State police plan to monitor the movements and interactions of a nurse who vowed to defy Maine’s quarantine for healthcare workers who treat Ebola patients, but troopers cannot take her into custody without a judge’s permission.
State officials were seeking a court order to detain Kaci Hickox for the remainder of the 21-day incubation period for Ebola that ends on Nov. 10.
Hickox contends there is no need for quarantine because she is showing no symptoms and she made her point by stepping outside her home briefly on Wednesday to talk to reporters, even shaking one reporter’s hand. Police watched from across the street.
Photo: Reuters
“There’s a lot of misinformation about how Ebola is transmitted and I can understand why people are frightened, but their fear is not based on medical facts,” Norman Siegel, one of her attorneys, said on Wednesday as a showdown appeared imminent.
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 she shares with her boyfriend.
“I’m not willing to stand here and let my civil rights be violated when it’s not science-based,” she told reporters on Wednesday.
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, attorney Jackie Caynon III said.
“If somebody isn’t showing signs of the infection, then it’s kind of hard to say someone should be under mandatory quarantine,” Caynon said.
Ebola, which is spread through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person, has killed thousands of people in Africa. People cannot be infected just by being near someone who is sick and people are not contagious unless they are sick, health officials say.
Guidelines from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend daily monitoring for healthcare workers, but some states such as Maine are going above and beyond the guidelines.
The US Department of Defense is going even further. On Wednesday, US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel ordered military men and women helping fight Ebola to undergo 21-day quarantines that start upon their return — instead of their last exposure to an Ebola patient.
Maine Governor Paul LePage, who canceled campaign events to keep tabs on the situation, maintained that the state must be “vigilant” to protect others.
State law allows a judge to grant temporary custody of someone if health officials demonstrate “a clear and immediate public-health threat.”
If a judge grants the state request, then Hickox will appeal the decision on constitutional grounds, necessitating a hearing, Siegel said.
Siegel said the nurse hopes her fight against the quarantine will help bring an end to misinformation about how the Ebola virus is transmitted.
“She wants to have her voice in the debate about how America handles the Ebola crisis. She has an important voice and perspective,” Siegel said.
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