One Quote Shows Why The American Ebola Panic Is So Ridiculous

Impact

The news: While police are shooting unarmed black youth, the country is hypnotized by the Ebola "epidemic" within its borders.

Peter Pattakos visited a bridal shop on the same day as one of the nurses infected with Ebola. His reaction sums up why we shouldn't be worried about Ebola in the United States, and what we should be worried about instead. 

When the Cleveland Plain-Dealer asked him about potentially being exposed to Ebola, he said the following: 

I didn't exchange any bodily fluids with anyone, so I'm not worried about it. I'm much more likely to be mistakenly killed by a police officer in this country than to be killed by Ebola, even if you were in the same bridal shop.

Pattakos' reaction could not be more timely. As Mic previously reported, America is currently in a state of racism-fueled panic over the Ebola virus. Americans are taunting children from West Africa. There are American colleges refusing to accept applicants from countries that have harbored Ebola.

Funny, but true (and sad). While the first instinct might be to smirk at Pattakos' reaction, it's only because it's so accurate. 

There were 1,217 deadly police shootings between 2010 and 2012, according to Pro Publica. When examining those numbers, Pro Publica found that young black males were 21 times more likely to be shot by police than their white counterparts. 

Then, of course, there are the mass protests in Ferguson, Missouri, that started over police officers killing an unarmed black teen, Michael Brown.

The takeaway: Mic's Sophie Kleeman wrote about how skewed the media's coverage of Ebola was. She used this image to make her point: 

Because of this, our culture's perception of Ebola is skewed. Ebola is strange, foreign, and a threat to us all, so we panic. Police brutality is routine, banal, and typically only affects minorities — the marginalized voices in our society — so we shrug. 

But Peter Pattakos didn't shrug, so you shouldn't either.

h/t Vox