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."

[chadrn65]

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

Lol, me too! I would probably read high on the forehead scanner as well.......due to hot flashes.

[MissyWrite]

Lol, me too! I would probably read high on the forehead scanner as well.......due to hot flashes.

LOL I'd be at least 104. Straight to the tent for me!

[chadrn65]

LOL I'd be at least 104. Straight to the tent for me!

Bahaaaha, me too! Too funny!

[VampyrSlayer, CNA]

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.

As an Lna who deals with different illnesses Everyday I can assure you it doesn't affect my caregiving abilities. But there is a big difference than what one normally sees in the U.S. and a "rare" disease/infection. Given the correct PPE I'll jump into any situation, but that doesn't mean that I won't take the proper precautions requested by the government when I'm done.

[TiffyRN, BSN, PhD]

Given the correct PPE I'll jump into any situation, but that doesn't mean that I won't take the proper precautions requested by the government when I'm done.

But which part of the government? The Federal government in the form of the CDC? Or are you going to follow the recommendations of the State Governor (with a degree in law or policy)?

[BostonFNP, APRN]

But there is a big difference than what one normally sees in the U.S. and a "rare" disease/infection.

In terms of outcome and evidence-based practice, there isn't.

Sent from my iPhone.

[VampyrSlayer, CNA]

I suppose. I may have been exaggerating when I said I'd request to be quarantined, but is absolutely comply with requests and/or laws. Especially for such a short time as 21 days.

[VampyrSlayer, CNA]

I'd not is

[toomuchbaloney]

I suppose. I may have been exaggerating when I said I'd request to be quarantined, but is absolutely comply with requests and/or laws. Especially for such a short time as 21 days.

If you are game to isolate yourself for the better part of a month for no good reason other than because ignorant people are afraid and ignorant politicians are promoting that fear to help them win elections that is fine with me. I hope someone is willing to continue paying you or that you have adequate PTO so that you can still afford food, utilities, etc.

Good luck.

We would ask that you refrain from requiring that other health professionals also give up their freedoms unnecessarily.

[TiffyRN, BSN, PhD]

I'm just saying that if we require 21 day quarantines for ebola exposure, a disease that has US mortality rate of just more than 10% and is transmitted by direct contact with blood/body fluids, then I would also like to have my 3 week (or whatever the current flavor of politician decides is appropriate cause none of this is based on science) vacation every time I care for patients with the following diseases:

1. Bacterial Meningitis

2. Chickenpox (I know, not very fatal, but what if I accidentally passed it to an immunocompromised person in the community? Ok, I'm immune against that one, just saying. . .

3. TB; A "shore nuff" airborne transmission disease with no approved vaccine and very tough treatment.

4. HIV/AIDS; there is treatment, but it's still a tough disease and you never know and the incubation period can be up to 8 weeks!

Oh, and all the lab personnel that handle all those specimens, all housekeepers that go near these people, and definitely any physicians that examine these patients, all need to be quarantined for the incubation period appropriate to their disease. Oh, and their families too, and all their contacts, or people who have ridden the same bus. . .

[amoLucia]

Hey Tiff, don't forget their dogs!

[toomuchbaloney]

Hey Tiff, don't forget their dogs!

As the fear ramps up folks may begin to deal with pets the same way they did in Spain, just destroy them. This sort of irrational fear can be very dangerous.