--- title: Obama Warns Americans Not To Give In To Ebola Hysteria description: "This is a serious disease, but we can't give in to hysteria or fear," Obama said canonical: https://time.com/3520341/obama-ebola-fear/ copyright: © 2026 TIME USA, LLC. All Rights Reserved. terms: https://legal.time.com/terms-of-service/ license_contact: syndication@time.com author: Sam Frizell article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-10-18T19:04:10.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-01T09:01:51.171Z article:section: Health og:title: Obama Warns Americans Not To Give In To Ebola Hysteria og:description: "This is a serious disease, but we can't give in to hysteria or fear," Obama said og:url: https://time.com/3520341/obama-ebola-fear/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9ff843a3199e3ae4/6987619035ba6f53c5c0486d/barack-obama-ebola.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2928 og:image:height: 1647 og:image:alt: Obama Departs The White House En Route To New York og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Obama Warns Americans Not To Give In To Ebola Hysteria twitter:description: "This is a serious disease, but we can't give in to hysteria or fear," Obama said twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9ff843a3199e3ae4/6987619035ba6f53c5c0486d/barack-obama-ebola.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Obama on Ebola: 'We Can't Give in to Hysteria' > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=739cf470-1197-4296-a1b6-8d87359a17e2&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Weekly Address: What You Need to Know About Ebola [Watch (HLS stream): Weekly Address: What You Need to Know About Ebola](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/orFtkJji.m3u8) (4:34)  _Published 2014-10-18. Weekly Address: What You Need to Know About Ebola_ by [Sam Frizell](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Oct 18, 2014 7:04 PM UTC Weekly Address: What You Need to Know About Ebola by [Sam Frizell](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Oct 18, 2014 7:04 PM UTC President Barack Obama on Saturday urged Americans to remain calm about the Ebola virus that has thus far been diagnosed in three people in the United States and killed one, emphasizing that cautious practices on the part of health authorities as well as aid for the West African countries hardest hit by the disease are the best approaches to preventing it from spreading. “What we’re seeing now is not an ‘outbreak’ or an ‘epidemic’ of Ebola in America,” Obama said in his [weekly video address](http://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/weekly-address). “This is a serious disease, but we can’t give in to hysteria or fear.” “We have to keep this in perspective,” Obama continued. “Every year, thousands of Americans die from the flu.” The President also pointed out that five people who contracted Ebola in West Africa had been brought back to the U.S. and treated successfully without infecting others. The Ebola outbreak has so far killed 4,500 people in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. Liberian national Thomas Eric Duncan, who was diagnosed with the disease in Dallas after traveling from his home country to the U.S., died of the illness Oct. 8\. A pair of American health workers have been diagnosed after coming in contact with Duncan and are being treated for the illness. More than 100 people who have been in contact with Duncan and the two sick nurses are being monitored for symptoms. Ebola has an incubation period of up to 21 days and is only transmitted by direct contact with the bodily fluids of a person who is already showing symptoms of the disease. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, under fire for not adequately instructing medical staff in how to deal with Ebola patients, [took steps this week](http://time.com/3507807/ebola-outbreak-cdc-dallas/) to address those criticisms. Several lawmakers have also criticized Obama’s handling of the crisis directly, with the President announcing Friday the appointment of a so-called [“Ebola czar”](http://time.com/3516888/obama-ron-klain-ebola-czar/) to manage the country’s response to the virus. Obama, however, warned against [calls](time.com/3517650/rick-perry-ebola-travel/) by some politicians to halt travel between the U.S. and West Africa. CDC officials and [other experts](time.com/3517197/ebola-frieden-travel-ban/) have said cutting off the border would be ineffective because sick passengers can still take connecting flights through third countries, and it would make it harder to know who was entering the country and perform contact tracing if travelers later showed symptoms of the virus. Obama also argued that stopping travel would halt the flow of health workers to West Africa, where they could help contain the disease. “We can’t just cut ourselves off from West Africa,” Obama said. “Trying to seal off an entire region of the world — if that were even possible — could actually make the situation worse.” ## Transcript Today I want to take a few minutes to speak to you directly and clearly about Ebola, what we're doing about it, and what you need to know. Because meeting a public health challenge like this isn't just a job for government. All of us, citizens, leaders, the media, have a responsibility and a role to play. It's a serious disease. But we can't give in to hysteria or fear because