As the largest Ebola epidemic in history continues to ravage West Africa, thousands of people have already lost their lives, with thousands more currently affected by the virus.

Which makes it seem like a pretty bad time for a joke, but if Twitter is any indicator, not even this humanitarian crisis is bad enough to keep people from creating memes making light of the virus or posting tweets in poor taste.

Ebola has been a major trend on Twitter lately, and while most the tweets that contain Ebola are from news organizations, they certainly don’t have a corner on the market.

One of the popular suggested searches is “Ebola zombie,” a joke that Ebola victims will rise up and begin a zombie apocalypse. The reactions people have tweeted have ranged anywhere from borderline excitement to legitimate fear, and almost every insensitive response in between. From scrolling through the posts the vibe I received was almost that this virus transformed into some sort of sick game where unaffected people gloated in their ability to avoid the virus.

This article is not nearly long enough to include all the other insensitive and crude things people are tweeting. To say that this situation has been handled with class all around would unfortunately be untrue.

I don’t want to paint a bleak and depressing picture of mankind, but I can’t help but be horribly concerned that there are people who legitimately believe these sorts of actions are acceptable. Mass death is never an ideal time to try to make jokes, but sometimes the boundaries of good judgment are lacking in some people.

Granted it’s wrong to judge the large number of people who are honestly concerned about the outbreak of the virus by the wrong actions of the few, but the few in this case highlight some major causes for concern.

I will never forget the advice I got when I first opened my Twitter account: Be controversial, and you will get followers. Even though the person who said that was not being serious, there is usually a little bit of truth underneath every joke.

People are drawn to controversy, to pushing the limits when it comes to offending others. For better or worse, a virus outbreak that has claimed the lives of several thousand is captivating to people halfway across the globe and creates an opportunity to push the envelope.

The virus hit a little too close to home, though, as one of the doctors treating Ebola in Africa contracted it himself and was brought to the Nebraska Medical Center, where he fortunately recovered. No longer was the virus halfway across the globe, but now it was in our own backyard. It is almost impossible not to get upset when someone in your own area is fighting for his life and people make fun of that.

I hope that people will universally see the seriousness of this situation and treat it accordingly. There are so many things in this world that can easily be made fun of without resorting to mocking death.

I’m all about joking around, but sometimes boundaries are simply a necessity. Unfortunately, as long as a few people seek to cross those boundaries, the good intentions of many will be marred by the tasteless actions of the few.