Rachel Maddow: Can Texas Handle Ebola As Well As Nigeria Did? (Video)

Here's Rachel Maddow talking sense on the Ebola virus. In her Thursday show, she looked at how authorities in Texas have responded to the first diagnosed case of the disease in the U.S. As it turns out, we've got a good model for how to deal effectively with Ebola: Nigeria actually kept the disease from breaking out into a pandemic when it discovered an infected patient had flown into the country, and while it took a massive effort, it worked. And so, all Texas needs to do to prevent a public health emergency is to be at least as effective as Nigeria. We just don't know whether Nigeria had an entire news network dedicated to insisting the government can't be trusted, or its own bunch of wingnut bloggers getting huge pageviews by out and out lying about Ebola. 

So far, looks like Texas is getting a lot of things right, like accepting the help of a team from the Centers for Disease Control, but a lot of things not quite right, like a press conference called by local and state officials that ended after just a few questions because the officials didn't budget more than a half hour to talk to a local press that had two hours' worth of questions.

Maddow talks to Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, about the response so far and what needs to be done. There's a nice moment at the beginning of the interview where Fauci awards Maddow an honorary MD, and again at the end where, ever the nerdgirl, Rachel can't quite contain her excitement at what a terrific "get" Fauci was for the show.

"Tony Fauci's a real big deal, and it's a big deal the he agreed to come on this show," she said. "I've impressed myself by the fact that we had him." She's such a transparent virologist fan.

Watch, and get your flu shot so you won't freak out over every little cough or fever this winter.