They hadn’t counted on the governors enforcing their own rights as states, and this has upset their thought of control. First came how horrible the quarantine is for the poor nurse (actual CDC agent). Then came the media saying how evil, racist and ignorant Americans are for the unbearable sin of not wanting a pandemic. Now the government boot is being applied for those uppity governors to get with the program.
Via NY Times:
The Obama administration has been pushing the governors of New York and New Jersey to reverse their decision ordering all medical workers returning from West Africa who had contact with Ebola patients to be quarantined, an administration official said.
But on Sunday both governors, Andrew M. Cuomo of New York and Chris Christie of New Jersey, stood by their decision, saying that the federal guidelines did not go far enough.
At the same time, the first person to be forced into isolation under the new protocols, Kaci Hickox, a nurse returning from Sierra Leone, planned to mount a legal challenge to the quarantine order. Despite having no symptoms, she has been kept under quarantine at a hospital in New Jersey. On Sunday, she spoke to CNN about the way she has been treated, describing it as “inhumane.”
The rapidly escalating events played out both privately, in intense negotiations and phone calls between federal and state officials, as well as publicly in the nurse’s pointed criticism of the New Jersey governor.