the casualty figures for ebola that are reported from W. Africa are lowball estimates ... probably by a factor of 2-3.

Been reading various references lately about the press unofficially agreeing to stop reporting on suspected Ebola cases, just confirmed ones,

DALLAS — This city, the first to grapple with Ebola in the United States and the near panic and quarantines the spread of the virus set off, put its Ebola fears behind on Friday. The last person being monitored for symptoms of the disease was expected to be cleared by officials later in the day.

That person — a hospital worker who handled medical waste on Oct. 17 — was part of the final group of people undergoing twice-daily checks in the Dallas region for 21 days, the longest-known incubation period for the disease. The 16 people were all health care workers who had possible contact either with two nurses infected with Ebola at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, with their blood, body fluids or specimens, or with potentially contaminated surfaces or medical waste.

Fifteen of the 16 people were cleared Thursday night, and the last person was scheduled to be cleared about 5 p.m. Friday, after the second and final temperature check of the day to make sure there is no fever. More than 40 other people who had direct or indirect contact with the original Ebola patient in Dallas, Thomas Eric Duncan, 42, were taken off the monitoring list in late October. Mr. Duncan was found to have Ebola after traveling to Dallas from Liberia in September. He died on Oct. 8.

A total of 177 people were monitored in the Dallas region, with only three cases of Ebola confirmed, in Mr. Duncan and in two nurses who treated him, Nina Pham and Amber Joy Vinson. Both nurses have recovered and were declared Ebola-free. About 200 passengers who flew on one of two flights Ms. Vinson took between Dallas and Cleveland before she was given the Ebola diagnosis also underwent monitoring. All have been cleared by state officials.

Experience to date in the US seems to indicate that the CDC and MSF (Doctors Without Borders) has been right all along. You are highly unlikely to get Ebola from someone who is in the early, pre-symptomatic stages of infection. So far the only people who been infected with ebola from another, were the two nurses in Dallas who were treating Mr. Duncan, when he was in an advanced stage of the disease. Even those who lived in the same apartment with him when he was starting to get sick have not become infected.

So far the only people who been infected with ebola from another, were the two nurses in Dallas who were treating Mr. Duncan, when he was in an advanced stage of the disease.

And I have heard that suspected Ebola cases are teleported to Scotland and fed to the Loch Ness monster on every full moon.