Fort Worth Girl Defies Chris Christie's Edict

[planosteve]

A nurse who returned home to Maine after treating Ebola patients in West Africa said Wednesday she wouldn’t comply with a state quarantine, keeping a spotlight on a person hailed by some as a defender of individual rights and criticized by others as risking public health.

Kaci Hickox, 33 years old, said she had no symptoms of the disease and stepped out of her house Wednesday night as the state moved to seek a court order enforcing the quarantine. Health officials had wanted her to stay home until Nov. 10, when the 21-day Ebola incubation period would end.

“I’m not willing to stand here and let my civil rights be violated when it’s not science-based,” she told reporters outside her home in Fort Kent, near the Canadian border. She said she would continue to monitor her temperature and watch for symptoms: “It is not my intention to put anyone at risk in this community,” she added.

Maine health officials had said Wednesday they were trying to negotiate a solution with Ms. Hickox and her lawyers. But a lawyer for Ms. Hickox said talks broke down Wednesday evening and that the matter appeared headed to court.

“We have been pleading for common sense,” Maine Commissioner of Health and Human Services Mary Mayhew said. State law says Maine can impose a quarantine “in the event of an actual or threatened epidemic or public health threat.”

Ms. Hickox landed in New Jersey on Friday after a five-week stint with Doctors Without Borders in Sierra Leone. She was quarantined in a tent in Newark until she was allowed to return home Monday amid her complaints about the necessity of the confinement and conditions at the hospital.

She retained lawyers, including well-known civil-rights attorney Norman Siegel. He said that while he understood states are concerned about containing Ebola, “you’ve got to do it constitutionally and legally.”

The American Nurses Association, a large professional organization, said in a statement late Wednesday that it backed Ms. Hickox’s challenge of the quarantine.

Ms. Hickox graduated in 1999 from Rio Vista High School, in a working-class farming and ranching community outside Fort Worth, Texas. Her mother was a local elementary-school teacher in a district where about half of students go to college, according to Tim Wright, district superintendent.

Renate Finley, who graduated with Ms. Hickox, said she “had big goals for herself” and that in high school Ms. Hickox had discussed “going overseas and helping the less fortunate.”

After graduating from University of Texas at Arlington nursing school and becoming a registered nurse in 2002, Ms. Hickox worked at several Dallas hospitals while hoping to go overseas, she said in a 2012 speech. She got her first chance in 2005, when the International Medical Corps sent her to Indonesia after the 2004 tsunami.

Starting in 2007, she worked for Doctors Without Borders, with postings to Myanmar, Sudan, Nigeria and Uganda, including some during breaks from graduate school at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “She was really a role model for a lot of us,” said a former Hopkins classmate, Chelsea Solmo.

Not everyone sees Ms. Hickox in such a favorable light. In Fort Kent, some residents say the state’s request doesn’t seem unreasonable, particularly given the recent case of Craig Spencer, the doctor who showed symptoms after he returned home from West Africa to New York, where he was out in public before being diagnosed with Ebola.

“I think she’s being a little selfish to be honest,” said Steffany Caron, a waitress at Rock’s Family Diner, said by phone from the restaurant Wednesday night.

Politicians including New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Maine Gov. Paul LePage have defended the quarantine approach. “While we certainly respect the rights of one individual, we must be vigilant in protecting 1.3 million Mainers, as well as anyone who visits,” said Mr. LePage, a Republican seeking re-election.

Neal Halsey, director of the Institute for Vaccine Safety at Hopkins, who worked with Ms. Hickox in 2010 and 2011 when she was a graduate student, applauded her defiant stance.

“I think she is doing a good job of pointing out the inappropriateness of some of the policies,” he said.

[BigTex]

Somebody wants her 15 minutes.

[Red Oak]

Lefty nut attention whore, IMO.

[planosteve]

Medical issues should be decided by medical personnel, not politicians. And visa versa.

