Ebola is a very scary disease with horrifying symptoms, but it poses very little risk to the US.
Despite that, the conversation surrounding the disease has become exceptionally heated in recent days. Republicans have accused the Obama administration of mishandling the outbreak. Democrats have blamed the disease's spread on Republican-backed budget cuts. Politicians from both parties have called for a travel ban for flights in and out of Ebola-stricken countries. Media outlets have run stories that suggest, with little scientific basis, the disease could go airborne. The public is also calling on the government to do more.
On Wednesday, Fox News' Shepard Smith said everyone needs to calm down.
"Unless a medical professional has contacted you personally and told you of some sort of possible exposure, fear not," Smith said. "Do not listen to the hysterical voices on the radio and the television or read the fear-provoking words online. The people who say and write hysterical things are being very irresponsible."
He later added, "We do not have an outbreak of Ebola in the United States. Nowhere. We do have two health-care workers who contracted the disease from a dying man. They are isolated. There is no information to suggest that the virus has spread to anyone in the general population in America — not one person in the general population in the United States."
To learn more about Ebola, read Vox's explainer.
