Polls Show the Ebola Panic Starting to Fade
Workers at Medline Industries assemble Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) kits to be shipped out to various health facilities at their warehouse in Mundelein, Illinois, U.S., on Monday, Oct. 20, 2014.
Photographer: Tim Boyle/BloombergA new poll from CBS News finds that Americans overwhelmingly back some less-than-politically-correct ideas for preventing foreigners from Ebola-stricken nations from entering the United States. Only 14 percent–14 percent!–of people favor allowing travelers from West Africa to enter the United States unhindered if they show no signs of the disease. The Republicans who have been demanding "travel bans," which under scrutiny evolve into something like "travel bans on non-Americans, unpleasant quarantines for the nice doctors who have been in Africa," are backing a supermajority stance. As they thought.
At the same time, in a piece of good news for anyone not running against incumbent politicians, fear of an American Ebola outbreak is starting to fade. On Oct. 8, 69 percent of Americans said they were somewhat or very concerned about the disease wreaking havoc here. Today, it's 61 percent.