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."

[MrChicagoRN, RN]

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

Sent from my iPhone.

There are some very new members that appear to have joined just so they could spread unsubstantiated opinions.

[MissyWrite]

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 .....

***CODE BLUE, ALLNURSES *** CODE BLUE, ALLNURSES *** CODE BLUE, ALLNURSES***

Ummm.......on second thought, CANCEL CODE BLUE. It's already been 6 minutes.

[Bengalcat]

Here's something for those saying "But the military is quarantining the returning troops! That means everyone should be quarantined!"

"Unlike uniformed personnel, civilians who work for the military cannot be compelled to enter a strict quarantine if they have no symptoms or didn’t come into contact with someone with Ebola, Adm. Kirby said.

'We legally can’t force them to undergo controlled monitor regimen the way we can with uniformed troops,' Adm. Kirby said."

Pentagon Ebola Quarantine Takes Effect, But Civilians Excepted

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

Per the Pentagon memorandum issued 31 October 2014, said DoD civilians will be required to follow one of two medical protocols upon their redeployment from the hot zone—viz. in accordance with their choice, as specified prior to their deployment:

1) Voluntary participation in military-controlled monitoring—a 21-day post-deployment, face-to-face, active monitoring period, which precludes any leave, temporary duty, or temporary additional duty outside the local, isolation area (like the troops); or

2) Active monitoring for 21 days post-deployment, which includes twice-daily temperature checks, plus return to normal activities per CDC, state, and local public health authority protocols “unless otherwise directed”—meaning the military reserves the right to enforce military-controlled monitoring where EVD exposure is suspected.

In other words, if the DoD civilian returns to a state, such as New Jersey or Maine, or a local community, which has stricter guidelines than the minimum protocols established by the CDC, the civilian agrees before deployment to abide by those stricter guidelines.

Major General Darryl Williams, commander of U.S. Army Africa, and 11 of his staff were placed in 21-day isolation upon returning from the hot zone to their base in Vicenza, Italy, last weekend. According to a statement released the following Monday, 27 October, Army Chief of Staff, General Ray Odierno, ordered the isolation “to reassure the troops, their families, and local communities that the Army is taking all steps necessary to protect their health.”

Odierno's order went beyond Pentagon policy, which specified monitoring, not isolation. However, on Tuesday, 28 October, Army General Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, formally recommended on behalf of the heads of each of the military services the stricter guidelines for all military personnel returning from the hot zone. The military commanders cited numerous reasons for doing so, including concerns among military families and the communities from which troops are deploying for the Ebola response mission. Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel, complied with the commanders’ recommendations on Wednesday, 29 October.

These stricter guidelines also accord with evidence-based military theory (“Fourth Generation Warfare”), which recognizes that any war fought in the foreign theater (in this case, against Ebola in Africa) cannot be sustained and won, if the war at home is lost—viz. through loss of public support.

[MissyWrite]

These stricter guidelines also accord with evidence-based military theory (“Fourth Generation Warfare”), which recognizes that any war fought in the foreign theater (in this case, against Ebola in Africa) cannot be sustained and won, if the war at home is lost—viz. through loss of public support.

Great idea -- public support through more totally unnecessary, unfounded confusion! You're really grabbing at straws now. So you're saying the quarantine isn't really needed for disease control -- it's needed to garner public support. SORRY, this is the US and we don't forcibly detain people for public support (unless they're in the military, and have signed away their civil rights).

"A deeper question, which is being obscured by semantic disputes, is this: If the decision not to quarantine civilians returning from Ebola-stricken areas is based on science, as the president and the head of the Centers For Disease Control insist it is, why is the federal government willing to pay military members for three weeks of unnecessary confinement, keeping them from essential duties?

The president told the press that measures to screen civilian health workers must be based on science. Then he said the military situation was different.

"They are, first of all, not treating patients. Second of all, they are not there voluntarily. It's part of their mission they've been assigned to them by their commanders and ultimately me, their commander in chief. We don't expect to have similar rules for our military as we do civilians."

It's impossible to fathom why military members not treating Ebola patients makes them scientifically more eligible for quarantine. Equally incomprehensible is what being a volunteer has to do with disease prevention. The virus surely doesn't know or care who is being paid and who is not..."

