Is this the "big one"?

As in a widespread, prevalent, worldwide pandemic that also affects the United States in a widespread manner? Dead people in the streets in the USA? It doesn't appear that way to me because ebola doesn't appear to be incredibly easy to transmit compared to other "big one" infectious diseases humanity has dealt with in the past.

For example, if it was vastly contagious, I'd think someone in Thomas Eric Duncan's extended family would have caught it. Out of all those exposed, none of them caught it including his fiancé.

And this was a guy apparently sent home from the hospital showing symptoms with a 103 degree temperature, etc. - witnesses also said he was vomiting profusely "all over the place" (even outdoors in front of his housing complex).

No doubt this is a serious, devastating issue and may very well affect millions in developing countries if no improvement in intervention and community behavior occurs. Properly educating health care providers and the public is paramount. I also think it's likely to spread somewhat in the USA, but not anywhere near compared to developing countries.

I think it's overhyped in the media and that's good - and bad. The good is the overhype will lead to more media exposure and perhaps preventative measures being demanded by the public to better prevent the spread.

Reminds me a little of the Y2K bug. There was a media hyped freakout over it, so a lot of people became aware of the issue, took precautions/actions and prevented the worst case scenarios from happening. New Years Day for 2000 went mostly without a hitch for the general public. The "overhype" in that case worked in our favor to some extent and prodded people to take action due to so much media exposure.

However, the bad from the CNN-esque overhype in this particular case is that irrational fear may very well get in the way of proper responses and cause ebola to spread more widely in developing countries than it would with a more balanced and less hysterical approach. So, I do think the overhype may very well be a double-edged sword in that regard.

I'm somewhat surprised, but not shocked, that a health care worker caught it from Duncan in Texas even while (apparently) wearing protection, etc. - but I also have a feeling some protocol, somewhere was missed. I would hope it's all on hospital surveillance video and people are checking the footage very carefully to see if they can spot any lapses in said protocols. If they aren't using comprehensive surveillance of people working with ebola in American hospitals - then they really need to start, in my opinion.

I've seen plenty of nurses in American hospitals go from room to room tracking potential contaminants on the bottoms of their shoes because they often don't wear disposable booties. Meanwhile, they inevitably drop items on the potentially contaminated floors and often don't replace or even just clean the items. Especially those pulse oximeters that easily fall off fingers onto the floor and also have cords that often touch the floor as well and end up being touched one way or another afterwards without being cleaned/replaced. There's also an issue where nurses and doctors simply don't wash their hands enough.

After witnessing this, I'm not shocked someone caught ebola in that Texas hospital. Like I said, I strongly suspect some protocol was missed even if the administrators initially claim all protocols were properly followed.

In my opinion, this is a very serious issue and our hospitals have needed a wake-up call for a long time to better prevent transmission of infectious diseases in hospitals. But, I'm not seeing this leading to a "big one" within the USA. If anything, I think it may be beneficial in finally getting more American hospitals to finally clean up their act and help to prevent less scary infectious diseases down the road.

Good breakdown and comparisons with other contagious diseases here:

http://www.webmd.com/news/20140806/ebola-virus-how-contagiou...