Krauthammer: Ebola Czar 'in Self-Quarantine'

Columnist Charles Krauthammer remarked that Ebola czar Ron Klain was “in self-quarantine” on Thursday’s broadcast of “The Kelly File” on the Fox News Channel.

“Remember, the cure for all this, for the contradictory messaging, the over-promising, the protocols that had to be changed almost every week was going to be the new Ebola czar who is nowhere to be seen.  I think, actually, he’s probably himself in self-quarantine.  Where the heck is the guy?” Krauthammer wondered,

He also criticized the president for attacking states with their own quarantine policies on healthcare workers while quarantining soldiers who had worked in the Ebola hot zone, arguing “Democrats they have this long history of claiming to be the party of science…So explain to me, Mr. President, how is it that it is science to not have a quarantine for a civilian nurse but to have the Department of Defense, which the last I heard is a part of the US government, declare a 21 day quarantine for any soldier who serves in these hot zone countries? Does the virus actually decide whether it’s going to multiply and kill the patient on the basis of whether it’s a nurse who’s a civilian or a soldier who’s a member of the military? This is not science. This is policy, and I think the administration’s advocating the wrong policy.”

In response to the president’s invoking of “American exceptionalism” to criticize states who require healthcare workers returning from the hot zone to undergo quarantines, Krauthammer said, “he doesn’t really have that sense of American exceptionalism…but this isn’t a question of American exceptionalism, this is a question of simple, hard-headed, public health policy.”

Krauthammer concluded by arguing that while a quarantine for healthcare workers would be a small disincentive against American healthcare workers from going to Ebola-stricken countries, an individual who is willing to risk contracting Ebola should also have the dedication to stay at home for three weeks.

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