Why has the Zika outbreak received so much international attention in the media? 聽What do we know about the level of risk, the infectiousness of the illness, and the severity of the consequences? Not a lot actually. 聽In their article in , Rainford and Greenberg discuss the communication of risk associated with an emerging infectious disease, the gap in empirical risk assessment聽and risk perceptions, and why Zika is receiving so much attention.