The Ron Klain effect remains a work in progress for the Obama White House, which still doesn't seem to quite have its hands around the Ebola crisis. Or, rather, one hand might not be sure what the other is up to (Jacquelyn Martin/The Associated Press)
Quelling public hysteria is more than an admirable goal. It’s a requirement as we contend with a killing disease like Ebola.
That was part of the thrust of our editorial this morning on the increasingly fractured national response, especially as it relates to quarantines. “The mandatory quarantine rule that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie imposed Friday to combat the spread of Ebola underscores the need to keep politics out of this important public health issue,” we wrote. “Policy decisions on Ebola should be based on science, not fear.”
True enough. I only wish we had completed the thought and explained why Christie and governors of more and more states — New York, Illinois, Virginia, Florida, Georgia and Maryland — had decided that the continually shifting U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines might not be the one-size-fits-all solution.
Christie and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo did not act until after a doctor who had volunteered in West Africa, Craig Spencer, developed Ebola symptoms upon his return to New York City. What alarmed them — and, one presumes, their constituents — was that Spencer had ridden three subway trains, gone bowling and eaten out the day before he checked himself in to a hospital, where he tested positive for Ebola.
So which route would have caused less public hysteria? Ignore this situation and blandly trust the feds? Or impose a mandatory quarantine on health care workers who had done such selfless work in a world hot zone?
It’s not hard to see why Christie and Cuomo went the latter route, with their states receiving the most travelers from West Africa. This is the net that caught Kaci Hickox, the UT-Arlington-trained nurse who now lives in Maine. She complained bitterly about her situation, quarantined in a tent, and got herself some good legal representation.
Your local editorial board, not far from America’s Ground Zero for Ebola, basically absorbed her argument in its entirety, as did a local columnist with whom I have some relation. So be it.
Ironically, a columnist with whom I seldom agree, Froma Harrop, pointed out what I do wish everyone would consider: “Mandatory quarantine is not a punishment. It is a public-health tool designed to protect a population from those carrying deadly infectious disease. It is not voluntary by design.”
For instance, I suspect we’ll hear less wailing about the circumstances for members of the U.S. Army who are separated from the herd in Italy, after returning from assignment in West Africa. Unlike the many doctors and nurses, they did not volunteer to go; they were ordered there by their commander in chief.
So the same Obama administration that leaned hard on Cuomo and Christie over the weekend to relax their quarantines apparently has nothing to say about another part of the executive branch keeping U.S. troops sequestered for 21 days? I mean, this sounds a lot like a mandatory quarantine:
They will be monitored for 21 days at a “separate location” at the U.S. military installation at Vicenza Italy, according to U.S. military officials. Senior Pentagon officials say it is not a “quarantine,” but rather “controlled monitoring.” However, the troops are being housed in an access controlled location on base, and are not allowed to go home for the 21 day period while they undergo twice daily temperature checks.
It is not clear yet if they will be allowed visits from family members.
It seems we’re coming up a bit short on that honoring-their-service thing.
Josh Earnest, the White House spokesman, said whatever the Army does is up to the Defense Department: “We are seeing this administration put in place the policies that we believe are necessary to protect the American people and to protect the American troops. And we’re going to let science drive that process. And as soon as we have a policy to announce on this, we’ll let you know.”
Yes, please let us know whether the latest iteration of CDC guidelines are administration policy or if the Army’s path is policy or, hey, if anyone knows how to play this game. Please let us know when the various parts of the federal government are working in concert, since they all supposedly report up to the same guy.
Maybe one day we’ll hear some of that political fixing from President Barack Obama’s political fixer/Ebola czar, the one who’s all politics and zero health care experience. And maybe one day the people supposedly in charge of this mess will give people less reason, not more, to get just a little hysterical about their inability to govern.