New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo admitted Saturday that the 21-day Ebola quarantine policy for health care workers returning from West Africa could be unenforceable.It takes a special kind of stupid to come up with the right answer, and then still manage to screw it up epicly with the "Shoot First, Think...Someday" policy that Cuomo (D-Five Families), Christie (R-Only in NJ), and Quinn (D-Special Bus) have instituted.
The New York Daily News reported that the Democrat acknowledged that several contingencies had not yet been worked out by officials, including what would happen if someone refused to be quarantined or even where they would spend their time during the watch period.
"Could you have a hostile person who doesn’t want to be quarantined?" Cuomo said during a campaign appearance in the New York City borough of Queens Saturday. "I suppose you could. But that hasn’t been the case yet." The governor added that officials had not determined whether those refusing to be quarantined could face arrest or prosecution, saying "It's nothing that we've discussed, no." When asked by the News where the quarantined people would be held, Cuomo even seemed unclear on that point, saying "Some people could be quarantined in a hospital if they wanted to be."
Apparently, their considered forethought on this policy amounts to telling people "Stop. Or I shall say "Stop" again!" with no contingency for someone telling them how and where to get stuffed. And in Christie's case, thinking that an unheated tent in Newark in late October was appropriate quarters.
Clearly, these guys could, in fact, f*** up a crow bar in a sand pile.
Way to go, governors. You've managed to make the CDC look intelligent in this crisis, which is clearly no small feat.
IIRC, federal public health law still allows arrest for the purposes of quarantine, all those years from Mary Malone, aka Typhoid Mary.
ReplyDeleteWe've been over this before as a country.
Bill K.
In addition, many states give such power to Public Health in their state statutes.
ReplyDeleteIn fact the statutes in my state are very specific (down to the wording of signage to place on quarantined residences and the appointment of "Special Marshals" with LE authority) on enforcement.
Not sure it the Three Stooges have this authority in their states, but would not be surprised if they did.
I agree that Cuomo/Christie's approach lacked any forethought, but I am glad they quarantined the "nurse" in Newark (a fit punishment, in my estimation). The same approach should be used for all those flying in from the affected countries in W. Africa.
ReplyDeleteI live in Northern Maine. The person quarantined in Newark was planning to hole up with her b/f in our remote rural community, which is extremely ill- equipped to deal with Ebola, and 6 hours away from any hospital that is (marginally)able to deal with it.
The civil liberties aspect is of concern to me, but there have been public health laws in effect for many decades that allow for forcible quarantine of contagious individuals(just try to quit taking your meds if you have TB). Most stem from the time before antibiotics, but they are definitely useful for a disease like Ebola, Marburg, etc.