A loud sneeeze fills the room.

Most would say a simple “bless you” just to be polite.

But then there’s that one kid who has to snicker, “Ew get away from me! You have Ebola!” Then everyone laughs.

Ebola is an infectious disease that causes blisters to be filled with blood, which is coughed up. As terrible as it sounds, a mere handful of people in the United States are affected by it.

No one knows exactly where this disease came from, but has been said to be originated from animals, along with other conspiracies and theories. Wherever it might have come from, we need to recognize that it is real.

There are many people, teenagers mostly, who like to joke about the disease. Sure, it’s funny the first few times, but once you’ve been hearing it nonstop for a solid month, it can get pretty annoying.

People are always trying to be the “funny guy” and say offensive things for laughs, but there are others who take it seriously, and for some, the fear has taken over their entire life.

No one should be afraid to fly on an airplane or ride on other forms of public transportation because they’re afraid to get a disease just because somebody coughed. It’s perfectly OK to be aware of the the situation and be cautious that it’s happening, but first of all, it’s not airborne.

Catching Ebola from someone else requires “close and direct” contact with infected body fluids, so you could really only get it from drinking from the same water or soda bottle as others. Second, what are the odds of you just randomly catching Ebola one day?

Slim to none.

People who make these jokes may act this way about the disease because they just want to make light of a serious situation.
Maybe they do it because they’re also afraid of Ebola and they’re trying to put on a front to disguise the fact that they really do care and they really are scared. Joking is just a way of covering it up.

For others, however, Ebola is not a joking matter. They’re not leaving their houses and are making sure no one sneezes, coughs, or even breathes on them to be sure they don’t catch it, which is unnecessary.

According to USA Today, approximately 5,000 people have died from an outbreak of Ebola in West Africa.

West Africa.

Not Stockton, California.

People are making it more of a threat to themselves than it really is. Yes, it’s really repulsive, and yes, a large number of people have died from it in other parts of the world, but you really don’t need to be paranoid about the situation until you find out if it has spread to your state or not.

Patrick Sawyer, a 40-year-old who lived in Coon Rapids, Minnesota, went to Liberia and came back only to get infected by and die from Ebola. CNN says that Sawyer is the only American to have died from Ebola outside of three west African countries; Guinea, where it began, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.

Sawyer is the first American to die from what health officials are calling the “deadliest Ebola outbreak in history.” His death has caused people to become concerned that the virus could potentially spread to the United States.

“No one really took Ebola seriously until it hit Patrick,” says Sawyer’s wife Decontee, which is somewhat true.

If you ask the average person what they think of the whole Ebola virus, they may say something like, “Not my problem,” and that’s true. It’s not their problem.

At the end of the day, Ebola is something that should kind of just sit in the back of your mind.

To those people who are deathly afraid of this disease and are trying to make it something it’s not, don’t be afraid to leave your house.