CDC Using Twitter To Spread Information On Ebola
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- Ebola experts at the Centers for Disease Control are using Twitter to inoculate the public against ignorance.
"People sound afraid. There were a number of questions about whether or not they may have been exposed to the virus without them knowing," Dr. Kelsey Mirkovic said.
The agency has been tweeting updates and providing information about the disease on the social networking site.
An animation from Twitter shows between September 16th and October 6th ten and a half million tweets mentioned the disease around the world.
Fear of the deadly virus soared when Dr. Ken Brantly and Nancy Writebol were brought back to the U.S. to receive treatment in Atlanta.
The CDC's social media team was bombarded with questions about whether that risked spreading the epidemic to this country.
"There's definitely a lot of misinformation and confusion about how ebola spreads." Carol Crawford of the CDC said.
The CDC has over 3-million followers.
