Relief workers hand out information leaflets about Ebola in Guinea. (Time Magazine)
You'd have to be living under a rock to not be confronted with the US media's Ebola obsession. Seriously, I got home from work last night and turned on the TV only to hear the uber-important sounding BREAKING NEWS music on CNN. I wondered what it was about, perhaps an update on the shootings in Ottawa yesterday? Nope. It was about Ebola. Specifically it was about ONE doctor in New York City who had contracted the disease while treating patients in west Africa. The anchor was indulging a near hysterical tone asking "Are New Yorkers safe? Is the Subway safe?" The doctors on the panel did everything they could to talk him down, but you could tell the interest was more in pedaling fear and obsession than actually disseminating relevant information to the public.
That's sad, and perhaps even dangerous for a couple of reasons. First off, most of us aren't going to have anything to fear from Ebola. Despite the constant media blaring, we know a lot about the virus. Most importantly we know how it spreads, and how it doesn't spread. This allows health professionals to give guidance on how to avoid infection. Namely, don't come into contact with the bodily fluids of an Ebola patient. Of course, this isn't anywhere near as sexy as "outbreak" and "pandemic" story lines now is it? There's a fine line between urging people to exercise proper hygiene and precautions and stoking a panic. We seem to be way on the panic side of that line.
But there's an even darker and deeper tragedy happening behind all of this. While all of us comfortable, healthy Americans are worried sick over a disease that we'll likely never come into contact with, half a world away some of the most vulnerable people on the planet are dying left and right from the same disease, a disease that they don't have the power to escape by turning off CNN or logging off Twitter for awhile. The plain fact is that most people in America and other industrialized nations couldn't have cared less about Ebola until white doctors and missionaries started contracting it.
Even when this happened, the response was less than compassionate. A couple of Americans who contracted the virus in Africa were brought home under controlled conditions so that they could be treated. When this came out, people became apoplectic. Yet these people recovered. These people didn't make anyone else sick. Serum produced from the blood of these patients is being used to treat others who have contracted the disease. Pretty positive outcomes all around, yes?
Well, that was not the outcome for Thomas Eric Duncan, who began to show symptoms after returning to Texas from Liberia. He went to the hospital, reported his symptoms, and told them that he had just returned from Africa. He was sent home and given Tylenol for his fever. According to his family, he had no health insurance. Only days later when his symptoms had worsened was he admitted and treated for Ebola. He died. Even at his passing, the concern wasn't for this man or his family, it was about whether anyone else in Dallas had gotten it from him. Would he have recovered had he been given proper medical treatment immediately? Only God knows that I suppose.
Meanwhile, people in west Africa often lack even the kind of medical attention that Mr. Duncan received. Are we seeing stories about that on the news? Very rarely. So what do we do about it? The cost of this virus is high in Africa and can't possibly be measured in just dollars. People's lives are ENDING. Parents are losing kids, kids are losing parents, spouses are losing their loved ones. Many are dying alone and afraid, with their corporeal remains perhaps cursed to infect another person who might stumble upon them. Can we see past our own fear and manufactured panic to show compassion to these people, to try to help them?
There are many ways to help. Secular and religious organizations around the world are responding to this emergency. I'll list a few links here.
As always, please give only through reputable relief organizations or through official programs of your local church or civic organization to avoid people who are looking to make a quick dollar off of tragedy.
For fellow Christians, I urge all of you to join me in reflecting on how we're viewing and responding to this event, and how Christ would respond to it. A good place to start is Jayson D, Bradley's blog entry entitled "Love in the Time of Ebola."
Here is a video and prayer put together by the United Methodist Church, a prayer for those suffering from this disease the world over.
"Gracious God, we call you the Great Physician.
We pray your healing power to touch those bodies that now shake with fever, ache with pain, and are too weak to sustain the demands of life.
Gracious God, we know you are a Mighty God.
Grant access to medical care for the most vulnerable in West Africa.
Protect doctors and nurses who kneel at the bedsides of the sick and the dying.
Provide resources in places of lack. Guide churches and church leaders.
Empower all who work tirelessly to be Christ’s hands and feet.
Gracious God, we believe you are Hope for the hopeless. Hold parents who’ve lost children.
Gently father and mother children who’ve lost their parents.
Make your presence known to those who are dying alone, in the streets, in wastelands, without friends or family.
Speak tenderly to all who feel abandoned by the world’s governments and systems of power.
Give strength to our friends in West Africa who feel that “life more abundantly” is an unfulfilled promise.
Gracious God, we know you are the Light overcoming darkness.
Why should we be afraid?
Help us, O God, to trust in your unchanging nature in times of uncertainty.
Grant us peace that Ebola or anything in this life that would threaten to undo us, is not impossible for you.
Hear our prayer.
Amen."
Amen! It's about time we stopped letting the media do our thinking for us and started using our common sense and our humanity. Well said.
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