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."

[amoLucia]

Uh, I was being sarcastic re the dogs.

I do agree that irrational fear makes for the Frankenstein-type mob mentality. Dangerous and disturbing.

[RNsRWe, ASN, RN]

What's an Lna? I'm not familiar with that designation.

[BostonFNP, APRN]

What's an Lna? I'm not familiar with that designation.

Licensed Nursing Assistant I assume.

Sent from my iPhone.

[RNsRWe, ASN, RN]

y'know, I thought that, but I wasn't aware that any nursing assistants were licensed......thought they had certifications, not actual licenses. Then again, now I do seem to remember something about one or two States doing licenses. Licensed or not, nursing assistants don't get much education in the way of ID.

[MissyWrite]

Remember the unidentified/anonymous Ebola patient treated at NIH?

Here is his very compelling story:

EXPOSED: After an accidental needle stab, a doctor's Ebola watch begins

After an accidental needle stab, a doctor's Ebola watch begins | The Washington Post

[MissyWrite]

Interesting results from an NBC News/ Wall Street Journal poll of the public regarding quarantines for health workers:

More than seven in 10 Americans support mandatory quarantines for health professionals who have treated Ebola patients in West Africa, even if they have no symptoms, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

It's quite interesting to compare it to the same poll taken here at AllNurses:

8 in 10 support quarantines for those who have treated patients in Africa.

In the WSJ poll, "those with lower levels of education are more likely to support quarantines (80 percent of those with a high school education or less are in favor) than those with college or post-graduate educations (63 percent are in favor.)

Of course the outcome of a poll is influenced by many factors, including polling technology, how the question is worded, the perception of who is asking the question, when and how the polling sample is drawn, and who agrees to take the poll and who decides not to.

But even so, these results are fascinating. The poll results here mirror the results in the WSJ poll for the general public with a high school education or less.

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/ebola-virus-outbreak/nbc-wsj-poll-71-back-mandatory-quarantines-ebola-health-workers-n239576

https://allnurses.com/disasters-preparing-responding/survey-results-quarantine-957430.html

[morte, LPN, LVN]

y'know, I thought that, but I wasn't aware that any nursing assistants were licensed......thought they had certifications, not actual licenses. Then again, now I do seem to remember something about one or two States doing licenses. Licensed or not, nursing assistants don't get much education in the way of ID.

i believe NH is the only state to "licence" NAs.

[BostonFNP, APRN]

But even so, these results are fascinating. The poll results here mirror the results in the WSJ poll for the general public with a high school education or less.

Isnt that an embarrassment re: nursing education. I remained shocked.

Sent from my iPhone.

[VampyrSlayer, CNA]

i believe NH is the only state to "licence" NAs.

You figured me out :)

[caroladybelle, BSN, RN]

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 it was once a year for 21 days, it would be one thing.

However, for many MSF, infectious disease and epidemiology staff, this isn't a once a year thing. For some specialists, they go into hot zones several times per year. MSF staff may take several assignments per year.

They do very hard work that is inordinately stressful. They also have families and friends.

In most cases the trips are for knowledge, specimens, data to help cure this. There are things better done her, stateside. Much of this are activities that cannot be done as effectively by computer or teleconference.

One of my acquaintances, goes at minimum to six sites of infectious disease breaks per year. He, along with MSF and many others have done this for decades, and not spread ebola, Marburg, etc. stateside.

And you honestly think it no imposition to ask him and others like him to be quarantined up to 24 weeks or more of their lives, away from spouses, children and friends. And also away from the labs where they work on fighting this disease.

Sorry, I give better credence to their decades of experience of not spreading disease than to a couple of overly panicked politicians. I would also like to see Ebola stopped, which will not happen, if the best minds and hands are tied by being quarantined, for no good medical reason.

[Mulan]

Remember the unidentified/anonymous Ebola patient treated at NIH?

Here is his very compelling story:

EXPOSED: After an accidental needle stab, a doctor's Ebola watch begins

After an accidental needle stab, a doctor's Ebola watch begins | The Washington Post

Very interesting.

[morte, LPN, LVN]

Perhaps they could Skype (sp) or similar?

Re the statement by Dr.Bruce Beutler, the Nobel Prize Winner, he says "People may have said that without symptoms you can't transmit Ebola. I'm not sure about that being 100 percent true. There's a lot of variation with viruses," (see Nobel Prize winner: Ebola can be spread by people who show no symptoms - NaturalNews.com)

But I cannot find any research saying an asymptomatic person has been shown to actually transmit the disease. Meanwhile, WHO still recommends self-monitoring and not quarantines as do all major researchers of Ebola epidemics. It's a real pity Louisiana has banned all researchers (how embarrassing is this!) who have even just visited W Africa (much less cared for pts with Ebola) from the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene next week. Should be interesting.