ACT Up Demands Cuomo Support Ebola-Stricken Nations

Thursday, October 30, at 5PM (EST), The AIDS activist group ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) will rally and march from Bellevue Hospital to the governor's office to demand that Governors Cuomo and Christie stop promoting panic-based health policies and start supporting West African nations fighting Ebola.

Last week, Cuomo joined New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to announce a new policy at JFK and Newark International Airports to order immediate mandatory 21-day quarantine of any person who acknowledges having been in proximity to people with Ebola.

"Such policies will do nothing to protect the American public and serve as a major deterrent to the recruitment of desperately needed healthcare workers to help stop the deadly outbreak that has killed over 4,500 individuals in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea," writes ACT Up. "Already, Kaci Hickox, a volunteer nurse from Doctors Without Borders, was inhumanely confined for days in New Jersey, even after testing negative for the disease."

Cuomo and Christie's mandatory quarantine policies go against evidence-based public health practices which are grounded in science, writes ACT Up. They contribute to the ongoing misperception of how Ebola is transmitted. Activists say that the policy is contributing to growing stigma of the disease and unwarranted public hysteria.

For local AIDS activists, the calls for quarantine hark back to an ugly time in NYC history. Longtime AIDS activist Mark Milano said, "In the early days of the AIDS epidemic, government officials mistakenly called for the quarantine of people with HIV, a measure that contradicted the science of how HIV is transmitted and spread misinformation to the public. Now, with Ebola, we're seeing Governors Cuomo and Christie do the same thing."

ACT UP activists demand that Cuomo and Christie avoid enacting fear-based policies that will only hinder our ability to fight the spread of Ebola in West Africa.

ACT UP member Annette Gaudino said, "Governor Cuomo should be supporting NY-state health workers who go to West Africa to fight the disease, rather than spreading misinformation about transmission risks by mandating quarantines."

ACT UP activists plan to rally at 5 p.m. on Oct. 30, in front of Bellevue Hospital at 462 First Avenue at 27th St. and then march to Gov. Cuomo's office at 633 Third Avenue (at 41st Street) in Manhattan. They will be joined by local group Health GAP. At Bellevue Hospital, activists will drop off Get Well cards showing support and appreciation for Dr. Spencer's courage.

For more information, visit http://www.actupny.org/