# Ebola: Half of Americans Avoiding International Travel Due to This **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 17, 2014, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebola-half-of-americans-avoiding-international-travel-due-to-this/701563 "2014-10-17T03:25:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2014, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebola-half-of-americans-avoiding-international-travel-due-to-this/701563/21 "2014-10-17T21:41:19Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > \ ***We’re all going TO DIE!!!** > \* True. But the chances are it won’t be from Ebola. The odds of dying in America due to tooth decay are a lot higher than the odds of dying of Ebola but you don’t see the people going nuts over America’s cavity crisis. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2014, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebola-half-of-americans-avoiding-international-travel-due-to-this/701563/22 "2014-10-17T21:42:15Z")
> [@scr4](#): > > I’m sure those are the same people who didn’t have any plans to travel overseas anyway. They probably never even traveled overseas in their whole lives. More like “probably never even traveled outside their \*\*home state \*\*their whole lives.” I’m a proud American, but damn some of us are parochial as fuck. Embarrassingly so. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2014, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebola-half-of-americans-avoiding-international-travel-due-to-this/701563/23 "2014-10-17T23:58:24Z")
> [@AlsoNamedBort](#): > > Looking around, it appears that something like 3 to 4% of Americans actually fly internationally every month. [This article](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/william-d-chalmers/the-great-american-passpo_b_1920287.html) suggests less than 5% per year. And only about 2% of all trips go to the entire continent of Africa. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2014, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebola-half-of-americans-avoiding-international-travel-due-to-this/701563/24 "2014-10-18T00:36:58Z")
> [@gnoitall](#): > > More like “probably never even traveled outside their \*\*home state \*\*their whole lives.” I’m a proud American, but damn some of us are parochial as fuck. Embarrassingly so. You act like only Americans are like this. Sadly, I think you really believe that. ---
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2014, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebola-half-of-americans-avoiding-international-travel-due-to-this/701563/25 "2014-10-18T01:03:57Z")
There is an article in the November Popular Mechanics magazine about a virus researcher. This researcher has viruses stored in a lab, with unbelievable security precautions. Double thick cement walls, complete clothes changes into lab clothes, _including underwear_, for those entering the lab, double gloves, 5 minute showers on leaving, where you’re required to wash every body part and ever body orifice with soap. All this because he knows how rapidly viruses spread and mutate. If that’s what it takes to keep a virus from spreading, we’re doomed, so screw it. Fly wherever because it seems the precautions currently being taken won’t stop much of anything anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2014, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebola-half-of-americans-avoiding-international-travel-due-to-this/701563/26 "2014-10-18T01:10:17Z")
> [@Morgenstern](#): > > There is an article in the November Popular Mechanics magazine about a virus researcher. This researcher has viruses stored in a lab, with unbelievable security precautions. Double thick cement walls, complete clothes changes into lab clothes, _including underwear_, for those entering the lab, double gloves, 5 minute showers on leaving, where you’re required to wash every body part and ever body orifice with soap. All this because he knows how rapidly viruses spread and mutate. > > If that’s what it takes to keep a virus from spreading, we’re doomed, so screw it. Fly wherever because it seems the precautions currently being taken won’t stop much of anything anyway. FWIW, I’ve read that the seemingly insane containment protocols and decontamination procedures are partially due to the pathogenic solutions they work with being absurdly concentrated relative to what you’d find in a person that’s sick with that particular bug. For fun with numbers, play around with the concentration figures for E. zaire in blood during the end stage of the disease, consider how few viral particles it takes to get infected, and see how small the solution volume could conceivably be. But yeah, the precautions I’ve read about for some of the BSL-4 labs make baroque look like something from Bauhaus. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2014, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebola-half-of-americans-avoiding-international-travel-due-to-this/701563/27 "2014-10-18T01:59:18Z")
> [@Morgenstern](#): > > If that’s what it takes to keep a virus from spreading, we’re doomed, so screw it. Fly wherever because it seems the precautions currently being taken won’t stop much of anything anyway. No, that’s not what it takes to stop a virus like Ebola from spreading. A few isolated cases do not indicate that the virus is a real threat. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2014, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebola-half-of-americans-avoiding-international-travel-due-to-this/701563/28 "2014-10-18T02:05:12Z")
> [@Gray\_Ghost](#): > > That said, I don’t know how quick I’d be to hand an airsick passenger a bag these days… If anything, I’d be MORE likely to hand a sick passenger a barf bag - you want them to barf into something, not on the floor, their lap, your lap… Containment is good. ---
**Author:** ![sweat209](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@sweat209](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweat209)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2014, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebola-half-of-americans-avoiding-international-travel-due-to-this/701563/29 "2014-10-18T02:15:15Z")
So no that is not needed. > [@Morgenstern](#): > > There is an article in the November Popular Mechanics magazine about a virus researcher. This researcher has viruses stored in a lab, with unbelievable security precautions. Double thick cement walls, complete clothes changes into lab clothes, _including underwear_, for those entering the lab, double gloves, 5 minute showers on leaving, where you’re required to wash every body part and ever body orifice with soap. All this because he knows how rapidly viruses spread and mutate. > > If that’s what it takes to keep a virus from spreading, we’re doomed, so screw it. Fly wherever because it seems the precautions currently being taken won’t stop much of anything anyway. \*\* Can Ebola spread by coughing? By sneezing? Unlike respiratory illnesses like measles or chickenpox, which can be transmitted by virus particles that remain suspended in the air after an infected person coughs or sneezes, Ebola is transmitted by direct contact with body fluids of a person who has symptoms of Ebola disease. Although coughing and sneezing are not common symptoms of Ebola, if a symptomatic patient with Ebola coughs or sneezes on someone, and saliva or mucus come into contact with that person’s eyes, nose or mouth, these fluids may transmit the disease. What does “direct contact” mean? Direct contact means that body fluids (blood, saliva, mucus, vomit, urine, or feces) from an infected person (alive or dead) have touched someone’s eyes, nose, or mouth or an open cut, wound, or abrasion. How long does Ebola live outside the body? Ebola is killed with hospital-grade disinfectants (such as household bleach). Ebola on dried on surfaces such as doorknobs and countertops can survive for several hours; however, virus in body fluids (such as blood) can survive up to several days at room temperature.