Via Facebook, my old friend Jeff Kluger at Time Magazine drew my attention to a sobering Twitter item by David Stukus, an allergist and pediatrics professor in Columbus, Ohio:
The anecdote is a valuable reminder of the enormity of the gap between fears and facts in many people’s perceptions of health risks — and of how that gap contributes to illness.
For more, read:
“As Ebola Spreads, So Have Several Fallacies,” by Carl Zimmer here in The Times.
“Ebola: A crash course in fear and how it hurts us,” by Seth Borenstein of the Associated Press.
“Fearing Ebola? Doctors Say Get a Flu Shot,” by Lindsay Tanner of the Associated Press.
“As flu season starts, Ebola fear may fill emergency rooms,” by Beth Lisa Goodbaum, CBS News.
And of course, read David Ropeik’s piece for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, “Don’t fear Ebola, fear fear itself.”