( CNN ) -- Ebola is now a big enough concern that the American people deserve some straight answers . And judging from the latest polling , plenty of people will be listening to what they are . On Wednesday , the Pew Research Center reported that more than twice as many Americans were paying attention to Ebola as were paying attention to the midterm elections ( 36 % to 15 % ) . In fact , Ebola placed higher than ISIS and the firing of the Secret Service director in terms of public attention . This is hardly surprising : The public is bound to want to know more about potentially fatal epidemics that seem to come from nowhere and have a high fatality rate . Indeed , Gallup reported Tuesday that one-in-five Americans worry about becoming infected with Ebola . Public fear is only likely to increase when the government seems confused and its story keeps changing . Just look at the early reaction to the spread of the disease . As recently as September 16 , President Barack Obama said at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that : `` I want the American people to know that our experts , here at the CDC and across our government , agree that the chances of an Ebola outbreak here in the United States are extremely low . '' The President went on to promise : `` We 've been taking the necessary precautions , including working with countries in West Africa to increase screening at airports so that someone with the virus does n't get on a plane for the United States . '' He also characterized the chance of someone with Ebola reaching the United States as an `` unlikely event . '' Fast forward less than a month , and someone infected with Ebola came from Liberia , via Brussels , to the United States ( and has sadly since died ) . Clearly , the system of screening in place failed . During his CDC visit , the President also announced that some 3,000 American service men and women would be dispatched to fight Ebola in West Africa , a region where epidemiologists have estimated there could be between 550,000 and 1.4 million Ebola cases in Sierra Leone and Liberia alone by the end of January 2015 . The experience of U.S. troops in Liberia a decade ago is a reminder of the additional risks American troops face when sent to places where dangerous diseases are widespread ; roughly a quarter of American troops sent to Liberia in 2003 reportedly contracted malaria . Yet the administration seems not to have properly thought through how it will treat members of the U.S. military who might contract Ebola while deployed fighting the epidemic in Africa . Asked Tuesday if the military was stockpiling ZMapp , the experimental treatment for Ebola , Gen. David Rodriguez , head of Africa Command , said the military was not because it had not yet been proven effective . But given Ebola 's extremely high fatality rate , it is hard to imagine there would not be plenty of patients who would at least prefer to be given a chance to try it . Meanwhile , the disease appears to have taken another country by surprise . Reporting on the case of a Spanish health worker who contracted the virus in Sierra Leone , NPR noted that : `` A few months ago , Spanish officials were touting the country 's ability to handle Ebola patients . ... But last night , the tone abruptly changed . '' Spanish officials said they had no idea how the aid worker had been infected since `` as far as we know , she was wearing a protective suit the whole time and did n't have any accidental contact '' with the patient . So we have screening that did n't exist , a military commitment that is clearly inadequate but may put our troops at risk , and reassurances about suits that may not work . No wonder some U.S. senators are refusing to comment on the Obama administration efforts . As The Blaze reported , `` Sen. Mark Pryor , a second-term Democrat from Arkansas , stumbled badly this week when he admitted he is n't sure whether the Obama administration has done enough to protect Americans from Ebola , because he had n't been briefed lately . '' If a U.S. senator does n't have a clue , it is little wonder so many Americans are suspicious that the Obama administration is once again drifting into failure , confusion and misinformation . All this leaves the public with many legitimate questions that need answering : What is the risk to the young men and women we are sending into West Africa ? How many of them will come home infected with Ebola , malaria and a variety of other tropical diseases ? What has to be changed at the National Institutes of Health to invest in new treatments for Ebola and a vaccine for prevention ? What has to be changed at the Food and Drug Administration to fast-track Ebola-related medicines so we can save lives as rapidly as possible ? Can the Centers for Disease Control develop a genuine operational capability to project effective public health assistance into West Africa and bring the epidemic under control in countries with governments too weak to be effective ? Can we develop a screening process for passengers that is reliable and then insist that every person coming out of Ebola-infected areas be screened -- and , if necessary , quarantined ? The American people deserve candid and , most importantly , accurate answers to such questions on what is a potentially deadly and dangerous epidemic . Complete coverage on Ebola .
Polls show Ebola of significant interest to American , Gingrich says . West Africa troops face extra potential dangers in U.S. , such as malaria , Newt Gingrich notes . Obama administration has n't properly thought through its Ebola strategy , he says .