RN Detained and Quarantined As Ebola Hysteria Reaches a New Low

[MissyWrite]

NJ and NY have instituted a policy of placing health workers into mandatory 21-day quarantine upon their return from West Africa if they came into contact with Ebola patients.

This new policy is a reaction to unfounded public hysteria surrounding Dr. Craig Spencer's return to NYC after working with Doctors Without Borders, and his subsequent diagnosis of Ebola, after he had taken the subway and gone bowling. People fear Ebola can be spread through casual contact with an asymptomatic person, even though public health experts say there's plenty of scientific evidence indicating that isn't the case.

Is this policy based on the facts about Ebola transmission? Is it based on science? No, it's not, and in fact no one is saying that it is:

"Voluntary quarantine is almost an oxymoron," New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said. "We've seen what happens. ... You ride a subway. You ride a bus. You could infect hundreds and hundreds of people."

"Public health experts say there's plenty of scientific evidence indicating that there's very little chance that a random person will get Ebola, unless they are in very close contact -- close enough to share bodily fluids -- with someone who has it.

Still, there's also a sense that authorities have to do something because of Americans' fears -- rational or not -- and belief that the country is better off being safe than sorry.

Osterholm says, "You want to try to eliminate not just real risk, but perceived risk."

Mike Osterholm is an infectious disease epidemiologist at the University of Minnesota.

Because of this irrational "perceived" risk, Kaci Hickox, 33, an RN who has been caring for Ebola patients while on assignment with Doctors Without Borders in Sierra Leone, was detained at the airport, interrogated for hours, and placed in mandatory quarantine at a New Jersey hospital upon her return to the U.S. on Friday.

She has tested negative in a preliminary test for Ebola, and she does not have a fever, but the hospital says she will remain under mandatory quarantine for 21 days. She is not allowed to leave the hospital, unless officials reconsider that decision.

Here are some excerpts from her experience so far:

I am a nurse who has just returned to the U.S. after working with Doctors Without Borders in Sierra Leone - an Ebola-affected country. I have been quarantined in New Jersey. This is not a situation I would wish on anyone, and I am scared for those who will follow me...

I arrived at the Newark Liberty International Airport around 1 p.m. on Friday, after a grueling two-day journey from Sierra Leone. I walked up to the immigration official...

I told him that I have traveled from Sierra Leone and he replied, a little less enthusiastically: "No problem. They are probably going to ask you a few questions."...

He put on gloves and a mask and called someone. Then he escorted me to the quarantine office a few yards away. I was told to sit down. Everyone that came out of the offices was hurrying from room to room in white protective coveralls, gloves, masks, and a disposable face shield.

One after another, people asked me questions. Some introduced themselves, some didn't. One man who must have been an immigration officer because he was wearing a weapon belt that I could see protruding from his white coveralls barked questions at me as if I was a criminal.

Two other officials asked about my work in Sierra Leone. One of them was from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

I was tired, hungry and confused, but I tried to remain calm. My temperature was taken using a forehead scanner and it read a temperature of 98. I was feeling physically healthy but emotionally exhausted.

Three hours passed. No one seemed to be in charge. No one would tell me what was going on or what would happen to me.

I called my family to let them know that I was OK. I was hungry and thirsty and asked for something to eat and drink. I was given a granola bar and some water. I wondered what I had done wrong.

Four hours after I landed at the airport, an official approached me with a forehead scanner. My cheeks were flushed, I was upset at being held with no explanation. The scanner recorded my temperature as 101. The female officer looked smug. "You have a fever now," she said. I explained that an oral thermometer would be more accurate and that the forehead scanner was recording an elevated temperature because I was flushed and upset.

I was left alone in the room for another three hours. At around 7 p.m., I was told that I must go to a local hospital. I asked for the name and address of the facility. I realized that information was only shared with me if I asked.

Eight police cars escorted me to the University Hospital in Newark. Sirens blared, lights flashed. Again, I wondered what I had done wrong.

