New Jersey Nurse Quarantined in a Tent
Quarantined nurse blasts Gov. Christie as lawyer prepares to fight for her freedom
Kaci Hickox, 33, was the first person snared by the 21-day mandatory quarantine announced by Christie and Gov. Cuomo for anyone returning to New York or New Jersey after treating Ebola victims in West Africa. Civil rights attorney Norman Siegel has signed on to help Hickox sue for her freedom.
BY REUVEN BLAU , SASHA GOLDSTEIN , ERIN DURKIN NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Published: Sunday, October 26, 2014, 1:14 PM Updated: Sunday, October 26, 2014, 6:40 PM A A A
Kaci Hickox, 33, blasted Gov. Chris Christie on Sunday after being quarantine Friday following her return from Sierra Leone.
The nurse put under mandatory quarantine in New Jersey blasted Gov. Chris Christie on Sunday for the decision to isolate her and plans to take legal action to gain her freedom.
The quarantine tent in Newark, New Jersey, which has housed Kaci Hickox since she returned from Sierra Leone on October 24, 2014. Hickox had been treating Ebola victims.
"First of all, I don't think he (Christie) is a doctor, and second of all, he's never laid eyes on me," Kaci Hickox, 33, told CNN's Candy Crowley by phone from her quarantine tent outside University Hospital in Newark.
She said Christie was just wrong when he described her as "obviously ill" when she has no fever or other symptoms of the virus.
Hickox, who returned from working with Ebola victims in Sierra Leone, has retained civil rights attorney Norman Siegel to sue for her freedom in New Jersey federal court later this week.
"The mandatory quarantine policy enacted by Govs. Christie and Cuomo creates serious and substantial civil liberties issues," Siegel, the former head of the New York Civil Liberties Union, told the Daily News. "The policy infringes on Kaci Hickox's constitutional liberty."
Siegel said he had spoken to Hickox several times by phone and was cleared to meet with her later Sunday. He was gathering affidavits from legal experts to support their case.
To hold someone against his or her will, the government would have to prove a compelling public health reason, he said.
"Her temperature's 98.6. They took her blood and it's negative for Ebola. So I don't think they meet the requirements to confine her. And she wants out," he said. "You can't have a policy based on fear. It's got to be based on medical fact."
Hickox's boyfriend, Theodore Wilbur, 39, called his companion's confinement "fear mongering."
"They are doing it during the election season to drum up support for hardline members of the political establishment," he told The News from Maine, where the couple lives.
Hickox was singled out for extra screening after deplaning Friday at Newark Liberty Airport.
Following hours of tests and questioning, Hickox says she was ordered into isolation in an unheated tent outside University Hospital in Newark. She was the first person treated under the new rules in place in Jersey, New York and Illinois to quarantine anyone, including health workers, who have had contact with Ebola victims in Africa for 21 days.
The bathroom inside the tent outside University Hospital in Newark, where Kaci Hickox is being quarantined.
The extreme measures were described as "draconian" by the National Institute of Health's infectious disease director, Dr. Anthony Fauci, who appeared Sunday on NBC'S "Meet the Press."
"We need to treat them, returning (health workers), with respect, and make sure that - they're really heroes," he said.
Hickox said chaos reigned as health-care workers scrambled to set up her accommodations and monitoring. The tent has a portable toilet, no shower and little else. She's stuck only with her iPhone and a small window.
No one has communicated to her the quarantine protocol, or what will become of her for the next several days, Hickox said.
"To put me in prison is just inhumane," she told CNN.
She spoke to family on Sunday morning.
"I don't really know what's happening to my child," her mother, Karen Hickox, told the Daily News from Texas. "I love her with all my heart and I want her to be safe."
sgoldstein@nydailynews.co
Kaci Hickox, 33, was the first person snared by the 21-day mandatory quarantine announced by Christie and Gov. Cuomo for anyone returning to New York or New Jersey after treating Ebola victims in West Africa. Civil rights attorney Norman Siegel has signed on to help Hickox sue for her freedom.
