Texans say they’re “rocking business as usual” despite the deadly Ebola infections in their neighborhood that have sparked headlines and fear around the country.
An entrance to the apartment complex where nurse Amber Vinson lived in Dallas.
Jim Dalrymple II
More specifically, residents are surprisingly calm in the neighborhoods surrounding Texas Presbyterian Hospital, the so-called ground zero of Ebola in the U.S. where Thomas Duncan died and two nurses later became infected.
What's going on?
The scene at The Bend in the Village — the apartment complex of nurse Amber Vinson, who was diagnosed with Ebola this week — was especially relaxed Thursday. On the complex's park-like campus people exercised under leafy trees, moms chatted on cellphones as they pushed babies in strollers, and one man was slacklining.
Each front door displayed an Ebola warning flyer that fluttered in the wind, but everyone who spoke with BuzzFeed News seemed mostly unfazed.
A flyer on a door at The Bend in the Village apartments.
Jim Dalrymple II
"I've seen indifference on one side and mild concern on the other side," said Jordan Malouf, who like many at the complex was alerted to the situation early Wednesday via a text message from apartment managers.
Malouf's apartment lies just minutes from Vinson's, and his office is a stone's throw from Texas Presbyterian, but he and his wife haven't made any changes, nor do they plan to. Malouf is still going into the office, going to the gym, shopping for groceries, and doing everything else according to routine. "I personally am not too worried about it," he added. "The worst I've seen is a guy who won't shake hands."
And that was pretty typical for the area. Stewart Owens was lying out on an expansive lawn Thursday reading V-Wars — a book he laughingly explained as "about a virus that sweeps America and turns people into Vampires" — but said he hadn't really noticed anyone changing their daily routines. Jackie Callanen, a retiree who saw the hazmat trucks Thursday, also was undeterred and said the area was still ideal for walking. And Kris Berry recalled waking up to news helicopters hovering overhead, but said he was still "rocking business as usual."
More than half a dozen other people made similar comments to BuzzFeed News.
from BuzzFeed - Breaking http://ift.tt/1rES6Gp
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