Ebola does not spread through the air, and by the time people are contagious most are too sick to move about.

Judge as of 2015 against the scientific consensus at the time. The claim has two parts: (1) Ebola is not airborne; (2) most people are severely ill, close to bedridden, by the time they become contagious. True: WHO or CDC guidance of the time says Ebola spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids rather than airborne transmission, and that people are not contagious before symptoms appear and become most infectious in the late, severe stage of illness. Mostly true: both parts are broadly supported, but a detail is overstated, for example people can be contagious in early symptomatic stages while still mobile, so 'most are bedridden' is somewhat too strong. Mixed: one part is supported and the other is substantially contradicted. Mostly false: the non-airborne part holds only in a narrow sense, or the evidence shows people are commonly contagious while still fully mobile, with only a weak basis for the claim. False: authoritative sources of the time show Ebola spreads through the air, and that people are commonly contagious well before severe illness.

Set before the research began.

1. E1 What we know about transmission of the Ebola virus among humans World Health Organization · 6 October 2014

   “Ebola virus disease is not an airborne infection. Airborne spread among humans implies inhalation of an infectious dose of virus from a suspended cloud of small dried droplets.”

2. E2 Ebola Response: Package and approaches in areas of intense transmission of Ebola virus World Health Organization · September 2014

   “Patients are infectious only when they show symptoms and become more infectious as the disease develops.”

3. E3 [PDF] Outbreak of Ebola virus disease in West Africa European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), Rapid Risk Assessment (hosted by szu.gov.cz) · 17 October 2014

   “The infectiousness of EVD patients is low at the early prodromal stages of the disease and increases as the disease progresses and the viral load increases.”

4. E4 [PDF] Outbreak of Ebola virus disease in West Africa European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), Rapid Risk Assessment (hosted by szu.gov.cz) · 17 October 2014

   “If a symptomatic case of EVD presents in a EU Member State, secondary transmission to caregivers in the family and in healthcare facilities cannot be excluded. This may happen in particular at an early stage of the disease, when patients are not yet very contagious but unprotected contacts are occurring”

WHO guidance from October 2014 says plainly that Ebola is not an airborne infection, which supports the first part (E1). WHO says patients are infectious only once they have symptoms and become more infectious as the disease develops (E2), and ECDC says infectiousness is low at the early stage and rises as the disease progresses (E3). However, ECDC also says secondary transmission can happen at an early stage, when patients are less contagious but still having unprotected contact with others (E4). So the claim that most people are bedridden by the time they are contagious is somewhat overstated.