There’s an obnoxious meme circulating on Facebook: “Ebola just up & vanished & you can’t wonder what they were distracting you from.” With just a little effort the paranoia behind this meme would be dispelled by googling the CDC site where up-to-date figures on the Ebola epidemic in West Africa are posted. As of a few weeks ago there were nearly 18,000 cases & 6,500 deaths in the ongoing epidemic. The disappearance is only from front page media.

The epidemic is not some kind of libertarian distraction; it is a catastrophe for the people of those countries who are losing beloved family members, especially those being orphaned. To speak so frivolously of such horrific human suffering is shameful. Remember this little girl? This is 11-year-old Esther Tokpah from Monrovia, Liberia, who lost both parents to Ebola. She’s not front page but she is a person, not a distraction from more important political events.

(Photo be Michel du Cille/The Washington Post)