Thursday, Mar 28th 2024
Trending News

Obama hits back over Christie's calls for Ebola quarantine, will meet health workers

By FnF Desk | PUBLISHED: 29, Oct 2014, 16:13 pm IST | UPDATED: 29, Oct 2014, 16:18 pm IST

Obama hits back over Christie's calls for Ebola quarantine, will meet health workers Washington: President Barack Obama condemned New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie on Tuesday for forcing a nurse who cared for Ebola patients into a quarantine tent after she returned from Africa's disaster zone.

'America in the end is not defined by fear – that's not who we are,' the president said, calling for 'new monitoring and movement guidance that is sensible.'

'America is defined by possibility, and when we see a problem, and we see a challenge, then we fix it. We don't just react based on our fears.'   

According to the Daily Mail report, Obama did not mention Christie by name, but it was clear who the president was addressing as he spoke on the South Lawn of the White House. His fighting words will set the table for a political Battle Royale over Ebola, just one week before Election Day.

The president pointed out that he had recently met Texas nurse Nina Pham, who survived Ebola after catching it from the late Liberian national Thomas Eric Duncan.

And his remarks came on the heels of a phone call with Amber Vinson, Pham's co-worker who contracted the disease shortly after her. Vinson was released from isolation on Tuesday with a clean bill of health.

Obama will meet separately at the White House on Wednesday with a group of health professionals, 'not only to say thank you to them and give them encouragement, but to make sure we're getting input from them, based on the science, based on the facts, based on experience, about how the battle to deal with Ebola is going and how our policies can support the incredible heroism that they are showing.'

Some will be headed to Ebola-plagued African nations and others will be returning home.  

'We don't want to discourage our health care workers from going to the front lines and dealing with it in an effective way,' Obama said, referring to the case of nurse Kaci Hickox.

Obama sought to reassure Americans that his administration is making wise choices in the face of a virus that kills between 5 and 7 out of every ten people whom it infects.

Christie has consistently defended putting Hickox, 33, in quarantine for three days – in what she claimed was a violation of her civil rights – in order to protect New Jerseyans from a potential Ebola contagion.

He and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo were sharply criticized for ordering mandatory quarantines for doctors and nurses who have elevated temperatures or other Ebola symptoms when they arrived at airports from west Africa.

Hickox was released Monday after 24 hours without any symptoms. But she spent the weekend in a quarantine tent at University Hospital in Newark after recording a 101-degree fever – which she blamed on her treatment at the airport.

'We react based on facts, and judgement, and, and making smart decisions – that's how we have built this country, and sustained this country, and protected this country,' Obama continued on Tuesday. 'That's why America has defined progress. Because we're not afraid when challenges come up.'

In a 10-minute speech that included no mention of White House Ebola czar Ron Klain, the president emphasized that the the only two people who have contracted Ebola in the U.S. are nurses, making strict quarantines likely out of bounds for the vast majority of Americans.

'We know that the best way to protect Americans ultimately is going to stop this outbreak at the source,' he said.

Obama took aim at Christie as he was preparing to jet off to a Democratic campaign rally for Wisconsin gubernatorial hopeful Mary Burke.

Her opponent, the incumbent Gov. Scott Walker, has been the recipient of fundraising windfalls courtesy of Christie's chairmanship of the Republican Governors Association.

In the Hickox case, Christie has maintained he did the right thing.

'My first responsibility is to protect the public health and safety of the people of New Jersey,' he said Tuesday morning on NBC's 'Today' show.

'I will not submit to any political pressure to do anything I believe is less than necessary.'

Despite criticism from the White House and elsewhere, New Jersey's policy is holding firm.

'We're trying to be careful here,' Christie said. 'This is common sense. ... We're not moving an inch. ... Our policy has not changed. Our policy will not change.'

Obama, though, suggested that Christie's heart was in the wrong place.

The president said health care workers returning from Ebola-wracked countries should be 'applauded, thanked and supported.'

'That should be our priority,' he said.

While they should be 'monitored in a prudent fashion,' Obama said, 'we want to make sure that we understand that they are doing God's work over there. And they're doing that to keep us safe.

'And I want to make sure that every policy we put in place is supportive of their efforts because if they are successful, then we're not going to have to worry about Ebola here at home.'  

Christie, however, said Monday that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was already changing its 'incredibly confusing' policies to match with his state's.

The governor's comments came as Hickox left the New Jersey hospital and arrived at an undisclosed location in Maine, where her partner is a nursing student at the University of Maine at Fort Kent. She now faces a brief period of home quarantine in Maine.

One of Hickox's lawyers, Steve Hyman, said he expected her to remain in seclusion for the 'next day or so' while he works with Maine health officials.

She was the first person forced into New Jersey's mandatory quarantine for people arriving at Newark Liberty from three West African countries.

She threatened to sue the state for placing her in an unheated 15-x-20 isolation tent with no working toilet at University Hospital in Newark.

He said he believes the state should follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines that require only monitoring, not quarantine, for health care workers who show no symptoms after treating Ebola patients.

'She's a very good person who did very good work and deserves to be honored, not detained, for it,' he said.

Hickox, who was expected home Tuesday morning, volunteered in Africa with Doctors Without Borders.

New Jersey's policy requires special intervention for health care workers who spend time in Sierra Leone, Liberia or Guinea, landing them in quarantine is they have any symptoms at all.

On Monday, CDC director Dr Thomas Frieden announced a voluntary quarantine for health workers returning from West Africa, encouraging them to avoid public transport and undergo daily check-ups at home.

In Maine, Governor Paul LePage said his government would 'follow the guidelines set by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control for medical workers who have been in contact with Ebola patients.'

'Additionally, we will work with the healthcare worker to establish an in-home quarantine protocol to ensure there is no direct contact with other Mainers until the period for potential infection has passed.'

But state officials said later clarified it was only a voluntary quarantine.

'We fully expect individuals to voluntarily comply with an in-home quarantine,' LePage spokeswoman Adrienne Bennett said Monday. 'If an individual is not compliant, the state is prepared to take appropriate action.'

Bennett did not immediately say what 'appropriate action' might be.

In Fort Kent, Northern Maine Medical Center is ready to care for an Ebola-infected patient, if necessary, a spokeswoman said.

Hickox and her partner, Ted Wilbur, had moved recently to Fort Kent, where Wilbur is a senior nursing student, family members said.

WAGM-TV said Wilbur was given the choice of staying on campus in student housing over the next few weeks or temporarily suspending classes to stay with Hickox in his off-campus home during the quarantine period. A University of Maine system spokesman said he couldn't confirm details of discussions with Wilbur.

Wilbur's uncle Tom Wilbur said that Hickox should be trusted to make good decisions and that medical decisions should be grounded in science and not 'hysteria.'

'She's very much a professional,' he said. 'And she's very bright. And if she were running a fever, she would be the first to take action.'