"Madonna once said that yoga changes the molecular structure of her body." I don't know what Madonna said, but "changes the molecular structure of her body" is too vague to have any meaning at all. The chemical processes Chris Garvey described are part of the metabolism of every living cell, all the time. The cells in our bodies are constantly breaking down some molecules and creating others, so the structures of some molecules are being changed, whether you're doing yoga, running a marathon, or sitting on the couch eating ice cream.

Using Google, I didn't find any support for the claim that Madonna actually said that.

And from the CDC comes this:

http://nypost.com/2014/10/29/cdc-admits-droplets-from-a-sneeze-could-spread-ebola/

Having listened to the program on Sunday and having appreciated most of it, I could not help but notice that at the same time you praised Shep Smith you could not resist getting a dig in about Fox News. Really? Can we not be grown-ups here? Every news source these days is slanted. Believe it or not, intelligent, well-educated people might disagree with the left. They are not hysterical and they have read for themselves. Just because they disagree with liberals does not make them stupid or evil any more than liberals are stupid or evil. All parties have some of each, I am sure, as well as having good, gracious people. And I am not sure if it was on this program or another public radio program Sunday, but someone also just had to get a dig in about the Koch brothers. Again, really? George Soros anyone? I weary of the double standard. And as journalists you should be ashamed. After all, we sit at soccer games and sit next to you at the same restaurants. Our children attend the same elite and not-so-elite colleges your children do. Please eliminate the condescension as though you have arrived and those who disagree have not. A little dose of humility never hurt any of us.

Well, if I was counting on reasoned discourse from OTM listeners to calm my concerns about my fellow citizen's ability to parse fact from fiction, I'm pretty much ready to build a bunker and buy SPAM, lots of SPAM. The distribution of comments seems to break down into two camps:

Pro-Bob= He is the god of REASON! Question NOT, apostate!

Anti-Bob= I tol' y'all in the Waffle House: that Garfield is an eastern elitist snot!

I notice much of the Anti-Bob sentiment is personal umbrage at the "condescension" and "snark," all of which ignores the facts the story was trying to bring out, namely, there are agendas out there having nothing to do with epidemiology, or our national interests (or even, simple compassion, for God's sake!) that have set the wake-o-meter of public opinion to FREAK-OUT AND FIND SOMEONE TO BLAME...
Folks, part of being an adult citizen of this republic is enduring having your favorite ox gored now and then...just shut up and listen.

As to Bob-is-Reason-God: I also have a problem with "just trust the CDC"- it has been my experience that when ever bureaucracy says "it's under control", I say lick the salt on the Margareta glass before swallowing THAT one. I trust the CDC has our interests, but, like Reagan, I'd like it verified.

Bottom line: neither Ebola, zombies, vampires, or even vampire ebola zombies truly scare me as much as my fellow citizens.

Well, if I was counting on reasoned discourse from OTM listeners to calm my concerns about my fellow citizen's ability to parse fact from fiction, I'm pretty much ready to build a bunker and buy SPAM, lots of SPAM. The distribution of comments seems to break down into two camps:

Pro-Bob= He is the god of REASON! Question NOT, apostate!

Anti-Bob= I tol' y'all in the Waffle House: that Garfield is an eastern elitist snot!

I notice much of the Anti-Bob sentiment is personal umbrage at the "condescension" and "snark," all of which ignores the facts the story was trying to bring out, namely, there are agendas out there having nothing to do with epidemiology, or our national interests (or even, simple compassion, for God's sake!) that have set the wake-o-meter of public opinion to FREAK-OUT AND FIND SOMEONE TO BLAME...
Folks, part of being an adult citizen of this republic is enduring having your favorite ox gored now and then...just shut up and listen.

As to Bob-is-Reason-God: I also have a problem with "just trust the CDC"- it has been my experience that when ever bureaucracy says "it's under control", I say lick the salt on the Margareta glass before swallowing THAT one. I trust the CDC has our interests, but, like Reagan, I'd like it verified.

Bottom line: neither Ebola, zombies, vampires, or even vampire ebola zombies truly scare me as much as my fellow citizens.

NPR has joined President Obama in misleading the public on the degree of contractablity of ebola. Certainly ebola is not an airborn disease like measles. OK? I know that. It is not spread through droplet infection like TB. I know that. It is not, however, spread through intimate contact like HIV.....and I know that. Ebola is spread through fairly simple and casual contact. It is not spread through intimate contact as HIV is. The proof that it is much easier to get lies simply in the high rate of health care workers who have contacted the disease.....or are we to think these health care people are having sex with their clients. Health care workers, in the post-HIV, post-hepitites environment are very careful of blood and other bodily fluids. I know : am a nurse. You folks should correct the record. Not as easy as measles; harder than HIV.

Thank you for calling out the hyperbolic and often inaccurate news coverage on Ebola.

Modern 24 hour news is so desperate to attract and keep our attention that they create the news rather than covering it.

