[Pollster1]

Lots of people are going to die. Potential loss is 5-6b.

There are 7 billion people in the world, so you could say the potential loss is 7 billion. A much more realistic number is between 1.4 and 3.3 billion people, and that is pretty close to an absolute worst case. Ebola is like movie zombies - very slow moving. If we (okay, not "we", not with Obama leading our country, but Europe, Japan, and other countries with capable leaders) can't respond in time to keep the numbers well below 1.4B that would be shocking. The totals will be terrible by the time this outbreak disappears, but I don't expect anything near your number.

[jjsheridan5]

A much more realistic number is between 1.4 and 3.3 billion people, and that is pretty close to an absolute worst case ... The totals will be terrible by the time this outbreak disappears, but I don't expect anything near your number.

Sounds reasonable, although there are many things that could prevent a global outbreak (vaccine, a travel ban), or minimize it. But one thing shouldn't be forgotten: if there is a global outbreak, Ebola will be confronted with a buffet of potential animal vectors to choose from. Once it gets into those, we can expect to have to play Whack-a-Mole for generations, until people develop natural resistances, or until some kind of non-strain specific vaccine is created.