re: Taking in foreign Ebola patients...

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Call it whatever you want but churches, schools, and most public facilities were closed. Many public restrictions were imposed at the time and attempts were made to isolate those infected.

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Schools, theaters, churches and dance halls in cities across the country were closed. Kansas City banned weddings and funerals if more than 20 people were to be in attendance. New York mandated staggered shifts at factories to reduce rush hour commuter traffic. Seattle’s mayor ordered his constituents to wear face masks. The first study found a clear correlation between the number of interventions applied and the resulting peak death rate seen. Perhaps more importantly, both studies showed that while interventions effectively mitigated the transmission of influenza virus in 1918, a critical factor in how much death rates were reduced was how soon the measures were put in place.

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Funny how you mention quarantines yet they aren't listed with the effective preventative measures in your quote. With regards to a pandemic situation obviously quarantines are useless.

With regards to small outbreaks quarantines can be used to isolate individuals but really the isolation can be anything from a quarantine to taking a temperature twice a day, depending upon the risk to the public. In the case of a person with Ebola exposure the risk is zero until symptoms show up, and appear to be extremely low (perhaps nearly zero) during the early onset (first hours, perhaps first day) of symptoms.

Bottom line: Quarantines are needed when the person is clearly infected and the chance of infecting others is high.