MANHATTAN, New York—Craig Spencer, a doctor at Columbia University Medical Center is now in isolation after testing positive late Thursday for the deadly virus. He has ties in Michigan, where he attended medical school at Wayne State University.
Ebola has made it’s way to America’s most populated city, from Dr. Craig Spencer who has first-hand experience with the disease. It’s nopt clear yet how Spencer got infected, but about a week prior he spent time in Ebola-stricken Guinea, where he was volunteering with ‘Doctors Without Borders.’ New York City’s mayor, Bill De Blasio, says there’s no cause for alarm.
“The partnership with the federal and state government has been consistent and seamless, and has been very helpful in allowing us to know every precaution that we had to take,” he said.
The health department has since released every move the doctor made from October 14th when he left New Guinea including visiting restaurants, going for a run, riding the subway, and bowling, until he reported a fever 9 days later.
While Spencer is in isolation at Bellevue Medical Hospital, the governors of New York and New Jersey announce they are stepping up screening procedures at J-F-K and Newark Airports. Part of their plan is a mandatory quarantine of those providing medical services to Ebola patients in Liberia, Sierra Leone, or Guinea.
“The situation at Bellevue- and Dr. Spencer is a valued fellow and he was a volunteer doing great work, but that was a volunteer quarantine situation for 21 days. He’s a doctor and even he didn’t follow the guidelines of the quarantine, let’s be honest. So we have to do more,” said New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.
The governors hope the new protocol will protect the citizens of New York and New Jersey, and people just like Craig Spencer who were trying to treat people with Ebola in the first place.
