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Disease expert argues against Ebola quarantine

He warns fight against virus may be stymied
Kaci Hickox, center, the nurse quarantined at a New Jersey hospital because she had contact with Ebola patients in West Africa, told CNN in a telephone interview that her isolation at a hospital was “inhumane,” adding: “We have to be very careful about letting politicians make health decisions.”

NEW YORK – The gulf between politicians and scientists over Ebola widened on Sunday as the nation’s top infectious-disease expert warned that the mandatory, 21-day quarantining of medical workers returning from West Africa is unnecessary and could discourage volunteers from traveling to the danger zone.

“The best way to protect us is to stop the epidemic in Africa, and we need those health care workers; so, we do not want to put them in a position where it makes it very, very uncomfortable for them to even volunteer to go,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Meanwhile, Kaci Hickox, the first nurse forcibly quarantined in New Jersey under the state’s new policy, said in a telephone interview with CNN that her isolation at a hospital was “inhumane,” adding: “We have to be very careful about letting politicians make health decisions.”

Saying the federal health guidelines are inadequate, the governors of New York and New Jersey announced a mandatory quarantine program Friday for medical workers and other arriving airline passengers who have had contact with Ebola victims in West Africa; Illinois soon followed suit. Twenty-one days is the incubation period for Ebola.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Sunday defended quarantining as necessary to protect the public and predicted it “will become a national policy sooner rather than later.”

“I don’t believe when you’re dealing with something as serious as this that we can count on a voluntary system,” said Christie, who is expected to run for the Republican nomination for president in 2016. He added: “I absolutely have no second thoughts about it.”

The Obama administration considers the policy in New York and New Jersey “not grounded in science” and has conveyed its concerns to Christie and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, said a senior administration official. The official insisted on anonymity.

Fauci made the rounds on five major Sunday morning talk shows to argue that policy should be driven by science – and that science says people with the virus are not contagious until symptoms appear. And even then, infection requires direct contact with bodily fluids.

He said that close monitoring of medical workers for symptoms is sufficient and warned that forcibly separating them from others – or quarantining them – for three weeks could cripple the fight against the outbreak in West Africa – an argument that humanitarian medical organizations have also made.

“If we don’t have our people volunteering to go over there, then you’re going to have other countries that are not going to do it, and then the epidemic will continue to roar,” Fauci said.

Christie, traveling the country as head of the Republican Governors Association, said he was not worried that quarantining might discourage volunteers.

Other than saying last week that those under quarantine could be confined to their homes or medical facilities, Christie and Cuomo have given no details on how the measure would be enforced and what would happen to those who refused to cooperate.

But Cuomo, who is up for re-election next week, said the order is legally enforceable, and expressed confidence that medical professionals would go along.



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