> should we have also done more for ebola, zika, SARS, MERS etc in the US
Obviously yes, and not only in the US. The complete lack of any preparation for this kind of events in most of the world is what makes this specific event so disastrous, and the extent of that disaster is going to be more visible only once everything settles -- we're still far from that.
I honestly at least in US culture we'd end up with a 'boy who cried wolf' situation if we had tried to even encourage social distancing during past pandemic scares. If we had done that in the past when a pandemic didn't occur we would have had an even harder time getting people to take this one seriously, and it would likely have been worse.
Very unfortunate, but true, point. Most of those past ones were much more deadly and much less contagious for a variety of reasons, which played a role. Another silver lining is that this event might reduce the chance of future wolf-crying/false alarms occurring when we actually do need to take something seriously.
It's certainly possible that an existing, or, more likely, new ebola/filovirus strain could become a pandemic, too, though. Hopefully we'd be able to spot it early enough. (And there are some vaccines, which may or may not work against a new strain.) And of course it could really be anything.
Obviously yes, and not only in the US. The complete lack of any preparation for this kind of events in most of the world is what makes this specific event so disastrous, and the extent of that disaster is going to be more visible only once everything settles -- we're still far from that.