Ebola Poll: Can Bodily Fluids be Airborne?

The general public is told by government officials and healthcare professionals that Ebola is not an airborne transferable disease, and that it can only be transferred via bodily fluids by intimate contact with an infected person — but only AFTER they begin showing symptoms (such as fever.)

But yet, even though we're told that Ebola can not be transferred via "airborne bodily fluids" being discharged from living beings, Ebola can be transferred by contact with non-living infected surfaces — such as clothing (etc.) The general public wonders, "How can that be?"

Or can Ebola only be transferred in the same way as the AIDS virus — through intimate contact — such as sexual contact, kissing, blood transfers or ingesting someone's tear drops? This is all very confusing.

Trained healthcare professionals (who know the risks) can become infected while wearing special suits, but regular citizens on the street are told they have nothing to fear if someone else is infected with Ebola until they get a "fever". Otherwise, we're told it's perfectly safe if an infected person sits on an airplane, rides through the subway and visits a restaurant; and that only by way of "intimate contact" — and only then AFTER an infected person actually has a fever — can anyone else be infected.

If it can, how long does the Ebola virus live outside a host (animal or human) body? And if it does, and an infected person vomits in a public bathroom, how long will that room be infected and remain a dangerous room to use? (Because we assume that the virus can live outside the host body in vomit and other "bodily fluids".)

If the period between "contact and incubation" is the maximum of 21 days, and healthcare workers who have been to West Africa realize this; then why do they object to a 3-week quarantine period when they know that there is still a slight chance that they could infect their loved ones with a deadly disease after returning home? Is it because of a 3-week loss in pay? If so, then maybe a law should be passed to pay these people while they are quarantined.

Why does that nurse in Maine (who returned from Africa after treating Ebola patients) object to a 21-day quarantine (saying she doesn't have a fever), even after a doctor who returned from Africa after treating Ebola patients developed a fever only AFTER being out in the public on the subway, bowling ally and zoo. Obama, siding with the nurse, stood with other doctors at a press conference who had just returned from Africa after treating Ebola patients. But yet, soldiers (who don't treat Ebola patients) are to be quarantined for 21 days after returning from Africa. (Mixed signals...mixed signals...mixed signals.)

So, we're told that Ebola can't be passed by casual contact or nearness to an infected person unless they have open cuts on their body and an infected person is oozing with bodily fluids and comes in physical contact with someone's open wound, or has sex with them --- but only AFTER they exhibit symptoms of infection. Otherwise, they have to come in physical contact with infected people when they're very sick, near-dead or dead.

But yet, infected people cannot infect anyone else with a sneeze or cough because that's "airborne" — and Ebola is not an airborne transferable disease.

All of this confusion can only be described as a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma. This poll (at Goggle Docs) should be completed by government officials and healthcare professionals, and well as by the general public.

* NOTE: After voting in the poll, scroll back up the page (which then will be showing green space) and look for the link "See previous responses" to see the poll results.