The civil unrest in Ferguson, Missouri once again claimed the airwaves and the front page of newspapers; pushing aside stories about the ongoing Ebola outbreak and the growing war against the Islamic State, also known as IS and ISIS.

“The killer virus Ebola may not be front and center in the news, but it’s still in the forefront of efforts by health officials nationwide,” Sharyl Attkisson, an investigative journalist wrote, according to Pennlive.

Pennlive reported 129 people in Pennsylvania are currently being monitored for Ebola symptoms, due to their recent return to the U.S. from Africa.

State and local health officials are monitoring approximately 1,400 people from 44 states across the nation for Ebola symptoms, because they recently returned from West Africa, according to Attkisson.

The White House specially prepared 35 hospitals across the U.S. in an effort to ready the nation for present and future domestic issues with the Ebola outbreak, according to the Washington Post.

State health officials, hospital executives and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) chose and assessed these medical facilities to assure they have the proper staff and equipment.

The hospitals are within 200 miles of 80 percent of all travelers returning to the U.S., according to the Washington Post.

Though there have been no new cases of Ebola in the U.S. since Oct. 23, the CDC reports there are just fewer than 16,900 cases of Ebola in West Africa and nearly 6,000 deaths as of Dec. 2.

ISIS poses a new threat to the U.S. that, like Ebola, fails to reach the same level of attention as Ferguson. CNN and Fox News published a few of stories regarding this issue.

According to CNN, the FBI is warning U.S. military personnel to be cautious of what they post on social media sites, as ISIS members are believed to be searching for recruits in the U.S. via the Internet.

“We also request members of the military review their online social media presence for any information that might attract the attention of violent extremists,” an FBI bulletin stated.

The FBI’s main concern is that ISIS will sift through online websites and find U.S. soldiers who sympathize with their group and are willing to carry out attacks on U.S. soil.

“Individuals overseas are spotting and assessing like-minded individuals who are willing and capable of conducting attacks against current and former U.S. based members of the United States military,” the bulletin stated, according to Fox News.

The FBI bulletin references two separate incidents that occurred in Canada where soldiers turned on their own country in support of ISIS. The violent military state has requested Muslims in the U.S. and Europe to attack military personnel of their own country.

Fox News reported that the FBI, along with the Department of Homeland Security, published the bulletin on Sunday. That day also marked the end of a large weekend-long coalition airstrike against ISIS.

Since Nov. 28, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) reported that coalition forces launched 55 airstrikes as part of the Pentagon’s “Operation Inherent Resolve”, the latest military operation to combat terrorism in the Middle East, according to Russia Today.

“17 airstrikes near Kobani, [Syria] destroyed two IS-occupied buildings, three IS tanks, three IS fighting positions, an IS armored personnel carrier, three IS vehicles and two IS staging areas, and also struck seven tactical IS units,” CENTCOM reported.

CNN reported 30 airstrikes hit Raqqa, Syria, the ISIS capital, according to Syrian Observatory for Human Rights based out of London.

“The attacks in Raqqa mark an increase in coalition activity there,” Eliott McLaughlin, a journalist for CNN, wrote.

President Barack Obama does not plan to send any more ground troops to engage ISIS with one exception, ABC News reported last November.

“If we discover that [ISIS] had gotten possession of a nuclear weapon, and we had to run an operation to get it out of their hands, then, yes, I would order it,” Obama said to reporters in Australia, regarding under what circumstances the U.S. would deploy troops for a ground invasion.

Despite the lack of media attention about the Ebola epidemic and Operation Inherent Resolve these two issues continue to consume both domestic and foreign political resources to protect people around the world.

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