( CNN ) -- The U.S. experience with Ebola is generating commentary that is both prudent and outrageous . There have been three cases of Ebola occurring on U.S. soil , one ending fatally and the other two now under treatment . While health officials provide sober guidance on the deadly disease , several public figures , from high-level politicians to cultural icons , have n't been so even-tempered in their remarks , adding to the public hype that has become associated with the virus . Here is a sampling of those provocative comments , plus a little myth busting , clarifying and reality checking from Ebola experts from around the world . `` If you bring two doctors who happen to have that specialty ( Ebola ) into a room , one will say , 'No , it will never become airborne , but it could mutate so it would be harder to discover . ' Another doctor will say , 'If it continues to mutate at the rate it 's mutating , and we go from 20,000 infected to 100,000 , the population might allow it to mutate and become airborne , and then it will be a serious problem . ' I do n't know who is right . '' -- Martin Dempsey , the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff , told CNN . Ebola is n't transmitted through the air . It is transmitted through direct contact by bodily fluids with an Ebola-infected person showing symptoms of the disease . A mutation such as the kind Dempsey describes `` would be exceedingly rare '' in one epidemic , said Edward C. Holmes of Marie Bashir Institute for Infectious Diseases and Biosecurity at the University of Sydney . `` It happens over evolutionary time , millions of years , '' Holmes said . `` This idea that it takes one or two of those mutations and 'Wham ! ' you pick up airborne transmission , that is way too simplistic . '' `` If someone has Ebola at a cocktail party , they 're contagious and you can catch it from them . -- Sen. Rand Paul , a physician and potential 2016 presidential candidate . Again , experts say the contact with an infectious person must be tactile , or direct touching , and involve bodily fluids -- blood , sweat , feces , vomit , semen or spit . People in West Africa are avoiding hugs and handshakes because the virus can be spread through the sweat on someone 's hand . The uninfected person would have to have a break in the skin of their hand that would allow entry of the virus , CNN 's Dr. Sanjay Gupta said . But `` we all have minor breaks in our skin . And there is a possibility that some of the virus can be transmitted that way . '' Paul also made other remarks regarding direct contact : `` They say all it takes is direct contact to get this . If you listen carefully , they say being three feet from someone is direct contact . That 's not what most Americans think is direct contact . '' Without directly addressing Paul 's claims about contact over three feet , Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Thomas Frieden indicated that 's not a possible mode of transmission for the virus . `` Should you be worried you might have gotten it by sitting next to someone ? '' Frieden said , according to the Louisville Courier-Journal . `` The answer to that is no . '' `` The most comforting thing that I heard from ( Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald , commissioner of the Georgia Department of Public Health ) was that water kills the Ebola virus . I 've never heard that before . I thought it was something that was so contagious there was n't much you could do to prevent it or anything else , so her advice was 'wash your hands . ' `` -- Georgia Gov . Nathan Deal told the Marietta Daily Journal . In fact , water alone does not kill Ebola . Soap and water does . So does chlorine and bleach , experts added .
Public officials , politician , celebs make provocative statements about Ebola . ` ` This Ebola epidemic is a form of population control , '' Chris ##sy says . Ebola ` ` to solve America 's problems with abortion , homosexuality , '' radio host says . Sending U.S. troops to fight Ebola is plot ` ` to infect the world with Ebola , '' another says .