Volunteered or voluntold | Terri Barnes

[FLAlleycat]

There are some very new members that appear to have joined just so they could spread unsubstantiated opinions.

I am seeing references to articles picked apart months ago showing up again.

[chadrn65]

"Spencer's fiancée, Morgan Dixon,and two friends he spent time with after returning to New York remain symptomfree".

"Cityhealth officials also announced Saturday that they would no longer restrict thedaily movements of one of the two individuals who had been quarantined becauseof contact with Spencer. They said the person, who was not identified, would beassessed twice a day by Health Department staff".

"Dixon,who was released from Bellevuea week ago, andthe third person will be quarantined until Nov. 14, after the maximum 21-dayincubation period has passed."

Ebola in the U.S.: NYC doctor upgraded to stable condition - CBS News

[MissyWrite]

So glad to hear that Dr. Spencer is improving, and has been upgraded to stable condition.

It seems that when this virus is caught early, and the patient is given good care, it is survivable. I lost track of exactly how many people have been treated here in the US (9?) only Mr. Duncan did not survive. Unfortunately, that could have something to do with the fact that his diagnosis was missed the first time he went to the ER, and was much sicker when he was finally admitted.

Even so, no one he lived with caught the virus, and he was already vomiting, etc.

Some interesting info on transmission among household contacts:

"During an Ebola outbreak in 1995....28 (16%) of the 173 household contacts of 27 primary Ebola cases developed EVD.³ All 28 secondary cases involved direct physical contact with a known EVD patient; overall, 28 of 95 family members who had direct contact with a primary case became infected, whereas none of 78 family members who did not report direct contact became infected. Other studies have reported similar findings, in that all or the large majority of secondary transmissions involved direct physical contact with known EVD patients..."

I assume 'known' EVD patient means symptomatic and obviously has the disease.

Seems to me it would be awfully difficult to catch this virus from an asymptomatic person on the subway..............

[h=1]Review of Human-to-Human Transmission of Ebola Virus[/h]http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/transmission/human-transmission.html

[MissyWrite]

So glad to hear that Dr. Spencer is improving, and has been upgraded to stable condition.

It seems that when this virus is caught early, and the patient is given good care, it is survivable. I lost track of exactly how many people have been treated here in the US (9?) only Mr. Duncan did not survive. Unfortunately, that could have something to do with the fact that his diagnosis was missed the first time he went to the ER, and was much sicker when he was finally admitted.

Even so, no one he lived with caught the virus, and he was already vomiting, etc.

Some interesting info on transmission among household contacts:

"During an Ebola outbreak in 1995....28 (16%) of the 173 household contacts of 27 primary Ebola cases developed EVD.³ All 28 secondary cases involved direct physical contact with a known EVD patient; overall, 28 of 95 family members who had direct contact with a primary case became infected, whereas none of 78 family members who did not report direct contact became infected. Other studies have reported similar findings, in that all or the large majority of secondary transmissions involved direct physical contact with known EVD patients..."

I assume 'known' EVD patient means symptomatic and obviously has the disease.

Seems to me it would be awfully difficult to catch this virus from an asymptomatic person on the subway..............

Review of Human-to-Human Transmission of Ebola Virus

Review of Human-to-Human Transmission of Ebola Virus | Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever | CDC

[Mulan]

Ebola: Why Is the Military So Strict With Ebola Quarantines?

[chadrn65]

So glad to hear that Dr. Spencer is improving, and has been upgraded to stable condition.

It seems that when this virus is caught early, and the patient is given good care, it is survivable. I lost track of exactly how many people have been treated here in the US (9?) only Mr. Duncan did not survive. Unfortunately, that could have something to do with the fact that his diagnosis was missed the first time he went to the ER, and was much sicker when he was finally admitted.

Yep, the experts at the 4 containment facilities all say the same: if treated early, better outcome and also youth is important how fast you recover.

[toomuchbaloney]

Sorry, wouldn't wait.

If you are going to do things based exclusively in fear rather than science and evicence, many of us would prefer you chose something other than nursing as a career.

[MissyWrite]

also youth is important how fast you recover.

Well if that's true, I'd be toast.