Ebola is less contagious than the flu. Fact. [View all]

[alarimer]

It has an R0 of 2. Measles has an R0 of 18. But let's not let facts get in the way of our hysteria, shall we?

NPR has a good summary:

The reproduction number, or "R nought," is a mathematical term that tells you how contagious an infectious disease is. Specifically, it's the number of people who catch the disease from one sick person, on average, in an outbreak.*

SNIP

Many factors contribute to the R0, such as how long you're infectious** and how many virus particles are needed to make another person sick.

With exponential growth, the numbers can get big, quickly.

But in Ebola's case, the mode of transmission probably helps keep its R0 low. Ebola isn't spread through the air, like the measles or flu. It requires close contact with some bodily fluid, such as blood or vomit, containing the virus.

Now at this point, you're probably thinking, "OK. But an R0 of 2 is nothing to brush off." You're right. R0 of 2 means one person infects two people, who then infect four people, then eight, 16, 32 — the numbers go up fast.

But that isn't likely to happen in a place with a good public health system, like the U.S. Why? Because people with Ebola aren't contagious until they show symptoms.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/10/02/352983774/no-seriously-how-contagious-is-ebola

The point being that this is not a disease we should fear. I understand that the media have whipped up a frenzy about this disease, but in a country with a decent public health system, we should not be overly concerned. To be sure, the people who work directly with these patients are most at risk. But most of those other 80 people probably do not have anything to worry about.