HELL'S KITCHEN — New York will offer a program of financial incentives and job protections similar to those offered to military reservists as part of an effort to encourage health care workers to travel to West Africa to fight the Ebola outbreak, despite imposing a mandatory quarantine on all returning workers.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the joint city and state effort Thursday. The initiative will include ensuring that health care workers traveling to help in Ebola-affected countries will have their pay, health care and job status continued without interruption.
In addition, reimbursement will be provided to health care workers and their employees in the event that those workers have to be quarantined.
The move comes in the wake of new guidelines imposed by Cuomo and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie last Friday, under which health care workers or others who have direct contact with those affected by Ebola are placed under a controversial, mandatory 21-day quarantine.
It also comes as the 5-year-old whose tested negative for Ebola after returning from Guinea with his family was released from Bellevue Hospital Thursday.
Cuomo and Christie have come under criticism from health care organizations and groups such as Doctors Without Borders for basing their quarantine protocol on politics instead of science.
"Such a measure is not based upon established medical science," Tim Shenk, a spokesman for the group said in a statement.
"Quarantine will only undermine efforts to curb the epidemic at its source in West Africa," he added.
Ebola can only be contracted by direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person while the person is symptomatic.
Asked whether politics was behind this new initiative, the mayor said no.
"I'm doing this because I think it's something we need to do and Gov. Cuomo and I discussed it and believe equally it is something that this city and this state can contribute to ending the crisis," said de Blasio. "We have to remember, the best way to solve this problem is at the root cause."
The city and state will work with New Jersey and health care unions such as 1199 SEIU to implement the program, but the announcement was short on details. It is unclear when the program will be implemented and there were no projections of the potential costs.
The city has already said they expect their efforts to deal with Ebola and suspected Ebola cases to climb to "many millions" of dollars and that they will seek federal assistance to cover costs.
De Blasio said he was not concerned that the program to incentivize health care workers to help Ebola patients in West Africa will put the city at risk as there was still "one and only one case of Ebola" out of the hundreds who have gone there.
The mayor criticized New Jersey's decision to quarantine a nurse who had worked with Ebola patients in West Africa and has said health care workers such as Dr. Craig Spencer who volunteer to treat Ebola patients should be treated as "returning heroes." Spencer contracted Ebola while working in Guinea with Doctors Without Borders.
The mayor said the city has also altered the rules of its quarantine program to match that of the state's. Those who are under quarantine will now be allowed to have visitors. Those visitors will be logged and monitored. Those under quarantine can also choose to be isolated in their homes.
Currently, Spencer's fiancèe and two of his friends are under quarantine.
Spencer remains in serious but stable condition at Bellevue's isolation unit.
