just my take, non scientific, based on my own personal experience watching the media “awfulize” a series of incidents over the last few years….
it’s about 80% media hype – give or take 10%.
yes, it’s a nasty virus, yes, it’s a killer. so were sars , H1N1, and bird flu.
the media earn their livings by “selling newspapers,” and nothing sells better than hate and fear. get the public worked up and they’ll buy a newspaper, watch a news program, whatever (and read the advertizing). most of us will live through it, and survive to listen to the next round of fear porn, hate porn, war porn, or whatever porn. that, and fat bottomed girls are what makes the world go ’round.
the panic spread by and about this? that’s another question entirely.