On the one hand, the Internet has democratized everything, which is excellent. On the other hand, science is one of those places where there is a right answer. We don t always know it, but it s not a matter for public debate and conversation and opinion.
— Abdulrahman El-Sayed, researcher at Columbia s Mailman School of Public Health, on the challenge of containing panic over Ebola in the age of Facebook and other social networks. But also in the age of social media are more ways to calm people down, right? New York Magazine points out that the Centers for Disease Control recently held a Twitter Q&A on Ebola. That s key: finding ways for useful, trusted information to make its way to social town squares.
Photo of Ebola virus from the CDC via Associated Press