At the hospital, I was escorted to a tent that sat outside of the building. The infectious disease and emergency department doctors took my temperature and other vitals and looked puzzled. "Your temperature is 98.6," they said. "You don't have a fever but we were told you had a fever."

After my temperature was recorded as 98.6 on the oral thermometer, the doctor decided to see what the forehead scanner records. It read 101. The doctor felts my neck and looked at the temperature again. "There's no way you have a fever," he said. "Your face is just flushed."

My blood was taken and tested for Ebola. It came back negative........

http://www.dallasnews.com/ebola/headlines/20141025-uta-grad-isolated-at-new-jersey-hospital-as-part-of-ebola-quarantine.ece

This is what happens to nurses when public ignorance and hysteria is placated by politicians.

We've already seen nurses blamed for just about everything Ebola-related since the first case in Dallas, and now we see a nurse being held against her will, for no reason except to make scared people "feel safer."

"It does present serious civil liberties questions," said Norman Siegel, a civil liberties lawyer in New York and the former executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union. "Historically, we've had these kinds of issues occur previously, and the courts then resolved the individual liberty issue against the larger concerns of the public's health concerns. So it then becomes a factual issue, the fact that she tested negative."

"It's completely unnecessary," said Harvard's Ashish Jha, the director of the Harvard Global Health Institute).

"I'm a believer in an abundance of caution but I'm not a believer of an abundance of idiocy."

[Susie2310]

Christie's Ebola quarantine, attacked by CDC, ACLU & UN, now embraced by Nobel Prize-winning doctor | NJ.com

Interesting article

I recommend this article to everyone here who believes that enough is known about Ebola virus transmission to make quarantine unnecessary.

[MissyWrite]

The latest news is that Kaci Hickox, RN, has no intention of obeying the mandatory quarantine in Maine.

"Maine health officials are prepared to "pursue legal authority" to enforce a quarantine Tuesday as reports surfaced that Kaci Hickox, a nurse who treated Ebola patients in Sierra Leone and shows no symptoms of the virus, doesn't intend to obey the quarantine."

Nurse Kaci Hickox Doesn't Intend to Obey Maine Ebola Quarantine: Report - NBC News

[chadrn65]

Kaci and her attorney interviewed via Skype this morning with Matt Lauer. See complete interview below.

“Nurse Kaci Hickox — who remains symptom-free after spending three days in a New Jersey isolation tent after flying home from Ebola-stricken West Africa — remains under quarantine at home in Maine, but for only another day, she tells TODAY's Matt Lauer”.

Nurse Kaci Hickox says she won't obey Maine's Ebola quarantine: I won’t be 'bullied by politicians' - Health - TODAY.com

[chadrn65]

I am wondering how long Dr. Spencer's fiancee and the two friends have to remain in their apartments. Is it still 21 days or with the new changes will they be allowed outside of their apartments?

[Mulan]

Ebola doctor ‘lied’ about NYC travels | New York Post

"The city’s first Ebola patient initially lied to authorities about his travels around the city following his return from treating disease victims in Africa, law-enforcement sources said.

Dr. Craig Spencer at first told officials that he isolated himself in his Harlem apartment — and didn’t admit he rode the subways, dined out and went bowling until cops looked at his MetroCard the sources said.

“He told the authorities that he self-quarantined. Detectives then reviewed his credit-card statement and MetroCard and found that he went over here, over there, up and down and all around,” a source said."

[MissyWrite]

Although I'm against mandatory quarantines and agree with Kaci Hickox's ideas about them being legally and scientifically unfounded, I'm not sure I agree with her decision to disregard her mandatory home quarantine.

I believe that because of the current 'climate,' she should go along with the quarantine and file her lawsuits while she does. The public's confidence in nurses and doctors has been damaged as they've been unfairly blamed for potentially spreading the virus to the public by taking planes and subways, etc., and since Gov. Chrisite said they could not be trusted to self-monitor (oooh, that makes me so angry).

