The mainstream news media has been having a field day wringing hands and peddling terror as the sad news of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa has captivated the imaginations of pundits everywhere, from Glenn Beck warning “this could wipe out a third or half the population,” to endless CNN speculation over who’s to blame for a possibly…
The Ebola virus has no known cure. The Ebola panic machine does. It’s called a chill pill. You, reading this editorial, are not going to come down with Ebola. You are not going to catch it on a flight from Europe. You are not going to catch it from a Rwandan child who lives in Maple Shade, but is staying home with what NJ.com is calling “Ebola anxiety.”
This sort of thing is important for business owners to keep in perspective as they go forward. New Jersey does not do a substantial amount of business with Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, so there is little direct correlation, but the battle of panic vs. economy has been played over many times, and always ends much like SUV vs. squirrel. Businesses and residents should trust New Jersey’s strong medical infrastructure of hospitals and care providers to contain any disease that does make it here. There have been some missteps along the way on a national scale, but nothing to justify the fear and panic being broadcast into homes daily. A middle-school geography textbook can show you how small the affected nations are, especially next to Africa’s giant size. A cursory glance at the CDC’s website will show how difficult it is to transmit the disease.
The only business that might be feeling some heat is the pharmaceuticals industry. Ebola isn’t a new disease by any stretch of the imagination, but R&D on a treatment has received less attention lately than Mike Huckabee. Still, it’s hard to fault them — there’s been little economic incentive for researching Ebola when so many other pressing plights have caused greater destruction, whether it’s cancer, AIDS, heart disease or others.
New Jersey business owners have enough to worry about — devastatingly high taxes, crumbling transportation infrastructure, a looming pension crisis, a lack of real economic direction from policymakers and a poor jobs climate. Ebola shouldn’t be on the list. Let’s put our attention on the problems that are real problems — and that we can do something about.
