““He was a doctor, and even he didn’t follow the guidelines,” Cuomo said.
With that in mind, the states have to lay down the law, the governors said.
“It’s too serious a situation to leave it to the honor system,” Cuomo said”
I’m surprised to hear Cuomo say it, but happy to hear he did
Bttt
If I'm not mistaken, Cuomo last night said the doctor now infected didn't do anything wrong. But now he switches gears and is getting tougher on "patients with the highest risk who will be quarantined for 21 days."
Pardon me for being a little cynical, but considering that Cuomo is a Democrat up for re-election in less than two weeks, he probably figures that distancing himself from the unpopular Obama and the CDC might accrue to his benefit politically. BTW, Cuomo and his GOP opponent for governor, Rob Astorino, clashed on Ebola policy during their debate the other night.
The idea of the state government determining who is "at the highest risk," and forcing them into quarantine for 21 days, smacks of possible civil liberties violations. Only the state will determine if you are at highest risk, and the criteria used to make that determination may in some instances be quite arbitrary. And if such an individual never gets Ebola during the 21 days of quarantine (extremely hard on one's state of mind, almost like imprisonment), can he sue the state government for false imprisonment and loss of income, etc. etc?
The better policy would be for Cuomo to ask the feds for a complete ban of incoming flights from the Ebola-infected countries of Africa. But if he did that, all hell would break loose among his leftist base.
Cuomo is up for reelection this year.