I think Kaci could have possibly done something to repair this very unfair damage by cooperating, since the public is increasingly confused, mistrustful and scared. I've conceded that no matter how 'irrational' it might be, it has to be taken into consideration to some extent. It's at a level that can't be ignored. Hopefully, it's just temporary. And where the heck is the 'Ebola Czar?'

Frankly, I would be fearful to go to the grocery if I were her knowing just how crazed so many are right now. A lot of the public's anger is, for whatever reason, focused on her.

I watched the Sype interview, and frankly she just didn't seem to be taking it seriously enough. I know she's emboldened by her attorneys and she will probably win her lawsuits, but I think the wise thing to do right now would be to lay low. And Heaven forbid this woman better NOT come down with Ebola, or every HCW who comes near and Ebola patient will end up in an internment camp.

The sad thing is that Kaci Hickox is a national hero, but she's being treated like a menace to society. In working with Ebola patients, she not only helps people in the most dire situation at great risk to herself -- she is ALSO protecting the US. If the disease is stopped in West Africa, it will not be an issue here.

Personally, I think those who volunteer to do this work are the bravest people on the planet. But wow, they have been thrown under the bus.

[Mulan]

Here is a video/article with the viewpoint of the state of Maine.

Lawyer for Fort Kent nurse held on Ebola fears says she won't abide by quarantine — Health — Bangor Daily News — BDN Maine

[Susie2310]

I think the general public expects health care professionals to be willing to undergo quarantine (especially short periods) when they return from caring with patients with a disease as serious as Ebola. They expect health care professionals to be willing to accept some personal inconvenience on their return home in order to reduce the risks of transmitting a deadly disease to the general public.

[FLAlleycat]

MissyWrite, I do agree with what you are saying, but it is so darn frustrating! I don't think the hysterics will EVER "get it". Maybe this is Kaci's wooden club. If I were she, I would stay inside just to avoid the stoning! Even the university who said her fiancee would not be able to return if he stayed with her admits the decision is an attempt to pacify the hysterics. Most readers of the article, though, totally missed where he said it was not based on science.

[MissyWrite]

MissyWrite, I do agree with what you are saying, but it is so darn frustrating! I don't think the hysterics will EVER "get it". Maybe this is Kaci's wooden club. If I were she, I would stay inside just to avoid the stoning! Even the university who said her fiancee would not be able to return if he stayed with her admits the decision is an attempt to pacify the hysterics. Most readers of the article, though, totally missed where he said it was not based on science.

I agree with you. I've been in this thread fighting for her civil rights, railing against the deplorable, disrespectful conditions of her quarantine in NJ, arguing against irrational fear and for rational action based on science.

But I realized that we have to deal with what IS, not what SHOULD BE.

I've begun to understand that the public's fears are based on the very mixed messages they're getting, the fact that we're dealing with a horrifying disease, and the fact that they don't have medical training. People are confused and scared, and when people are scared, they will do things they wouldn't ordinarily do, like relieve a fellow citizens of their civil rights, forcibly detain them, and think it's fine if they're put in a tent with no running water and paper clothing. There are countless examples throughout history of man's inhumanity to man when one is afraid for their own safety.

I think the logical, rational and professional thing for Kaci to do is restore some (unfairly damaged) trust in herself and all of us by staying home, and letting her lawyers handle the civil rights and quarantine issues.

I think that at this point in time, she needs to remove herself from the fray, for her own sake and the sake of other HCWs. When things calm down, she will have her chance to speak, and people will be more willing to listen.

I understand she's outraged at how she was treated and at the fact that mandatory quarantines aren't grounded in science. But I don't think she's doing much to help her own or anyone else's cause by being defiant right now. I think she could do more good by removing herself from the spotlight. Over the next several days or weeks, things should settle down as those 'in charge' get on the same page, come to some sort of rational compromise, and give the public some confidence.

[lee1]

I think she will a hard time finding a job after this unless she wants to go back to Africa

[CrunchRN, ADN, RN]

Wow. This chick is blowing it big time. It is not always about being technically right. She is going to freak people out so much that it will guarantee stricter measures to calm the public.