Kaci Hickox, the nurse who was forcibly quarantined in a New Jersey airport tent for three days, says she will not obey instructions to stay home in Maine. She recently returned from treating Ebola patients in Sierra Leone.
Kaci Hickox, shown in an undated photo provided by UT-Arlington, went to Maine after being forcibly quarantined in New Jersey for three days.(Photo: UT-Arlington AP)
FORT KENT, Maine. -- Gov. Paul LePage said Wednesday that Ebola nurse Kaci Hickox was "unwilling" to follow state health guidelines and that he was seeking legal authority to force her to remain quarantined at a rural home in Maine for 21 days.
Hickox, who does not have any symptoms of the deadly virus, said Wednesday that she would not abide by quarantine rules that she said were "not scientifically nor constitutionally just."
"I don't plan on sticking to the guidelines," Hickox tells Today show's Matt Lauer via Skype. "I am not going to sit around and be bullied by politicians and forced to stay in my home when I am not a risk to the American public."
Hickox, a 33-year-old nurse with Doctors Without Borders, arrived in Maine on Monday after being forcibly held in an isolation tent in New Jersey for three days under that state's strict new law for health care workers who have recently treated Ebola patients in West Africa.
Two state police cars were stationed Wednesday outside the rural home of her boyfriend, Ted Wilbur, in Fort Kent where she has been living, WLBZ-TV reports.
Northern Maine Medical Center says Hickox had originally agreed to a 21-day quarantine, according to WLBZ. NMMC also said Wilbur had also agreed to a self-quarantine for 21 days and will be taking UMaine Fort Kent nursing classes online. There is no word on whether he would abide by quarantine for the full period.
Hickox, according to her attorney, had only agreed to remain home for two days after arriving from New Jersey.
LePage said Wednesday that Hickox had been "unwilling" to follow state protocols and that he will seek legal authority to enforce the quarantine.
The governor's office said state police were stationed the home "for both her protection and the health of the community."
Windows on Wilbur's frame house, which is located in a wooded area, are blocked and two vehicles are parked in the driveway. A male voice responded to a knock at the door by saying, "Hey, thanks for calling." Fort Kent is a town of more than 4,000 located near the Canadian border.
"We hoped that the healthcare worker would voluntarily comply with these protocols, but this individual has stated publicly she will not abide by the protocols," LePage said in a statement on the governor's website.
"We are very concerned about her safety and health and that of the community," he said. "We are exploring all of our options for protecting the health and well-being of the healthcare worker, anyone who comes in contact with her, the Fort Kent community and all of Maine. While we certainly respect the rights of one individual, we must be vigilant in protecting 1.3 million Mainers, as well as anyone who visits our great state."
Hickox was the first person pulled aside at Newark Liberty International Airport on Friday under new state regulations after her return from Sierra Leone, where she was working with Ebola patients.
She told Today she will pursue legal action if Maine forces her into continued isolation.
"If the restrictions placed on me by the state of Maine are not lifted by Thursday morning, I will go to court to fight for my freedom," she says.
Her attorney, Steven Hyman, told CNN Wednesday that his client had received no mandatory orders and that "the next step is up to Maine."
"The only reason that there is a cry for quarantine is because the political side has decided that it would just be better if she stayed home and lost her civil right so we could all feel more comfortable, which is not supported by any medical evidence," Hyman said.
Without naming Hickox specifically, Department of Health and Human Services Commissioner Mary Mayhew said Tuesday evening that the state has the authority to seek a court order to compel quarantine for individuals deemed a public health risk.
"We have made the determination that out of an abundance of caution, this is a reasonable, common-sense approach to remove additional risk and guard against a public health crisis in Maine," said Mayhew. She did not mention Hickox by name.
Many in Fort Kent have commended Hickox's efforts in West Africa, but have expressed fear. Hickox's has been receiving death threats on social media and anger about her not following the quarantine.
Others have called for a more measured response. "Treat Ms. Hickox with the same compassion and support that she displayed in West Africa, rather than fear," said Maine Bishop Robert Deeley.
Hickox's high-profile campaign from isolation in New Jersey, including a first-person account in The Dallas Morning News , underscored the shifting response to the Ebola crisis by state and federal authorities.
On Friday, New York Gov. Chris Christie and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced a plan of mandatory quarantine for health care workers back from Africa who had been exposed to Ebola but showed no symptoms.
It was in part a reaction to the case of Craig Spencer, a New York City physician who tested positive for Ebola, but acknowledged he had left his apartment and moved around the city just before experiencing Ebola symptoms.
Saying they couldn't rely on voluntary self-reporting, the governors pronounced themselves resolved to err on the side of caution and monitor people such as Spencer under confinement. Cuomo, however, quickly eased those rules, allowing such health care workers to self-quarantine at home.
The White House also weighed in, saying it had conveyed concerns to the governors of New York and New Jersey that their stringent quarantine policies were "not grounded in science" and would hamper efforts to recruit volunteers to fight the epidemic in Africa. Christie said he had not heard from the White House before the plan was announced.
After the uproar in New Jersey, Hickox was allowed to leave on Monday, but Christie insisted that it did not represent a change of policy.
"I didn't reverse any decision," he said Tuesday. "She hadn't had any symptoms for 24 hours. And she tested negative for Ebola. So there was no reason to keep her. The reason she was put into the hospital in the first place was because she was running a high fever and was symptomatic."
"If people are symptomatic they go into the hospital," Christie said. "If they live in New Jersey, they get quarantined at home. If they don't, and they're not symptomatic, then we set up quarantine for them out of state. But if they are symptomatic, they're going to the hospital."
Hickox told The Dallas Morning News that her brief fever spike, recorded by a forehead scanner at the airport, was the result of being flushed and angry over her confinement and that an oral temperature reading at the same time showed her to be normal.
Contributing: Kaitlyn Chana report for WLBZ-TV in Bangor; Rick Hampson in New York; Associated Press
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