By David Cruz
Correspondent
How elected officials respond to crises can make their political careers. Just ask the governor who garnered national attention for his handling of the aftermath of superstorm Sandy. But Gov. Chris Christie is now getting heavy criticism for new Ebola protocols announced on Friday. Just hours after Christie’s announcement, Kaci Hickox was placed in mandatory quarantine at University hospital in Newark. Her very public reaction to that has put the governor on the defensive.
“It is not based on any clear public evidence and it’s not the recommendation of public health and medical experts at this point. I think we have to be very careful about letting politicians make medical and public health decisions,” said Hickox.
Hickox was released this afternoon and transported to Maine, where officials there will determine where she can remain for the remainder of the 21-day period. The firestorm, however, seems to have just begun, and is already dominating the governor’s trip to Florida. This morning he said releasing Hickox did not amount to a reversal of policy.
“I didn’t reverse my decision; why are you saying I reversed a decision. If she was continuing to be ill, she’d have to stay. She hasn’t had any symptom for 24 hours and she tested negative for Ebola, so there’s no reason to keep her. The reason she was put in the hospital in the first place was because she was running a high fever and was symptomatic,” said Christie.
But Hickox says that’s not true, and the ACLU says that part of the problem here is that the government is creating new policies in virtual secret.
“The public first learned that there was going to be a major new policy; no regulations were issued; no details were given to the public. Then, 48 hours later, the policy was changed, a bit, although it’s still unclear how it’s being changed. So, Governor Christie has been acting in total secrecy on an issue that is of great public importance,” said ACLU-NJ Executive Director Udi Ofer.
New Jersey lawmakers were sounding off today, too. Democrats — who privately criticized New York Governor Andrew Cuomo for collaborating with Christie — were suggesting that the New Jersey governor was trying to gain more national attention and made a rash decision, hoping to capitalize politically.
“The idea that the governor stood up and sat in front of a large audience and deemed that this woman was obviously sick,” said Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg.
“It’s a violation of her privacy and, most importantly, it wasn’t true. I think when political figures rush out to get their five minutes in front of the TV camera without having all the facts, we’re not led to good policy,” Weinberg said.
“I think that this is a situation where politics has to be taken out of it, and I think that happened when you saw governors Cuomo and Gov. Christie coming together different political idealogies and seating down and saying this is what is best for our residents. Now, is it a working progress, absolutely,” said Assemblywoman Holly Schepisi.
Experts say the flu is more dangerous to you than Ebola, but the governor maintains that strict — even unpopular measures — are necessary to ensure that it stays that way.