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| Carlo Allegri/Reuters Article Link
Today on a US Airways flight from Philadelphia to the Dominican Republic, a 54 year old passenger allegedly yelled out "I have Ebola. You're all screwed," causing panic amongst all those on the plane. Soon after landing, the plane was isolated and a hazmat team came onboard to check the specific passenger, who was found not to actually have Ebola.
Even though the comments made by the passenger on the plane turned out to be nothing substantive, the topic at hand was still serious. The current outbreak of Ebola is the largest ever recorded, significantly influencing public hysteria as people begin to worry about it rapidly spreading elsewhere, causing more casualties. Though it has not been made clear yet that the passenger was either making the joke or mentally ill, we can still question the fundamentals of humor in regards to prevalent issues. What is an accepted limit for how far humor can go? Cartoonists and comedians can lampoon nearly everything, but where does "everything" begin and end?
An event like this is an interesting insight into how we, as a general public, react to such things as in this flight. We laugh at caricatures of Kim Jong Un and presidential candidates. We laugh at the racist jokes made by comedians. But do we laugh at the threat of Ebola? I personally see Ebola as a sort of "flavor of the month" in regards to world issues. Just recently, we were concerned over actions Russia was taking, but now we just sort of don't take any heed to it. I'm not saying that Ebola isn't a threat that we should be wary of, but that we need to lighten up a little bit. Just because of what's happening now doesn't mean that we should be oversensitive to it.
-What do you think of this incident?
-Do you condone the passenger's actions?
-Do you think this could have been handled better in general?
-Is a story like this even worth media attention?
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Thursday, October 9, 2014
Ebola on a Plane: A Joke too Far?
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6 comments:
This event is pretty interesting and obviously can cause a lot of controversy. Obviously, I don't condone what this man did. The Ebola outbreak is a serious issue and making a joke like that does go too far. The way they handled the situtation was perfectly natural although they should be better prepared next time. It seemed like the whole ordeal was way too chaotic.
Ultimately, it does deserve media attention because it connects to a first amendment argument. If someone shouts fire in a theater where there is no fire, should they be prosecuted? The man who claimed to have Ebola is a great example of this theory. Even if this event did not occur in the United States. It still relates to the fire example. This event can spark a conversation about how many things such as the freedom of speech and its limitations or how something like this could be handled better in the future.
Personally, I don't condone making jokes about serious current events like the Ebola outbreak, so I think the situation was handled well by authorities. Even if someone makes a casual joke about something like this, you still have to take it seriously because of the severity of the issue. Regarding serious issues like Ebola, I think you have to take comments, including jokes, seriously. I'm not sure if this story is even worth media attention, but like Emma said, you can connect this story to the First Amendment. I think stories like these where someone makes a joke about a serious issue is a problem with the First Amendment. Yes, free speech is good, but that allows people to make jokes about serious issues like discrimination and disasters. Also, it would be difficult on where to draw the line on free speech. For example, a person calling out someone on a racist joke can just be given the response of "It's just a joke. You're too sensitive."
I believe that it's difficult not to be oversensitive about this, especially after the death of the Dallas Ebola patient. So it was insane for the man to scare an entire group of passengers during such tense times. As implied by the article, the joke was almost as bad as him shouting "bomb." No one wants to imagine a scenario where he or she has been infected with Ebola, but the joke made it seem almost possible to catch this frightening disease. And even though we now know that the man’s claim was false, I think it was a good idea to send in the hazmat team for safe measures. As the saying goes, “better safe than sorry,” although sadly the hoax was ultimately a waste of time and effort for everyone involved on the plane. I don’t really know if this story was worth media attention, but it was still interesting to hear about it. The story also goes to show that a joke is taken too far when it has to do with a possible, direct threat to an individual’s physical health.
The tragic loss of life caused by Ebola is NOT funny, but somehow/someway social media manages to make a joke out of EVERYTHING!!!! Countless memes and punch lines are centered around the elusive disease. This dude was obviously following the trend of making serious life-threatening issues into funny little remarks. The problem with dealing with this problem is that along with the trolls on Twitter and Facebook making ignorant and morbid comments on Ebola, he has the right to say what he wants. Of course the limitations of free speech are often discussed and redefined, he did not actually put anyone in danger and did not actually pose a threat to public safety and health. And should the people on social networking sites mocking and falsely informing people on Ebola be prosecuted as well?
I think that the actions of the airline were necessary, both for safety reasons as well for the economic reason of protecting the airline's public image. They wouldn't want to be labeled as the airline that let a potentially-serious threat go without inspection, and therefore risk losing clients. As for the man's part in this, I think that it was a completely mindless and ignorant thing to do to try to get a rise out of the other passengers by making a joke about something so serious. Out of just pure common courtesy I feel like you shouldn't say or do things that could potentially cause so much alarm or panic in those around you, especially if you know that these frightened people are going to be stuck in close proximity to you, in an enclosed area, for the length of an entire international flight. It seems rude and uncalled for to subject people to one's alarming style of humor if people have no way to get out of the situation.
The passenger definitely should not have claimed to have Ebola on a full plane; neither the disease nor the spread of it is a joke. Although comedians may use serious topics like this in their jokes, they are just using them for material, not to frighten people. In this case, however, judging by the speaker’s language and chosen time to reveal that he “has” Ebola, he intentionally meant to cause panic in the crowd. As in Emma’s example, intent matters when assigning punishment. If the person actually thought there was a fire and shouts to warn the crowd in good intention, I don’t think he deserves punishment. If the person purposefully shouts fire when there is none to stir chaos and confusion, it warrant some form of prosecution.
While I believe the airline did well in taking the necessary measures to inspect the man immediately after the plane landed, all of this could have been prevented had they screened and checked for symptoms beforehand. The airplane staff would have been confident in reassuring the rest of the passengers that there was no one with Ebola on the plane.
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