--- title: Ebola: White House Pressures States to End Quarantine Order description: One nurse who has no symptoms but has been kept at a New Jersey hospital says she will legally challenge her quarantine canonical: https://time.com/3540288/ebola-federal-government-end-quarantine-health-workers-kaci-hickox/ author: Nolan Feeney article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-10-26T20:23:11.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:00:26.003Z article:section: Health og:title: Ebola: White House Pressures States to End Quarantine Order og:description: One nurse says she will legally challenge her quarantine og:url: https://time.com/3540288/ebola-federal-government-end-quarantine-health-workers-kaci-hickox/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcd996a44206e779b/698762d33c1639537a44f493/afdb5b671c9b48d79be980ff65310845-0-1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Andrew Cuomo, Chris Christie og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ebola: White House Pressures States to End Quarantine Order twitter:description: One nurse says she will legally challenge her quarantine twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcd996a44206e779b/698762d33c1639537a44f493/afdb5b671c9b48d79be980ff65310845-0-1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # White House Pressures States to End Ebola Quarantine Orders ## Video: Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases [Watch (HLS stream): Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/dUR0NEQC.m3u8) (0:26)  _Published 2014-10-27. Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases_  by [Nolan Feeney](https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Oct 26, 2014 8:23 PM UTC  New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, left, listens as New Jersey Governor Chris Christie talks at a news conference, Oct. 24, 2014 in New York. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, left, listens as New Jersey Governor Chris Christie talks at a news conference, Oct. 24, 2014 in New York.Mark Lennihan—AP  by [Nolan Feeney](https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Oct 26, 2014 8:23 PM UTC The White House made a push Sunday against [a mandate](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/27/nyregion/ebola-quarantine.html?smid=tw-bna&%5Fr=0) ordered by several states over the last three days that requires all health care workers returning from West Africa who had any contact with Ebola patients to be put in quarantine for 21 days, regardless of symptoms or test results. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie announced the mandatory quarantine policy, which far exceeds Federal guidelines, on Friday, a day after New York doctor Craig Spencer was diagnosed with Ebola after returning from Guinea, where he contracted the disease. Illinois and Florida have followed suit and put similar policies in place. The New York _Times_ reports that the Obama administration is now levying pressure on both New York and New Jersey to roll back the new rules, after the detainment practice received widespread criticism from the health community. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, [denounced the 21-day quarantines](http://time.com/3539946/ebola-anthony-fauci-chris-christie/) on Sunday, saying they are unnecessary and discourage health workers from volunteering to stop the outbreak. Nurse Kaci Hickox, who was forced into a quarantine facility even after she displayed no symptoms and tested negative for the virus, said Sunday that she was prepared to legally challenge her enforced isolation. Hickox spent time in Sierra Leone and has been kept involuntarily at a New Jersey hospital since she landed in Newark Friday. “I also want to be treated with compassion and humanity, and I don’t feel I’ve been treated that way in the past three days,” [Hickox told CNN on Sunday](http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/26/health/new-jersey-quarantined-nurse/index.html). “I think this is an extreme that is really unacceptable. I feel like my basic human rights have been violated.” Ebola is only spread through direct contact with bodily fluids. People with the disease are only at risk of infecting others when they are showing symptoms. The ACLU said Sunday that Hickox’s quarantine raises [“serious constitutional concerns about the state abusing its powers.”](http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/10/aclu%5Fdemands%5Fchristie%5Fprovide%5Flegal%5Frationale%5Ffor%5Fcontinued%5Fquarantine%5Fof%5Fnurse%5Fwho%5Ftested%5Fnegative.html) According to Fauci, active self-monitoring is a sufficient alternative to the quarantines policies in place. “If we don’t have our people volunteering to go over there, then you’re going to have other countries that are not going to do it and then the epidemic will continue to roar,” he said. “The best way to protect us is to stop the epidemic in Africa, and we need those health care workers so we do not want to put them in a position where it makes it very, very uncomfortable for them to even volunteer to go.” [In response to criticism, however, Christie said Sunday that he believes](http://time.com/3539946/ebola-anthony-fauci-chris-christie/) the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will [“eventually come around to our point of view on this.”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhv9X0mAowY) “I don’t believe, when you’re dealing with something as serious as this, that we can count on a voluntary system,” Christie said.”If anything else, the government’s job is to protect the safety and health of our citizens.” \[[_NYT_](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/27/nyregion/ebola-quarantine.html?smid=tw-bna&%5Fr=0)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3540288/ebola-federal-government-end-quarantine-health-workers-kaci-hickox/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3540288/ebola-federal-government-end-quarantine-health-workers-kaci-hickox/"},"headline":"White House Pressures States to End Ebola Quarantine Orders","datePublished":"2014-10-26T20:23:11.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:00:26.003Z","description":"One nurse who has no symptoms but has been kept at a New Jersey hospital says she will legally challenge her quarantine","url":"https://time.com/3540288/ebola-federal-government-end-quarantine-health-workers-kaci-hickox/","keywords":["ebola","Chris Christie","Infectious Disease","Andrew Cuomo"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcd996a44206e779b/698762d33c1639537a44f493/afdb5b671c9b48d79be980ff65310845-0-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nolan Feeney","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcd996a44206e779b/698762d33c1639537a44f493/afdb5b671c9b48d79be980ff65310845-0-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Andrew Cuomo, Chris Christie","caption":"Andrew Cuomo, Chris Christie","creditText":"Mark Lennihan—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/ebola/","name":"ebola"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3540288/ebola-federal-government-end-quarantine-health-workers-kaci-hickox/","name":"White House Pressures States to End Ebola Quarantine Orders"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases","description":"Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/dUR0NEQC/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-10-27T03:38:19.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/dUR0NEQC.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3540288/ebola-federal-government-end-quarantine-health-workers-kaci-hickox/","duration":"PT26S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3540288/ebola-federal-government-end-quarantine-health-workers-kaci-hickox/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```