Watch: Don Lemon’s full interview with Ashoka Mukpo will air tonight at 10 p.m. ET on “CNN Tonight.”
Story highlights
Ashoka Mukpo, who contracted Ebola in Liberia, disagreed with New Jersey's quarantine policy
He thinks it could deter health care workers from traveling to Ebola-affected countries
Ebola survivor Ashoka Mukpo, in his first television interview since returning home from the hospital, told CNN’s Don Lemon that he sharply disagrees with Gov. Chris Christie’s controversial quarantine policy for health care workers in New Jersey.
“I think that Gov. Christie is playing politics right now. It seems to me that it’s an effort to, you know, work with public opinion rather than listen to the advice of the experts,” Mukpo said. “And i just think that it’s counterproductive.”
Chris Christie on Ebola policy: ‘We’re not moving an inch’
A nurse who recently returned from helping Ebola patients in Sierra Leone was quarantined in Newark over the weekend after officials said she had a fever. The nurse, Kaci Hickox, protested the move, saying she was asymptomatic, and she was released Monday after showing no signs of illness.
Critics argued the policy of quarantining health care workers for 21 days is unnecessary and could deter volunteers from going to West Africa to combat the outbreak.
Chris Christie on possible Ebola lawsuit: ‘Whatever’
Mukpo, a freelance cameraman who tested positive for Ebola in Liberia and was treated in the United States, said rules like the one in New Jersey treats health care workers “as though they are a problem as opposed to a public asset.”
“I just think it’s a shame and I don’t think it’s the right way to act, personally,” he said.
Christie, however, has staunchly defended the policy, saying it’s only for people who show signs of Ebola and argues the rule is in the public’s best interest.