Huffington Post Attacks Rand Paul On Ebola, Other Lib Journos Join In, Gets It Horribly Wrong
Derek Hunter
10:30 AM 10/17/2014
The Huffington Post ran an Associated Press story attacking Sen. Rand Paul under the headline, “Rand Paul Contradicts Experts, Says Ebola Is ‘Incredibly’ Contagious.”
The story starts:
U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky told a group of college students Wednesday the deadly virus Ebola can spread from a person who has the disease to someone standing three feet away and said the White House should be honest about that.
His comments directly conflict with statements from world health authorities who have dealt with Ebola outbreaks since 1976. (Emphasis added.)
This, unfortunately for HuffPo and the AP, is not true.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has “Interim Guidance for Monitoring and Movement of Persons with Ebola Virus Disease Exposure,” listed on their website. Under the heading, “Definitions used in this document,” the CDC lists “Close contact.”
The official definition of “close contact” from the CDC read:
Close contact is defined as
a) being within approximately 3 feet (1 meter) of an EVD patient or within the patient’s room or care area for a prolonged period of time (e.g., health care personnel, household members) while not wearing recommended personal protective equipment (i.e., standard, droplet, and contact precautions; see Infection Prevention and Control Recommendations); or
b) having direct brief contact (e.g., shaking hands) with an EVD patient while not wearing recommended personal protective equipment.
Brief interactions, such as walking by a person or moving through a hospital, do not constitute close contact.
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