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."

[BostonFNP, APRN]

Hopefully, some day when you're a nurse you'll understand the scientific rationale behind your actions.

Given some of these posts I am not confident that will be true.

Sent from my iPhone.

[LadyFree28, BSN, LPN, RN]

Given some of these posts I am not confident that will be true.

Sent from my iPhone.

But we can only hope...

[MunoRN, RN]

Afebrile, asymptomatic, and two negative tests. What deadly disease will Kaci be exposing people to? She's innocent as well.

Has she actually remained afebrile? I thought that's what triggered this whole thing. What does it matter that she's had two negative tests?

[BostonFNP, APRN]

Has she actually remained afebrile? I thought that's what triggered this whole thing. What does it matter that she's had two negative tests?

After she had been detained against her will for four hours they repeated a forehead scan as she was angry and flushed and it read high. She was taken orally and remained afebrile and has remained afebrile.

Sent from my iPhone.

[RNsRWe, ASN, RN]

Yesterday I was asked (at work, by a non-nursing member of the staff) what I thought of "that nurse with Ebola who won't do the quarantine". I then asked him WHAT nurse had Ebola, and was refusing quarantine, and he looked surprised. "You don't KNOW?? I thought everybody knew about that nurse who came back from Africa with Ebola and she won't stay in quarantine. She's gonna get like a hundred people sick!!"

Ok.

I told him what I DID know of the situation, why I knew refusing the quarantine was absolutely reasonable, that she cannot make "a hundred people sick" if she IS NOT SICK.

He looked doubtful, said "I don't know how some nurse is going to know better than all the doctors who are making the rules". And I had NO idea how to answer him, I instantly reflected back to these threads on AN and wondered how we can possibly look credible to ANYONE.

There are people who believe she should've stayed in quarantine and think she's arrogant and stupid for risking other people's safety.

There are people who believe she didn't have to stay in quarantine, that she's risking no one's safety, but she has a VERY poor public persona; I'd be one of those.

And there are people who are in that previous group, but think she looks like a hero in her public appearances.....I'd have to disagree with just that last part, I guess.

Even though I believe science IS on her side, even though I think she never should have had quarantine foisted upon her, even though I KNOW she cannot make people ill without HAVING the symptoms that would create that scenario....I still cringe when I see how she "looks" to the rest of the world. It's not about giving in to irrational fears, it's about figuring out your PR stinks and you need to back off for a bit.

She's right, I support her in that....but I REALLY wish she'd just SHUT UP and GO AWAY quietly for awhile!

[MunoRN, RN]

After she had been detained against her will for four hours they repeated a forehead scan as she was angry and flushed and it read high. She was taken orally and remained afebrile and has remained afebrile.

Sent from my iPhone.

The medical screening, which applied to everyone with her recent exposure background, occurred at the end of the customs process, which can be lengthy, and occurred about 4 hours after the wheels of her planed touched down. Her temp of 101 may well have occurred as a result of her impatience, but as far as I know there aren't exception to the screening process that takes into account variations based of the person's personality, and I'm not sure there really should be. The protocols also count a single high temp as a positive trigger for further evaluation/containment since it's not all that unusual for those with a viral infection in the early stages to have a labile temperature, sometimes only spiking for short periods.

There's certainly an argument to be made against the necessity of the level of quarantine that was used initially, but I don't agree with the argument that there was no need to initiate at least some sort of screening and monitoring measures.

[BostonFNP, APRN]

The medical screening, which applied to everyone with her recent exposure background, occurred at the end of the customs process, which can be lengthy, and occurred about 4 hours after the wheels of her planed touched down. Her temp of 101 may well have occurred as a result of her impatience, but as far as I know there aren't exception to the screening process that takes into account variations based of the person's personality, and I'm not sure there really should be. The protocols also count a single high temp as a positive trigger for further evaluation/containment since it's not all that unusual for those with a viral infection in the early stages to have a labile temperature, sometimes only spiking for short periods.

There's certainly an argument to be made against the necessity of the level of quarantine that was used initially, but I don't agree with the argument that there was no need to initiate at least some sort of screening and monitoring measures.

She was monitored in isolation in NJ for 48 hours during which she rates negative for the virus and remained asymptomatic. She was then released.

I am sure everyone has read about the effectiveness of airport temperature screening. The Australian H1N1 study demonstrated something like 3 true positives, 5000 false positives, and 40 false negatives.

Sent from my iPhone.

[elessawi]

Common sense often out weights all the degrees a person may have .. ....and no one needs a politician to tell them that safety of the general population outweighs one person having to stay home for 21 days ... how absurd to think otherwise ....lol.... OH and all military personnel from the infected area have a 21 day quarantine on base before returning to general population ... i guess the military are wrong too ... wow .....

[BostonFNP, APRN]

Common sense often out weights all the degrees a person may have .. ....and no one needs a politician to tell them that safety of the general population outweighs one person having to stay home for 21 days ... how absurd to think otherwise ....lol.... OH and all military personnel from the infected area have a 21 day quarantine on base before returning to general population ... i guess the military are wrong too ... wow .....

Common sense does not outweigh scientific evidence.

Sent from my iPhone.

[MunoRN, RN]

She was monitored in isolation in NJ for 48 hours during which she rates negative for the virus and remained asymptomatic. She was then released.

I am sure everyone has read about the effectiveness of airport temperature screening. The Australian H1N1 study demonstrated something like 3 true positives, 5000 false positives, and 40 false negatives.

Sent from my iPhone.

I guess I'm still not getting the argument, should her initial fever have been ignored? It would be nice if there was some way to rule out ebola in it's early stages, but there isn't. She was found to not have ongoing symptoms concerning for ebola, but was never ruled out for ebola.

I don't think there's any arguing the accuracy of the forehead thermometers, but none-the-less it's been the standard for mass ebola screening for some time now.

[VampyrSlayer, CNA]

I do but maybe it's cuz I'm a hypochondriac, but I'd rather be safe than sorry.

[MissyWrite]

There are people who believe she should've stayed in quarantine and think she's arrogant and stupid for risking other people's safety.

There are people who believe she didn't have to stay in quarantine, that she's risking no one's safety, but she has a VERY poor public persona; I'd be one of those.

And there are people who are in that previous group, but think she looks like a hero in her public appearances.....I'd have to disagree with just that last part, I guess.

She will never make everyone happy, will she? Everyone will find a reason to judge her. Why is that?

What matters is the outcome. She was treated horribly, she had her civil rights violated, and she stood up for rights, she stood up for the rights of other healthcare professionals, she stood up for science, she stood up against ignorance, she stood up against arbitrary, unnecessary rules that would keep desperately needed assistance from the front lines of the battle with this disease, assistance that keeps us all safe. AND SHE WON. So she did something right.

Was it perfectly, 100% right, in a way that pleased everyone?

Is anything?

I wouldn't have done things the same way she did, either, but now I've got to say she is a brave, gutsy, smart, outspoken woman, and we need more like her in nursing and in the world.