When Rep. Billy Long, R-Springfield, asked Facebook users what questions they had about Ebola, a strong theme quickly emerged:

"RESTRICT TRAVEL NOW!!" wrote Kem Emerzian of Springfield.

Long was among those at a hearing Thursday urging the Obama administration to enact a travel ban on flights to the U.S. from the West African countries struggling with the Ebola epidemic.

Nearly 4,500 people have died from the Ebola outbreak, most of them in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

CDC estimates show about 150 people arrive in the U.S. by airplane each day from those countries, Long said.

"I predict you are going to put on travel restrictions," Long said. "I think they're coming sooner rather than later."

He said the "constituents in the 7th District of Missouri" supported such a move.

Despite the latest infections, the CDC remains "confident that our public health and health care systems can prevent an Ebola outbreak here," agency Director Tom Frieden said at the hearing.

Rep. Tim Murphy of Pennsylvania said the "trust and credibility of the administration and government are waning as the American public loses confidence."

President Barack Obama has directed his administration to respond in a "much more aggressive way" to the threat and, for the second day in a row, canceled his out-of-town trips to stay in Washington and monitor the Ebola response.