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."

[Horseshoe, BSN, RN]

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

I did read it and was completely unimpressed with it. See the post right before yours for numerous reasons why I'm not taking this guys comments to the bank and thinking it provided any kind of rationale for the forced quarantine of ASYMPTOMATIC individuals.

[Susie2310]

I'm failing to see why a nurse should be rendered mute when it comes to criticism of the American public. I'm unaware of the regulations for licensure that state that a nurse is forevermore forbidden to have a negative opinion of the public, or parts of it....?

It does get tiresome when people routinely equate "Nurse" with an image of a demure, mute, non-judgmental, non-opinionated, non-THINKING 'servant'.

I am educated....and I like to think reasonably intelligent. So when I am faced with a situation that decries all reasonable logic, if I see irrational behavior taking root, if I KNOW that misinformation is causing the less-educated and less intelligent to panic.....why on earth should I NOT react to that?

If the public is behaving irrationally and out of ignorance, it's not because I stood by and ignored it.

As a great literary hero once said, "Stupid is as stupid does".

Some of the comments by nurses about the general public are simply offensive. No-one says nurses have to be mute, but expressing offensive comments about the general public on a public forum when the nurse-patient relationship is based on trust, is incredibly foolish and disrespectful. From the point of view of simple self-interest, health care professionals rely on the trust of the general public for their salaries/wages. I believe the general public has lost a lot of trust in health care professionals in regard to Ebola, and that loss of trust manifests in many different ways.

Much is unknown about Ebola virus transmission. Twenty-one days quarantine is reasonable.

Instead of denouncing the general public for their "irrational behavior", I believe health care professionals need to think hard about what they will do to try to regain their confidence.

[toomuchbaloney]

What is not sensible about this?

Nurses very publicly bring to the attention of the public the lack of preparedness of health care facilities to deal with Ebola: lack of proper PPE, proper training, etc. They advocate for the highest level of PPE and proper training. The public listens. Health authorities listen. Politicians listen. A health care worker who recently returned from caring for Ebola patients was showing symptoms of Ebola and has tested positive for the virus. Other health care workers in this country who cared for Ebola patients have become infected with Ebola. A patient exposed to Ebola in another country died here in the US. It is the job of the public health authorities to take these events seriously, and to act to protect the general public. Medical experts are not certain as to how Ebola is transmitted from person to person. It appears some nurses are saying two things: 1) We want, and demand the highest level of PPE and training to protect ourselves (and the general public) from contracting Ebola when we care for patients who have/may have Ebola, and 2) We do not think it is reasonable for nurses/health care workers to be subjected to the inconvenience of quarantine when we care for patients with Ebola. I say such a position is highly contradictory, especially coming from nurses, whose work entails working with and caring for the general public when they are sick, when a short period of quarantine may prevent transmission of the disease to the general public. This thread reminds me of why a public health nursing course is valuable. Remember, even medical experts in disease transmission are not certain how the virus is transmitted from person to person. The general public are being sensible, not hysterical, in wanting quarantine for people who have cared for Ebola patients.

Bolding mine.

Please provide credible documentation to support this statement. George Will's insistence that it is true on Fox will not meet the criteria for credible.

When people are being held without reasonable cause because the general misled and misinformed public is afraid that is NOT sensible, it is hysteria.

[Horseshoe, BSN, RN]

A woman who flew to Dallas for a teaching conference and who had absolutely ZERO exposure to anything to do with ebola was forced out of her job for 21 days at the behest of a group of irrational, ignorant parents.

Ignorant is a valid description of this. The school administration which caved to this pressure has only reinforced the misinformation which has been sadly revealed to exist in our country regarding disease, geography, this illness in particular, among other things. Rather than standing firm and using this as a teaching opportunity, they took the coward's way out.

There is no insult in using the word ignorant, it is a factual description of the behavior exhibited above. From Merriam Webster:

Full Definition of IGNORANCE

: the state or fact of being ignorant : lack of knowledge, education, or awareness

[Horseshoe, BSN, RN]

Bolding mine.

Please provide credible documentation to support this statement. George Will's insistence that it is true on Fox will not meet the criteria for credible.

When people are being held without reasonable cause because the general misled and misinformed public is afraid that is NOT sensible, it is hysteria.

Yep!

Hysteria defined:

[h=1]hysterical[/h]

[hi-ster-i-kuh l] Spell Syllables

• Synonyms
  
• Examples
  
• Word Origin
  

adjective1.of, pertaining to, or characterized by hysteria.

2.uncontrollably emotional.

3.irrational from fear, emotion, or an emotional shock.

4.causing hysteria.

5.suffering from or subject to hysteria.

6.causing unrestrained laughter; very funny:Oh, that joke is hysterical!

