Richard Harbus for New York Daily News Kaci Hickox (center) and her boyfriend Theodore Wilbur went for a ride in the trails near his home in Fort Kent, Maine. Richard Harbus for New York Daily News The pair was followed by the media and authorities.
Julia Bayly Nurse Kaci Hickox left her house Thursday morning for a bike ride.
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The governor of Maine vowed to rein in rebellious nurse Kaci Hickox after she thumbed her nose at his orders to stay put — and took a spin with her beau.
“It’s a beautiful day for a bike ride,” Hickox told reporters Thursday as she and boyfriend Theodore Wilbur rode off on mountain bikes from their Fort Kent home — tailed by police cars and news trucks.
Gov. Paul LePage had threatened to arrest Hickox if she ventured out of her house before Nov. 10, which is when her 21-day incubation period for Ebola expires.
After Hickox and Wilbur returned from their 40 minute ride on the Fort Kent Heritage Trail, LePage’s office announced they would now “exercise the full extent of his authority.”
Team LePage did not say what exactly they intend to do.
“This could be resolved today,” the irritated governor, who wants Hickox to take an Ebola blood test, told ABC News earlier. “She has been exposed and she’s not cooperative, so force her to take a test. It’s so simple.”
LePage spoke after his legal eagle said negotiations with Hickox broke down over guidelines that would have allowed the nurse to go on jogs or bike rides — but barred her from public places or from being within three feet of other people.
Hickox flouted LePage’s three-feet requirement on Wednesday when she shook hands with a reporter while cops watched.
“You could hug me, you could shake my hand,” she said, the Portland Press-Herald reported. “I would not give you Ebola.”
Hickox, who is 33 and is free of any Ebola symptoms, had threatened to sue the state of Maine if they didn’t lift her quarantine by Thursday.
It wasn’t immediately clear if she made good on her threat.
While Hickox was defying her Republican governor, President Obama was en route to Portland, Maine to campaign for the Democrat trying to unseat him, Mike Michaud.
The President is also opposed to quarantining symptom-free medics like Hickox who fought Ebola in the hardest hit West African countries of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
Asked about Hickox’s defiance, White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters aboard Air Force One said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been in regular touch with Maine public health officials.
“Ultimately it is their decision,” he said.
Hickox’s lawyer, Norman Siegel, defended her decision to take the bike ride but noted she didn’t venture into the center of town because she didn’t want to “freak people out.”
“Since there’s no court order, she can be out in public,” Siegel said. “Even if people disagree with her position, I would hope they respect the fact that she’s taking into account the fear, which is based on misinformation about the way the disease is transmitted.”
Fort Kent Police Chief Tom Pelletier told the Bangor Daily News he checked in on Hickox by telephone Thursday.
“I want to make sure she has not received any threats,” he said. “And if she has, that she contacts us.”
While some residents of the college town on the Canadian border expressed ire at Hickox’s stubborn refusal to comply with the governor’s orders, most appeared to be rallying around their most famous resident.
“We are trying to get her some pizza today,” said Becky Hafford-Lawn, owner of the The Moose Shack, which Hickox plugged during her Wednesday press conference. “We have to call the police department to find out the best way for us get it to her.”
Bernadette (Bunny) Berube, a former family health care worker, said the town should be throwing her a parade — not trying to keep her inside.
“It takes a lot of courage to stand up for what you believe in,” she said.
Berube said people panic because they don’t understand how hard it is to catch Ebola, which is contracted by exposure to the bodily fluids of an infected person.
“If she was out riding her bike, I say go for it,” she said.
Over at the Market Street Co-op, Sandra Deprey agreed the health care workers like Hickox should be treated like heroes.
But, Deprey added, “Kaci needs to follow the same rule as anyone else coming back.”
Before taking on LePage, Hickox ran afoul of another Republican governor — New Jersey’s Chris Christie.
Hickox, who had spent a month fighting Ebola in Sierra Leone with Doctors Without Borders, was confined against her will Friday in Christie’s detention camp at Newark Airport.
Christie let Hickox go Monday after she complained on television — and after she went more than 24 hours without showing any Ebola symptoms.
“There’s a lot of misinformation about how Ebola is transmitted, and I can understand why people are frightened,” Siegel said earlier. “But their fear is not based on medical facts.”
Julia Bayly reported from Fort Kent, Maine.
With News Wire Services
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