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By Greg Jaffe and Amy Brittain October 18 at 2:41 PM

President Obama on Saturday sought to tamp down fears of an Ebola outbreak and defend his administration from Republican critics who have called for a more aggressive response to the disease, including sealing off U.S. borders to visitors from countries battling widespread outbreaks.

We cant just cut ourselves off from West Africa, where this disease is raging, Obama said in his weekly radio address. Trying to seal off an entire region of the world if that were even possible could actually make the situation worse.

Such actions would make it harder for American health-care workers, soldiers and supplies to reach stricken areas, Obama said. It could also cause residents of countries in West Africa where Ebola is still spreading to try to evade screening on their way to the United States or Europe.

The presidents main message was one of calm, coming came at a time of growing worry in communities throughout the country. We cant give in to hysteria or fear, because that only makes it harder to get people the accurate information they need, Obama said. If were guided by science the facts, not fear then I am absolutely confident we can prevent a serious outbreak here in the United States.

As Ebola fears have spread, some urgent care clinics have taken steps to identify red flags, such as recent travel to West Africa, before patients ever set foot in the clinic. AFC/Doctors Express, a national chain of more than 130 urgent care clinics, with facilities in Alexandria, Woodbridge, Edgewater and Towson, fields some of its patient calls through a national call center thats designed to screen symptoms before patients show up to see a doctor. On Friday, the call center developed a new Ebola fact sheet and script to ask patients about their travel history, said Dr. Glenn Harnett, the chief medical officer for AFC/Doctors Express.

Posters on the clinics front doors and signs in its waiting rooms ask patients to notify personnel if theyve recently traveled to West Africa. Over the past four days, Harnett estimated that his clinics had seen about eight to 10 false alarms. Patients may have concerning symptoms such as fever and vomiting, but Ebola was ruled out because they had not traveled to any affected areas.

More often, the clinics have seen cases of irrational fear. Some patients have requested Ebola tests even though they arent ill, Harnett said. He told the story of one patient who had recently traveled to Mobile, Ala., and requested that he be screened for Ebola, despite having no symptoms nor any interaction with someone who was sick. The patient had grown concerned because of Mobiles position as a port city and felt that he might be vulnerable to exposure.

Wed probably have lines down the street if we had an Ebola vaccine, but so many more Americans will die of influenza, Harnett said. I find that somewhat frustrating as a clinician, but people are people, and theyre going to have the fears that they have. We need to be able to respond to those fears in a calm matter.

Obama on Saturday stressed that an outbreak of the disease in the United States was, at best, a remote possibility. He noted that Ebola is much harder to contract than the flu, and could only be spread through contact with the bodily fluids of someone who is showing symptoms of the disease. He also emphasized that U.S. health-care officials had established protocols to fight the disease and prevent its spread.

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Obama: We cant give in to hysteria or fear of Ebola