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Washington • White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest took a shot at Rep. Jason Chaffetz on Friday over his criticism of the administration's response to the Ebola outbreak.
During a congressional hearing earlier Friday, the Utah Republican said he doesn't have confidence in how the Obama administration is dealing with people who have had direct contact with Ebola victims, especially after the news that a doctor who had treated Ebola patients in Africa returned to New York City, where he rode the subway and went bowling before exhibiting signs he was infected.
"I don't understand why you wouldn't put that travel restriction in place, why we don't get a little bit more strict in putting in quarantine," Chaffetz said. "The self-quarantine didn't work. It didn't work in the case of Dr. Spencer, and he's one of the great people of this Earth."
Asked about the remarks at the White House daily briefing, Earnest said only two people have contracted the virus on American soil and had been in contact with body fluids, the only way the disease can be spread.
"I think the problem [that's] exposed may be related to Mr. Chaffetz's knowledge of actually how Ebola is transmitted," Earnest said.
The president's spokesman stressed that anyone concerned about the disease should focus on how limited its spread has been inside the United States, and he noted that there have been people with elevated exposure to an Ebola patient without being infected.
"I am not sure [why] there are people who, for whatever reason, [think] that it might be in their interest one way or another to try to agitate or provoke anxiety among the American people," Earnest added, "but I would strongly encourage anybody who is concerned about the situation to focus on the facts and focus on exactly what we know about how this virus is transmitted."
Chaffetz, though, zeroed in on that point during Friday's hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee when a witness said that people with Ebola are infectious when they exhibit a fever and not before.
"So why did you close the bowling alley?" Chaffetz asked. "Why did they, you know, put other people in quarantine? If he's not contagious, not showing a fever and he's a doctor and he says he didn't have a fever until that morning, why, why, why did you have to shut down the bowling alley?"
Nicole Lurie, assistant secretary for preparedness and response of the Department of Health and Human Services, said the action was taken to ensure Americans that the government was taking the right steps.
"We really want to move in an abundance of caution.," Lurie said. "The bowling alley is closed so that it can be cleaned and decontaminated out of an abundance of caution."