EbolaSome steps taken by schools, businesses for fear of Ebola seen as excessive

Roughly 800 passengers who flew on the same planes as Amber Joy Vinson, the second Texas nurse to be diagnosed with Ebola, on the trip she took to Ohio and back to Dallas, are currently being monitored for early symptoms of the disease. While Vinson is being cared for at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, travelers who flew on the same planes as Vinson are being asked to monitor their health and even self-quarantine for roughly twenty-one days.

The Dallas Morning News reported that in Ohio, three healthcare systems placed a group of nurses on leave because they flew on Vinson’s flight. Two schools near Cleveland, Ohio were closed and disinfected last Thursday because a school employee may have flown on the same aircraft as Vinson. “Because of the fear factor, maybe it’s overkill, but at this point it is better safe than sorry,” said Tiffany Watters, who flew last Monday on Frontier Airlines flight 1143 from Cleveland to Dallas. “We say we know healthcare has a handle on it. But do they, really?” That plane is now in isolation in a Denver hangar.

Ohio governor John Kasich said 116 people who may have had contact with Vinson are currently being monitored, and one has been placed under quarantine, though none of the individuals have shown symptoms of the deadly disease. “The more time that passes here, we’re getting through this incubation period,” he said, “and God willing everybody will be healthy on the other side.”

Navarro College in Corsicana, Texas has postponed recruiting applicants from Africa. The college currently has about 100 African students enrolled, and at first it announced it would suspend recruitment or acceptance of students from Ebola-affected African countries, but the college has recently expand the suspension to include the entire African continent. “We are currently not accepting students from any African countries,” Navarro spokesman Dewayne Gragg wrote to reporters via email. “We will continue to monitor the situation keeping the safety of our students foremost and will make adjustments when we feel justified.”

President Barack Obama has urged all Americans to remain calm as potential victims are being closely monitored by local and federal officials. “What we’re seeing now is not an ‘outbreak’ or an ‘epidemic’ of Ebola in America,” he said on Saturday during his weekly radio address. “This is a serious disease, but we can’t give in to hysteria or fear.” Adding that “I’ve met with an Ebola patient who recovered, right in the Oval Office. And I’m fine.”