When a man shouted “I have Ebola!” on a Metro bus in Los Angeles on Monday, what followed was more than just a made-for-TV scare.
The threat forced officials to quarantine the driver as a precaution and to take the bus out of service while it undergoes a thorough scrub down, likely costing taxpayers thousands of dollars, said Metro spokesman Marc Littman.
While the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health believes the threat was a hoax, the multi-agency response was broadcast on television amid a backdrop of unending cable news headlines on the worst Ebola outbreak in history.
Metro already has protocols in place to deal with public health scares, but the agency is seeking advice from county public health officials, as well as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on how they should handle Ebola threats in the future.
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