and in new york, professor of socio-medical sciences at columbia medical university melman's school of health. it's great to have such firepower to get great answers to my hopefully great questions. isolation, monitoring, quarantined. they're not all the same thing. what is quarantine. >> let me start by saying that the term identificationalatio isolation is for those pose a threat to those close at hand and communities. quarantine is typically used when someone has been exposed, asymptomatic and needs supervision. there are different versions of quarantine. some are more astringent than others. what we witnessed over the weekend is something quite extreme and something that was not quite appropriate. >> new york landed closer to what needed to be done in your view? >> as i just heard on jew show, the cdc has come very close to being where it should be i think new jersey went far off the mark and represented the fear-based politicalization of a terribly complex and terribly important public health issue. >> doctor, you're running the health and being the chief of those shoulder to shou

reporter: the backpack displays the work of an organization called active minds and its founder allison melman. each backpack represents a student who has taken their own life. >> 1,100 backpacks is a lot of backpacks. and each one has a story. >> reporter: allison's brother, brian, was smart, funny, but few knew he suffered with mental illness. he took his life during his senior year in college. >> on the outside nobody could tell. he hid it from everybody because he was scared, he was ashamed, he thought he was the only one. >> reporter: allison's goal, to pull mental illness out of solitary darkness and into the light of public awareness. >> i couldn't imagine doing anything else with my life right now. and at the same time it's more difficult than i think any other job would be. >> reporter: active minds now has hundreds of chapters. and every school year the backpacks go on display on campuses across the country. allison is certain it saves lives. >> there's a lot of students right now who are walking around who are thinking about dying. and my hope is more and more can have an answer for