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."

[caroladybelle, BSN, RN]

Not one person who was against the quarantine responded. I asked the question in several posts, for weeks, and no one answered. Sometimes, silence is loud. Very loud.

[/i]

I have no vague clue as to what question you asked or when. But I will give you my answer.

In the past 40 years, many NGOs, MSF staffers.epidemiologists, virologists, Infectious disease specialists, CDC and USAMRID have gone in to numerous hot zones, including the Marburg and Eboli sites. Some of these individuals make numerous trips per year into those sites, collecting data and samples to help fight disease.

And in that time, they have not been spreading the diseases throughout the USA. Thus, their regulations with enhanced surveillance and monitoring of staff is quite effective.

Second, as they do make numerous trips, and it is necessary to process this data, samples, etc utilize equipment in secure labs, an unnecessary total quarantine seriously impairs and slows work to affect improved treatment and eradication of the disease.

Third, this is very stressful work and hard on personal and family life. If they make as little as 6 trips into the Zones, that is an additional 18 weeks in addition to the trip time, away from a "normal" life. How effective would these highly skilled and educated staff handle that and how many will drop the work in favor of something more lucrative and family/life friendly

Fourth, Eboli in the past 40 years, has killed one person. Flu mutates many times over 1 year, and kills thousands in this nation per year, and we can't/ don't mandate flu vaccination or isolation.

[OCNRN63, RN]

I have no vague clue as to what question you asked or when. But I will give you my answer.

In the past 40 years, many NGOs, MSF staffers.epidemiologists, virologists, Infectious disease specialists, CDC and USAMRID have gone in to numerous hot zones, including the Marburg and Eboli sites. Some of these individuals make numerous trips per year into those sites, collecting data and samples to help fight disease.

And in that time, they have not been spreading the diseases throughout the USA. Thus, their regulations with enhanced surveillance and monitoring of staff is quite effective.

Second, as they do make numerous trips, and it is necessary to process this data, samples, etc utilize equipment in secure labs, an unnecessary total quarantine seriously impairs and slows work to affect improved treatment and eradication of the disease.

Third, this is very stressful work and hard on personal and family life. If they make as little as 6 trips into the Zones, that is an additional 18 weeks in addition to the trip time, away from a "normal" life. How effective would these highly skilled and educated staff handle that and how many will drop the work in favor of something more lucrative and family/life friendly

Fourth, Eboli in the past 40 years, has killed one person. Flu mutates many times over 1 year, and kills thousands in this nation per year, and we can't/ don't mandate flu vaccination or isolation.

IIRC, Missy has been asking for proof that a quarantine is necessary. I know she is opposed to mandatory quarantines and was aghast at how Kaci Hickox was treated.

[chopwood carrywater]

I have no vague clue as to what question you asked or when. But I will give you my answer.

In the past 40 years, many NGOs, MSF staffers.epidemiologists, virologists, Infectious disease specialists, CDC and USAMRID have gone in to numerous hot zones, including the Marburg and Eboli sites. Some of these individuals make numerous trips per year into those sites, collecting data and samples to help fight disease.

And in that time, they have not been spreading the diseases throughout the USA. Thus, their regulations with enhanced surveillance and monitoring of staff is quite effective.

Second, as they do make numerous trips, and it is necessary to process this data, samples, etc utilize equipment in secure labs, an unnecessary total quarantine seriously impairs and slows work to affect improved treatment and eradication of the disease.

Third, this is very stressful work and hard on personal and family life. If they make as little as 6 trips into the Zones, that is an additional 18 weeks in addition to the trip time, away from a "normal" life. How effective would these highly skilled and educated staff handle that and how many will drop the work in favor of something more lucrative and family/life friendly

Fourth, Eboli in the past 40 years, has killed one person. Flu mutates many times over 1 year, and kills thousands in this nation per year, and we can't/ don't mandate flu vaccination or isolation.

I think you might have done well to use the search function or use the link of her avatar to find out what she had written. Then you might have understood the context it was written in, and then you would see that you are on the same side of the issue.

