The following is an excerpt from OpinionJournal’s “Best of the Web” at WSJ written by the editor, James Taranto.
News You Can Use
“Stop Taking Bear Selfies, U.S. Forest Service Officials Warn”—headline, WUnderground .com, Oct. 30
That’s a Relief
“Nurse Kaci Hickox: ‘No Way I Would Give You Ebola’ ”—video title, USA Today website, Oct. 30
Sternutation Nation
If this story from the New York Post doesn’t restore your faith in government, we don’t know what will:
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control on Thursday yanked a poster off its Web site explaining how Ebola can be spread by contaminated droplets—from a sneeze for example—a day after The Post reported on the frightening revelation.
The fact sheet was taken off line, and a link that led to it a day before now sends viewers to a different page with a different message.
“The ‘What’s the difference between infections spread through air or by droplets?’ fact sheet is being updated and is currently unavailable. Please visit cdc.gov/Ebola for up-to-date information on Ebola,” it read Thursday.
Officials with the CDC remained mum on the issue, refusing to respond to questions for the original story and again on Thursday.
“I see the CDC protocols for isolating and sanitizing errors remain in effect,” quips John Hayward on Twitter. We checked the CDC website and found this:
Can Ebola be spread by coughing or sneezing?
There is no evidence indicating that Ebola virus is spread by coughing or sneezing. Ebola virus is transmitted through direct contact with the blood or body fluids of a person who is sick with Ebola; the virus is not transmitted through the air (like measles virus). However, droplets (e.g., splashes or sprays) of respiratory or other secretions from a person who is sick with Ebola could be infectious, and therefore certain precautions (called standard, contact, and droplet precautions) are recommended for use in healthcare settings to prevent the transmission of Ebola virus from patients sick with Ebola to healthcare personnel and other patients or family members.
So if you have Ebola we’d like to ask politely that you refrain from sneezing on us.
For more “Best of the Web” click here and look for the “Best of the Web Today” link in the middle column below “Today’s Columnists.”
