Quarantine For Some, Not For All. Does Ebola Know the Distinctions?

[From article]
The soldiers being monitored include Maj. Gen. Darryl Williams who was the commander of the U.S. Army in Africa but turned over duties to the 101st Airborne Division over the weekend, Martin reports. There are currently 11 soldiers in isolation.
They apparently were met by Carabinieri in full hazmat suits. If the policy remains in effect, everyone returning from Liberia - several hundred - will be placed in isolation for 21 days. Thirty are expected in today, Martin reports.
A Pentagon spokesman calls it "enhanced monitoring." The soldiers are confined to a building and unable to see their families, Martin reports. The decision made by the Army and applies only to soldiers returning from Liberia.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/ebola-outbreak-u-s-soldiers-returning-from-liberia-placed-in-isolation-in-italy/

CBS/AP

October 27, 2014, 11:20 AM
U.S. soldiers returning from Liberia monitored for Ebola in Italy
Last Updated Oct 27, 2014 2:12 PM EDT

* * *

[From article]
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said Monday morning that the release of a quarantined nurse by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention didn't indicate that his state-level Ebola-containment policies had shifted at all.
'I didn’t reverse any decision,' he told reporters outside a campaign event for Florida Gov. Rick Scott. 'If she was continuing to be ill she would have to stay. She hadn’t had any symptoms for 24 hours and she tested negative for Ebola so there’s no reason to keep her.'
A Christie spokesperson told MailOnline that nurse Kaci Hickox 'was never going to be quarantined for 21 days in the hospital.'
State policy, she said, called for Hickox to be quarantined until she no longer had medical symptoms for at least 24 hours, after she arrived at Newark Liberty International Airport from west Africa.
New Jersey residents, the spokesperson explained, can be quarantined in their homes. But since Hickox is from Maine, her isolation had to be carried out at University Hospital, which was prepared to accept patients like her.
[. . .]
'We have let the governors of New York, New Jersey, and others states know that we have concerns with the unintended consequences of policies not grounded in science may have on efforts to combat Ebola at its source in West Africa,' a senior administration official said in a statement after that gathering.
Frieden also cautioned that health care workers might be discouraged from being honest about their travels, or even become reluctant to volunteer their time overseas, 'if we turn them into pariahs instead of recognizing the heroic work they are doing.'
[. . .]
Hickox is hired (sic) Norman Siegel, a high profile civil rights attorney, to challenge the order.
Christie on Sunday defended quarantining as necessary to protect the public and predicted it 'will become a national policy sooner rather than later.'
'The government's job is to protect safety and health of our citizens,' Christie said on Fox News Sunday. 'I have no second thoughts about it.'
Previously, Christie had characterized Hickox as 'obviously ill.'
'I'm sorry, but that's just a completely unacceptable statement in my opinion,' Hickox said Sunday during a phone interview with CNN. 'For him – a politician who's trusted and respected – to make a statement that's categorically not true is just unacceptable and appalling.'
Christie fired back on Monday, saying that 'she was ill.'
'She was obviously ill enough that the CDC and medical officials hospitalized her and gave her an Ebola test ... They don’t do that just for fun. That’s a very specific, difficult, expensive test to do.'
[. . .]
Cuomo also came under scrutiny over the weekend for criticizing Craig Spencer, a doctor who tested positive for Ebola on Thursday, for not obeying a 21-day voluntary quarantine. However, on Sunday, he called the health care workers 'heroes' and said his administration would encourage more medical workers to volunteer to fight Ebola.
[. . .]
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio called Hickox a 'returning hero' and charged that she was 'treated with disrespect,' as if she done something wrong, when she was put into quarantine. He said that she was interrogated repeatedly and things were not explained well to her.
Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations who is on a trip to West Africa, said returning U.S. health care workers should be 'treated like conquering heroes and not stigmatized for the tremendous work that they have done.'
In other developments, President Barack Obama met Sunday with his Ebola response team, including 'Ebola czar' Ron Klain and other public health and national security officials.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2808178/Obama-forces-Chris-Christie-U-turn-allow-Ebola-nurse-leave-quarantine-tent.html

Chris Christie insists he DIDN'T do U-turn under pressure from Obama after Ebola nurse is allowed to leave New Jersey hospital quarantine tent to return to Maine
New Jersey governor said Monday that the CDC cleared nurse Kaci Hickox to go home during 21-day quarantine after she tested negative for Ebola
Hickox was held after returning from Sierra Leone, and threatened a federal lawsuit to get herself released
Four states now require the same quarantine for Americans returning from Ebola-smacked countries if they have any symptoms
New Jerseyans can be quarantined at home, but out-of-state residents must be kept in hospitals
Reports suggested the White House pressured Christie and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to reverse their rules, but Christie says nothing changed
Christie predicts his state's rule 'is going to become a national policy eventually. Eventually the CDC will come around'
By DAVID MARTOSKO, US POLITICAL EDITOR and FRANCESCA CHAMBERS FOR MAILONLINE and ASSOCIATED PRESS
PUBLISHED: 22:54 EST, 25 October 2014 | UPDATED: 15:18 EST, 27 October 2014