Experts who study public psychology say the next few weeks will be crucial to containing mounting anxiety. \u201cOfficials will have to be very, very careful,\u201d\u009d said Paul Slovic, president of Decision Research, a nonprofit that studies public health and perceptions of threat. \u201cOnce trust starts to erode, the next time they tell you not to worry \u201d\u201d you worry.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n
The risk of Ebola infection remains vanishingly small in this country. The virus is not airborne, not able to travel in the way that, say, measles or the SARS virus can. Close contact with a patient is required for transmission. Just one death from Ebola has occurred here, and medical care is light-years from that available in West Africa, where more than 4,400 people have died in the latest outbreak.<\/p>\n
By contrast, in some years, the flu kills more than 30,000 people in the United States. Yet this causes little anxiety: Millions of people who could benefit from a flu shot do not get one.<\/p>\n