ATLANTA/WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – As the second of two nurses infected while treating an Ebola patient left an Atlanta hospital, President Barack Obama yesterday said policies adopted in the United States should not discourage Americans willing to fight West Africa’s outbreak.
Obama weighed in for the first time since states including New York and New Jersey imposed automatic 21-day quarantines on doctors and nurses returning from the three countries at the heart of the outbreak – rules that go beyond federal guidelines.
“We don’t want to discourage our healthcare workers from going to the front lines and dealing with this in an effective way,” Obama told reporters at the White House South Lawn.
Obama said that these medical workers, often volunteers for international humanitarian groups, should be “applauded, thanked and supported.”
“And we can make sure that when they come back, they are being monitored in a prudent fashion. But we want to make sure that we understand that they are doing God’s work over there. And they’re doing that to keep us safe,” Obama added.
Some states have imposed their own safeguards, including mandatory quarantines for doctors and nurses returning from the three countries at the center of the epidemic, saying federal policies do not adequately protect the public. Some lawmakers, particularly Republicans, have criticized the response by Obama’s administration as inept.
The president is likely to emphasize his support for traveling Ebola medics in a speech set for Wednesday afternoon at a White House event with doctors and nurses who are volunteering in West Africa.
Federal health officials and others have criticized stricter state measures as potentially counterproductive, saying they could deter American doctors and other healthcare professionals from volunteering to help fight the epidemic at its source in West Africa.
“We don’t want to do things that aren’t based on science and best practices because if we do then we’re just putting another barrier on somebody who’s already doing really important work on our behalf,” Obama said, noting that containing the outbreak in Africa will make Americans safer from Ebola.
The first person quarantined under New Jersey’s policy was Kaci Hickox, a nurse who tested negative for the virus but was isolated for days in a tent at a Newark hospital. She said her “basic human rights” were violated.
In another sign of how Ebola fears have affected many communities, a father sued a Connecticut school on Tuesday, saying his 7-year-old daughter was discriminated against and banned from school based on irrational fears of Ebola because she attended a wedding in Nigeria.
“We’re hoping this will get her back into school as soon as possible,” the girl’s mother, Ikeolapo Opayemi, said in a brief interview with Reuters at their home.
DALLAS NURSE RELEASED
In Atlanta, nurse Amber Vinson, 29, was released from Emory University Hospital after being declared virus-free last Friday. Obama said he spoke with Vinson by telephone on Tuesday.
“I’m so grateful to be well,” a smiling Vinson told reporters at Emory University Hospital before hugging the doctors and nurses who had treated her since Oct. 15.
“While this is a day for celebration and gratitude, I ask that we not lose focus on the thousands of families who continue to labor under the burden of this disease in West Africa,” added Vinson, looking fit.
