I missed that flamefest, and I know very little about the transmission of infectious disease, but there's a part of me that can't help but wonder how so many medical caregivers (both locals and westerners) who were supposedly experts in the transmission of the disease and who were reportedly taking every precaution managed to contract it.
I'm not losing sleep over it or anything but it does seem like there's something going on other than just the local population being ignorant about the disease this time.
The WHO put out a press release a couple weeks ago [1] talking about why so many doctors have been catching the disease. Basically, it's a lot bigger than prior outbreaks and is catching people off guard, doctors are working themselves to exhaustion, making themselves more likely to make mistakes, and it's hit urban areas, meaning it's exposing a lot of underequipped medical professionals to the disease. Knowing better doesn't always translate to being able to do better.
Under-equipped is nothing new. Mistakes are mostly nothing new. The larger size leading to increased fatigue amongst medical personnel and thus more mistakes is a good point - and a relief if that is genuinely the whole explanation.
I'm not losing sleep over it or anything but it does seem like there's something going on other than just the local population being ignorant about the disease this time.