As consumers of news, we have to be careful to seek out those journalists who are still motivated by core values of accuracy and responsible reporting. It's our responsibility to discern fact amongst opinion (and most news is opinion) and draw our own conclusions.

Thank you for calling out the hyperbolic and often inaccurate news coverage on Ebola.

Modern 24 hour news is so desperate to attract and keep our attention that they create the news rather than covering it.

As consumers of news, we have to be careful to seek out those journalists who are still motivated by core values of accuracy and responsible reporting. It's our responsibility to discern fact amongst opinion (and most news is opinion) and draw our own conclusions.

A material safety data sheet is a document that vendors must supply when a lab purchases chemicals or biologicals. Here's what the MSDS for ebola (http://www.msdsonline.com/resources/msds-resources/free-safety-data-sheet-index/ebola-virus.aspx) says (Note that "(23)" is a reference note, not the number of days; 4 degrees Celsius is the temperature in your refrigerator; and lyophilisation means "freeze drying"):

"...COMMUNICABILITY: Communicable as long as blood, secretions, organs, or semen contain the virus. Ebola virus has been isolated from semen 61 days after the onset of illness, and transmission through semen has occurred 7 weeks after clinical recovery (1, 2) ...

...SURVIVAL OUTSIDE HOST: The virus can survive in liquid or dried material for a number of days (23). Infectivity is found to be stable at room temperature or at 4°C for several days, and indefinitely stable at -70°C (6, 20). Infectivity can be preserved by lyophilisation."

The infection in Texas was a shot over the bow, and given the peculiarities of Texas, not to mention US healthcare in general, we're all lucky it didn't progress. Louise Troh and her sons and the two nurses who treated Mr Duncan are very lucky to be alive. Note that the biologicals used to treat the two nurses are in very, very short supply.

Note that in all 3 cases, most or all of their possessions were destroyed. When's the last time that happened to a flu patient?

To be fair to the hyperventilating media and the media consumer the sight of health workers having to wear full body suits that require special buddy system training to put on and take off suggests the Ebola virus is not hard to catch.

Then there are the patients transported in special containment vessels on aircraft, special isolation rooms or special hospitals.

Then there are the nurses who were infected despite asserting they were following protocols. A mystery

I suspect these images have more to do with the public's perception of Ebola risk than comments by blustering pundits.

"Public idiocy" couldn't be better stated.

I appreciate this segment very much.

Thank you!

The piece was good on the whole and calling out the fear mongering is very much warranted. Not all the fear is completely stupid, however, and OTM might have considered undertaking a little bit of, you know, educating on those points. There's a reason why moon suits are advised in caring for patients with active Elboa while at the same time it isn't really so easy to catch in a non-treatment setting. But the reason isn't intuitively available. And while it's true that Elboa isn't an airborne virus that can desiccate and float long distances, like measles, it "may well be able to infect people" nearby by droplets. This is discussed in an excellent article by Richard Preston in the October 27 New Yorker. This possibility renders what as I remember as your flat statement of the contrary inaccurate.

The piece was good on the whole and calling out the fear mongering is very much warranted. Not all the fear is completely stupid, however, and OTM might have considered undertaking a little bit of, you know, educating on those points. There's a reason why moon suits are advised in caring for patients with active Elboa while at the same time it isn't really so easy to catch in a non-treatment setting. But the reason isn't intuitively available. And while it's true that Elboa isn't an airborne virus that can desiccate and float long distances, like measles, it "may well be able to infect people" nearby by droplets. This is discussed in an excellent article by Richard Preston in the October 27 New Yorker. This possibility renders what as I remember as your flat statement of the contrary inaccurate.

I wish the commentators for whom I have great respect would say the names of the countries involved instead of saying "in West Africa". In the many reports you have given on different parts of the world, none refers to the region of the continent on which the situation has occurred instead of the country or even the city. Please continue to raise the level of the discussion and do not fall victim to this very quiet example of racism.

By the way both Nigeria and Sierra Leone, two countries that had Ebola cases, now have none. I think reporting on this would be a great way of quieting fears instead of the incessant reports that only elevate them.

In the broadcast, there was mention that the Ebola virus is not easily transmitted from one person to another and that it is not airborne. If it is not easily transmitted, why do people wear full hazmat gear when caring for the sick or decontaminating areas after sick people have left? This is not just the gear people wear working in normal isolation units in hospitals, this is much more stringent.

Also, if it's not airborne, why do they wear respirators and why is there such a concern over shielding the eyes? There must be some concern about Ebola becoming airborne either through the spray from vomit or by some other means. Maybe, before you discount the possibility and tell everyone there is nothing to be concerned about, you should read this article by "national experts on respiratory protection and infectious disease transmission", COMMENTARY: Health workers need optimal respiratory protection for Ebola, located here:

http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2014/09/commentary-health-workers-need-optimal-respiratory-protection-ebola

They still are not completely sure how the Ebola virus is transmitted, and therefore, it seems more prudent to be cautious. No one wants people in a panic, but I wouldn't want to have them apathetic either.

