Comment Re:Politics (Score 5, Informative) 384
If they had just stated the truth, that Ebola is hard to spread with proper controls, and can be contained...
For the public, notions of safety went out the window after the clusterfsck in Texas.
- A patient went to the ER with symptoms, and was sent home
- People in government-mandated quarantine didn't honor the quarantine, and went to public places. It took armed guards to enforce the quarantine.
- Two nurses, wearing the recommended protective equipment became infected, and are being treated now.
- One of the nurses went on an airline flight after treating the Ebola patient, in violation of a number of CDC policies
- Personnel treating the first ebola patient were in constant contact with hundreds of others, including other hospital patients
Restated facts (or "truth") about how difficult it is to transmit can no longer combat the fear that has brewed up.
A pattern of mistake after mistake has emerged - things that should have never happened did. People who knew better didn't do the right thing, over and over.
It's a PR disaster, pure and simple. Any goodwill or trust the public had was burned up in Texas.