[kalimus]

I have a feeling this thread will be revisted a lot over the next couple months.

3 people right now. CDC says that 11 people had definite contact and are being monitored, and another 114 possible contacts on top of that. 3 people can turn into more than 3 people. That, of course, is only in Dallas. That's not to say another traveller somewhere else in the country won't pop up with symptoms either. And of course early symptoms really aren't much different than the flu, or any other type of viral infection, that are easy to write off as something else.

It's unhealthy to go into full panic mode right now, but it's equally stupid to disregard it because "it's really hard to spread". The reality is that this is just starting. It's also notable that this current outbreak has had more cases and more deaths than all over recorded Ebola outbreaks combined.

People are still travelling. That first case was diagnosed on the 30th of September, and if it was transmitted immediately, symptoms can take up to 21 days to show up. That means any number of people could have travelled at the same time, also infected, and not shown symptoms at all yet.

Unlikely to be a mass epidemic in the U.S.... absolutely. But to say unlikely and dismiss it is what is really insanity.