The White House is pushing hard against the Ebola quarantine policies put in place by New York and New Jersey last week, according to The New York Times .
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced revised guidelines for the quarantine policy Sunday. According to the Times, the changes “would allow all returning health care workers who have had contact with Ebola patients but have no symptoms of illness to return to their homes.” They would be unable to leave as their health is monitored for 21 days. State and local officials will visit twice daily to check the individual’s health and ensure that food, medicine, and other necessities are provided.
But workers who have had no contact with an Ebola patient will not face any quarantine. Their health will still be monitored for 21 days but they will be free to move so long as they show no symptoms.
New York and New Jersey originally announced late last week that all travelers arriving from West African countries affected by Ebola would face a mandatory 21-day quarantine. The move came after a New York doctor became symptomatic days after returning to the United States. He had been volunteering in West Africa and traveled throughout New York City in the days between his return and becoming sick.
Officials have stressed that Ebola can only be contracted through direct contact with the bodily fluids of symptomatic victims.
New Jersey in particular has been criticized for its handling of a nurse, Kaci Hickox, who was quarantined after returning from Sierra Leone last week. She was not sick and tests for Ebola came back negative.
“The problem here is, this hero, coming back from the front having done the right things, was treated with disrespect,” New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Sunday.
That touched on one of the main criticism of the mandatory quarantine policies: that it would create a disincentive for health care workers to travel to West Africa and help stop the disease at the source of the crisis. Such policies, their critics say, could end up proving counterproductive and actually help the virus spread further.
While meeting with his Ebola task force at the White House Sunday, President Obama stressed that “measures [to combat Ebola] must recognize that healthcare workers are an indispensable element of our effort to lead the international community to contain and ultimately end this outbreak at its source, and should be crafted so as not to unnecessarily discourage those workers from serving,” according to a statement.
Obama also made a similar argument in his weekly address.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, however, stood firmly by his state’s actions and even tweeted that he believed the quarantines “will become a national policy sooner rather than later.”
Illinois and Florida have since announced similar policies. And on Monday, a new federal policy will take effect requiring monitoring of individuals who arrive in the U.S. from West Africa.
But the Obama administration has taken issue with the more stringent quarantines to combat Ebola in New York and New Jersey. On Sunday, CNN reported that a senior official said “we have let the governors of New York, New Jersey and other states know that we have concerns with the unintended consequences.” CNN also says that a Christie spokesman disputed that claim.
Other administration officials voiced their concerns on Sunday as well.
“All of us need to make clear what these health workers mean to us and how much we value their services, how much we value their contribution,” Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said on NBC’s Meet the Press . “We need to make sure they are treated like conquering heroes an not in any other way.”
Power is currently traveling in West Africa.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, who directs the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Disease, said he was also concerned about the disincentives for health care professionals should quarantine policies become widespread. Also speaking on Meet the Press, he said such measures could have “unintended consequences.”
“The best way to stop this epidemic is to help the people in West Africa,” Fauci said. “We do that by sending people over there, not just from the U.S.A, but from other places. We need to treat returning people with respect.”
The New York Times report says that the decision by Cuomo and Christie was in large part a reaction to the botched handling of similar cases in Dallas earlier this month. But an unnamed official told the newspaper that the moves were “uncoordinated, very hurried, an immediate reaction to the New York City case that doesn’t comport with science.”
There have been no other confirmed cases of Ebola in New York besides that of Craig Spencer last week.
[photo credit: ad454]
Cuomo Revises Quarantine Policy For Ebola In New York Amid White House Pressure
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