Greg Gutfeld teamed up with Fox’s latest Ebola “expert,” Geraldo Rivera, to condemn Ebola nurse Kaci Hickox for fighting her forced quarantine. Meanwhile, the two ignored how real medical doctors have said forced quarantines are hurting their efforts.
Guest hosting on The O’Reilly Factor Friday night, Gutfeld worried that Hickox’s legal victory overturning her involuntary quarantine might “needlessly put the public at risk.” But not worried enough to consult an actual doctor.
Rivera said he was “very disappointed” in the nurse. She came back a hero, he said, for going to Africa to help fight the epidemic. “Then she was a martyr to Constitutional rights being abridged” and “a martyr to bureaucratic bungling” when she got thrown into quarantine by Chris Christie.
But now, according to these two laypeople without a day of medical experience between them, Hickox – who is a medical professional – is not doing the right thing.
“Why are you daring people? Why are you scaring people?” Rivera asked, even as he admitted that Hickox is “probably right” that she is not infectious.
“There is the epidemic of fear,” Rivera continued. “Are trick or treaters going to go to her neighborhood? Are they gonna go on her lawn now? … Parents are going to be petrified. …I think she was selfish.”
Gutfeld agreed. “You can’t be quarantined for the disease but maybe you can be quarantined for being obnoxious,” he said.
“Yeah, I think that that’s true,” Rivera agreed.
“But then again, I would get life if that were the case,” Gutfeld said.
They moved on to criticize Obama’s pick for Ebola czar and to disagree about whether it's Hickox's selfishness or self-rightenousness that is “in danger of besmirching an entire movement.”
Meanwhile, Doctors Without Borders – a whole group of real experts – told Reuters the day before that forced quarantines are actually endangering the efforts to fight the disease.
But if either Gutfeld or Rivera knew about that, they didn’t mention it.
Deny it.
What Gutfeld and Rivera should really be asking is this: Why, if the nurse was supposed to be under “voluntary” quarantine, were NONE of the police monitoring her or the reporters covering her every move wearing any sort of protective gear? The woman, according to Gov LePage, was such a risk to everyone who got anywhere near her, yet none of the police assigned to watch her and none of the reporters covering her were wearing any other than regular clothing. And her boyfriend/husband (I don’t recall her marital status) who accompanied her for much of the “quarantine” period was never photographed in any kind of protective gear.
