This is a picture of criminal who is breaking the law! She went for a bike ride.
Kaci Hickox has decided to engage in a confrontation with Gov LePage over her civil rights as she had promised to do. Bright and early on a crisp Fall morning in Maine, she and her partner set out on a bike ride. As you can see she had her helmet on. She is being tailed by the state police because she is in defiance of the governor's demand that she remain quarantined inside her home. It seems likely that the state will go to court today in an attempt to obtain an order imposing a mandatory quarantine on her.
Hickox is not just on some kind of personal ego trip. She is taking a stand on an important issue that is quickly taking on very practical ramifications. It has already been pointed out over and over again that anything that interferes with US health care workers providing assistance in Africa undermines efforts to bring the epidemic there under control. However, it is now becoming apparent that the public panic is spreading to health care worker in the US.
Bellevue Employees Face Ebola at Work, and Stigma of It Everywhere
Bellevue’s medical director, Dr. Nate Link, said more than a dozen employees — not limited to those taking care of Dr. Spencer — had reported being discriminated against, including not being welcome at a business or social event. One employee lost a teaching position, he said.
Some nurses who moonlight at other jobs have been told they are not needed there, according to the New York State Nurses Association, a union. One nurse said her child was not allowed to go to day care. “These are obviously related to irrational fears in the community,” Dr. Link said.
Medical workers who have treated Ebola patients at hospitals in Atlanta, Dallas and Omaha have also reported being stigmatized. The problem is severe enough that Mayor Bill de Blasio acknowledged it during a news conference at Bellevue on Sunday.
“Again, the medical personnel fighting this fight, particularly our nurses, deserve our respect,” Mr. de Blasio said. “We heard reports in the last few days of nurses being mistreated in our city — when it became clear that they worked at Bellevue — being treated differently. We heard reports of people being unwilling to serve them food or treating their children differently. That is absolutely unacceptable.”
It is a small logical step from trying to quarantining all health care workers returning from Africa to demanding that those who are caring for ebola patients in the US be locked up for the duration. Then you can jump to everybody else who works in a large hospital like Bellevue. From there the possibilities are endless.
Panic and hysteria are irrational reactions. It is not possible to placate that with something that looks like a rational compromise. When public officials pander to it by imposing restrictions that are lacking in medical validity they are taking irrational actions.
UPDATE: This red headed nurse has now vanquished another right wing publicity hound. LePage has decided not to tangle with her.
Ebola Nurse Kaci Hickox Can Swap Quarantine for Blood Test, Gov Tells ABC News
Maine's governor indicated today that he would abandon his demand that nurse Kaci Hickox remain under quarantine after treating Ebola patients if she would agree to take a blood test for the lethal virus.
Gov. Paul LePage made his comment to ABC News today as Hickox defiantly challenged demands that she remain quarantined by leaving her home this morning for a bike ride with her boyfriend.
LePage indicated to ABC News that he was willing to abandon his demands that the nurse remain quarantined if she would take a blood test for Ebola.
While Hickox was pedaling, attorneys for the state of Maine went to Superior Court seeking a judge’s permission to give Hickox a blood test for Ebola, LePage said.
“This could be resolved today,” the governor said. “She has been exposed and she’s not cooperative, so force her to take a test. It’s so simple.”
Medical experts have said that an Ebola test would only be positive if someone were symptomatic, and could register a negative result if the amount of Ebola virus in the blood hadn’t reached a detectable level.
We will see if Hickox agrees to more blood test. Temperature monitoring is all that is necessary. LePage is following in the footsteps of Christie by putting up a wall flack to cover his retreat.