The decision to quarantine Army Maj. Gen. Darryl Williams, commander of the U.S. Army in Africa, and 10 other personnel in Italy after returning there from West Africa was made by one commander and is not a comprehensive Pentagon policy, according to White House spokesman Josh Earnest.
“The [Department of Defense] has not issued a policy related to their workers who have spent time in West Africa,” Earnest told reporters at his daily briefing Monday. “There was a decision made by a particular commander.”
Earnest said the vast majority of the troops working in West Africa are not in Ebola-afflicted countries and are not providing direct medical care to patients with the virus.
He specifically mentioned that some of the troops are helping build an “air bridge” in Senegal to help resolve transportation hurdles to airlifting some Ebola patients out of the area while others are building medical facilities in nearby countries.
“No DOD personnel is involved in treating Ebola patients,” he said. “It’s important for us to access risk in a detailed way. The risk of being in a neighboring country is different than spending several weeks in the bush treating patients firsthand.”
An Obama administration official Sunday night said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in consultation with the Health and Human Services Department and the White House, is developing new quarantine guidelines for states. The CDC is expected to release the new guidelines Monday afternoon.
Reporters on Monday peppered Earnest with questions about the decision to quarantine the troops, as well as healthcare workers returning to New Jersey and New York in recent days from Ebola-stricken areas.
New Jersey authorities Monday decided to release Kaci Hickox, a nurse forcibly quarantined in New Jersey after she came home from treating patients in West Africa, and allow her to return to her home in Maine.
Hickox was held against her will for three days in a tent inside a wing of a New Jersey medical center, hired a lawyer and complained about her inhumane treatment.
The White House on Sunday tried to persuade the governors of New Jersey and New York to lift the quarantines. Earnest Monday repeatedly said quarantine policies should be based on “science” and balanced with the need to have U.S. health workers travel to Ebola-stricken countries and fight the deadly virus there to try to prevent a bigger outbreak in the United States.
“We certainly believe any policies that are in place should be driven by science and recognize the heroism of individuals who are volunteering their time,” Earnest said.
“Somebody like Kaci Hickox, who is volunteering her time” to travel to West Africa and put her own health at risk, he said, is “deserving of praise and respect and having her sit in a tent for two or three days doesn’t exactly do that.”
Earnest also noted that the federal government, as the founding fathers designed it, has limited Constitutional authority to force states to abide by a unified quarantine policy.
He said reporters would have to channel James Madison, who is generally regarded as the father of the Constitution, if they want to have a debate about Obama’s limits to impose a state-wide quarantine policy.
