Ebola

Because many Americans don't seem to know that Africa is a very large continent but do know it's black and scary, the rabid fearmongering on Ebola has spawned a host of lunatic incidents across the country wherein schools have kept kids home and otherwise freaked out about possible connections to uninfected places thousands of miles from the hot zone. And because nothing's too scary that someone won't try to make a buck off it, the crisis has also spawned Ebola-themed survival kits.