I received an adorable e-mail from one of those church organizations of which I've never heard cautioning me not to be induced into panicking over Ebola. I honestly wasn't thinking of doing so, but I appreciate their comfort. Well, until they started telling me that this was just an insidious plot by "conservative forces" to make me vote in the wrong manner.
Honestly, when the church becomes just another flack organization for a political party, it will probably lose members. Oh, wait....
Anyway, I thought I would simply use some math and science, a couple of things considered strange and wondrous to most of my liberal arts trained colleagues, and came up with an interesting statistic.
At the current rate of infection, there will be 1 million people exposed to Ebola in the United States within 1 year and two months; or approximately 60 weeks. The disease does not present a 100% mortality rate, of course. It's only 70% if untreated and 61% if treated in a hospital, so there's no need to worry inordinately.
Also, this means that 30% to 39% of us may freely vote as we see fit. The remainder will only be allowed to vote in Chicago.
Of course, alterations in recognition, treatment, and rapidity of response can and probably will bend the curve of the disease and slow the rate of infection.