Actually it is the point to a silly comparison.
You are comparing almost 40 years of outbreaks and about 7 or 8 thousand deaths to “”This is like being around in the 14th century watching daily news reports as the Black Death moved from the Middle East to southern Europe to eventually kill off entire towns and villages, perhaps a third of the entire population of the continent.””
Perhaps you mean AIDs, which in 33 years has killed 36 million and is killing people at the rate about 4500, a day.
The ebola outbreaks over the past 40 years have been well contained. If AIDS had been so well contained, we wouldn’t be spending millions (billions?) to combat it.
Likewise, if this ebola outbreak were as well contained, we wouldn’t be having this discussion.
Yes, it’s taken a while for it to become apparent that this one has gotten out of hand. But like compound interest, its rate of spread reaches astounding levels quickly.
And while AIDS kills many, many people, most of us have a “behavioral immunity” to it. Like the Black Death, ebola is not so picky about its victims.