It’s here, there and, thankfully, nowhere near Maine. Yet you couldn’t pick up a newspaper or turn on a TV newscast last week without running smack dab into the new terror of our times.

“Maine, nation hit by Ebola false alarms,” read the lead headline in Friday’s Portland Press Herald. The story stemmed from one student’s utterance to another that her father was being tested for the Ebola virus.

The girl’s claim turned out to be not true. Still, it kicked off an immediate – and entirely appropriate – reaction by Freeport Middle School that quickly doused any red-hot rumors before they could explode into an all-out panic.

More on that in a minute.

First, a look at how fixated we’ve become on a deadly threat that is now just that – a threat. Not one to be taken lightly, but at the same time hardly a reason to head for the backyard fallout shelter.

All last week, the national news remained fixated on the unfolding drama in Dallas, Texas, where Thomas Eric Duncan died Wednesday from the Ebola virus after contracting it in Liberia and slipping through a porous safety net at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital.

The already frightening story was made worse by the fact that the hospital failed to admit and isolate Duncan the moment he came through the emergency room door. Rather, he was initially sent home with a 103-degree fever and numerous other symptoms matching those that for weeks have been spreading unchecked across western Africa.

Also on Wednesday, Customs and Border Protection officials announced that starting this week, they will perform health screenings on incoming passengers from Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone at five major U.S. airports. Those hubs account for nearly all of the 150 or so people who come to the United States from those countries each day.

A prudent decision? No doubt.

A foolproof shield against Ebola finding its way into this country? No way.

Federal health officials have cautioned repeatedly that it can take up to 21 days for Ebola victims to start showing symptoms, meaning they could easily pass through the airport checkpoints undetected and, as Duncan did, go on about their business until they actually start feeling ill.

Thus, while the current risk of contracting Ebola in this country remains lower than low, fear of the disease is on the rise.

As Press Herald staffer Leslie Bridgers reported last week, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is receiving more than 800 queries per day from people worried that they or someone they know has come down with the Ebola virus. Prior to Duncan’s diagnosis, the CDC was getting only about 50 such calls daily.

At the same time, the Pew Research Center reported on Monday – two days before Duncan died – that 11 percent of Americans are “very worried” and 21 percent are “somewhat worried” that they or someone in their household will be exposed to the Ebola virus.

Equally worth noting, however, is that 67 percent of those polled by Pew were either “not too” or “not at all” worried about the Ebola virus reaching their doorstep.

So how is all of this playing out here in Maine?

Our hospitals, no surprise, report they’re on heightened alert for symptoms consistent with Ebola and have detailed plans in place should the virus somehow touch down here.

Much to his credit, Maine Medical Center Director of Emergency Management Joshua Frances also cautioned recently against scapegoating Maine’s refugee and immigrant population, many with African roots.

“We obviously do have a large refugee population, which is largely east African,” noted Frances. “But Africa is a huge continent, and the outbreak is strictly in West Africa.”

At the Portland International Jetport, director Paul Bradbury assured WCSH-TV on Friday that any passengers arriving here from West Africa already will have been screened elsewhere.

In the unlikely event that a plane a lands here with a possible Ebola victim aboard, Bradbury added, the airport would activate an emergency plan similar to that used for a mass casualty event. That prompted the TV station inexplicably to use file footage of a mass-casualty drill, complete with first-responders in Hazmat suits and at least a dozen dummy “victims” lying prostrate on the tarmac.

Worth noting here is that even as we are bombarded with news coverage of the Ebola crisis – and with more than 4,000 West Africans now dead and another 1.4 million expected to come down with the disease by January, it is very much a crisis – we who report that news and you who consume it all have a choice:

We can let our imaginations run wild over where this unfolding catastrophe might lead.

Or we can keep a wary eye on it while remembering that so far, with the exception of three Americans brought home from Liberia for treatment, the number of cases that have actually landed on our soil remains at one. And the number of cases actually transmitted in the United States is zero.

Which brings us back to Freeport.

The red alert arose on Wednesday after the middle-school student told a high school student during a bus ride that her father had a rash and was being tested for Ebola. The high school student then told her parents, who in turn alerted the administration at Freeport Middle School.

Principal Ray Grogan, in a subsequent email to parents, said the middle-school girl was immediately isolated “as if the student had been exposed.” A school nurse then interviewed her while her parents were contacted – at which point school officials determined there was no cause for concern.

Grogan, wise man, wasted no time getting out ahead of the rumor mill. In his email blast, he assured parents that “the student’s father has no symptoms of Ebola, nor is he being tested for the virus.” He also notified the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention of the incident.

School officials have declined to say whether the whole thing was a hoax or if the girl was being disciplined.

But in his email to parents, Grogan requested, “Please affirm with (the children) that there is no safety concern and emphasize that there are consequences of sharing inaccurate health information that causes a public scare.”

Sage advice – and not just for the kids.

We now return to our daily lives.

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