Ebola quarantines pit politicians against scientists - Associated Press:
October 27, 2014 - "State leaders in New York and New Jersey are at odds with scientists over Ebola as the states' governors back 21-day quarantines for medical workers returning from West Africa, while the nation's top infectious-disease expert warns that such restrictions are unnecessary and could discourage volunteers from aiding disease-ravaged countries.
"The two governors late Sunday night emphasized separately that their policies permit home confinement for medical workers who have had contact with Ebola patients if the workers show no symptoms.
"The emphasis on home confinement was at odds with the widely criticized treatment of a nurse returning from Sierra Leone who was forcibly quarantined is a New Jersey hospital isolation unit even though she said had no symptoms and tested negative for Ebola....
"For much of the weekend, the governors had been under fire from members of the medical community and the White House.
"'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....
"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.
Read more: http://www.mprnews.org/story/2014/10/27/politicians-scientists-at-odds-over-ebola-quarantines
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