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 The findings show broad support for the type of controversial new
screening rules announced by the governors of New York and New
Jersey for people arriving at New York City's international airports
from the three West African countries where the virus has killed
nearly 5,000 people.
Under the rules, state health officials are ordering anyone who has
had direct contact with Ebola into a mandatory quarantine of up to
21 days, at home in some cases, even if they have no symptoms.
A quarter of poll respondents thought quarantines were unnecessary
for healthcare workers, and about one in six respondents thought
such workers should neither monitor their health themselves nor be
actively monitored by officials.
The poll, which was conducted online with 1,681 people who chose to
participate between Oct. 30 and Nov. 3, did not ask whether
quarantines should be mandatory or voluntary. Respondents were asked
specifically whether health workers returning from West African
countries with Ebola should have their travel and movements
controlled.
U.S. President Barack Obama's administration and many public-health
experts have criticized mandatory quarantines, saying they are
unhelpful because a person without symptoms cannot spread the virus.
Only one person is known to have been ordered into quarantine under
the new state rules, an American nurse named Kaci Hickox who arrived
at Newark Liberty International Airport shortly before the rules
were announced on Friday, Oct. 24.
Hickox, who had been working with Doctors Without Borders helping
Ebola patients in Sierra Leone, was confined to a tent at a local
hospital for several days and repeatedly decried her imprisonment.
New Jersey officials handed her over to state officials in Maine who
tried to confine her to her home before a state judge ruled that a
quarantine was unnecessary on Friday. The state and the nurse
reached a deal on Monday, allowing her to travel freely and
requiring her to monitor her health.
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Doctors Without Borders said last week that some American workers
were delaying their return to the United States after working in
West Africa and staying in Europe for 21 days, the virus's maximum
incubation period.
The poll found broad support for the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention's less stringent guidelines for returning
medics, which in most cases require only that local health
departments call daily to check on their health.
Nearly 82 percent of respondents thought any travelers who have
recently been in Guinea, Sierra Leone or Liberia should be actively
monitored by officials, and 85 percent thought this should apply to
returning medics.
The poll has a credibility interval, which is a measure used to
indicate the accuracy of an opt-in online poll, of plus or minus 2.7
percentage points.
(Reporting by Jonathan Allen; editing by Peter Henderson)
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