Most of us had no idea how incredibly lucky the US was in 2014. The first infected were health care workers. Same as 2020.
Ebola never got beyond 11 cases and disappeared.
Covid turned into a pandemic. Our national nightmare for 2020.
How did we dodge a nightmare in 2014?
I kept hoping Covid would go away in 2020. I thought our health care system would suppress it But it just got bigger and bigger.
Ebola is much, much, much less contagious than the novel coronavirus. From a Google search of “how is Ebola transmitted”:
Ebola is spread by direct contact with blood or other body fluids (such as: vomit, diarrhea, urine, breast milk, sweat, semen) of an infected person who has symptoms of Ebola or who has recently died from Ebola.
Compare that to COVID-19 which is spread through the air, and can be spread by asymptomatic people.
I had a false sense of confidence after 2014. I remember the news showing the Air filtered rooms that completely isolated the Ebola patients. Nurses wore elaborate PPE. They didn’t mention there were only a few of those rooms available. The stockpile of PPE was very limited.
My local hospitals are currently putting in air filtration for patient rooms. They’re trying to upgrade in the middle of a pandemic.
I’m embarrassed now that I thought our tech would prevent a pandemic. That a pandemic just couldn’t happen. Gosh I was so wrong.
Also there aren’t many (any?) asymptomatic Ebola patients. When you have Ebola, you’re really sick, You’re not going out to the pub and bleeding on people. Lots of people with Covid are asymptomatic and compliance with public health requests to stay home and wear masks has been poor.
Ebola = far harder to transmit. You almost have to want an Ebola pandemic in order to have one.