New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Sunday defended the mandatory quarantines in New Jersey and New York for all health workers who return from treating Ebola patients in West Africa.
“I think this is a policy that will become a national policy sooner rather than later,” Christie said on “Fox News Sunday.” “We have taken this action, and I have no second thoughts about it.”
Christie said that Centers for Disease Control protocol on Ebola was a “moving target” and that he thinks the CDC will eventually adopt the mandatory quarantine.
The governor said he doesn’t have confidence in the CDC’s “voluntary system with folks who may or may not comply.”
“I don’t think, when you’re dealing with something as serious as this, that you can count on a voluntary system. This is government’s job,” he said.
Fox host Chris Wallace asked Christie about Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci’s concern that mandatory quarantines could discourage people from volunteering in West Africa.
Christie said he didn’t think the quarantines would keep people from heading to Africa.
“I believe that folks who want to take that step and are willing to volunteer also understand that it’s in their interest and the public health interest to have a 21-day period thereafter they’ve been directly exposed to people with the virus,” he said.
Watch a clip via Christie’s office:
