White House Urges States to Lift Mandatory Ebola Quarantine, Report Says

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White House Urges States to Lift Mandatory Ebola Quarantine, Report Says

Obama
U.S. President Barack Obama.
Image: Evan Vucci/Associated Press

The White House is urging New York and New Jersey to lift its mandatory quarantine for medical workers returning to the U.S. from West African countries plagued by Ebola, according to a new report.

Just a few hours after New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said he stands by the states’ decision to isolate those considered “high risk,” the Obama administration is requesting a policy reversal, the New York Times reported, citing an anonymous official.

The senior administration official told the newspaper that the decision was “uncoordinated, very hurried, an immediate reaction to the New York City case that doesn’t comport with science.”

Christie and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued the quarantine on Friday, and it has since been met with criticism by both medical experts and an asymptomatic nurse currently held at University Hospital in Newark, New Jersey.

Nurse Kaci Hickox has been in quarantine since arriving home on Friday from treating Ebola patients in Sierra Leone. She said she is enduring “prison”-like living conditions, and doesn’t have access to a shower, flushable toilet or her lawyer.

Quarantined, asymptomatic nurse in NJ sent CNN these photos of her current living quarters. #Ebola pic.twitter.com/ieaZ7DLcKq

— Vaughn Sterling (@vplus) October 26, 2014

“This is an extreme that is really unacceptable, and I feel like my basic human rights have been violated,” Hickox told CNN. “To put me through this emotional and physical stress is completely unacceptable.”

Although Hickox has twice tested negative for Ebola, and currently shows no signs of symptoms related to the disease, Christie said her quarantined status signals that she is “obviously ill.”

In response to Hickox’s criticisms, the governor said, “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.”

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