BY REUVEN BLAU , SASHA GOLDSTEIN , ERIN DURKIN NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Published: Sunday, October 26, 2014, 1:14 PM Updated: Sunday, October 26, 2014, 6:40 PM A A A
Kaci Hickox, 33, blasted Gov. Chris Christie on Sunday after being quarantine Friday following her return from Sierra Leone.
The nurse put under mandatory quarantine in New Jersey blasted Gov. Chris Christie on Sunday for the decision to isolate her and plans to take legal action to gain her freedom.
The quarantine tent in Newark, New Jersey, which has housed Kaci Hickox since she returned from Sierra Leone on October 24, 2014. Hickox had been treating Ebola victims.
"First of all, I don't think he (Christie) is a doctor, and second of all, he's never laid eyes on me," Kaci Hickox, 33, told CNN's Candy Crowley by phone from her quarantine tent outside University Hospital in Newark.
She said Christie was just wrong when he described her as "obviously ill" when she has no fever or other symptoms of the virus.
Hickox, who returned from working with Ebola victims in Sierra Leone, has retained civil rights attorney Norman Siegel to sue for her freedom in New Jersey federal court later this week.
"The mandatory quarantine policy enacted by Govs. Christie and Cuomo creates serious and substantial civil liberties issues," Siegel, the former head of the New York Civil Liberties Union, told the Daily News. "The policy infringes on Kaci Hickox's constitutional liberty."
Siegel said he had spoken to Hickox several times by phone and was cleared to meet with her later Sunday. He was gathering affidavits from legal experts to support their case.
To hold someone against his or her will, the government would have to prove a compelling public health reason, he said.
"Her temperature's 98.6. They took her blood and it's negative for Ebola. So I don't think they meet the requirements to confine her. And she wants out," he said. "You can't have a policy based on fear. It's got to be based on medical fact."
Hickox's boyfriend, Theodore Wilbur, 39, called his companion's confinement "fear mongering."
"They are doing it during the election season to drum up support for hardline members of the political establishment," he told The News from Maine, where the couple lives.
Hickox was singled out for extra screening after deplaning Friday at Newark Liberty Airport.
Following hours of tests and questioning, Hickox says she was ordered into isolation in an unheated tent outside University Hospital in Newark. She was the first person treated under the new rules in place in Jersey, New York and Illinois to quarantine anyone, including health workers, who have had contact with Ebola victims in Africa for 21 days.
The bathroom inside the tent outside University Hospital in Newark, where Kaci Hickox is being quarantined.
The extreme measures were described as "draconian" by the National Institute of Health's infectious disease director, Dr. Anthony Fauci, who appeared Sunday on NBC'S "Meet the Press."
"We need to treat them, returning (health workers), with respect, and make sure that - they're really heroes," he said.
Hickox said chaos reigned as health-care workers scrambled to set up her accommodations and monitoring. The tent has a portable toilet, no shower and little else. She's stuck only with her iPhone and a small window.
No one has communicated to her the quarantine protocol, or what will become of her for the next several days, Hickox said.
"To put me in prison is just inhumane," she told CNN.
She spoke to family on Sunday morning.
"I don't really know what's happening to my child," her mother, Karen Hickox, told the Daily News from Texas. "I love her with all my heart and I want her to be safe."
sgoldstein@nydailynews.co
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quote:Originally posted by Barzillia
Do you really not understand ?
The infection, if it had been present, would not have been communicable at the time the nurse was quarantined.
Even serial PCR testing revealed no virus.
Hence, no quarantine would be medically necessary or reasonable.
Do you really not understand?
The people who actually know a lot more about Ebola than any of the rest of us admit they don't know when and how Ebola is communicable. They admitted yesterday they aren't sure it isn't airborne.0 -
quote:Originally posted by Barzillia
quote:Originally posted by CaptFun
If you honestly think for a minute that letting people who have been exposed to chicken pox (much less ebola) into the country without a quarantine is good for the general welfare then you sir really should not be playing with firearms.
Really.
And that is the end of this circus. I will send it over to the crew in politics to deal with.
Chickenpox ?
