Polling Ebola

Polling Ebola

By Jason L. Riley in the Wall Street Journal

 

Despite the sensational news coverage, Americans aren’t panicking over Ebola and seem to be taking matters in stride compared to past health scares. But our faith in government to prevent a major outbreak in the U.S. mostly breaks down along party lines.

“So far, the Ebola virus has not led to widespread concern about personal health: Just 11% are very worried that they or someone in their family will be exposed to the virus, while another 21% are somewhat worried,” according to a new Pew poll. “In August 2009, 45% were worried about the possibility of being exposed to swine flu, and in November 2005, 38% worried about contracting bird flu.”

Pew also reports that Republicans are more skeptical of the government’s ability to prevent a major Ebola outbreak in the U.S. While 69% of Democrats and 56% of independents are confident that the government could handle an outbreak, that number falls to 51% among Republicans in the nationwide poll. This seems to have less to do with Republican and Democratic views of government competence per se and more to do with which party controls the White House. “In November 2005, amid concerns over an outbreak of bird flu, Republicans were far more confident than Democrats in the government’s ability to prevent a major outbreak,” reports Pew.

But should Americans on balance be more worried than what the polls indicate? Perhaps. At this point, the situation appears to be under control domestically. But Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a former Food and Drug Administration official, told Fox News’s “Journal Editorial Report” on Saturday that the Ebola threat to the U.S. is still building and that we are ill-prepared for a worst-case scenario.

“The real risk [to the U.S.] is going to come a couple months from now, if you see the current spread in West Africa at the current pace,” said Dr. Gottlieb. “What’s likely to happen is you’ll reach a tipping point where you’re going to get migration out of that region. And you’re going to see clusters of infections simultaneously crop up in major metropolitan cities around the world.” His concern is that our system for quarantining individuals suspected of being infected could quickly be overwhelmed, which would force health officials to rely on vaccines and drugs that are still being developed. Why not expedite this drug development, just in case?