Puerto Ricans In Dallas Area Alert But Calm About Ebola

Source: NBC DFW

DALLAS, TX (PRM) -- Puerto Ricans in the Dallas/Fort
Worth area, like many other local residents, are worried and
fearful regarding the recent discovery in Dallas of a man
from Liberia who tested positive for the Ebola virus. Many
of the thousands of Boricuas in DFW are educating themselves
about the disease, and some are taking additional precautions
in case the virus has infected other people. Some are even
hesitating to send their children to local schools after the
revelation that children who had been  in contact with the Ebola-
stricken man had gone to class for two days after the story broke.
Grisel, a Puerto Rican resident of Dallas, is having a hard time
not feeling afraid. "It worries me a lot...as an adult, it worries
you. But when you have kids going to the local schools, you
can easily panic, because you don't know what could happen."

Joanna, another area resident of Boricua origin, has a different
reason to be concerned about the schools. "I'm worried because
my husband works for the Dallas Independent School District",
she commented. "However, we sat down yesterday to get
informed about Ebola and on how to implement precautions."
Despite her seeming calm, she's aware that many, even back
home, do not feel the same way. "People back in Puerto Rico
are already hysterical, and nothing's even happened down there",
she added. This opinion was echoed by area resident Floribel.
"If this was happening in Puerto Rico, we'd see the same reaction
that happens after a hurricane", said Floribel,  after stating that
people in the DFW area are "alert, but not hysterical".

Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan (Facebook)

Puerto Rican and Forney resident Alvin blames much of
the panic on the press. "The biggest problem I've seen is the
way certain parts of the press are manipulating information to
suit their own agendas", referring to people who oppose President
Obama or media that is seeking to simply boost its ratings. Felix,
from Levittown, Puerto Rico, but now a resident of Irving, is trying
to stay level-headed. "We're on the alert, but I don't think there's
any panic. The state has taken the right measures to educate people
about this virus...I'm uncomfortable about how it all started, because
the hospital [Texas Presbyterian, where the infection was diagnosed]
was negligent. We're just on the lookout as time passes", he said,
while dismissing the hysteria seen in some quarters.

The 2010 U.S. Census estimated there to be over 33,000 people
of Puerto Rican origin in the Dallas/Fort Worth metropolitan area.