“The first cases of Ebola in the U.S. triggered widespread fear and misconceptions about the virus. There was confusion about how the virus spreads, how you catch it and how easy it is stop. My goal was to clear up this confusion. But instead of simply telling readers, over and over again, facts about the virus, I created a series of stories and infographics to illustrate scientific data supporting the facts. Then readers could separate fact from fiction and draw their own conclusions about the virus. Each infographic boiled down a complex idea about Ebola into one simple chart that was easy to digest and understand. The text under the graphic took the reader, step by step, through the data in a clear way. (Note: The three stories weren’t explicitly connected in a series on the Web. So I have submitted just the main story for the award. But I’m describing the other two stories in the loosely connected series to show how my coverage provided in depth “news you can use” about Ebola.) The main story of the series (“No, Seriously How Contagious Is Ebola?”) illustrated how contagious Ebola is compared to other viruses by exploring the epidemiological metric, Ro. This story received a phenomenal response. It drew more than 2.7 million page views and was shared more than 60,000 times on Facebook. The second story in the loosely-connected series (“What’s My Risk Of Catching Ebola”) used basic statistics to show how unlikely it is to get Ebola in the United States. Specifically, the story and graphic compared the risks of catching Ebola in the U.S. and in Liberia to extremely rare ways of dying, such as by bee stings or a shark bite. Finally, the third story (“Ebola In The Air: What Science Says About How The Virus Spreads”) cleared up the confusion about whether Ebola spreads through the air. To do that, I explained how a virus can move in the air but still not be airborne. The key to the story was a 1934 study showing that pathogens can spread through the air in two ways: the airborne route and the droplet route. Some viruses, such as measles, move far distances through the air in suspended clouds of tiny droplets (this is the airborne route). But Ebola moves in large, fat droplets that quickly fall to the ground. So it can’t spread very far. I designed an infographic to illustrate these two transmission routes. I also explained how Ebola can spread through the airborne route in the lab but not outside of it.”
