Ron Fournier, reporter for National Journal, has earned our praise on these pages of late as a voice of reason in the ongoing national debate on Ebola, which is why this tweet of his took us by surprise:
https://twitter.com/ron_fournier/status/526457661026746368/photo/1
That’s right — The 21-day quarantine of aid worker Kaci Hickox, who just arrived in Newark, NJ after treating Ebola patients in Sierra Leone, is now the same as WWII internment camps.
Fournier’s readers blasted him for the analogy:
@ron_fournier you're comparing this to Japanese internment?
— Matt Lewis (@mattklewis) October 26, 2014
@ron_fournier really? You're trying to draw an equivalence between these? Sheesh.
— Scott Harmon (@scotthar_tx) October 26, 2014
@mattklewis @ron_fournier Good Lord, a grip is in order.
— LL (@laura_lrnzo) October 26, 2014
@ron_fournier I don't think this is an accurate comparison. Those folks lost their property and were held for years.
— James Meredith (@NDTwinsfan) October 26, 2014
@ron_fournier @mattklewis oh for crying out loud. I give up. Twitter is worse than the Jets today. Is it like Hitler too?
— Doug Stafford (@dougstafford) October 26, 2014
We agree. But Fournier didn’t back down:
.@mattklewis 120k Japanese does not equate 1 healthy health care worker. Curbing liberty in the name of fear — now there's a familiar saw.
— Ron Fournier (@ron_fournier) October 26, 2014
.@ChasFlemming Like Kris said: Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose https://t.co/KOii1ovttT
— Ron Fournier (@ron_fournier) October 26, 2014
.@NDTwinsfan There are no perfect comparisons, people. That's why we call them analogies.
— Ron Fournier (@ron_fournier) October 26, 2014
And this is probably the most important response to highlight:
@ron_fournier you forgot Pat Quinn in IL.
— Jimmy (@JimmyPrinceton) October 26, 2014
Yep. Illinois has a quarantine, too, as well as Connecticut. Via the New York Times:
On Saturday, in a sign of growing concern about the virus, Gov. Pat Quinn of Illinois, the home of O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, began a quarantine program similar to the one in place in New York and New Jersey. Connecticut, which enacted a similar policy on Oct. 7, has quarantined nine people who have so far showed no symptoms.
Got that, Ron? Connecticut’s Democratic governor has been quarantining Ebola aid workers since October 7 and nobody has said a thing. But Christie does it and all of a sudden it’s like an internment camp?
Related:
Full Twitchy coverage of Ebola here.
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