Emily Metzgar

Let the finger pointing begin! With the appearance of a second domestically transmitted case of Ebola in Dallas, all parties involved — local, state and national — are staking out their territory, assuming defensive positions to explain their performance (or lack thereof) in the midst of growing concern about the stateside Ebola outbreak.

This very human and very bureaucratic reaction to a crisis is entirely predictable. But it's alarming to a public watching this potential disaster unfold in slow motion. A hemorrhagic fever with a track record of leaving fear and death in its wake has been loosed on the American homeland. And sure, that's scary. But what's even scarier, and with even more far-reaching implications, is how this outbreak is pulling back the curtain on a seemingly endemic institutional inability to respond quickly and competently to a serious public threat.

Whose fault is it? Depends upon whom you ask: It is the computer software at the Dallas hospital. It is two young nurses ignorant of appropriate protocols. It's the Republicans because they cut funding to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is President Obama because he hasn't hermetically sealed American borders. It is the media for hyping the crisis. The list of potential fall guys is limited only by failure of one's imagination.

It was a failure of imagination, remember, that the 9/11 Commission suggested was responsible for the American national security complex's inability to connect the dots between warning signs prior to the 2001 terror attacks. Are the institutions today tasked with safeguarding American security — however defined — any better prepared to respond to a crisis than they were 13 years ago? It seems not.

Watching the U.S. Ebola story develop might well cause Hurricane Katrina flashbacks, triggered by the same sort of dramatic music on cable news networks announcing a return to breathless coverage of the latest details. Consider the multitude of institutional failures laid bare by the much-delayed official reaction to a flooded New Orleans after that 2005 storm. I know, I was living in Baton Rouge during Katrina and I'm struck by the many parallels.

Recall the political positioning, the press conferences from operations centers, the impassioned media coverage, the official reassurances that the situation was under control. Recall emergency and medical officials lacking appropriate communications or rescue equipment. Recall the angry mayors, governors and members of Congress with their declarations of outrage about how the situation was being mishandled.

Flash forward to the domestic response to Ebola's arrival in the United States. It is similarly shameful, seemingly more concerned with passing the buck than addressing what is, apparently, a growing threat to public health. On Friday, President Obama appointed Ron Klain as the administration's Ebola response coordinator. Described by the Washington Post as a "longtime Democratic operative" who has previously served as chief of staff both Vice Presidents Biden and Gore, Klain undoubtedly knows his way around the nation's capital. But is he equipped to tackle a growing public health crisis unfolding in places well beyond the Beltway?

After Katrina, it took Louisiana native, Army Lieutenant General Russel "Ragin' Cajun" Honoré, to slap some sense into both dithering officials and the overwrought media. Former New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin described him as "one John Wayne dude" who got stuff done. Once on the job, Honoré quickly talked sense into a media intent on placing blame for the failed response, famously responding to a reporter's question on the matter with "You are stuck on stupid." He was focused on the task at hand: Getting the situation under control. Apportioning blame could (and did) come later.

Similar singularity of purpose is needed now. The story of the U.S. Ebola outbreak is already a litany of failure. To call it a tale of astounding incompetence would be overly generous. Everyone, from those tasked with monitoring themselves after exposure to those tasked with monitoring others after exposure to those tasked with thinking about how to keep the disease from spreading further seems incapable of doing what's in the public interest.

Klain's appointment is at least an acknowledgement that better coordination is needed. I hope he's up to the task. It's certainly well past time for an appointed John Wayne dude to ride onto the scene, to get things under control, to reassure the American public that the worst-case scenarios are highly unlikely (no matter what the media says), and to ensure that those whose job it is to secure the public's health aren't stuck on stupid.

Emily Metzgar is an associate professor in the Journalism Department at Indiana University.

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