Very, very wrong. It's a nice-sounding lie, particularly when the president spouts it...
Also wrong. Two months ago, less than 2,000 had died from it. Today, that number tops 4,000. Among the infected are family, friends, and caregivers, in that order of frequency.
With all due respect Dr Paul (who is an eye doctor, not a virologist) is confusing infectious with contagious. Although usually used interchangeably, there are specialized connotations both 'infectious' and 'contagious' that are not always respected in popular use.
The very fact that it's family, friends and caregivers that are most affected only reinforces what I said, that you have to work at contacting Ebola. You need intimate contact, not casual contact. Additionally, requiring two full months to double speaks volumes about how hard it is to contract, not how easily.
Disease | Vector | R[SUB]0[/SUB]
(Contagiousness) |
---|
Measles | Airborne | 12-18 |
Pertussis | Airborne droplet | 12–17 |
Diphtheria | Saliva | 6–7 |
Smallpox | Airborne droplet | 5–7 |
Polio | Fecal-oral route | 5–7 |
Rubella | Airborne droplet | 5–7 |
Mumps | Airborne droplet | 4–7 |
HIV/AIDS | Sexual contact | 2–5 |
SARS | Airborne droplet | 2–5 |
Influenza
(1918 pandemic strain) | Airborne droplet | 2–3 |
Ebola
(2014 Ebola outbreak) | Bodily fluids | 1-2 |
Botulism | Not contagious | 0 |
Measles, which is completely airborne, is
extremely contagious with an R naught of 12-18. For every patient infected with measles, you can expect that 12-18 people will be exposed to the disease.
Ebola, which is spread through bodily fluids in not especially contagious. However, Ebola is
very infectious, it only takes an astonishingly small number of the micro-organism (maybe less then 5) to infect someone it comes in contact with.
I would refer the interested reader to
Bill Wittle's video and an article by
Forbes which attempt to explain the difference between two easily confused words.
TL;DR - Contagiousness = How widely other people are affected (a contagion).
Infectiousness = How easily other people are infected (number of organisms required.)