i Editor's Letter: Assorted media reaction to the Ebola virus
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.When is it ok for a newspaper to panic its readers? The Daily Mirror left us in no doubt yesterday. PANIC OVER KILLER VIRUS, proclaimed its front page. EBOLA: WORLD GOES ON RED ALERT. The Telegraph was the other paper to lead with the story, albeit more equivocally: “Outbreak of deadly Ebola virus could reach UK.” We at i weren’t exactly understated in our own “puff” promoting the long science feature inside, calling it “the disease of nightmares”. But we chose to nudge the item down the front page, instead of running it more prominently (and alarmingly) along the top.
I wondered if that was a mistake yesterday morning, during our early debrief. But while the virus is terrifyingly lethal, and the outbreak in West Africa is speeding up, risk to British citizens remains minimal.
As the i100 team pointed out online, and we report inside, no cases of Ebola have ever been reported in Britain, the risk of travellers in West Africa contracting the disease is very low, and passengers are being checked before boarding planes. Even if an infected person made it through, they are very unlikely to pass on the illness (unlike, say, a respiratory pandemic). And even if they did pass on the illness to another person, the NHS here is alert and well prepared to contain it – we are world leaders in protecting the public from infectious diseases.
None of which mitigates the horror of the virus, of the 672 deaths in West Africa, or the words “No known cure”. But the infection can be stopped in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, through telling people what the disease is, how to recognise its symptoms and how to react.
Meanwhile, in the words of Lance Corporal Jones...
Twitter: @olyduff
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments