Now will the Obama administration impose a ban on incoming flights from West Africa or at least insist on an across-the-board 21-day quarantine? The White House has been reluctant to do either, repeating its hard-line claim that Ebola is harder to catch than the flu, the virus for which is airborne.
But according to Dr. Meryl Nass, of the Institute for Public Accuracy in Washington, “If you are sniffling and sneezing, you produce microorganisms that can get on stuff in a room. If people touch them, they could be” infected. In other words, the Ebola can be transmitted through the air and contracted by contact with a doorknob contaminated by a sneeze from an infected person an hour or more before.
Before you dismiss the claim as fear-mongering, arguing that you’ll take your health clues from the CDC, note that that agency is making the same claim, albeit with little public fanfare.
Nass pointed to a poster the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention quietly released on its Web site saying the deadly virus can be spread through “droplets.”
“Droplet spread happens when germs traveling inside droplets that are coughed or sneezed from a sick person enter the eyes, nose or mouth of another person,” the poster states.
The news gets worse. Dr. Rossi Hassad, a professor of epidemiology at Mercy College, said that the droplets could remain live and infectious for up to 24 hours, adding, “A shorter duration for dry surfaces like a table or doorknob, and longer durations in a moist, damp environment.
The CDC did not respond to The New York Post request for comment.
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