Nurse angry over N.J. Ebola quarantine readies legal action

An American nurse for Doctors Without Borders, angry over her forced confinement to an isolation tent in a New Jersey hospital despite showing no signs of Ebola, is taking legal action against the state's new regulations that require all aid workers from Ebola-stricken from West Africa to be quarantined for 21 days.
Kaci Hickox, 33, was the first person pulled aside at Newark Liberty International Airport on Friday under the new rules after her return from Sierra Leone, where she was working with Ebola patients.
In a telephone interview with CNN, Hickox, a native Texan who now lives in Maine, said her confinement at University Hospital in Newark was "inhumane" and akin to being in prison. She said she has no symptoms and tested negative for Ebola.
"This is an extreme that is really unacceptable, and I feel like my basic human rights have been violated," Hickox who said on CNN's State of the Union.
In a possible sign of a reversal by New Jersey, reporter Michael Barbaro of The New York Timestweets that N.J. Gov. Chris Christie says he is planning to release Hickox later Monday if the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention signs off on it. Under this scenario, the nurse would remain under quarantine, but perhaps in her own home, Barbaro writes.
The report could not be immediately confirmed.
New Jersey and New York, followed by Illinois, introduced the the tough new quarantine rules last week after a New York City physician, Craig Spencer, was hospitalized and tested positive for Ebola last Thursday.
Before Spencer had developed symptoms he rode the New York City subway, went bowling and ate at a restaurant.
New York has since eased its version of the regulations and will now allow a targeted aid worker to remain at home for the three-week period.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican locked in a tough battle for re-election next month, on Saturday ordered twice daily monitoring for 21 days for anyone returning from places affected by Ebola.
The White House, which has expressed concern over the new restrictive measures, is working on new guidelines for such health care workers, according to a senior administration official.
The new guidelines are expected to be unveiled in the coming days, the official said.The official added that the administration is consulting with the states as they develop the new rules.
President Obama met Sunday with his Ebola response team, including "Ebola czar" Ron Klain and other public health and national security officials. According to the White House, the president said any measures concerning returning health care workers "should be crafted so as not to unnecessarily discourage those workers from serving."
Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and United Nations Ambassador Samantha Power said quarantines may discourage health workers from traveling to West Africa to help block the disease at its source.
"If you put everyone in one basket, even people who are clearly no threat, then we have the problem of the disincentive of people that we need," Fauci said on ABC's This Week. "Let's not forget the best way to stop this epidemic and protect America is to stop it in Africa, and you can really help stopping it in Africa if we have our people, our heroes, the health care workers, go there and help us to protect America."
Norman Siegel, Hickox's attorney, told CNN he will go to court seeking a hearing, saying her quarantine was based on fear. "People are panicking, and people are scared," he said.
Siegel, an attorney who specializes in civil and human rights cases involving the government, told J. David Goodman of The New York Times that he asked Hickox if she "wanted this to be a test case and she said yes."

Hickox also wrote a first-person account for the Dallas Morning News, which was posted on the paper's website Saturday.
"This is not a situation I would wish on anyone, and I am scared for those who will follow me," Hickox wrote of her quarantine. "I am scared about how health care workers will be treated at airports when they declare that they have been fighting Ebola in West Africa. I am scared that, like me, they will arrive and see a frenzy of disorganization, fear and, most frightening, quarantine. … The U.S. must treat returning health care workers with dignity and humanity."
U.S. ambassador Power, who is traveling in West Africa, told NBC News that quarantine plans in the three states are "haphazard and not well thought out," and could discourage health workers from going to West Africa in the first place.
"We cannot take measures here that are going to impact our ability to flood the zone," Power said. "We have to find the right balance between addressing the legitimate fears that people have and encouraging and incentivizing these heroes."
Christie, speaking on Fox News Sunday, defended New Jersey's new regulations.
"I don't think when you're dealing with something as serious as this you can count on a voluntary system," Christie, a Republican, said."This is the government's job."
He added: "I think this is a policy that will become a national policy sooner or later."
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, also defended his state's new policy Sunday in a radio interview, but later loosened the restrictions.
He said health care workers can be quarantined at home, receive twice-daily monitoring from medical professionals, and the state will also pay for any lost compensation. On Friday, Cuomo had said the workers would be held in a government-regulated facility.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, a sharp opponent of restrictive rules, said Hickox had been treated with disrespect."We owe her better than that,'' he said.
De Blasio visited the treatment ward at Bellevue Hospital and spoke with Spencer, the New York City physician who had been treating Ebola patient in Guinea. At a news conference later he said health workers should be regarded as heroes and likened them to U.S. Marines on the front-lines of danger.
"They are the first responders and they are doing an absolutely extraordinary job,'' he said.
Hospital officials said on Saturday that Spencer was experiencing gastrointestinal symptoms and "entering the next phase of his illness."
Republican members of Congress have called on the Obama administration to enact more travel restrictions into and out of West Africa.
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, told CNN's State of the Union that state officials are taking action in the absence of federal leadership.
"Governors of both parties are reacting because there isn't a trust in the leadership of this administration," Issa said.

From USATODAY.COM