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| In Europe, Fear of Ebola Exceeds the Actual Risks | In Europe, Fear of Ebola Exceeds the Actual Risks |
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| BRUSSELS — After more than a decade working as a charity director setting up schools in West Africa, Miriam Mason-Sesay got an unpleasant surprise recently when she returned to Britain and could not find a school willing to teach her own 9-year-old son. | BRUSSELS — After more than a decade working as a charity director setting up schools in West Africa, Miriam Mason-Sesay got an unpleasant surprise recently when she returned to Britain and could not find a school willing to teach her own 9-year-old son. |
| On previous trips home, Ms. Mason-Sesay said, her son, Kofi, had always enrolled for short periods at a primary school near Manchester, in northern England, but this year the school refused to take him because the parents of other pupils were frightened: They did not want their children sharing classes with a boy who had spent time in Sierra Leone, one of the three countries hardest hit by the Ebola epidemic. | |
| Across Europe, as in the United States, a virus that, outside Africa, has infected only a handful of people, all of them medical workers in hospitals treating Ebola patients, has stirred a wave of alarm that doctors and psychologists say reflects the insecurities of the modern mind far more than any significant danger to public health. | |
| In Alcorcón, a town on the outskirts of Madrid where a Spanish nurse lived until she contracted Ebola virus while treating a sick priest, local businesses reported this week that their revenues had plummeted as customers stayed away. Among those hit by the scare was a haird salon where the nurse, María Teresa Romero Ramos, had gone for a waxing before she tested positive. | |
| On Friday, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, Spain’s deputy prime minister, said Ms. Ramos, was “stable, with a slight improvement” in her condition. | On Friday, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, Spain’s deputy prime minister, said Ms. Ramos, was “stable, with a slight improvement” in her condition. |
| In Italy, which has had no confirmed cases yet of Ebola, the organizers of an international food fair in Turin asked delegates from Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia not to attend this year’s event, which opens next week. Paola Nano, a spokeswoman for Slow Food International, the sponsor of the fair, said that this was not because of any fear of contagion but only because they “might have problems getting here.” | In Italy, which has had no confirmed cases yet of Ebola, the organizers of an international food fair in Turin asked delegates from Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia not to attend this year’s event, which opens next week. Paola Nano, a spokeswoman for Slow Food International, the sponsor of the fair, said that this was not because of any fear of contagion but only because they “might have problems getting here.” |
| Claudine Burton-Jeangros, a sociology professor at the University of Geneva, said that panic over the disease springs from a paradox at the heart of modern life: the more we master the world through science and technology the more frightened we are of those things we can’t control or understand. “We live in very secure societies and like to think we know what will happen tomorrow. There is no place in our rational and scientific world for the unknown.” | Claudine Burton-Jeangros, a sociology professor at the University of Geneva, said that panic over the disease springs from a paradox at the heart of modern life: the more we master the world through science and technology the more frightened we are of those things we can’t control or understand. “We live in very secure societies and like to think we know what will happen tomorrow. There is no place in our rational and scientific world for the unknown.” |
| “Objectively, the risks created by Ebola in Europe are very small,” said Ms. Burton-Jeangros, “but there is an uncertainty that creates fear.” | “Objectively, the risks created by Ebola in Europe are very small,” said Ms. Burton-Jeangros, “but there is an uncertainty that creates fear.” |
| The result has been a string of unfounded Ebola scares, which in some parts of Europe have led to entire buildings being sealed off and the people inside being held so they could be examined for symptoms. | The result has been a string of unfounded Ebola scares, which in some parts of Europe have led to entire buildings being sealed off and the people inside being held so they could be examined for symptoms. |
| “People think that Ebola is lurking behind every tree and bush and waiting to get them,” said Ms. Mason-Sesay, the British charity director. She added that the banishment of her son — who had been certified healthy by doctors — pointed to a disturbing mood of fear fueled by ignorance and misinformation. | “People think that Ebola is lurking behind every tree and bush and waiting to get them,” said Ms. Mason-Sesay, the British charity director. She added that the banishment of her son — who had been certified healthy by doctors — pointed to a disturbing mood of fear fueled by ignorance and misinformation. |
| In a statement, Elizabeth Inman, the principal of St. Simon’s Catholic Primary School, said she had made a “pragmatic decision” not to admit Ms. Mason-Sesay’s son. “There is a lot of misinformation about how Ebola is spread,” the principal said, and, complaining of misguided hysteria, added that “it is with great sadness that we decided to cancel the visit” to the school by the boy. | In a statement, Elizabeth Inman, the principal of St. Simon’s Catholic Primary School, said she had made a “pragmatic decision” not to admit Ms. Mason-Sesay’s son. “There is a lot of misinformation about how Ebola is spread,” the principal said, and, complaining of misguided hysteria, added that “it is with great sadness that we decided to cancel the visit” to the school by the boy. |
| In one particularly extreme example of overreaction, health authorities in Macedonia sealed off a hotel in the capital Skopje and kept its guests locked up there for days after a British businessman took ill in his room and died soon after being taken to the hospital. Doctors later said his problem was alcohol abuse and general ill health, not Ebola. | In one particularly extreme example of overreaction, health authorities in Macedonia sealed off a hotel in the capital Skopje and kept its guests locked up there for days after a British businessman took ill in his room and died soon after being taken to the hospital. Doctors later said his problem was alcohol abuse and general ill health, not Ebola. |