\*\* [http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/transmission/qas.html](http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/transmission/qas.html) ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2014, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebola-half-of-americans-avoiding-international-travel-due-to-this/701563/30 "2014-10-18T02:46:37Z")
I work in international development with people in my office going all over the world all the time, including Africa and we spend zero time worrying about this. It’s for people who are already scared of the world. ---
**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2014, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebola-half-of-americans-avoiding-international-travel-due-to-this/701563/31 "2014-10-18T03:14:25Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > If anything, I’d be MORE likely to hand a sick passenger a barf bag - you want them to barf into something, not on the floor, their lap, your lap… Containment is good. First, it’s a throwaway joke. Second, in this climate of fear, I’m not voluntarily coming with 15 feet of someone throwing up on an international flight. Especially if I am seeing or—God forbid, smelling—any of the other indicia of a symptomatic hemorrhagic fever. “Why, yes, I did touch the perfusely sweating gentleman who smelled like he shit his pants. Yes, the one with the fully bloodshot sclera. Hey! Where are you going?! I need to know where l report for my unscheduled 21 day vacation. I didnt have anything else planned for this month anyway.” Even if I don’t think he’s actually sick with Ebola, I’m going to get treated like he is. So I’m getting as far away from him as physically possible. He can get his own bag. ---
**Author:** ![Helena330](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/helena330/32/531_2.png) [@Helena330](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helena330)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2014, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebola-half-of-americans-avoiding-international-travel-due-to-this/701563/32 "2014-10-18T05:20:23Z")
This is a great meme: [![Imgur](https://i.imgur.com/dljyuuc.jpeg "EBOLA!!! Obesity 300K Deaths per Year, Tobacco 450K, Alcohol 88K") ](https://imgur.com/dljyuuc) ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2014, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebola-half-of-americans-avoiding-international-travel-due-to-this/701563/33 "2014-10-18T05:35:36Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > If the OP is correct, then 50% of Americans are idiots. That includes people on Wall Street, who punsihed airline stocks this week for no good reason other than ‘teh ebola’. I disagree. Your number is way too low. I’m for the Jon Stewart plan - ban flights from Texas. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2014, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebola-half-of-americans-avoiding-international-travel-due-to-this/701563/34 "2014-10-18T05:54:04Z")
Build a wall around Texas and patrol it with freedom fighting, ebola-shooting vigilantes. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2014, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebola-half-of-americans-avoiding-international-travel-due-to-this/701563/35 "2014-10-18T06:36:48Z")
I avoid international travel for all the other reasons. Cost, necessity, bother, time, effort, etc. Ebola doesn’t rise to the top 100 reasons I stay in California as much as I can. ---
**Author:** ![LC\_Strawhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e19adc/32.png) [@LC\_Strawhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LC_Strawhouse)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2014, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebola-half-of-americans-avoiding-international-travel-due-to-this/701563/36 "2014-10-18T22:22:18Z")
This outbreak teaches one thing - it is apparently _extremely_ common for someone to travel from West Africa to the U.S. and then immediately get a dangerously high fever/vomit in public/drop dead, for reasons completely unrelated to Ebola. I swear there have been a dozen of those false-alarm cases every day. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2014, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebola-half-of-americans-avoiding-international-travel-due-to-this/701563/37 "2014-10-18T22:51:13Z")
Fever, vomiting, and “dropping dead” are, regrettably, much more common than people suppose because a lot of things can cause them. I once ran a 103 fever from ordinary influenza. Vomiting? Happened lots of times. Ditto for the shits. Let me tell you about norovirus… oh, wait, I actually had a thread about that back in 2005. Haven’t dropped dead, but it does happen. Hell, a couple months ago it happened to my 24 year old nephew and the autopsy was, as they say, “inclusive” - meaning know one knows why the hell that happened and likely we never will. ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2014, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebola-half-of-americans-avoiding-international-travel-due-to-this/701563/38 "2014-10-19T01:55:08Z")
I’m flying to Asia tonight and I’m pretty sure the plane is full. At least, no aisle seat is available. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2014, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebola-half-of-americans-avoiding-international-travel-due-to-this/701563/39 "2014-10-19T02:03:20Z")
Don’t worry about traveling to Africa. [Stay away from Dallas!](http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/trending/ebola-panic-maine-teacher-on-leave-after-dallas-visit-for-educational-seminar) ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2014, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebola-half-of-americans-avoiding-international-travel-due-to-this/701563/40 "2014-10-19T03:33:57Z")
I know people arranging flights for Ethiopia in the next few weeks, and they are pretty full. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebola-half-of-americans-avoiding-international-travel-due-to-this/701563.md?page=1)