Research Ebola, and pictures surface of weary-eyed doctors dressed head-to-toe in white and pale yellow protective suits. This may sound like the stuff of a new Hollywood film, it is unfortunately not.

It is Ebola, the deadly virus that has spread through West Africa and killed over 1,500 people, and infected over double that number.

While Ebola has of course not spread to ERHS, thoughts about it have. From personal connections to educational videos in the AP curriculum, students and teachers at Eleanor Roosevelt High School are not without connections, and opinions.

Junior Crystal Omade is half Nigerian, with relatives currently living in Nigeria. However, Omade spoke calmly about the impact on her family.

“I know that none of them have been directly affected by it,” she said. “If I were them I would have it in my mind, but it’s like someone in Louisiana being affected while I’m living in Maryland.”

Also in Nigeria is the mother of junior Ashton Akinrimisi, creative director of the African Student Association. His mother, an actress, works primarily in the Nigerian cities of Lagos and Abuja, and the suburb Ikeja, according to Akinrimisi. “The Ebola crisis is a scary thing, however Nigeria is taking necessary measures to remain safe from spreading the disease,” said the junior. “However,” he continued, “some villages and low class people don’t have the resources to control the outbreaks. Luckily there are only a few cases in Nigeria anyways.”

Fortunately for these two students and their relatives, the heart of the outbreak is in Liberia, Sierra Leonne, and Guinea, countries which are not directly bordering Nigeria. So far, Nigeria has been able to control the outbreak in their country, much better than the other countries.

A piece of good news for anyone in West Africa is the new drug ZMapp, an experimental drug that has had surprisingly effective test results. Both Americans who were infected with Ebola and flown to Atlanta for treatment were given ZMapp, and now are free to roam the streets again, completely cured.

Be that as it may, the two Americans were given better medical treatment than those in Africa, so it is hard to know whether to give the credit to the better care, or the ZMapp. In addition, as ZMapp is a new drug, scientists have not had the chance to conduct necessary testing, as is standard protocol. Using the drug in West Africa would hence raise some serious ethical questions.

If ZMapp turns out to have nasty side effects in humans, the producers of the drug could look greedy, ready to rake in the profits from their guinea pigs. However, if ZMapp does indeed work, is it wrong to deny dying people of a substance that could possibly save their life? How should it even be distributed, to those who can pay the most, or to those who are in the worst circumstances? Either way, the immediacy of these questions has lessened, as the supply of ZMapp is currently exhausted.

Sophomore Rosemary Iwuala knew about the Ebola crisis, including ZMapp, and felt that it should be used. “Obviously, administering a drug that hasn’t been thoroughly tested or approved by the FDA is very risky, but I feel like in this dire situation it’s necessary.” Interestingly, Iwuala did cite the media as swaying her opinion, saying that while she feels the CDC tends to “stress its urgency,” while people on websites like YouTube seem to “go against popular belief,” and “that it’s not that serious.”

Even though the current Ebola outbreak started only last March, students already learned about Ebola in AP Biology.

“I think that it affects students more now because they’re hearing about people coming into the country that have Ebola,” said the AP Biology teacher, Ms. Alexis Donoghue. The students are “a lot more nervous now, a lot more aware of it,” she said. Typically, the students are really afraid yet fascinated, according to Ms. Donoghue.

However, she did not echo the fear that she had said some of her students had. Her knowledge of the disease seemed to eliminate, rather than exacerbate, any fears. “We have a lot of precautions in place,” she said, “We know how not to get it.”

Elijah Achu, a junior who took AP Biology with Ms. Massagli in his sophomore year, had the same sentiments. “All I can do is be sanitary, and take care of myself, and watch what I expose myself to. There are very capable people trying to solve the issues, so we’ll just have to support their effort the best we can.”

Iwuala felt differently, mentioning the opposite problem. “I get that a lot of people are getting infected because some of the infected don’t trust the healthcare system, understandably, and they feel more comfortable getting treated by their loved ones, but surely, that wouldn’t be the case if they could trust the hospitals, which means that the healthcare system there really needs improvement.” Iwuala is currently in AP Biology, although she has not yet been taught about Ebola, which is usually covered in the spring.