Noel King

We're back with Rael Ambor.

She's a reporter with The Washington Post in Nairobi.

She's been writing about, among other things, Ebola conspiracy theories.

I asked Rael why this has become such an issue in this outbreak.

Congo is a very mineral rich country.

And the reason for that, I imagine, is Ebola is a very deadly disease.

So if you go into a health center, there is a chance you're not coming out.

People are seeing that and they're thinking that means you go into an Ebola center and you don't come out because the people there don't want you to come out.

Ebola is a terrifying illness.

This is not the first time, though, that there have been outbreaks in this part of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

If there have been outbreaks in the past and people have lived through them and understood them in the past, why do you think...

People's minds are still open to conspiracies.

Why is the instinct not to say, OK, we dealt with this five years ago or eight years ago or 10 years ago, and here's how it played out, and we should trust health workers?

Like, if it's not the first rodeo, why are people assuming that health care workers are out to get them?

Rael Ambor is a reporter with The Washington Post in Nairobi.

Avishai Artsy and Dustin DeSoto produced today's show and Amna El-Sadi edited.

David Tadishor and Patrick Boyd engineered and Gabriel Donatov checked the facts.

I'm Noelle King.

It's Today Explained.

Most of them had the bad luck of turning 30, but you know, they still feel like they have a little bit more in the tank.