Why New Yorkers Are So Afraid of Ebola

Every time someone who's traveled to West Africa reports having a fever, alarm bells go off. This week a student at Yale sent officials and the media scrambling to cover the first Ebola patient on the East Coast. And it has New York City health officials scrambling to reassure the public that the city is prepared to deal with an outbreak. But the public isn't buying it.

In the West Village, Owen Bell, who recently returned from London, said many people at the airport were wearing surgical masks and Ebola fears are starting to get to him. "You kinda look at people who are coughing or sneezing and you just go, oh God," he said.

Experts are clear that you can only contract Ebola if you're exposed to bodily fluids from someone who is critically ill with the virus.Yet worries defy science.

Tony Chan, 29, said he thinks about Ebola every time he rides the subway and wished it was socially acceptable in New York to cover himself, but "it would just feel weird to be that guy wearing mask, gloves you know?"

It's exceedingly rare, scientists believe, someone sick with the virus would even have the strength to get on the subway.

Another West Village resident, Mona Carrington, said she's been following the news and has heard so many contradictory reports in the media. "It's chaotic and confusing and that's why everyone is so upset, you hear one thing and the next day someone says something else and then everyone panics," she said.

The botched handling of an Ebola patient in Dallas has many, like Bell, a little paranoid.

"I hope there's not elements of it being covered. up," Bell said. "I hope we're all getting all the facts and we'll continue to get all the facts."

But too many facts could be a bad thing. Michael Hoyt, a professor of health psychology at Hunter College, thinks a moderate level of fear can actually be a good thing — it raises awareness and motivates people to take necessary precautions. But too much fear can have the opposite effect.

"If you instill a high level of fear, you're going to increase people's anxiety," he said. " You're probably not changing their attitude. You might even be restricting their ability to take in information."

And there's nothing like fear to set off the imagination, it's why we love horror films and shows like Walking Dead. The fear has even inspired a popular Halloween costume: the contamination suit. It's sold out at a couple of Manhattan Halloween pop-up stores.

While Ebola has only killed one person in America, its killed thousands in West Africa. No one has been diagnosed with the disease here in New York City, but many can't seem to shake the fear.

With reporting by Caroline Lewis.