The Obama White House has been pressuring the governors of New York and New Jersey to reconsider the mandatory quarantine they imposed on aid workers who have been exposed to Ebola patients.
The New York Times reported Sunday that administration officials have been in contact with Democrat Andrew Cuomo of New York and Republican Chris Christie of New Jersey since they announced late Friday that their states would mandate 21-day quarantines for health workers returning from anti-Ebola efforts in West Africa.
An unidentified administration official told the Times that the policy was “uncoordinated, very hurried, an immediate reaction to the New York City case that doesn’t comport with science,” referencing Dr. Craig Spencer’s hospitalization earlier in the week for Ebola.
Earlier in the day, the administration had delegated Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Disease and the country’s top infectious diseases official, to caution against mandatory quarantines and travel bans on the Sunday talk shows.
Throughout the morning, Fauci argued that quarantines are not necessary for people who are not demonstrating symptoms of Ebola, noting the scientific evidence that the disease cannot be communicated by asymptomatic people or without the exchange of bodily fluids.
Fauci also warned that policies that inconvenience health workers returning from Africa could have the unintended consequence of discouraging workers from addressing the outbreak there, and in so doing increase the ultimate risk to Americans. At one point he called the policy enforced by Christie and Cuomo “draconian.”
Kaci Hickox, a nurse returning from aid work in Sierra Leone quarantined in Newark as a result of the policy, criticized Christie Sunday.
“This is so frustrating to me. First of all, I don’t think he’s a doctor,” she said in an interview with CNN from her hospital isolation room. She had insisted that she be allowed to hold onto her phone before being quarantined.
“I’m completely fine, physically. And being held here is just — I just don’t understand,” Hickox added.
But Christie defended the policy in an interview with “Fox News Sunday” earlier in the day, saying that to protect his state he couldn’t rely on health workers exposed to Ebola to self-quarantine in the case they developed symptoms.
Christie also predicted that the policy would not discourage doctors and nurses from traveling to Africa to help people suffering from the disease.
Illinois also introduced a similar quarantine policy over the weekend. Florida Gov. Rick Scott also said Sunday that his state would require travelers from countries affected by Ebola to be monitored for 21 days.
