Dallas County’s Top Official: New Ebola Case Doesn’t Change ‘Basic Premise of Science’

Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings, left, looks on as Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins speaks at a press conference on Sunday.

Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings, left, looks on as Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins speaks at a press conference on Sunday. Brandon Wade / AP Photo

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Michael Grass By Michael Grass,
Executive Editor
 

Connecting state and local government leaders

By Michael Grass

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Clay Jenkins tries to calm nerves and without protective gear enters the apartment where the Ebola-stricken Liberian man had stayed.

Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins, one of the most visible local officials dealing with the Ebola scare in Texas, urged local residents to be calm on Sunday after it was disclosed that a health care worker at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas tested positive for the deadly virus.

A nurse, diagnosed with the second-confirmed Ebola case in the United States, had cared for Thomas Eric Duncan, the Ebola-stricken man Liberian man who died this past week at the hospital.

“You cannot contract Ebola other than the bodily fluids of a symptomatic Ebola victim. You cannot contract Ebola by walking by people in the street or being around contacts who were not symptomatic,” Jenkins, the county’s top elected official, said during a Sunday morning press conference.

“There is nothing else about this case that changes the basic premise of science,” he said. “So it’s important that while this is obviously bad news, it’s not news that should bring about panic.”

The Wall Street Journal reports:

Though Judge Jenkins, who oversees the county health department, acknowledged being “extremely concerned” about the worker who was infected, he said in an interview that he remained optimistic that Ebola was being contained.

In addition to entering the apartment where Mr. Duncan had stayed without protective gear, Judge Jenkins earlier drove in a car with Mr. Duncan’s fiancée, Louise Troh, when she was moved to a temporary home.

Watch Sunday morning’s press conference:

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