So all the right wing talking head son talk radio stirred people up into a frenzy over this NON FREAKING EVENT!
This was specifically to generate some sort of buzz before an election, and possibly get more people out to vote and vote Republican.
REGARDLESS of what the White House did, there would have been massive criticism. They are physically unable to give credit to the President under any circumstance, and certainly not before an election. (not that I'm an Obama fan, I just have a shred of integrity)
Travel - Had the president started out with a travel ban, the Republicans would have criticized how it would have hampered the relief efforts.
Quarantine - Understand that it takes a declaration of a disaster to forcibly quarantine, so it couldn't have been done before that, and that declaration had to come from the Governor of Texas. It eventually did come, but it was pretty much after all the damage had been done.
But let's say they did quarantine right off the bat. Republicans would have lambasted the White House for forcibly detaining people who had not been tested positive against their will.
No matter what the White House did, I guaran-freaking-tee you, Republicans would have found fault this close to an election.
The whole thing was political, no one actually gave a CRAP about any of the patients except for their healthcare workers.
Sure, a few million bucks added here and there to shut this down in the US is chicken feed, well, to Dimocraps anyway. We should probably bring more Africans over here and treat them for free.
