About a year ago, it was nearly impossible to browse the news without seeing some new article concerning the scourge of Ebola. A few years before that, the media was airing story after story about the dreaded H1N1.

Now, in early 2016, both viruses are still infecting people, but the hysteria is not. There is a new virus that everyone is getting concerned about: Zika.

Is all of this hysteria justified?

The Zika virus has been known since 1947, and only spread to South America and Mexico last year. The virus itself is relatively minor. Most people infected with the virus will never realize they have it, and people that develop symptoms only experience minor ones: a mild fever, rash, joint pain and conjunctivitis (red eyes). These symptoms will last for about two to seven days; afterward the person will be  immune from Zika for the rest of his life.

The major concern over Zika is whether or not it causes microcephaly, a birth defect where babies are born with smaller heads than normal.

Panic over the “shrunken head virus” has caused people to postpone travel plans and the Brazilian government to ask women to postpone getting pregnant until 2018. Even the Olympics, to be held this year in Rio de Janeiro, was considering postponement.

Zika is no Ebola, or even influenza. It almost never kills its victims, and it lasts usually under a week. Its supposed link to microcephaly still has yet to be determined by researchers.

Zika has been recognized for over 60 years. During that time, it has never once been linked to birth defects.

Is it possible that this increase in microcephaly is misattributed? As reported by the New York Times, “404 [babies] have been confirmed as having microcephaly. Only 17 percent of them tested positive for the Zika virus.”

One possible explanation is Brazil’s use of pesticides. Last year, Brazil surpassed the United States as the largest buyer of pesticides. Many of these pesticides violated Brazil’s own health regulations.

A report by an Argentinian research group proposed the pesticide pyriproxyfen as a possible cause as the pesticide is used often in areas where microcephaly cases are becoming more common.

There is no definitive evidence linking pyriproxyfen to microcephaly either.

The main problem is a lack of information. So many people are quick to blame Zika despite little evidence, and the media is quick to comply. However, alternatives are being proposed, and solutions are being researched.

So what is the danger for a potential mother wanting to see the Olympics? Well, unless she is already pregnant, there is nothing to worry about. The one thing that has proven consistent is that if a non-pregnant woman contracts the virus, she will suffer no permanent adverse effects.

At the moment, there’s just not enough evidence to justify this level of panic. Zika has just become the next scary virus of the year.