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An Ebola Scare Was Live-Tweeted By A British Woman

by Nuzha Nuseibeh

What do you get when you cross our insatiable appetite for social media with a world-wide health crisis? Not only videos of jokers pretending to have Ebola while on a plane (seriously? Who does that? People have died) it seems, but also the occasional British passenger live-tweeting an Ebola scare from her airplane seat. Sarcastically, of course.

Traveler Sasha Sabapathy was on a Delta Airlines flight from John F. Kennedy Airport to Las Vegas just two days ago, when the nightmarish occurred: her flight was delayed upon arrival, and then quarantined, due to not one, but two passengers potentially having the deadly Ebola virus. The plane was detained after the a passenger gave a flight attendant a note saying he wasn't feeling good (unclear as of yet why he handed a note instead of just saying so directly), and officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Southern Nevada Health District were immediately called in.

Luckily, it all turned out okay. It turned out the passenger was sick with something else, not Ebola, and the passengers were allowed off after just over an hour. None of the travelers needed to be quarantined or isolated; they could all make their merry way to play the slots.

But if you've been curious about what it could possibly be like, to be on an airplane and hear that fateful announcement, you're in luck. Because Sabapathy was on it, hilariously live-Tweeting the entire experience.

First, there's the announcement:

Or lack thereof:

Then, there's the panic:

Panic turns to frustration/rage:

Rage turns into confusion:

Then the scare is over, but the seething begins:

Then the seething turns to pure, beautiful, unadulterated sarcasm:

Travelers are no doubt going to keep getting frustrated as more precautions are added to deal with the deadly virus: starting Saturday, all passengers arriving at New York's JFK from West African countries will be screened; Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, Washington Dulles International Airport, and Newark Liberty International Airport will all be starting screening procedures in the next week.