[Susie2310]

Bolding mine.

Please provide credible documentation to support this statement. George Will's insistence that it is true on Fox will not meet the criteria for credible.

When people are being held without reasonable cause because the general misled and misinformed public is afraid that is NOT sensible, it is hysteria.

Go to the thread on this forum "Ebola: Why Respiratory Protection Must Be Worn" and read on the OP the first link by experts in infectious disease and respiratory protection.

[CrunchRN, ADN, RN]

[quote=chopwood carrywater;819933

3]"This chick" Really, really! What kind of mindset is that to reduce this person with that phrase?

I was being very loose with that term I admit. I just do not like the perception she is causing of "nurses". I find her insistence that everyone see things her way in light of the pervasive public fear arrogant and condescending as are many of the comments here.

People with no medical knowledge at all are freaked out. Throwing it in their faces in not an effective way of dealing with this.

I said previously that I agree with her about the science and I do think she has a right to speak out and advocate for herself.

However, the way she is going about it is causing more harm than good in my opinion.

Sometimes being right and shoving it down peoples throats is worse than being wrong.........

[toomuchbaloney]

I was being very loose with that term I admit. I just do not like the perception she is causing of "nurses". I find her insistence that everyone see things her way in light of the pervasive public fear arrogant and condescending as are many of the comments here.

People with no medical knowledge at all are freaked out. Throwing it in their faces in not an effective way of dealing with this.

I said previously that I agree with her about the science and I do think she has a right to speak out and advocate for herself.

However, the way she is going about it is causing more harm than good in my opinion.

Sometimes being right and shoving it down peoples throats is worse than being wrong.........

I'm guessing since she was the one held against her will for no reasonable or credible reason that she must feel like an elephant has been shoved down her throat.

[FLAlleycat]

. . .but expressing offensive comments about the general public on a public forum when the nurse-patient relationship is based on trust, is incredibly foolish and disrespectful.

. .

Much is unknown about Ebola virus transmission. Twenty-one days quarantine is reasonable.

. . .

As the general public does read our forum, I feel you are promoting their hysteria when you represent yourself as a professional and post such inaccurate information.

[Susie2310]

As the general public does read our forum, I feel you are promoting their hysteria when you represent yourself as a professional and post such inaccurate information.

I direct you to a thread on this forum "Ebola: Why Respiratory Protection Must Be Worn." The first link on the OP is a commentary by infectious disease and respiratory protection experts.

[MissyWrite]

Go to the thread on this forum "Ebola: Why Respiratory Protection Must Be Worn" and read on the OP the first link by experts in infectious disease and respiratory protection.

I am the OP of the post you refer to. I started that thread advocating maximum PPE for front-line caregivers because they are the ones who are at risk. They are dealing with a patient during the infectious stage of the illness who is producing large amounts of fluids.

I started this thread because I don't believe quarantine is necessary for asymptomatic people, because they are not contagious.

All the Ebola patients in the US so far -- Brantley, Writebol, Pham, Vinson, Duncan, Sacra, Mukpo and the anonymous one -- have not infected anyone in the general public, not even their own families. Even the people who slept with them and lived with them.

The only people infected were two nurses caring for a very sick, very symptomatic patient.

No one has been infected by anyone during the non-infectious, symptomatic phase of the illness.

I believe the general public has lost a lot of trust in health care professionals in regard to Ebola, and that loss of trust manifests in many different ways.

The reason they lost trust was because of misinformation about the virus, accusations from politicians saying health professionals had done something wrong, and Gov. Christie and others saying you can't trust a doctor or nurse to self-monitor.

They did not lose trust based on any factual reason to do so.

Much is unknown about Ebola virus transmission. Twenty-one days quarantine is reasonable.

21 days...are you SURE? Who told you that? Wasn't it the very same people who told you Ebola isn't contagious when a person is not symptomatic (or even when they only have a fever)? Why do you belive it? Maybe it's not long enough.....you never know....maybe we should make it 50 days or 100 days JUST TO BE SURE.

Here's a question for you: Why are the nurses and doctors caring for Dr. Craig Spencer in NYC allowed to leave the hospital, go home, go out to dinner, ride the subway, etc? They're in contact with an Ebola patient. According to what you say, they should have been quarantined after the first day they cared for him.

[Susie2310]

I am the OP of the post you refer to. I started that thread advocating maximum PPE for front-line caregivers because they are the ones who are at risk. They are dealing with a patient during the infectious stage of the illness who is producing large amounts of fluids.

I started this thread because I don't believe quarantine is necessary for asymptomatic people, because they are not contagious.

The article is relevant to this thread, and to this discussion, in my opinion, as transmission of the Ebola virus is discussed.