Aike,
People are already not going to work/planning on not going to work because of this minor threat:
Janitors at airlines already walked off the job:
http://www.westernjournalism.com/health-...-prepared/
Nurses in Las Vegas already had their protest and this is before Ebola showed up in Dallas.
Staff in Madrid have quit over a scare.
And this is a 'minor' outbreak threat, not a 'OMG its pandemic and spreading like wild fire through every continent!'
I have been on other sites where nurses and health care workers are 'proudly' stating that if Ebola comes to their place of work they are leaving their job and protecting themselves and their family. It may amaze you to know that that seems to be the leaning of the majority.
So there goes your first line of defense against this outbreak, there are more cowards who will run away than there are those who will stay and fight. That means that an outbreak will become worse. How do we know? Because in Liberia there ain't enough health workers which means this Ebola is spreading. And they are lucky, there are other nations sending in aid. What happens when all nations are dealing with the crises at home? Where do extra health care workers come from then?
Modern human civilization is too fragile. Mother Nature (yes with capitals) is more of a threat to us now than at any time in human history simply because there are over 7 billion of us and our population relies on too much technology that can easily be shut down and lost.
What happens when the electric grid goes down? We saw that a minor issue took out the eastern Coast of north America in 2003. What happens when something equally minor happens when a percentage of the line workers just up and decide to not go to work because they fear a contagion?
The east coast didn't panic because they knew that it was only them.
New Orleans didn't panic because they knew that somewhere out there help was coming. Even though it got kinda ugly.
What happens when you have an outbreak affecting several cities and FEMA is taxed to its limits and people are afraid that a deadly disease is everywhere? They believe no help is coming who do they turn to?
The Health Care system of the Western World has already demonstrated it ain't prepared. Mr. Duncan was a demonstration of just how ill-prepared the USA is to deal with Ebola.
Lord help us if similar mistakes happen with a couple more patients in other cities.