While listening to OTM’s story on the Ebola panic in the US I could not help but think of the famous H. L. Mencken quote, “Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public”. We unfortunately live in a profoundly clueless country. Around half of us do not consume news in any form whatsoever, and a significant percentage of those that do only seek out sources that reinforce their already formed opinions. Despite their cluelessness, Americans are quick to form opinions on almost anything; as is frequently shown in Jimmy Kimmel’s man on the street interviews. So man the barricades, Ebola is coming to your town next!

Three comments.

During the past two weeks, I have been watching debates on C-SPAN while MSNBC beats the Ebola story to death.

If public-health authorities and the media would talk more specifically about how the ebola virus is spread, then the reaction to it might be more calm and rational. What is a "bodily fluid" and specifically which ones carry the virus? Palm sweat? Breath droplets? Mucus? Tears?

I also wonder to what extent the cost of treatment influences the fear and panic caused by the threat of contagious diseases. Treatment of ebola seems very expensive.

I wonder how Bob Garfield would feel if someone were to call him a "fool" and refer to his ideas about public health, science, or medicine as "public idiocy" on a national radio program he may be hearing?

Modonna was right. Yoga does change your molecules. When you do Yoga, you burn energy.
The citric acid cycle — also known as the tricarboxylic acid cycle (TCA cycle), or the Krebs cycle,[1][2] — is a series of chemical reactions used by all aerobic organisms to generate energy through the oxidation of acetate derived from carbohydrates, fats and proteins into carbon dioxide and chemical energy in the form of adenosine triphosphate (ATP). In addition, the cycle provides precursors of certain amino acids as well as the reducing agent NADH that is used in numerous other biochemical reactions. Its central importance to many biochemical pathways suggests that it was one of the earliest established components of cellular metabolism and may have originated abiogenically.[3]

The name of this metabolic pathway is derived from citric acid (a type of tricarboxylic acid) that is consumed and then regenerated by this sequence of reactions to complete the cycle. In addition, the cycle consumes acetate (in the form of acetyl-CoA) and water, reduces NAD+ to NADH, and produces carbon dioxide as a waste byproduct. The NADH generated by the TCA cycle is fed into the oxidative phosphorylation (electron transport) pathway. The net result of these two closely linked pathways is the oxidation of nutrients to produce usable chemical energy in the form of ATP.

In eukaryotic cells, the citric acid cycle occurs in the matrix of the mitochondrion. In prokaryotic cells, such as bacteria which lack mitochondria, the TCA reaction sequence is performed in the cytosol with the proton gradient for ATP production being across the cell's surface (plasma membrane) rather than the inner membrane of the mitochondrion.
So your molecular structure is somewhat changed.

In your eagerness to calm people and get in a little bashing for xenophobia/racism on the side, your commentary about people's "irrational" fears neglects to mention very rational concerns that just *might* be making people a little more apprehensive--the spread of antiobiotic-resistant bacteria through overuse/misuse of antibiotics, the statistics of viral mutation, which become more worrisome as more people become infected, the prevalence of "new" microbes as habitat is destroyed and humans encroach, and the economics of our pharmaceutical research infrastructure, which means that we could well have plenty of viagra while people die for want of routine tetanus shots, and effective drugs against TB or ebola aren't developed until a crisis occurs. Don't pretend that these issues don't feed into people's concern about the current crisis.

You know, all of the snark and poo-pooing by Bob would be more bearable if a modicum of humility was shown. Two months ago, on 8/15, you had a segment called “Ebola is not coming to the United States.” Then, 4 weeks ago on 9/26, Laura Seay repeated that “Ebola is not coming to the United States.” Perhaps a humble admission on the day after a doctor who has Ebola went bowling in Brooklyn – or focusing some of that snark on yourselves – would make your listeners a bit more eager to follow your Consumer’s Handbook.

Seay, after all, told us just one month ago how strong a public health system we have, and how we can trace everyone we come in contact with. But just today John Roth, inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security, told a House oversight committee that that DHS has made several mistakes in its pandemic preparation. This included buying too much of some materials and not enough of others, and revealed that the department had purchased 350 thousand white coverall suits, and 16 million surgical masks, "but hasn't been able to demonstrate how either fits into their pandemic preparedness plans." http://www.cnbc.com/id/102118543#.

Given that Ebola is a “healthcare” and safety issue, and the government has shown a lack of ability in this area (see the Veterans Administration), can’t roll out a website(!), and the CDC itself has been incompetent…

http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2014/10/20/ebola-klain-obama-administration-political-fixer-drunkards-fools-column/17551049/)

… please forgive some of us for not trusting your handbook when it says, “If the CDC says don’t worry, don’t worry,” and especially when you say it with such condescension. Handle it like Shep Smith, and hold the snark, please.