Judge issues order enforcing nurse quarantine in Maine

[musingmom]

Judge issues order enforcing Ebola isolation of defiant Maine nurse

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/31/us-health-ebola-usa-order-idUSKBN0IK1LZ20141031?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews

The ruling is by Chief Judge Charles LaVerdiere. His contact information is readily available with a google search.

I think this sets such a terrible precedent for us all, for all the reasons outlined in other threads on this forum. Personally I plan to write to the Judge; and I encourage everyone following this story to do the same, particularly if you practice in Maine!

[mrsboots87]

That's just terrible. There was a recent call for more volunteers to help get ahead of the outbreak in Africa. This just makes it much harder. Less people will want to spend their minimal vacation or off time in general volunteering if they are going to be forced into a strict quarantine upon return. Or they will just take indirect routes home and lie when arriving about their contact risk. Also, what about all the medical professionals that care for US Ebola patients. Will we start strict quarantine on them as well? I'm just a student but if I were a nurse already I would not want to care for an Ebola patient if I was going to be kept from my family for 3 weeks afterward. I have young children and a house to run. Just terrible all around for everyone and opens up doors to just start taking people rights away to satisfy the fears of those who just don't understand. Ridiculous.

[mrsboots87]

Side note, I don't necessarily agree with the media shenanigans the nurse is pulling about the whole thing, but at the same time if I was in her shoes I don't know how I would react.

[scottaprn]

Typical liberal judge who knows better than anyone else.

Maine wanted judges that create laws out of thin air. Have a nice time up there without your right to assemble peaceably.

[llg, PhD, RN]

NBC is reporting that a judge has just rejected the quarantine. I think the first ruling enforcing it was just a temporary one until a full hearing could occur.

[Mulan]

My Way News - Judge rejects Ebola quarantine for nurse

FORT KENT, Maine (AP)-Kaci Hickox is free to travel unrestricted after a Maine judge on Friday rejected the state's bid to limit her movements as a medical worker who has treated Ebola patients.

Judge Charles C. LaVerdiere ruled Hickox must continue daily monitoring and coordinate travel with state health officials to ensure continuity of monitoring. The judge said there's no need to restrict her movements because she's not infectious because she's showing no symptoms.

[OCNRN63, RN]

​Finally...a judicial official who has his head on straight.

[musingmom]

Yep, here's an update from Reuters:Judge eases limits on nurse who treated Ebola patients | Reuters

What a relief. Guess I won't mail my strongly worded protest. :)

[Tenebrae, BSN, RN]

We've had three people that were on temperature monitoring. They were tested and tested negative and have shown no symptoms and have been free to go on their way.I get the need for monitoring. Its a good idea to screen people coming from countries were eobola is present and if a person is symptomatic, sure, hang on to them until such a time the results prove otherwise.

But for the love of all things sensible, stop forming health policy based on public hysteria

[MissyWrite]

But for the love of all things sensible, stop forming health policy based on public hysteria

They can try, but it won't work. Thank God.

From an interview with Lawrence O. Gostin, an authority on law and public health issues at Georgetown University Law Center:

"I asked Gostin if state and city officials might also lawfully take into account the public’s irrational fears about the disease—because it appears to me that that’s the crux of what politicians are being tempted to do. In New York, for instance, could a politician take into account the fact that someone who comes down with Ebola shortly after having used a subway—though he was still asymptomatic at the time of the ride—might cause thousands of people to fear using the subway, even if scientists say the subway remains perfectly safe?

Gostin’s answer was refreshingly unamibiguous. “The answer is no,”he wrote. “Government cannot use public fear as a rationale for depriving a person of liberty. Indeed the rule of law stands precisely to prevent that kind of injustice. The only basis for lawful quarantine is significant risk based on science.”

Aggressive Ebola quarantines: What does the lawÂ*say? - Fortune

The military is will quarantine troops upon their return, BUT CIVILIANS ARE EXCLUDED because they can't legally enforce something that isn't legally or medically justified.

Pentagon Ebola Quarantine Takes Effect, But Civilians Excepted - WSJ - WSJ

Irrationality may work on the streets, but it has no place in the courts of America.

[MissyWrite]

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