| French authorities last week sealed off a building that houses a health and social security office in Cergy-Pontoise near Paris after two ill-looking Africans were spotted inside. They tested negative for Ebola. | French authorities last week sealed off a building that houses a health and social security office in Cergy-Pontoise near Paris after two ill-looking Africans were spotted inside. They tested negative for Ebola. |
| Angela McLean, an Oxford University mathematical biologist who works on computer models for the spread of diseases, said that while Ebola was clearly a grave medical issue in West Africa, there was very little risk of it galloping out of control in Europe or the United States. But the possible consequences of catching the disease — an agonizing death attended by vomiting and extensive internal and external bleeding — are so horrific that “a near zero chance” of being infected “is not very comforting.” | Angela McLean, an Oxford University mathematical biologist who works on computer models for the spread of diseases, said that while Ebola was clearly a grave medical issue in West Africa, there was very little risk of it galloping out of control in Europe or the United States. But the possible consequences of catching the disease — an agonizing death attended by vomiting and extensive internal and external bleeding — are so horrific that “a near zero chance” of being infected “is not very comforting.” |
| “If the risk is that you might die, then it is a big deal,” she added. | “If the risk is that you might die, then it is a big deal,” she added. |
| Ebola, though lethal, is relatively well understood, said Dr. Michael Fitzpatrick, a British doctor who has written a book about health scares. “There is no mystery about how you get it,” Dr. Fitzpatrick said. “Unless you somehow exchanged bodily fluids with an Ebola patient you do not get Ebola.” | Ebola, though lethal, is relatively well understood, said Dr. Michael Fitzpatrick, a British doctor who has written a book about health scares. “There is no mystery about how you get it,” Dr. Fitzpatrick said. “Unless you somehow exchanged bodily fluids with an Ebola patient you do not get Ebola.” |
| Still, as a headline in the Swiss newspaper Le Temps put it: “Ebola: When Fear Goes Viral.” | Still, as a headline in the Swiss newspaper Le Temps put it: “Ebola: When Fear Goes Viral.” |
| Russian media, happy to report on a health crisis that has so far not challenged Russia’s already overextended health service, has given extensive coverage to alarm over the virus in Europe and the United States. At the same time, Africans living in Russia have also faced suspicion and scrutiny, as has been the case in Western Europe. | Russian media, happy to report on a health crisis that has so far not challenged Russia’s already overextended health service, has given extensive coverage to alarm over the virus in Europe and the United States. At the same time, Africans living in Russia have also faced suspicion and scrutiny, as has been the case in Western Europe. |
| Even in Germany, which has seen little panic about Ebola, some newspapers have stoked alarm. Bild, a popular daily, reported that every second German is scared of getting infected. It gave no details of how it got the figure. | Even in Germany, which has seen little panic about Ebola, some newspapers have stoked alarm. Bild, a popular daily, reported that every second German is scared of getting infected. It gave no details of how it got the figure. |
| The European Union has tried to tamp down alarm with a series of assurances from officials in Brussels, the bloc’s administrative headquarters, that Europeans who do not travel to West Africa have little to no chance of getting the disease. | The European Union has tried to tamp down alarm with a series of assurances from officials in Brussels, the bloc’s administrative headquarters, that Europeans who do not travel to West Africa have little to no chance of getting the disease. |
| But the official response has at times seemed almost nonchalant. At what was billed as a high-level Ebola crisis meeting of health ministers held in Brussels on Thursday, only 11 of 28 ministers showed up, with most countries sending more junior officials. The only concrete decision to come out of the meeting was a commitment to “convene a workshop” next month to “exchange best practice in infection control in health care settings.” | But the official response has at times seemed almost nonchalant. At what was billed as a high-level Ebola crisis meeting of health ministers held in Brussels on Thursday, only 11 of 28 ministers showed up, with most countries sending more junior officials. The only concrete decision to come out of the meeting was a commitment to “convene a workshop” next month to “exchange best practice in infection control in health care settings.” |
| Divided on the wisdom of screening at airports that receive flights from West Africa, leaders have been left to decide what to do in their own countries. Britain, which suspended all flights from West Africa weeks ago, recently followed the United States in announcing airport screening. But Belgium, the only European country with direct flights from all three of the worst affected countries — Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia — has instituted no controls. | Divided on the wisdom of screening at airports that receive flights from West Africa, leaders have been left to decide what to do in their own countries. Britain, which suspended all flights from West Africa weeks ago, recently followed the United States in announcing airport screening. But Belgium, the only European country with direct flights from all three of the worst affected countries — Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia — has instituted no controls. |
| Speaking after Thursday’s meeting in Brussels of health officials, Belgium’s health minister, Maggie de Block, suggested that the real problem in Europe was more psychological than physical: “We are passing through a crisis of panic in Europe,” she said. | |
| Dr. Petra Dickmann, who runs a risk-communication consultancy in London, said many other diseases pose a far bigger threat to life but Ebola had taken on fearsome dimensions. | Dr. Petra Dickmann, who runs a risk-communication consultancy in London, said many other diseases pose a far bigger threat to life but Ebola had taken on fearsome dimensions. |
| “We have been watching Africans dying for months, but think that Africans die all the time from nasty diseases that we don’t have,” she said. “We need to get Ebola out of this box of a scary African monster” and start communicating the real risks clearly, she said. |