I did not misquote the article that you mention. In fact, I attached a link for or "cut and pasted" into the text. The world renown Ebola scienetist had experienced an exerience of airborne transfer in the lab, and stated in said article that it's possible that this could happen in non-lab conditions. I can find the article again, if you like.
I don't have a clue if Trump is doing what I believe that he should do to minimize the likelihood of a US outbreak, as I've paid little attention to today's events regarding this situation. Hell, I didn't hear about this current African outbreak until I read Diego's post.
I found an article on this, and you might pay attention to the headline.
Echoing an oft-repeated mantra these days concerning the spread of Ebola, a medical expert testified at a congressional hearing last month that it's "incredibly unlikely" the virus will mutate to become airborne.
"A virus that doesn't replicate, doesn't mutate," Dr. Anthony Fauci, of the National Institutes of Health, the federal government's top medical research agency, told members of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs subcommittee Sept. 17.
Not quite, countered a Purdue University medical researcher.
David Sanders, an associate professor of biological sciences, said that to discount the virus' potential to become airborne is dangerous.
"I don't want people to get worried right now, but for people to say there's zero chance is simply incorrect," Sanders said. "It's not something to be dismissed."
Infectious disease experts agree that evidence suggests the virus currently spreads through contact with bodily fluids and not through the air.
"Ebola virus disease is not an airborne infection," according to the World Health Organization. "Airborne spread among humans implies inhalation of an infectious dose of virus from a suspended cloud of small dried droplets. This mode of transmission has not been observed during extensive studies of the Ebola virus over several decades."
Sanders didn't dispute that stance. It's medically inaccurate and disingenuous, however, to dismiss research showing that Ebola could actually mutate to become airborne.
"I can't put a number on it, but I can tell you it's a non-zero number," Sanders said of the odds of Ebola spreading through the air. "The longer it persists, the more cases there are, the more likely it is."
The debate comes amidst what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has called the largest Ebola epidemic in history. In the past month, the virus has gripped three West African countries — Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone — resulting in more than 7,000 people diagnosed with Ebola, with nearly half of those succumbing to the disease.
The outbreak has sparked debate in the U.S. over the danger the virus poses to Americans. On Sept. 30, officials identified the first case of Ebola in the U.S. in a patient that had traveled into country from Liberia. Another patient was diagnosed with Ebola in Texas earlier this week.
Sanders said the confusion began with a New York Times Sept. 11 editorial, "What we're afraid to say about Ebola," by Michael T. Osterholm that recounted possible scenarios following the outbreak.
