a huge input of hospital beds and extraordinary measures for burial of those who died.
Source: LANCET - Category: General Medicine Authors: Tags: Perspectives Source Type: research