The Ebola Gamble

There was a peculiar moment during a news segment last fall, at the height of the Ebola scare in the United States, between the nation’s two most recognizable medical figures. Sanjay Gupta, CNN’s household-name medical correspondent, was standing next to Thomas Frieden, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in front of CDC headquarters in Atlanta on October 1. Frieden assures Gupta that if one of them had Ebola, the other would be at no risk of infection: “It’s not like the flu, not like the common cold. It requires direct physical contact.” A CNN anchor interjects: “But if he sneezes on you, it’s a different story.”

Gupta laughs nervously and Frieden shrugs. Gupta then asks whether their close proximity would not in itself qualify as a contact under the guidelines the CDC uses to trace the spread of outbreaks. Frieden does not clearly answer the question, but reiterates that during the conversation the two have had no direct contact between their bodily fluids, implying that that would be the only way their proximity would pose a risk. Smiling playfully, Frieden seems to suggest that Ebola is an illness of intimates.

Returning to the previous question, Gupta then asks, “The reason we talk about coughing and sneezing not being a concern — if you were to have coughed on me, that — you’re saying that would not be of concern?” Frieden’s answer, in full: