This needs to go way beyond just Ebola.
We have learned that after decades of exercises and billions of dollars and countless positive articles, that we weren’t ready for a bio attack at all, or even a pandemic resulting from a national catastrophe like disease waves resulting from an EMP or nuclear attack, or nature.
America needs a reawakening of our civil defense readiness and this is just one step in that direction, we need this and an emergency plan where we can expand quickly if needed, first the instant ability to treat dozens of victims of a national multiple point bioterrorist attack, and then a concrete plan and permanent preparations to expand to 100s or 1000s of beds fairly rapidly as is practical within reasonable budget concerns.
The Guard and the Reserves could be better prepared, and civilian hospitals could maintain a portion of staff that receives annual or biannual training, but all this needs to be maintained long after this story disappears, it needs to become institutionalized, just as most of us already thought it was.
Most of us thought we were prepared for this stuff and could quickly react and contain it, but now we cringe at the thought of the chaos that just a dozen infected terrorists could have caused if they had arrived in a dozen cities just like that one Liberian did, that single patient became a threat way out of proportion of what should have been.
A dozen people in NYC alone could cause devastation to the surrounding areas just from people leaving the city.