A Plea to Presidential Candidate Christie: Please Stop Talking About Zika

During the Republican debate in New Hampshire on Feb. 6, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was asked about his decision to place nurse Kaci Hickox in mandatory quarantine outside Newark Liberty International Airport in the fall of 2014. Hickox was in the airport making a flight connection to her home in Maine on her way back from Sierra Leone, where she had served in an Ebola treatment center run by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). In Saturday night’s debate, Christie was asked whether he would still quarantine individuals like Hickox today and if he would consider using such measures to control Zika virus spread.

Christie responded that yes, he would readily employ tough quarantine measures again to stop Zika: “You bet I would!”