Atlanta public health officials are begging people to calm down and stop sending them nasty messages about their decision to treat two American relief workers who are suffering from Ebola.

The deadly virus, for which there is no vaccine or treatment other than caring for symptoms such as high fever, has claimed the lives of at least 887 people in West Africa. Dr. Tom Frieden, the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (C.D.C.), revealed that the agency was on the receiving end of “nasty e-mails” and phone calls about the decision to bring home two American relief workers stricken with the virus.

“I hope our understandable fear of the unfamiliar does not trump our compassion when ill Americans return to the U.S. for care,” Frieden said.

Bruce Ribner, the doctor who will be treating the patients at Atlanta’s Emory University Hospital, also spoke publicly in an attempt to allay fears about the patients’ repatriation. “Nothing comes out of this unit until it is non-infectious,” Ribner said. “The bottom line is we have an inordinate amount of safety associated with the care of this patient. And we do not believe that any healthcare worker, any other patient or any visitor to our facility is in any way at risk of acquiring this infection.”

Kent Brantley and Nancy Writebol, who are a doctor and missionary, respectively, are the two Americans returned to the States for treatment. Both have been reportedly given an experimental treatment never before tested on humans, and both are said to be recovering.

This outbreak is the deadliest in the history of the virus, so it’s understandable that Americans are worried about the risk of the disease spreading to the United States. But Ebola is unlikely to take off running in America. According to the World Health Organization, the virus spreads through “direct contact (through broken skin or mucous membranes) with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected people, and indirect contact with environments contaminated with such fluids.” Burial ceremony and contact with infected wild animals (such as fruit bats) are other ways Ebola spreads.

A number of high-profile pontificators, who seemingly exist solely to torment the unknowing, contributed to domestic Ebola panic. Donald Trump has repeatedly tweeted in opposition to the idea of treating any Ebola patients in the United States, arguing, “People that go to far away places to help out are great-but must suffer the consequences!” Appearing on Fox and Friends to discuss his tweet storm, Trump pushed for a ban on inbound flights from countries in West Africa, and compared Ebola to AIDS.

The U.S. cannot allow EBOLA infected people back. People that go to far away places to help out are great-but must suffer the consequences!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 2, 2014

Such hysterics seemed close to coalescing into a widespread panic on Monday, when New York City’s Mt. Sinai Hospital revealed that it was testing a patient for Ebola. The man, who had recently visited West Africa and was suffering from a high fever, was placed in an isolated ward within seven minutes of arriving to the hospital. Later Monday, however, doctors said it was unlikely that Ebola was involved.