A Pandemic is quite possible. People are not as isolated from each other as they used to be even 50 years ago. The media may not be effective at getting important messages to the public. Music, TV, and advertisements are broadcast each day. People do not listen unless something is over-hyped. Large groups of people can be motivated to respond to fear. After making people fear several times with no bad outcome apathy will prevail.
Ebola got here and into other civilized nations, it didn’t amount to much.
Africa has had dozens of outbreaks over the last 40 years, and even there it gets handled.
This current outbreak has been the worst ever, and by African standards, it hasn’t killed many people.