Remember Ebola? Where did the fear-mongers go?

Amid such reports, it took only one case to touch off near-panic inside the United States: that of Liberian Thomas Eric Duncan after he was misdiagnosed by a Dallas hospital. In the weeks that followed Duncan’s death, state and local governments reacted — and sometimes overreacted. Several schools barred teachers and children who had visited African countries that were nowhere near the epidemic. In Maine, a teacher was put on leave because she had visited Dallas.

And then election-year politics kicked in. Members of Congress, mostly Republicans, warned that Ebola could be carried into the country by illegal immigrants or even terrorists, and demanded a ban on travelers entering the U.S. from the affected countries.

And now? The crisis is all but forgotten.

The epidemic is ebbing in Liberia, but still spreading in Sierra Leone. The World Health Organization estimates there have been about 18,000 cases, including more than 6,300 deaths: tragic numbers, but far below the apocalyptic scenario once predicted.

I’m not blaming ordinary people for reacting as they did to a deadly epidemic they’d been told was difficult to stop. I’m not even blaming governors who scrambled to impose quarantines to stop the spread of a disease they didn’t know much about. Their job was to protect their citizens.

But there is one list of politicians who still deserve a measure of scorn: the ones who fanned fear for fear’s sake.

Last week, those politicians shared in an award they probably didn’t want: the annual “Lie of the Year” prize conferred by PolitiFact, which said they deliberately “produced a dangerous and incorrect narrative” about an important global problem.

Before you dismiss that as another liberal media attack on the GOP, consider this: Last year’s PolitiFact winner for “Lie of the Year” was President Barack Obama, for his promise, “If you like your health care plan, you can keep it.”

The politicians mentioned in this year’s citation included Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., an ophthalmologist who may run for president. His advice on Ebola included this warning: “This is an incredibly contagious disease. People in full gloves and gowns are getting it.” Well, no, as thousands of medical workers in Africa can testify — not when true precautions are in place.

Then there was Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Ga., another physician, who managed to combine two hot-button issues, Ebola and immigration. Gingrey announced that he had received “reports of illegal migrants carrying deadly diseases such as swine flu, dengue fever and Ebola.”

Now that the acute fear of Ebola has ebbed, we should pause for a moment to thank some Americans who didn’t panic — and, more important, even did something to bring the epidemic closer to an end: the courageous relief workers who went to Africa, not knowing whether they’d be allowed to return home, relief workers that included roughly 3,000 U.S. military personnel who accepted deployment to Liberia as part of their jobs, and whose clinic-building mission will be complete soon.

And yes, even those politicians, beginning with Obama, who didn’t panic.