Who was talking about chickenpox ?
Chickenpox is endemic.
Reckon they should quarantine for influenza, too ?
Herpes ?
Norovirus ?
Maybe everybody should have a total infectious disease workup upon entry to the country.
Like I said, if it's good enough for your dogs, perhaps you are now volunteering for quarantine, too ?
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
Get real.
If I had been in a poophole hot zone, I would certainly quarantine my self for more than the 21 days before visiting my family.
Lets play a game and see who notices that Barzilla has been quarantined for 21 days. (or more. depends on if I have a fever or not.)0 -
quote:Originally posted by skicat
They are willing to risk exposure to a deadly virus in a third world country and are considered heroes for this sacrifice but then balk at a 3 week quarantine to safeguard the lives of an entire nation. That makes no sense to me.
It's good that it makes no sense to you. When you start making sense out of nonsense you have a problem that might not be treatable. [;)] [:D]0 -
quote:Originally posted by Barzillia
You are hearing what you want, and filtering what you do hear according to your fears.
"They" said....
Don't know what or who you heard say whatever you think you heard.
Would be glad to discuss something that can actually be accurately quoted.
Ebola is the least of my fears so my fears don't enter into it. My old body is completely worn out and used up. The flu or a worse than usual cold would probably kill me, and I don't fear that either. I have accepted the fact that I won't be the third person to get out of this life alive. I don't know when or how or why I will die, but I will die. That doesn't bother me.
Occasionally I try to use a little common sense. Common sense tells me when there is something that can kill a bunch of people you do what you can to control the spread.
As for who said what when, I don't take notes of names dates and places when I'm listening to radio news. Don't plan to start. Can you give me the names dates and places of the people who said they do know how Ebola is communicated and how to get the fatality under seventy percent?0 -
quote:Originally posted by CaptFun
quote:Originally posted by Barzillia
quote:Originally posted by CaptFun
If you honestly think for a minute that letting people who have been exposed to chicken pox (much less ebola) into the country without a quarantine is good for the general welfare then you sir really should not be playing with firearms.
Really.
And that is the end of this circus. I will send it over to the crew in politics to deal with.
Chickenpox ?
Who was talking about chickenpox ?
Chickenpox is endemic.
Reckon they should quarantine for influenza, too ?
Herpes ?
Norovirus ?
Maybe everybody should have a total infectious disease workup upon entry to the country.
Like I said, if it's good enough for your dogs, perhaps you are now volunteering for quarantine, too ?
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
Get real.
If I had been in a poophole hot zone, I would certainly quarantine my self for more than the 21 days before visiting my family.
Lets play a game and see who notices that Barzilla has been quarantined for 21 days. (or more. depends on if I have a fever or not.)
what do I win?0 -
quote:Originally posted by JamesRK
quote:Originally posted by Barzillia
You are hearing what you want, and filtering what you do hear according to your fears.
"They" said....
Don't know what or who you heard say whatever you think you heard.
Would be glad to discuss something that can actually be accurately quoted.
Ebola is the least of my fears so my fears don't enter into it. My old body is completely worn out and used up. The flu or a worse than usual cold would probably kill me, and I don't fear that either. I have accepted the fact that I won't be the third person to get out of this life alive. I don't know when or how or why I will die, but I will die. That doesn't bother me.
Occasionally I try to use a little common sense. Common sense tells me when there is something that can kill a bunch of people you do what you can to control the spread.
As for who said what when, I don't take notes of names dates and places when I'm listening to radio news. Don't plan to start. Can you give me the names dates and places of the people who said they do know how Ebola is communicated and how to get the fatality under seventy percent?
Well said James. I think you spoke for a lot of us 'normal' folks that still have common sense.0 -
quote:Originally posted by CaptFun
quote:Originally posted by Barzillia
quote:Originally posted by CaptFun
If you honestly think for a minute that letting people who have been exposed to chicken pox (much less ebola) into the country without a quarantine is good for the general welfare then you sir really should not be playing with firearms.
Really.
And that is the end of this circus. I will send it over to the crew in politics to deal with.