I think that this and other 'ebola' threads in AN would be a good tool to read and discuss in a classroom.

[caroladybelle, BSN, RN]

I am quite familiar with the search function. I actually did use it and in the jumble of what s/he has written, it is truly not clear what her/his position is.

As such, I directly answered the question that was currently asked. And quoted it, as is appropriate. You may review it as it does seem to inquire as to not hearing from those against quarantine.

Perhaps one should pose the actual question that they desire answered, when a thread has gone on this long.

[Horseshoe, BSN, RN]

Not one person who was against the quarantine responded. I asked the question in several posts, for weeks, and no one answered. Sometimes, silence is loud. Very loud.

Okay, I'm confused. Did you mean to say "Not one person who is favor of the quarantine responded?" Because those who are against it have actually been very verbal about why they are against quarantine in these threads imo.

[Mulan]

Ebola Nurse Doll That Looks Like Kaci Hickox Now On Sale

[h=2]"Here’s the Ebola-Free Nurse Doll You Never Knew You Wanted[/h]

• Laura Stampler @LauraStampler
  

Nov. 10, 2014

Herobuilders.com [h=2]The toy producer says that any resemblance to Kaci Hickox is purely coincidental[/h] With the holidays right around the corner, parents can now buy their children an untraditional yet socially relevant gift: The “Case-E Ebola Nurse Action Figure."

[Mulan]

Hickox and boyfriend staying in Maine

"FORT KENT, Maine (NEWS CENTER) -- The nurse who worked with Ebola patients in West Africa and gained international attention over a quarantine mandate will not be leaving Maine. Kaci Hickox said she and her boyfriend will remain in the state."

""There has been a lot of misinformation about this....We are leaving Fort Kent because our purpose of being here was Ted attending nursing school at UMFK and he will not continue at an institution of higher learning that has acted so poorly, shown no leadership, and completely disregarding him during the past few weeks," wrote Hickox in a Facebook message. "We are heading to Southern Maine this week, but we have never said we were 'leaving the state.' Thanks for taking the time to clarify the point. It is unfortunate that some media outlets have chosen to now dramatize and report false information.""

"Hickox said she and Wilbur will be in Freeport, Maine. Wilbur's family resides in the town and owns the Wilbur's Chocolates."

[Horseshoe, BSN, RN]

The toy producer says that any resemblance to Kaci Hickox is purely coincidental

Well, that's totally NOT believable.

[toomuchbaloney]

[/b]Well, that's totally NOT believable.

And the majority of Americans seem to have difficulty discerning falsehoods from fact.

[chopwood carrywater]

I am quite familiar with the search function. I actually did use it and in the jumble of what s/he has written, it is truly not clear what her/his position is.

As such, I directly answered the question that was currently asked. And quoted it, as is appropriate. You may review it as it does seem to inquire as to not hearing from those against quarantine.

Perhaps one should pose the actual question that they desire answered, when a thread has gone on this long.

Point taken.

[MissyWrite]

...in the jumble of what s/he has written, it is truly not clear what her/his position is.

In "the jumble" (and it's not a jumble at all) of what I've written, it is VERY CLEAR what my position is.

[caroladybelle, BSN, RN]

In "the jumble" (and it's not a jumble at all) of what I've written, it is VERY CLEAR what my position is.

Actually, many of us were following it, and had questions regarding what point several of your posts were trying to make.

There were several threads all over allnurses regarding ebola and quarantines. And there was plenty of data as well as opinions on both sides as well as links. Yet, according to you, you haven' t seen these.

Then you say that you haven't heard one person that is against a quarantine. So I presented that.

If you did not an answer carefully and politely laid out, why ask the question?

At least one other poster above also asked for clarification, so you must obviously consider "stupid" as you put it.

But I fail to see why you are being hostile when given a polite answer, and one has explained that your position was unclear..... You see fit to consider it "stupid".

Leaving this thread as some are determined for little good reason to make it a voiding contest and I do not waste my time getting wet.