President Donald Trump’s administration, which includes many vocal supporters of “medical freedom,” has introduced surprisingly harsh restrictions in response to new virus outbreaks.
“I am utterly stunned,” Dr. Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Pandemic Center at Brown University’s School of Public Health, told The New York Times about the aggressive quarantine approach taken by the administration to combat outbreaks of Ebola and hantavirus.
More than a dozen Americans who were on board the Dutch vessel MV Hondius are now being held at Nebraska’s only federally funded quarantine center after three passengers died from a hantavirus outbreak on the ship.
On Monday, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Jay Bhattacharya, issued quarantine orders for two American Hondius passengers who had sought to isolate in their own homes.
“We were told that if we exercised our right to leave, then we would be detained against our will,” one of the passengers subject to quarantine orders, Angela Perryman, told the Times.
The order came shortly after the CDC director stumbled during an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, saying that if passengers who had been on board the ship wanted to return home and their home situation allowed for safe isolation, they could potentially be flown back “without exposing other people on the way.”
“I think it’s incredibly ironic that Jay Bhattacharya signed the quarantine orders himself, given how much of a devotee he has been to the notion that people should feel free to do what they want if they are sick, regardless of who may be harmed,” Gigi Gronvall, a biosecurity expert at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told the Times.
Bhattacharya rose to prominence as a critic of COVID-19 lockdown policies, telling the Associated Press in 2021 that they were the “single biggest public health mistake.”
According to people familiar with the matter who spoke with the Times, the CDC director defended the quarantine orders he issued this week by saying he still believes in medical freedom and that the restrictions came from the highest levels of government.
New, tightened CDC guidance also increases monitoring of people who have been exposed to the hantavirus, requiring in-person check-ins by local health agencies rather than the previously proposed once-daily checks by phone, text, or email.
“You’re actually putting health workers at risk by making them go in person to somebody’s home that has a potential infection,” Dr. Debra Houry, who served as the CDC’s chief medical officer before Trump took office, told the Times.
In response to a request for comment, a White House spokesperson told The Daily Beast: “The only guiding factor behind the Trump administration’s healthcare decision-making is Gold Standard Science.”
“To prevent the transmission of Ebola and the Andes virus, the Administration is implementing a nimble, multifaceted, and interagency effort with state and foreign governments while ensuring the highest level of care for Americans,” the spokesperson added.
The CDC director is not the only administration official who is struggling to determine how to respond to the outbreaks.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has also been thrust into crisis management over a deadly Ebola outbreak in Congo, after six Americans were exposed to the virus.
According to The Washington Post, Dr. Peter Stafford, a U.S. physician who had been working in Congo, was flown to Germany for treatment after the United States delayed his evacuation amid a dispute over where he should receive care.
“If we don’t repatriate Americans in an emergency, what does citizenship mean?” Dr. Nuzzo told The Times. “I think it’s going to erode confidence in government,” she added.
An Air France flight bound for Detroit was forced to divert to Montreal on Wednesday after Customs and Border Protection officials discovered a passenger from Congo was on the plane. The CDC had announced Monday that for the next 30 days the U.S. will restrict entry of anyone without a U.S. passport who has been in Congo, South Sudan, or Uganda in the last three weeks.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the CDC for comment.
