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In Ebola fear, a familiar whiff of paranoia In Ebola fear, a familiar whiff of paranoia
(about 1 hour later)
There have been only three confirmed cases (and one death) of Ebola in the United States, but a related condition is spreading faster than a California wildfire. Americans nationwide are showing signs of an epidemic of fear, all too reminiscent of the stigmatization, dread of contagion, and moral panic of the early years of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. I should know: I was there as a gay man at risk, as an AIDS hotline volunteer - and as a journalist covering the emerging epidemic. There have been only three confirmed cases (and one death) of Ebola in the United States, but a related condition is spreading faster than a California wildfire. Americans nationwide are showing signs of an epidemic of fear, all too reminiscent of the stigmatization, dread of contagion, and moral panic of the early years of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. I should know: I was there as a gay man at risk, as an AIDS hotline volunteer — and as a journalist covering the emerging epidemic.
The parallels are striking: In recent days some politicians and TV commentators have called for quarantining those from West Africa, which public health officials state will only drive those at risk underground. These proposals loudly echo efforts like those of Sen. Jesse Helms (R-NC) when he called for “quarantine of those infected” in the early 1980s. Other politicians have urged passage of a travel ban on flights to and from the affected countries, which “won’t keep Ebola contained and away from American shores,” said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention chief, Thomas Frieden. Similarly, in 1987 the Department of Health and Human Services, “at a time of widespread fear and ignorance about HIV,” (according to the AP) banned those with HIV from entering the United States. When President Obama lifted the ban four years ago he explained that its legacy had proved opposite to its stated intention; instead, it resulted in fewer people being tested, which helped spread the disease. The parallels are striking: In recent days some politicians and TV commentators have called for quarantining those from West Africa, which public health officials state will only drive those at risk underground. These proposals loudly echo efforts like those of Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) when he called for “quarantine of those infected” in the early 1980s. Other politicians have urged passage of a travel ban on flights to and from the affected countries, which “won’t keep Ebola contained and away from American shores,” said Thomas Frieden, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In Dallas, after a nurse became the first known case of Ebola transmission in the U.S., anxiety started to spill over. A doctor posted online: “I am a hospital-based physician and frankly, the prospect of caring for an Ebola patient is scary.” A physician assistant described herself as “terrified.” Meanwhile the increasingly familiar team of hazmat-clad crews arrived to clean the nurse’s apartment, with a biohazard barrel remaining out front. Early on in the AIDS epidemic, this kind of anxiety quickly morphed into panic: HIV-infected kids like Ryan White were banned from schools; employees were fired simply because they were suspected of having AIDS; Washington D.C. police officers raided a gay bar wearing gloves, face masks and bulletproof vests to protect themselves from what was described then as a “lethal threat.” Similarly, in 1987 the Department of Health and Human Services, “at a time of widespread fear and ignorance about HIV,” (according to the AP) banned those with HIV from entering the United States. When President Obama lifted the ban four years ago, he explained that its legacy had proved opposite to its stated intention; instead, it resulted in fewer people being tested, which helped spread the disease.
In Dallas, after a nurse became the first known case of Ebola transmission in the United States, anxiety started to spill over. A doctor posted online: “I am a hospital-based physician and frankly, the prospect of caring for an Ebola patient is scary.” A physician’s assistant described herself as “terrified.”
Meanwhile, the increasingly familiar team of hazmat personnel arrived to clean the nurse’s apartment, with a biohazard barrel remaining out front. Early on in the AIDS epidemic, this kind of anxiety quickly morphed into panic: HIV-infected kids such as Ryan White were banned from schools; employees were fired simply because they were suspected of having AIDS; Washington, D.C., police officers raided a gay bar wearing gloves, face masks and bulletproof vests to protect themselves from what was described then as a “lethal threat.”
Underscoring these latest fears, the term “Fearbola” has quickly made its way into the lexicon, thanks largely to comic Seth Myers, whose segment on “the irrational fear of catching Ebola” went viral last week. Explained a fake doctor in the segment: “It is very easy to contract. Just five minutes of exposure to CNN or Fox News and you might have Fearbola.”Underscoring these latest fears, the term “Fearbola” has quickly made its way into the lexicon, thanks largely to comic Seth Myers, whose segment on “the irrational fear of catching Ebola” went viral last week. Explained a fake doctor in the segment: “It is very easy to contract. Just five minutes of exposure to CNN or Fox News and you might have Fearbola.”
