Not discounting your point, but I worked at Vanderbilt University Hospital during that time. Ebola is no joke...nasty bug. We had multiple training sessions dealing with it. When it showed up stateside, there was real concern among our physicians, and it wasn't exclusive to brown people. We had to ask every patient that walked in if they had recently traveled abroad and to where. That was not part of the patient history before then.
I think it is more sensationalism than a political ploy. Media wants those viewers and want those clicks, and a great way to accomplish that is to sensationalize everything: every flu outbreak, every winter storm, etc. For sure Pols take it, spin it to benefit them, and run with it.