Sunday, October 26, 2014

Under Pressure, Cuomo Loosens Policy for Ebola Quarantines in New York


New York and New Jersey had both hastily announced a quarantine of any health care worker returning from countries with Ebola. The quarantine was meet with a lot of negativity including the white house, who they had not informed of their decision. A lot of the negativity has come from the treatment of Kaci Hickox, a nurse put in quarantine after returning from West Africa. One with no knowledge of Ebola would think it is reasonable to quarantine anyone who’s come in contact with it. But scientist have shown the virus is not contagious if the person shows no symptoms. So now Bill de Blasio has revised the rules regarding the situation. Instead of a 21 day quarantine, all health care workers returning from West Africa will be monitored for 21 days by health officials. This is a reasonable policy and hopefully will not discourage health care workers from volunteering in West Africa.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/27/nyregion/ebola-quarantine.html?ref=politics&_r=0

5 comments:

  1. I agree with Bill de Blasio's new revised rules regarding the Ebola situation. As scary or dangerous as Ebola is, people who return from countries with Ebola shouldn't be quarantined, but being monitored for 21 days is enough.

    ReplyDelete
  2. We should quarantine individuals coming from infected countries, but respect them as human beings. The disease is not as contagious as many people fear it to be, so the panic is completely unnecessary.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Well, the people that have been infected were also wearing massive protection. Goggles, hazmat suit, the whole nine yards. And they still got sick. Theoretically its not that contagious, but doesn't it bother you that people have gotten sick even with the degree of protection they have on?

    ReplyDelete
  4. A mandatory quarantine would worsen the situation, I believe. It's a good thing that Cuomo loosened the policy.

    ReplyDelete
  5. There was a slight tension between Bill DeBlasio and Cuomo about this and I'm good that it turned out nicely for everyone. Ebola is racking up the fear for everyone and I think Cuomo just thought that was the best way to control the idea. But like Dan said, they are humans too.

    ReplyDelete