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[stem-ebola] NYC & NJ retract Ebola policy under pressure from WH & MSF

Under Pressure, NYC's Cuomo Says Ebola Quarantines Can Be Spent at Home

Facing fierce resistance from the White House and medical experts to a strict new mandatory quarantine policy, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said Sunday night that medical workers who had contact with Ebola patients in West Africa but did not show symptoms of the disease would be allowed to remain at home and would receive compensation for lost income.

Mr. Cuomo’s decision capped a frenzied weekend of behind-the-scenes pleas from administration officials, who urged him and Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey to reconsider the mandatory quarantine they had announced on Friday. Aides to President Obama also asked other governors and mayors to follow a policy based on science, seeking to stem a steady movement toward more stringent measures in recent days at the state level.

The announcement by Mr. Cuomo seemed intended to draw a sharp contrast — both in tone and in fact — to the policy’s implementation in New Jersey, where a nurse from Maine who arrived Friday from Sierra Leone was swiftly quarantined in a tent set up inside a Newark hospital, with a portable toilet but with no shower.

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After Mr. Cuomo’s announcement, [NJ Governor Chris Christie] said on Twitter at 10:31 p.m. that, under protocols announced on Wednesday, New Jersey residents not displaying symptoms would also be allowed to quarantine in their homes.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/27/nyregion/ebola-quarantine.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=LedeSum&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

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MSF nurse 'slams' NJ's Ebola quarantine policy; Christie defends measures as necessary role of gov't

The first nurse to be isolated under New Jersey’s new Ebola rules has slammed governor Chris Christie’s decision to quarantine health workers returning from west Africa, saying he is “not a doctor” and calling the policy “poorly planned” and “not evidence-based” .

As state and federal officials scrambled to form a coherent policy on the issue, Kaci Hickox, a volunteer nurse for Doctors Without Borders, who has tested negative for the virus, described her treatment as inhumane and arbitrary.

Hickox first criticised her detention in a piece for the Dallas Morning News on Saturday. In response, [NJ governor Chris Christie] said Hickox was “obviously ill” and added: “I’m sorry if in any way she was inconvenienced, but the inconvenience that could occur from having folks who are symptomatic and ill out and amongst the public is a much, much greater concern of mine.”

On Sunday [Christie] defended his decision to impose 21-day quarantines even in cases when no symptoms of infection have been shown. Speaking to Fox News, Christie said: “I don’t think when you’re dealing with something as serious as this you can count on voluntary system. This is the government’s job.”

The likely candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016 added: “I think this is a policy that will become a national policy sooner rather than later.”

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/26/ebola-christie-quarantine-west-africa-monitor-symptoms-airport



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