Chickenpox ?
Who was talking about chickenpox ?
Chickenpox is endemic.
Reckon they should quarantine for influenza, too ?
Herpes ?
Norovirus ?
Maybe everybody should have a total infectious disease workup upon entry to the country.
Like I said, if it's good enough for your dogs, perhaps you are now volunteering for quarantine, too ?
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
Get real.
If I had been in a poophole hot zone, I would certainly quarantine my self for more than the 21 days before visiting my family.
Lets play a game and see who notices that Barzilla has been quarantined for 21 days. (or more. depends on if I have a fever or not.)
Now that's funny![:0][:p]0 -
quote:Originally posted by Barzillia
quote:Originally posted by Mr. Perfect
Good to know that ebola is not a communicable disease.
Do you really not understand ?
The infection, if it had been present, would not have been communicable at the time the nurse was quarantined.
Even serial PCR testing revealed no virus.
Hence, no quarantine would be medically necessary or reasonable.
I just have to respond to this post, because it demonstrates, with clarity, the dodge and weave of our (now quarantined) forum contrarian.
The entire argument was: you don't quarantine for "contacts" only.
In fact, here is one representative unequivocal statement:
quote:When I say cases, not contacts, that refers to the current evidence based practice of isolating/quarantining persons who actually have, or are even reasonably thought to have, a communicable disease.
Not people who have possibly been exposed, termed contacts.
When that was supposedly refuted by citing NJ law (apparently from 2005) that suggested, yes... contacts are quarantined. The argument shifted to one of "that law isn't current".
So, I posted up the current NJ state law and health code that shows that yes, quarantine is used for "contacts". It's there in red above.
That the law was current now being firmly established beyond argument, our contrarian shifted to this most recent argument, that quarantine is not justified because she was not "communicable".
I note that this argument was only slightly different than the first, but apparently it is the only argument left.
Either way, the law appears to read to me that it specifically specifies quarantine of contacts.[:I]
Does anyone left here disagree?0 -
Nay.
Our 'contrarian' would make a good fit for the selfish ass of a nurse that is now in Maine and refusing to comply with a stay at home quarantine.0 -
quote:Originally posted by Mr. Perfect
quote:Originally posted by Barzillia
quote:Originally posted by Mr. Perfect
Good to know that ebola is not a communicable disease.
Do you really not understand ?
The infection, if it had been present, would not have been communicable at the time the nurse was quarantined.
Even serial PCR testing revealed no virus.
Hence, no quarantine would be medically necessary or reasonable.
I just have to respond to this post, because it demonstrates, with clarity, the dodge and weave of our (now quarantined) forum contrarian.
The entire argument was: you don't quarantine for "contacts" only.
In fact, here is one representative unequivocal statement:
quote:When I say cases, not contacts, that refers to the current evidence based practice of isolating/quarantining persons who actually have, or are even reasonably thought to have, a communicable disease.
Not people who have possibly been exposed, termed contacts.
When that was supposedly refuted by citing NJ law (apparently from 2005) that suggested, yes... contacts are quarantined. The argument shifted to one of "that law isn't current".
So, I posted up the current NJ state law and health code that shows that yes, quarantine is used for "contacts". It's there in red above.
That the law was current now being firmly established beyond argument, our contrarian shifted to this most recent argument, that quarantine is not justified because she was not "communicable".
I note that this argument was only slightly different than the first, but apparently it is the only argument left.
Either way, the law appears to read to me that it specifically specifies quarantine of contacts.[:I]
Does anyone left here disagree?
Nope. I think you covered it pretty well. I noticed when the argument shifted, and that is always a sure sign of someone losing.
The scary part is that we seem to have medical professionals in this country who lack the common sense James illustrated above. General Honoree said 'You can't fix stupid', and even worse when 'stupid' has what passes for an education.
Been in a 3rd world craphole where people are dying right and left of OggaBoogaitis? Stay away from other people until you are sure you can't pass along the disease.
Well done to you for the technical obliteration of the silliness, and also to James for summing up the Man-on-the-Street version.0
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