I am concerned, of course, that Ebola made its way to America, though not surprised that the initial responses were less than perfect or that one patient died after being sent home first for three days.

It is easy to stand back and find fault with the way things were handled, yet the reality, to me, is that we can only prepare for the worst once we know just how bad it can get. The way Katrina victims in New Orleans were handled, for example, was a much greater failure to handle a disaster in a timely, appropriate manner than the Ebola response.

No point in frosting that cake, though: learn from the experience, adjust strategies, make better preparations (if Congress allows enough resources to those who need them, eh??!), and don’t [blank] up the next time. Finger pointing won’t bring back the dead or help the living.

If handled intelligently, without politics or self-serving whitewashes of the facts, knowledge of the errors can bring about improvements in the way we deal with the next Ebola patients.

In the meantime, panic and ignorance need to be held in control so we can see the problems of Ebola control clearly and not waste precious time and resources dealing with monsters under the bed.