Skip to footer

Nurse Kaci Hickox on Maine quarantine: 'I won't be bullied by politicians'

Kaci Hickox, who volunteered in Africa with Doctors Without Borders, was the first person forced into New Jersey's mandatory quarantine. She's in Maine now, and refuses to be quarantined there. 

  • By Staff Associated Press

| Fort Kent, Maine

A nurse who was confined against her will at a New Jersey hospital after returning from West Africa where she treated Ebola patients said Wednesday that she's prepared to go to court if the state of Maine tries to quarantine her.

Kaci Hickox spoke to NBC's "Today" show and ABC's "Good Morning America" from Fort Kent, where her boyfriend is a senior nursing student.

She said she had no contact with anyone Tuesday and will have no human contact again Wednesday.

But Hickox says if the restrictions aren't lifted by Thursday, she will go to court to fight for her freedom.

"I don't plan on sticking to the guidelines," Hickox said on "Today". "I remain appalled by these home quarantine policies that have been forced upon me even though I am in perfectly good health."

Hickox, who volunteered in Africa with Doctors Without Borders, was the first person forced into New Jersey's mandatory quarantine for people arriving at Newark Liberty International Airport from three West African countries.

Hickox, who spent the weekend in a quarantine tent, said she never had Ebola symptoms and tested negative in a preliminary evaluation, and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo were sharply criticized for ordering mandatory quarantines.

"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," she said.

On Tuesday, Department of Health and Human Services Commissioner Mary Mayhew said her department and the attorney general's office were prepared to take legal steps to enforce a quarantine if someone declines to cooperate.

"We do not want to have to legally enforce in-home quarantine," she said. "We're confident that selfless health workers who were brave enough to care for Ebola patients in a foreign country will be willing to take reasonable steps to protect residents of their own country."

Hickox said Wednesday that she remains concerned by the mandatory quarantines.

"I truly believe that this policy is not scientifically or constitutionally just," she said.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said over the weekend.: "Anyone who has heard nurse Hickox explain her situation in her proud, compassionate, intelligent voice knows that what happened to her was inappropriate,"  "Each government has to make decisions. We understand that.... But the problem here is this hero is coming back from the front, having done the right thing, was treated with disrespect was treated with a sense that she had done something wrong when she hadn't. We owe her better than that.”

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Nurse Kaci Hickox on Maine quarantine: 'I won't be bullied by politicians'
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Latest-News-Wires/2014/1029/Nurse-Kaci-Hickox-on-Maine-quarantine-I-won-t-be-bullied-by-politicians
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe