Dallas’s Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital has come under fire over lapses in its care of Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian who was the first Ebola patient to die in the United States. At least two nurses who cared for Duncan became infected. But residents here are quick to defend “Presby,” as the well-regarded hospital is known, saying that the U.S. government initially failed to provide the hospital’s staff with adequate protective gear and training.

In that sense, the Ebola crisis that so randomly landed in Dallas has become wrapped up in the suspicions that many people in this conservative city have about the federal government. There is a consensus among scientists that Ebola isn't an airborne virus and is