About the only thing that happened last week that didn’t eerily mirror the AIDS panic was that the phrase “Ebola fear” became a trending topic on Twitter—and that’s no doubt only because the social network was unimaginable in 1983. About the only thing that happened last week that didn’t eerily mirror the AIDS panic was that the phrase “Ebola fear” became a trending topic on Twitter — and that’s no doubt only because the social network was unimaginable in 1983.
I’m not the only one to draw this parallel. At a recent press conference, the CDC’s Frieden said that the last time he witnessed anything like the Ebola outbreak was during the early years of the HIV/AIDS crisis. I’m not the only one to draw this parallel. At a recent news conference, the CDC’s Frieden said that the last time he witnessed anything like the Ebola outbreak was during the early years of the HIV/AIDS crisis.
“AIDSphobia,” a term used to describe discrimination against those with HIV, was able to take a stranglehold over the U.S. thanks to a confluence of conditions: a dearth of political leadership, misleading if not inaccurate information from U.S. public health officials, and a news media that stoked the fires of anxiety in its quest for ratings and headlines. Together, these co-factors became almost as dangerous to public health and civil rights as was the virus itself. “AIDSphobia,” a term used to describe discrimination against those with HIV, was able to take a stranglehold over the United States thanks to a confluence of conditions: a dearth of political leadership, misleading if not inaccurate information from U.S. public health officials, and a news media that stoked the fires of anxiety in its quest for ratings and headlines. Together, these co-factors became almost as dangerous to public health and civil rights as was the virus itself.
How did this happen? President Reagan’s record is forever tarnished by his lack of leadership on this issue, infamously refusing to address the issue until 1987. By that time, the CDC reported that more than 41,027 Americans had died from HIV/AIDS. When the president did speak about AIDS prevention, he recused the government and alarmingly co-mingled science and ethics:How did this happen? President Reagan’s record is forever tarnished by his lack of leadership on this issue, infamously refusing to address the issue until 1987. By that time, the CDC reported that more than 41,027 Americans had died from HIV/AIDS. When the president did speak about AIDS prevention, he recused the government and alarmingly co-mingled science and ethics:
“How that information is used must be up to schools and parents, not government. But let’s be honest with ourselves, AIDS information cannot be what some call ‘value neutral.’ After all, when it comes to preventing AIDS, don’t medicine and morality teach the same lessons?”“How that information is used must be up to schools and parents, not government. But let’s be honest with ourselves, AIDS information cannot be what some call ‘value neutral.’ After all, when it comes to preventing AIDS, don’t medicine and morality teach the same lessons?”
Even those who presumably knew better, like the nation’s leading public health officials, also dropped the ball. Margaret Heckler, head of Health and Human Services, wrongly declared in 1984 that a vaccine would be available in as short as two years, providing a false sense of hope. Dr. Anthony Fauci, then as now the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, added to the atmosphere of alarm when he wrote in a 1983 JAMA editorial that it was a “possibility that routine close contact within a family household . . . can spread the disease,” meaning that virtually everybody in spitting distant of a person infected with HIV was at risk of contracting the deadly disease. (The damage done, he later retracted the statement.) Even those who presumably knew better, such as the nation’s leading public health officials, also dropped the ball. Margaret Heckler, head of Health and Human Services, wrongly declared in 1984 that a vaccine would be available in as short as two years, providing a false sense of hope. Anthony Fauci, then as now the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, added to the atmosphere of alarm when he wrote in a 1983 editorial in the Journal of the American Medical Association that it was a “possibility that routine close contact within a family household . . . can spread the disease,” meaning that virtually everybody in spitting distant of a person infected with HIV was at risk of contracting the deadly disease. (The damage done, he later retracted the statement.)
The media was also asleep at the wheel. (It’s now legend how long it took The New York Times to print its first HIV/AIDS story.) Once the epidemic was deemed news, however, the media exercised almost no restraint when it came to writing the most attention-grabbing headlines and stories. Among the most inflammatory from those years: “Wife murders hubby with AIDS cocktail!” People magazine’s “AIDS: Fatal, Incurable, and Spreading,” and LIFE’s 1985 cover story, “Now No One Is Safe from AIDS.” The media was also asleep at the wheel. (It’s now legend how long it took the New York Times to print its first HIV/AIDS story.) Once the epidemic was deemed news, however, the media exercised almost no restraint when it came to writing the most attention-grabbing headlines and stories. Among the most inflammatory from those years: “Wife murders hubby with AIDS cocktail!” and People magazine’s “AIDS: Fatal, Incurable, and Spreading,” as well as Life’s 1985 cover story, “Now No One Is Safe from AIDS.”
