The director of the NIH National Institute Of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said in a recent statement that he "would not have recommended" the imposition of mandatory quarantine for American health workers that are returning from West Africa. Dr. Fauci believes that the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention should stick to their original recommendations and continue to base their policies on scientific data that are continually being gathered from the field.
This reaction came after news that the local governments of New York and New Jersey announced that they are launching programs that require a 21-day mandatory quarantine period for all health workers that are returning from any of the Ebola-stricken countries in West Africa, or have been exposed to the virus in any other occasion. Dr. Fauci said further that he would not have corroborated this decision, had he been consulted. "As a scientist and a health person, if I were asked I would not have recommended that."
He also commented on the alleged mistreatment of nurse, Kaci Hickox, who was recently subjected to mandatory quarantine in New Jersey, Hickox claimed that she was made to feel like a criminal, to which Fauci said, "I cannot explain that, I can just tell you that what we want to do is to make sure first, protect the American public."
"The Scientific evidenceis what needs to drive us. We appreciate the fears of the American people, but you don't want to have policy that would have negative unintended consequences," he added. Fauci is concerned that the restrictions of being quarantined could become a discouraging factor for health workers. This, he said, could be detrimental to much needed manpower, preventing American health workers from traveling to West Africa to help fight the Ebola outbreak. Fauci concluded by saying, "Let's not forget the best way to stop this epidemic and protect America is to stop it in Africa, and you can really help stopping it in Africa if we have our people, our heroes, the health workers, go there and help us to protect America. We can lose sight of that."