[LibraryLady]

Joke is on her. The state of Maine doesn't want her out and about either.

When this is all over, which hospital will eagerly employ her with her defiant attitude?

She needs to talk to the NY doctor and the Cleveland traveling nurse to see how fast a fever can break out and the person realizes that the virus is in one's body. Her attitude almost makes me wish she'd come down with the virus so she'd see there are reasons for a quarantine.

[planosteve]

Her attitude almost makes me wish she'd come down with the virus so she'd see there are reasons for a quarantine

They are political reasons not medical reasons. As repeated over and over ad nausea by the blondes on Fox, the Limbaugh Show and Charlie Jones at night.

[Red Oak]

Medical issues should be decided by medical personnel, not politicians. And visa versa.

Public Safety issues are decided by Public Officials.

By her actions I wouldn't trust this CDC associate Nurse with a pet rock.

[planosteve]

Medical issues should be decided by medical personnel, not politicians. And visa versa.

Public Safety issues are decided by Public Officials.

By her actions I wouldn't trust this CDC associate Nurse with a pet rock.

"Public Officials" are politicians whose primary concern is getting reelected.

[LibraryLady]

So, you would be OK with the NY dr. hanging out at your house or sitting beside you on the bus?.....after all, you aren't sharing body fluids--unless he sneezes on you, or you have chapped hands and grasp the same surface he did.

NY dr. thought he was just fine and ran all over the city.

I'm not in a panic mode and think all the personal belongings being destroyed is over the top, but when a person might be harboring the virus--then I want them to stay in quarantine. That's the way you stop transmission.

Body fluids could equal sweat, sneeze drops of fluid (some transmissions we don't think of) --There is a reason the dr. and nurses are covered when dealing with this virus.

Treat the virus threat with respect, not a casual safety issue.

[planosteve]

So, you would be OK with the NY dr. hanging out at your house or sitting beside you on the bus?.....after all, you aren't sharing body fluids--unless he sneezes on you, or you have chapped hands and grasp the same surface he did.

NY dr. thought he was just fine and ran all over the city.

I'm not in a panic mode and think all the personal belongings being destroyed is over the top, but when a person might be harboring the virus--then I want them to stay in quarantine. That's the way you stop transmission.

Body fluids could equal sweat, sneeze drops of fluid (some transmissions we don't think of) --There is a reason the dr. and nurses are covered when dealing with this virus.

Treat the virus threat with respect, not a casual safety issue.

You are inflating the issue to the absurd. There is no epidemic raging in this country. But, if you are really concerned, protect yourself. Wear a mask and gloves. Stay home. Whatever.
There is a bigger issue here than protecting our health, it's protecting our freedom.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/10/andrew-p-napolitano/government-claims-to-keep-us-safe/

[Ric]

Medical issues should be decided by medical personnel, not politicians. And visa versa.

And what doctor told her she could leave and disregard the quarantine?

[Cowman52]

Me, me, me, me, me, me,


The rest of you can croak, but I get to be all I want.

Screw you!

[GFB]

Pretty much it, Cowman.

[planosteve]

Christie is a world class bully with delusions of being a presidential candidate. He couldn't be elected dogcatcher outside of the People's Republic of New Jersey. Along with a lot of other political pricks, he claims his job is to keep us safe. Wrong! Their job is to protect our freedom which is what the constitution he swore to defend guarantees.

[Red Oak]

Is Maine's Governor a prick also ?

[GFB]

Christie is a world class bully with delusions of being a presidential candidate. He couldn't be elected dogcatcher outside of the People's Republic of New Jersey. Along with a lot of other political pricks, he claims his job is to keep us safe. Wrong! Their job is to protect our freedom which is what the constitution he swore to defend guarantees.

Waah..bully!...waaah!

[jellowrestling]

I blame this mess on Obama. She should have been quarantined for 21 days, or spent 21 days in a non-Ebola infested country before we allowed her to come back into the country.