Fort Kent, ME – A nurse who treated Ebola patients in West Africa said she plans to end her voluntary quarantine and even stepped outside her home briefly on Wednesday.
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Kaci Hickox’s words and actions signaled a potential showdown with state police monitoring her home and state officials seeking to legally enforce the quarantine. Police stood across the street and watched as Hickox held an impromptu press conference outside with her boyfriend.
State officials are seeking a court order allowing state troopers to detain Hickox, said Department of Health and Human Services Commissioner Mary Mayhew.
Hickox, who has shown no symptoms of Ebola, told NBC’s “Today” show and ABC’s “Good Morning America” she was abiding by the state’s voluntary quarantine by having no contact with people Tuesday and Wednesday. But she said she’ll defy the state if the policy isn’t changed by Thursday.
“I remain appalled by these home quarantine policies that have been forced upon me even though I am in perfectly good health,” Hickox said on “Today.”
Her lawyer Norman Siegel said she isn’t willing to cooperate further unless the state lifts “all or most of the restrictions.” But state officials continued to assert that she should remain in isolation until Nov. 10, the end of the 21-day incubation period for Ebola.
A judge would have to grant the state’s request in what could serve as a test as to the legality of state quarantines during the Ebola scare.
Until an order is signed by a judge, state police will monitor Hickox’s movement and interactions if she leaves her home, Mayhew said.
Generally, states have broad authority when it comes to such matters. But Maine health officials could have a tough time convincing a judge that Hickox poses a threat, said attorney Jackie L. Caynon III, who specializes in health law in Worcester, Massachusetts.
“If somebody isn’t showing signs of the infection, then it’s kind of hard to say someone should be under mandatory quarantine,” he said.
Ebola, which is spread through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person, has killed thousands of people in Africa, but only four people have been diagnosed with it in the United States. People can’t be infected just by being near someone who’s sick, and people aren’t contagious unless they’re sick, health officials say.
Guidelines from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend monitoring for health care workers like Hickox who have come into contact with Ebola patients. But some states, including Maine, are going above and beyond guidelines.
Hickox, who volunteered in Sierra Leone with Doctors Without Borders, was the first person forced into New Jersey’s mandatory quarantine for people arriving at the Newark airport from three West African countries. Hickox spent the weekend in a tent in New Jersey before traveling to the home of her boyfriend, a nursing student at the University of Maine at Fort Kent.
“I am not going to sit around and be bullied by politicians and forced to stay in my home when I am not a risk to the American public,” she said.
Maine Gov. Paul LePage, who canceled campaign events Wednesday to keep tabs on the situation, commended all health care workers who have volunteered in Africa to treat Ebola patients. But he said the state must be “vigilant” to protect others.
“We hoped that the health care worker would voluntarily comply with these protocols, but this individual has stated publicly she will not abide by the protocols,” he said. “We are very concerned about her safety and health and that of the community.”
State law allows a judge to grant temporary custody of someone if health officials demonstrate “a clear and immediate public health threat.”
The state’s court filing was expected late Wednesday or early Thursday, officials said. If a judge grants the state’s request, then Hickox will appeal the decision on constitutional grounds, Siegel said.
“Our position is very simple: There’s no justification for the state of Maine to quarantine her,” he said. “She has no symptoms, and therefore she’s not contagious. And she’s not at a risk to the public or the health and welfare of people in the state of Maine.”
She’s a spoiled, selfish, millennial, all about me person.
If you haven’t been following the politics in Maine, the Republican governor is despised by even members of his own party and has made some of the most stupid comments you can imagine. He is madly trying to create some last minute issue before he is voted out of office next week. His only hope is a third-party candidate who may siphon some votes from the Democratic challenger. Any judge with half a brain will take about 30 seconds to reject this patently illegal and irrational quarantine order.
If she was so nice and volunteering then she wouldn’t be going out and about.
A few thousand military who are having no contact will be quarantined upon return. She had hands on contact! What a selfish person.
Remember that doctor he was asymptomatic. And then he got it.
I wouldn’t want this nurse sitting next to me on a bus or in the gym. Would you?
If she can go for three months to Africa she certainly can stay home for three weeks on. Paid vacation.
Breathtakingly Selfish and politically motivated.
Ok, let’s say the state says she has to remain quarantined and if she refuses to obey, then what? They arrest her? Good luck with that. With everyone so hysterical about ebola, how are they going to get anyone to make the actual arrest? And then if they do manage to arrest her, what do they do with her, put her in jail? I thought the purpose of the quarantine was to prevent her from being with others.
She’s actually quite clever and my guess is the state will not be able to do anything about it!
Does she think she would get an advance notification prior to showing symptoms? By the time she realizes she’s symptomatic she could have potentially exposed hundreds of other people to the virus.
And like all liberal lies, this one is collapsing too. The chaleria is not any kind of volunteer. She was in Sierra Leone as an employee of CDC and was sent to Sierra Leone in the capacity of an official CDC Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) officer. Coincidentally, an opportunistic leftist “civil rights” lawyer who took up her case was recently a dinner guest at the White House with Barack. There you go!