Even mainstream economists recognize disease can be an exception to the market-usually-works rule
There’s an ironic twist to the fact that the White House of liberal-Democratic Barack Obama is at odds with the State House of somewhat-conservative-Republican Chris Christie of New Jersey over Governor Christie’s ordering a 21-day quarantine for health care workers returning from Ebola-struck areas of Africa. Mr. Obama is normally a supporter of aggressive government action while Mr. Christie is not — except when government-induced traffic jams on bridges his office controls can embarrass his political opponents. Earlier this year he fired his deputy chief of staff when her role in such a scheme came out.
What thickens the plot further is that, in a refreshing change from partisan gridlock, on this issue Mr. Obama is also at odds with New York’s liberal-Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo over a similar order in his state. Both Mr. Christie and Mr. Cuomo are possible presidential candidates in 2016 and may therefore be more sensitive to voter sentiment than Mr. Obama, who, in more than one sense, is done with voters.
The White House’s argument for not requiring a quarantine is that if health-care workers and soldiers returning from helping fight Ebola on its front lines have to withdraw from society for three weeks, that will discourage them from going in the first place. Really? The first three Apollo crews back from the moon immediately donned bio-suits and went into quarantine in a big silver converted Airstream trailer lest they transfer moon bugs to Earth. As it happens, their quarantine was 21 days, too. History records that it didn’t stop any of them from signing up. True, being one of the first nine men to visit the moon may have been a bigger draw than helping out against Ebola. They might have been willing to endure a year’s quarantine if that had been the deal. But still, what’s being asked is only 21 days.