Ebola nurse defies US authorities with an early morning bike ride
NEW YORK: Once more defying a state order that she remain quarantined in her house until any danger of her having Ebola has passed, a nurse in Maine recently returned from West Africa took to her bicycle yesterday morning for a brief ride tailed by police officers powerless to arrest her.
Kaci Hickox, who returned from Sierra Leone where she was volunteering with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) a week ago, had threat- ened to sue the authorities in Maine if they did not lift the quarantine order by the end of yesterday, claiming it was unnecessary and a violation of her civil rights.
Hickox, 33, became the first health worker to be detained on retur ning to the US under emergency rules put in place by the states of New York and New Jersey.
She reacted furiously when she was placed in an isolation tent at a hospital near Newark Airport for three days. She was later allowed to drive to Maine, where authorities insisted she isolate herself at her home.
President Barack Obama this week made plain his dismay with the state-level quarantine orders, saying that people like Hickox should be treated first as returning heroes. At the same time, the federal government has ordered that US Army soldiers leaving the three West African countries worst affected by the out- break must themselves be quarantined for 21 days.
“It’s a beautiful day for a bike ride,” Hickox told reporters outside her rural home. She was accompanied by her boyfriend, Theodore Wilbur. She continues to insist she has no symptoms so, according to federal guidelines, cannot represent a health threat.
“You could hug me. You could shake my hand. I would not give you Ebola,” she said.
Hickox said yesterday that she hoped for a compromise with officials: “I really hope we can work things out amicably and continue to negotiate.”
Maine Governor Paul LePage said the state was willing to agree to arrangements that would have allowed Hickox to go for walks, runs and bicycle rides while preventing her from going into public places or coming within a metre of others. But he said those discussions were seemingly unsuccessful. – The Independent