Much of the panic over Ebola is generated by information originally in the book,
The Hot Zone, by Richard Preston,http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hot_Zone
which was written in 1994 as a non-fiction thriller. He went on to write a fictional account of a bio weapon, Cobra Event and a non-fiction discussion of smallpox, The Demon in the Freezer. I read these books and interpreted them as an attempt to alert people to the need to have a well funded government agency studying emerging diseases and preparing against bio-warfare. It was to Mr. Preston's advantage to select the most horrifying facts to make his point. (Not that there is anything wrong or unusual with that - look at other recent books by other authors about say, the meat packing industry.) The film Outbreak was loosely based on the Hot Zone and of course we've had the recent movie Contagion as well.
That said, Mr. Presto's book was written in 1994. Here is a cell phone from 1994:
I would suggest that the information in The Hot Zone does not reflect the results of the 20 years of research since it was published.
= new reply since forum marked as read
...there's something wrong with my phone?
TYY
But Ebola remains the same. We are no longer taking the precautions mentioned in the book. OK, let me rephrase that. In the 1990's, the doctors and caregivers wore category four biohazard suits. These suits insulated the individual from any contagion. The Positive Pressure contained within the suit made as certain as we are able to be that no bit of the infected material could get in.
Fast forward. Today we're telling our caregivers to wear cloth face masks, plastic face shields, and paper gowns. Now, I readily admit that cell phone tech has increased, however I don't think that paper has advanced all that much.
In other words, we're not taking it seriously. Look at the pictures of the people who were going in to clean the apartment. Full Tyvex suit, heavy gloves, and no little surgical face mask, full respirators with large filters. That is a protected person who is unlikely to get the disease.
Look at this picture.
That is a decontamination process for people in full biohazard gear. They are spraying disinfectant on the individual to make sure that no biologically active materials can possibly survive. The UV rays from the sun will kill Ebola in a minute, but still look at the precautions they are taking.
But that's all right, by your analogy, they are using the old fashioned mark one cell phones right? So what is wrong with them? Don't they know that a paper mask and gown will protect them just as well as those heavy suits?
What do they wear when they are conducting those scientific studies on Ebola? You know, the ones that have been going on for twenty years? Those Positive Pressure suits mentioned above. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_pressure_personnel_suit
So what do I mean when I say Biological Level? I mean this. Note please that work on Ebola is carried out in laboratories specifically rated for that work. It's that dangerous. And this is what they still wear.
But I know how silly they are now, why they look like they're using a flip phone from the 1990's now don't they?
Ask the researchers, the ones who have done all that work, if they would walk into the lab wearing a silly little paper gown. They will not go if Ebola is going to be worked on. They want all that protection. They want to go home at night. They want to live to see tomorrow. Yet the people in charge of this mess assure us that paper masks are just fine, while they suit up in the full biohazard level four equipment before they go anywhere near the stuff.
That should tell you something. All the progress, all that research, and they still wear the same kind of positive pressure plastic suits that they wore when the flip phone above was the cutting edge of technology.
Clancy had it mostly right, adjusted for the needs of his story of course. It is very dangerous stuff.
I'd also note, that the researchers that are being lauded in the OP, wear the plastic Racal, which is actually a brand of Positive Pressure Protective suits that are mentioned in the book.
But now apparently, paper masks have taken the place of those heavy and annoying plastic suits. Progress right? 