A notable exception was Hank Plante, who won Emmy and Peabody Awards for his coverage of the beginnings of the AIDS epidemic. Plante told me on the phone this week: “There were a lot of wrong stories back then. There were panic stories about mosquitoes. ‘Can we get AIDS from mosquitoes?’ If that were the case, we’d all be dead.” How is the media doing this time around, I asked? “They are so afraid of saying words they consider offensive. ‘It is spread through bodily fluids.’ What does that mean? Is it sneezing, kissing? That’s not good enough, and it also leads to panic that doesn’t need to be there.” A notable exception was Hank Plante, who won Emmy and Peabody awards for his coverage of the beginnings of the AIDS epidemic. Plante told me on the phone this week: “There were a lot of wrong stories back then. There were panic stories about mosquitoes. ‘Can we get AIDS from mosquitoes?’ If that were the case, we’d all be dead.”
How is the media doing this time around, I asked? “They are so afraid of saying words they consider offensive. ‘It is spread through bodily fluids.’ What does that mean? Is it sneezing, kissing? That’s not good enough, and it also leads to panic that doesn’t need to be there.”
With so much finger pointing, it’s also important to examine our own responses. Even with the risk of any American contracting Ebola “virtually zero,” according to Andrew Pekosz, a professor at Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health, we’re not immune to its side effects. Pekosz explained further: “Because this is a highly lethal disease, whose symptoms are rather gruesome . . . we end up waiting for weeks to see if someone is going to come down with this deadly disease. This allows time to build fear and anxiety and forget about things like how safe the vast majority of us really are.”With so much finger pointing, it’s also important to examine our own responses. Even with the risk of any American contracting Ebola “virtually zero,” according to Andrew Pekosz, a professor at Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health, we’re not immune to its side effects. Pekosz explained further: “Because this is a highly lethal disease, whose symptoms are rather gruesome . . . we end up waiting for weeks to see if someone is going to come down with this deadly disease. This allows time to build fear and anxiety and forget about things like how safe the vast majority of us really are.”
Not to mention that every day seems to bring new questions, new fears – and new cases, if not in the U.S. elsewhere on the planet. Unfortunately, there’s much that we don’t yet know about containing Ebola (and much that we do, unlike AIDS in its earliest years). Still, the legacy of that epidemic is clear: Without strong political leadership, science-based policies, and a responsible media we are headed down a frighteningly familiar road. Not to mention that every day seems to bring new questions, new fears — and new cases, if not in the United States, elsewhere on the planet. Unfortunately, there’s much that we don’t yet know about containing Ebola (and much that we do, unlike AIDS in its earliest years). Still, the legacy of that epidemic is clear: Without strong political leadership, science-based policies and a responsible media, we are headed down a frighteningly familiar road.
There’ is one link between these two health scares that gives me hope, and that’s the heroism and selflessness displayed by front-line health care providers tending for patients in West Africa and now in the U.S. Ron Stall, a behavioral epidemiologist and HIV expert at the University of Pittsburgh who has been at the forefront of AIDS prevention efforts since the early 1980s, told me: “I’m surprised that there hasn’t been a greater focus and celebration of the amazing courage displayed by those who are seeking to treat the ill, interrupt transmission, and save lives of people that they had never even previously met.” There is one link between these two health scares that gives me hope, and that’s the heroism and selflessness displayed by frontline health-care providers tending to patients in West Africa and now in the United States.
Indeed, the current Ebola outbreak provides lessons to be avoided - and lessons to be repeated. Ron Stall, a behavioral epidemiologist and HIV expert at the University of Pittsburgh who has been at the forefront of AIDS prevention efforts since the early 1980s, told me: “I’m surprised that there hasn’t been a greater focus and celebration of the amazing courage displayed by those who are seeking to treat the ill, interrupt transmission and save lives of people that they had never even previously met.”
Steven Petrow covered the HIV/AIDS epidemic for more than two decades and wrote one of the first books about people with AIDS, Dancing Against the Darkness: A Journey Through America in the Age of AIDS. He also writes The Post’s “Civilities” column. Indeed, the current Ebola outbreak provides lessons to be avoided — and lessons to be repeated.
Steven Petrow covered the HIV/AIDS epidemic for more than two decades and wrote one of the first books about people with AIDS, “Dancing Against the Darkness: A Journey Through America in the Age of AIDS.” He also writes The Post’s “Civilities” column.
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