that only makes it harder to get people the accurate information they need. We have to be guided by the science. We have to remember the basic facts. First, what we're seeing now is not an outbreak or an epidemic of Ebola in America. We're a nation of more than three hundred million people. To date, we've seen three cases of Ebola diagnosed here. The man who contracted the disease in Liberia. Came here, and sadly, died. The two courageous nurses who were infected while they were treating him. Our thoughts and prayers are with them. And we're doing everything we can to give them the best care possible. Now, even one infection is too many. At the same time, we have to keep this in perspective. As our public health experts point out every year thousand of Americans die from the flu. Second, Ebola is actually a difficult disease to catch. It's not transmitted through the air like the flu. You can not get it from just riding on a plane or a bus. The only way that a person can contract the disease is by coming into direct contact with the bodily fluids of somebody is already showing symptoms. I've met and hugged some of the doctors and nurses who've treated Ebola patients. I met with an Ebola patient who recovered, right in the Oval Office, and I'm fine. Third we know how to fight this disease. We know the protocols. And we know that when there followed they work. So far five Americans who got infected with Ebola in West Africa, had been brought back to the United States. And all five have been treated safely. Without infecting healthcare workers. And this week, at my direction, we're stepping up all of our efforts. Additional CDC personal are on the scene in Dallas and Cleveland. We're working quickly to track and monitor anyone who may have been in close contact with someone showing symptoms. We're sharing lessons learned. So other hospitals don't repeat the mistakes that happened in Dallas. The CDC's new Ebola rapid response teams which will deploy quickly to help hospitals implement the right protocols. New screening measures are now in place in airports that receive nearly all passengers arriving from Liberia, Guinea, and Sierre Leone. And we'll continue to constantly review our measures and update them as needed to make sure we're doing everything we can to keep Americans safe. Finally, we can't just cut ourselves off from West Africa where this disease is raging. Our medical experts tell us that the best way to stop this disease is to stop it at its source. Before it spreads even wider and becomes even more difficult to contain. Trying to seal off an entire region of the world, if that were even possible, could actually make the situation worse. It would make it harder to move healthcare workers and supplies back and forth. Experience shows it could also cause people in the affected region to change their travel. To evade screening and make the disease even harder to track. So the United States will continue to help lead the global response in West Africa because if we want to protect Americans from Ebola here at home we have to end it over there. And as our civilian and military personnel serve in the region. There safety and health will remain a top priority. As I've said before fighting this disease will take time. Before this was over we may see more isolated cases here in America. But we know how to wage this fight. And if we take the steps that are necessary, if we're guide by the science, the facts not fear. That's I'm absolutely confident that we can prevent a serious outbreak here in the United States, and we can continue to lead the world in this urgent effort. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3520341/obama-ebola-fear/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3520341/obama-ebola-fear/"},"headline":"Obama on Ebola: 'We Can't Give in to Hysteria'","datePublished":"2014-10-18T19:04:10.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-01T09:01:51.171Z","description":"\"This is a serious disease, but we can't give in to hysteria or fear,\" Obama said","url":"https://time.com/3520341/obama-ebola-fear/","keywords":["ebola","Infectious Disease"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9ff843a3199e3ae4/6987619035ba6f53c5c0486d/barack-obama-ebola.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sam Frizell","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9ff843a3199e3ae4/6987619035ba6f53c5c0486d/barack-obama-ebola.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Obama Departs The White House En Route To New York","caption":"Obama Departs The White House En Route To New York","creditText":"Mark Wilson—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/ebola/","name":"ebola"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3520341/obama-ebola-fear/","name":"Obama on Ebola: 'We Can't Give in to Hysteria'"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Weekly Address: What You Need to Know About Ebola","description":"Weekly Address: What You Need to Know About Ebola","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/orFtkJji/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-10-18T19:37:14.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/orFtkJji.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3520341/obama-ebola-fear/","duration":"PT4M34S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3520341/obama-ebola-fear/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```