Public Health: Now that Ebola has arrived in the U.S., Americans should ask why. After all, our government knew that the outbreak in Africa was severe but has done little to keep the disease from reaching our shores.

Sure, the medical professionals involved — doctors, nurses and epidemiologists — are working hard and bravely to contain an outbreak, which so far includes a Liberian man in Dallas and as many as 100 people he came in contact with.

But the government's response, as is too often the case, has been far less than competent and remains so.

The Ebola victim, Thomas E. Duncan, slipped into the U.S. from Liberia despite assurances from the very highest levels that the disease wasn't something we should worry about. Duncan remains in critical condition in Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas.

"The chances of an Ebola outbreak here in the United States are extremely low," President Obama said recently. But he was wrong. We wonder: Was he repeating a considered medical opinion, or just offering his own?

For the record, 7,138 Africans already have contracted the disease, and 47% of them have died. We've sent 3,000 troops to Africa to help out, and are "screening" people who enter our country.

How's that going? "There were no signs of any disease when (Duncan) boarded the flight," said Dr. Tom Kenyon, director of the Centers for Disease Control's Center for Global Health. So much for "screening."

Just as frightening, the CDC forecast that as many as 1.4 million people could be infected by the deadly virus by year-end if the outbreak doesn't come under control.

That's 1.4 million. With a near-50% death rate, Ebola is more deadly than even the Black Plague. That could mean 700,000 people dead, if it's not controlled.

Given the clear danger to the U.S., why hasn't the White House imposed travel limits on those flying in from Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone and other nations in West Africa where the disease has broken out?

That would seem a minimal response to containing this deadly hemorrhagic fever that causes many victims to suffer a horrible, lingering death.

Both France and Britain immediately halted flights from the afflicted countries in West Africa. Why not us?

We're not counseling panic here. The U.S. should be able to control an outbreak. But the White House's blase and even lackadaisical response isn't reassuring.

As of now, Ebola has no cure, which is why it must be stopped. You can treat the symptoms and, hopefully, keep those with the disease alive long enough to survive it. But given that Ebola causes massive internal bleeding as the victim's organs basically start to liquefy, survival is iffy at best.

There are promising new treatments, including the experimental drug ZMapp. Unfortunately, we've run out of it. The reason? A two-year delay by, you guessed it, the federal government in issuing a contract to make the stuff. Yet again, more government incompetence.

The administration's feeble response to the threat of Ebola poses a danger to Americans' health. We'll be lucky indeed if no one dies from it.