A girl walks into school face red and glistening with sweat, equipped with a box of Kleenex and a bag of Ricolas. To avoid the judgemental stares she casually comments “lol don’t worry I don’t have Ebola”. This remark is met with laughter and the girl who is simply sick with the flu, is quickly forgotten.

We’ve all heard it. After every sneeze or cough, there it is. Ebola. It’s so overused it’s starting to compete with the word literally in our generation’s limited vocabulary. I can’t help but roll my eyes and sigh when I hear the word Ebola.

When I went to my doctor for a routine check up this past month the first question I was asked by the nurse was if I had been in contact with Ebola. I almost laughed out of shock that my doctor, my dermatologist no less, was asking me if I possibly had Ebola in Missouri where Ebola is not an imminent threat. Seriously, I didn’t even have a cough. This, however, is now mandatory protocol across the nation.

While the threat of Ebola in Africa is very real, America is not yet a place where panic is necessary. A principal at a school in Mississippi traveled to Zambia, a country in southern Africa (untouched by Ebola) and, upon his return, parents started pulling their children out of school for fear their children might somehow contract the mysterious disease. In airports across the nation there are Americans wearing full hazmat suits traveling to places where there have been no reports of Ebola. It seems people would rather ignorantly fear the unknown than educate themselves on the basic facts of the disease.

According to the World Health Organization, 4,951 people have died from Ebola, and there have been 13,567 known cases of Ebola throughout the world. This means roughly 36 percent of these Ebola victims actually died, without a cure. So why the mass hysteria?

See, the media is no help to those who fear epidemics. News stations that embellish minor developments only add to the widespread panic. Every other news story seems to be about someone showing symptoms of Ebola in the U.S. It’s rare to hear about Ebola developments at this level of detail in Liberia or Sierra Leone where it’s a real threat they face every day.

I’m not saying I don’t think epidemics are scary, trust me, I’ve seen the movie Contagion. However, until the chances of contracting the disease in the U.S are much greater, I believe there’s no need to worry about something the average American can’t prevent. Why should I stress about Ebola when I have a higher risk of getting cancer or HIV/AIDS which, like Ebola, have no cure. We are living in an age of the most advanced technology and scientific knowledge that grows every day. We have some of the brightest minds in medicine working on a cure.
So for now, try to keep in mind that more Americans have been dumped by Taylor Swift than have died from Ebola.