http://nypost.com/2014/10/28/ebola-nurse-leaves-prison-but-mainers-dont-want-her-back/Ebola nurse leaves ‘prison’ but Mainers don’t want her back
By Leonica Valentine, Danika Fears and Bob Fredericks
October 28, 2014 | 6:08am
The American nurse who was forced into quarantine when she flew to Newark after treating Ebola patients in Sierra Leone was allowed on Monday to leave a New Jersey hospital and go home to Maine — where residents are greeting her return with fear.
Kaci Hickox, 33, had been stuck for three days in a white tent outside University Hospital in Newark, where, she griped, she had to endure “inhumane” and “prison-like” conditions.
But as she was driven by private car to Maine, where she lives with her boyfriend, residents there organized a Facebook page called “Mainers against Kaci Hickox returning home to Fort Kent Maine.”
“She is pretty selfish and without common sense!!” Caroline Kay wrote on the page.
The Doctors Without Borders volunteer finally got the OK to leave the Newark hospital at 1:20 p.m., after being symptom-free for at least 24 hours, the New Jersey Department of Health said.
Gov. Chris Christie defended his decision to quarantine the nurse as part of his and Gov. Cuomo’s mandatory quarantine policy, announced Friday but since revised, for all health workers who have been in contact with Ebola patients in West Africa.
“The fact is, I have a much greater, bigger responsibility to the people of the public,” Christie said of Hickox’s confinement. “So, I think when she has time to reflect, she’ll understand that, as well.”
He dismissed claims he was retreating from his stance.
“I didn’t reverse my decision,” the governor said. “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.”
She agreed to finish out the remainder of a 21-day quarantine at her boyfriend’s Fort Kent home.
But some students at the University of Maine at Fort Kent vowed not attend classes if Hickox’s boyfriend, Theodore Wilbur, also a student there, returned to campus.
“One of my friends texted me and said that if he is there, she’s walking out,” one student told the Portland Press Herald. “There’s already people talking about not going to class.”
Town Manager Don Guimond said he received phone calls from many worried residents.
“People just need to calm down and respect the situation she is in,” Guimond said, according to the Bangor Daily News. “She just wants to come home, and she has every right to come home.”
In other developments:
Dr. Craig Spencer, the Harlem physician diagnosed with Ebola after treating patients in Africa, remained in serious but stable condition at Bellevue. His fiancée, Morgan Dixon, and two pals who are under quarantine because they spent time with him, remained symptom-free under continued monitoring.
The Centers for Disease Control released new guidelines for health-care workers returning from Ebola-stricken countries, including “voluntary isolation” for “high-risk” individuals who had unprotected contact with infected patients. Those deemed at “some risk” may be restricted from work and “other activities,” officials said.
Some New York City schoolkids were sent home with information “to help [parents] understand this issue and to dispel any misinformation,” an Education Department spokeswoman said.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon ridiculed the New York-New Jersey policy, saying health workers “should not be subjected to restrictions that are not based on science.”
Over the weekend, Hickox had fumed about her sparse setup in Newark, which she griped didn’t include a television or shower.
She even hired a legal team, which threatened to file a lawsuit.
But “we have no need or intention to file an immediate lawsuit at this time since she is no longer being detained by [New Jersey] officials,” one of her lawyers, Steven Hyman, said Monday.
Mayor de Blasio called Hickox’s detention “unacceptable” and “disrespectful to a hero.”
White House spokesman Josh Earnest agreed, saying Hickox wasn’t given the treatment she deserved.
“Her service and commitment to this cause is something that should be honored and respected,” Earnest said. “And I don’t think we do that by making her live in a tent for two or three days.”
Cuomo also clarified his own revamped policy for New York state. Health-care workers returning from Africa can stay at home but will be subject to “unannounced visits” by health officials to make sure they comply with the new rules, he said.
“You don’t know when they are coming,” Cuomo warned. “You better be there.”
He added that he disagrees with the CDC’s policies, which are more lenient than New York and New Jersey’s.
“The federal government doesn’t agree with our policy,” Cuomo said. “They think we’re being too cautious.”
But he said he doesn’t believe the states’ measure puts an “undue burden” on people.
“Enjoy your friends. Read a book. Read my book,” he joked.
Kaci Hickox meets with New York civil rights attorney Norman Siegel at her isolation tent.
