Have you touched an Ebola Patient’s Puke, Sweat, Sh*t, or Blood? If Not, You Don’t Have Ebola.

[Ms. Toad]

66. The problem with that premise is that you don't know.

Nurse Vinson was experiencing symptoms as early as Friday, four days before her Monday diagnosis.

She was in close contact, with a fever, at least with her seatmate in two flights. I typically sweat when I run a fever - so during that ~ two hour flight, there could have been sweat and saliva (as service items were passed across the row) among those seated in closest proximity to her.

Her sweat, potentially mucous, saliva, and fecal matter (depending on her cleanliness habits) could have been deposited on her seat and tray. Given the quick turn-around before the next flight, the next person sitting in her seat - or row - could easily have come into contact with those three bodily fluids and transferred them to their eyes or mouth by rubbing their eyes or eating during the flight.

The same scenario can be played out with the contact in the bridal shop, where the fitter would have almost certainly come into contact with her skin - and definitely the fabric of the gown - in the process of fitting her. Depending on what stage of the gown selection this was, others that same day may have tried on the same gown - potentially transferring the sweat to their skin for transmission to mucous membranes, or through any breaks in the skin.

No - hair on fire panic is not appropriate. I work about 4 miles from where she lives in Akron. I am keeping an eye on any new information about where she visited to make sure I was not there while or shortly after her visit - but beyond that I am not doing anything I don't already do during flu season to protect myself. The contact pool is still relatively small, and given her viral load was likely pretty low in the first few days of the disease, the chances she transmitted it to anyone in that direct or indirect contact pool are pretty slim.

But those chances are not zero, and the cost of pretending that they are could well mean death. Stop trivializing the screw-ups that got us to this place - and the risks that people need to pay attention to in order to stop this before it becomes appropriately a hair on fire nightmare.

As I recall, you were johnny on the spot with outrage when anyone dared suggest anything Nurse Vinson did was wrong. We now know that (1) she was definitely symptomatic on Saturday when she was out and about trying on wedding gowns, (2) potentially symptomatic on Friday as well before her first flight, (3) didn't directly call the CDC to ask about flying, and (3) flew at least once - potentially twice - with symptoms that someone (a) who had directly treated an Ebola patient and (b) was trained in medicine and (c) knew a co-worker had contracted Ebola should know were consistent with the early stages of Ebola.