CDC could quarantine U.S. citizens for weeks if they refuse Ebola screenings
Non-citizens could be turned back
By Olivier Knox
Yahoo News
October 10, 2014
U.S. citizens who refuse to undergo the new screenings for Ebola at five major American airports could find themselves held in quarantine for up to three weeks, officials told Yahoo News on Thursday. Non-citizens who refuse the screenings could be quarantined or turned away from U.S. soil by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
The Obama Administration announced on Wednesday that it would soon require passengers from Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone — the countries at the epicenter of the deadly outbreak in West Africa — to answer questions about their potential exposure to the illness and to have their temperature taken upon arrival.
Officials unveiled the new rules hours after the only patient thus far diagnosed with Ebola on U.S. soil, Thomas Eric Duncan, died of the illness. Neighbors said he helped a pregnant woman in Liberia get to a hospital, where she was turned away from a crowded Ebola treatment ward. Liberian government officials said they planned to prosecute him for lying on health forms by denying any contact with an Ebola patient.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) may “isolate, quarantine, or issue a conditional release order to any arriving person who is reasonably believed to be infected with or exposed to Ebola,” CDC Public Affairs Director Barbara Reynolds told Yahoo News in an email. “Refusal to be screened or to respond to public health questions would be factors to be considered in formulating a reasonable belief as to whether the individual may be infected with or exposed to Ebola.”
A government official, who requested anonymity to describe the process candidly, said CDC would likely quarantine someone until they agreed to answer questions about their potential exposure to Ebola and have their temperature taken. Failing that, the authorities would consider holding the individual 21 days from their most recent plausible date of exposure to the disease. That’s how long the deadly virus can take to incubate. While the five airports will have special quarantine areas, the official would not say whether that is where recalcitrant citizens would be held.
Reynolds declined to confirm those details but underlined that “our intent is to be measured and protect the public’s health at the same time.”
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