Posted on 10/23/2015 8:31:54 AM PDT by Conscience of a Conservative
A nurse held for three days in quarantine at a Newark hospital last year after aiding Ebola patients in West Africa has filed suit against Governor Christie and members of his administration, saying they violated her constitutional rights by holding her against her will without due process.
The nurse, Kaci Hickox, had spent a month in Sierra Leone treating Ebola patients and training other health workers for Doctors Without Borders. When she returned home on Oct. 24 and landed at Newark Liberty International Airport, she became the first health worker ensnared in the Christie administration’s new policy to impose a 21-day mandatory quarantine on travelers arriving from Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea who had come in contact with Ebola patients.
“We are filing this claim to hold those who made this decision accountable and also to highlight and fight against the lack of due process in the quarantine policy in New Jersey,” Hickox said Thursday via skype from her home in Oregon.
“It was clear to me that politicians and in particular Governor Christie were really reacting out of fear,” she said. “When you choose to detain someone out of fear that’s discrimination.”
The incident occurred last fall amid growing national worries about Ebola reaching the United States from West Africa, where an outbreak has killed more than 11,300 people and infected more than 28,500, according to the World Health Organization. Before Hickox’s return to the United States, a Liberian national who was visiting Texas died of Ebola at a Dallas hospital and Craig Spencer, a Manhattan doctor who had worked with Ebola patients in Guinea, set off a health scare in New York City after he rode the subway and visited a bowling alley while sick from the disease, though he didn’t yet know he had the virus. He has since recovered.
Related: N.J. releases details on mandatory Ebola screening and quarantine
Christie and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo unveiled Ebola quarantine policies last October amid public concern that health workers who had been treating Ebola patients could not be trusted to self-quarantine when they returned to the United States. At one point, New Jersey had about 100 people in active monitoring, different than quarantine because they must contact local health officials daily and must take their temperatures and watch for symptoms.
Related: Ebola quarantine process criticized by health care worker isolated in Newark
When questioned about the quarantine policy last year, Christie defended it. “Your first and most important job is to protect the health and safety of the people who live within your borders, and the fact is that we’re doing exactly the right thing,” he had said. A poll taken a few weeks after the quarantine policy was implemented, 67 percent of New Jersey residents approved of the decision to quarantine Hickox, and just 19 percent disagreed.
Hickox, 34, is seeking $250,000 in compensatory and punitive damages. Norman Siegel, a civil rights lawyer representing Hickox, said that amounts to $2,000 for each hour of her 80-hour detention plus extra for punitive damages.
The 35-page complaint, filed in the United States District Court of New Jersey, also names as defendants Mary O’Dowd, the former state health commissioner, as well as Christopher Rinn and Gary Ludwig, two other employees of the state health department.
Siegel said Hickox is suing Christie and others as individuals, which could mean the governor would have to pay for his own private lawyer as well as pay any judgment himself if the court sided with Hickox. “It sends a message to other elected officials that they will be held personally responsible for actions like this,” Siegel said.
Christie spokesman Brian Murray said Thursday the governor would not comment on the suit because it is a pending legal matter.
Ebola spreads through direct contact with body fluids or through exposure to objects contaminated with the virus, such as needles. Symptoms, including fever, headache and muscle aches, commonly appear within eight to 10 days of exposure, but the maximum incubation period is 21 days.
In her complaint, Hickox argues that she followed all Doctors Without Borders infection control policies while in Sierra Leone, such as wearing protective equipment when in contact with patients and keeping a three-foot distance from people suspected of having Ebola.
After landing in Newark and telling immigration officials she had been treating Ebola patients, Hickox was held apart in a quarantine center at the airport. “No one told her what was going on or what was going to happen to her,” the complaint states. “There seemed to be no coordination among the persons who interviewed her.”
Among those who questioned her was a man wearing a weapon belt “who spoke to Hickox aggressively as if she were a criminal,” according to the complaint.
When someone tested her with a non-contact thermometer, it registered a temperature, but an oral thermometer later used at University Hospital in Newark showed no fever.
Hickox was taken from the airport to the hospital in an ambulance escorted by eight police cars with lights flashing and sirens blaring, and she was held in an isolation tent in an unfinished section of the hospital facility with inadequate heating, the complaint states. She had to ask for several blankets to keep warm, and had no access to the outside world other than her cell phone, which had weak reception, making it hard for her to send or receive email for personal or legal reasons, according to the complaint. She had access to a portable toilet but not a shower.
“I felt completely alone and vulnerable,” Hickox said. “It was really hard. I had a lot of tough moments.”
While being held, she showed no symptoms of Ebola, and threatened legal action with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union. At the time, Christie replied in response, “I’ve been sued lots of times before. Get in line. I’m happy to take it on.”
He also said he didn’t think the state’s quarantine policy would discourage health care workers from going to West Africa. “I think folks should understand part of the sacrifice is going over there and the remainder of the sacrifice is when you come home,” he said then.
Hickox was later released and went home to Maine, where she was kept under quarantine for several days until a Maine judge ruled she didn’t have to be quarantined.
Hickox’s experience became a cause celebre among other health care workers, and her case sparked national debate about how to handle people exposed to Ebola. Christie and President Obama also clashed publicly over the state’s quarantine policy.
Hickox said she did not sue University Hospital or the health care providers because they weren’t the ones who enforced the quarantine. She called the nurses, doctors and staff “wonderful, compassionate and kind.”
Before her stint in Sierra Leone, Hickox had also worked as a medical team leader, nurse manager and primary health care manager for Doctors Without Borders in Uganda, Nigeria, Sudan and Myanmar. Hickox married in the past year and moved to Oregon where she is “a clinical nurse educator for a large health care provider.” She has not been out of the country since Sierra Leone. But she said she hopes to do more humanitarian work overseas and hopes New Jersey’s quarantine policy is changed by then were she to land back in Newark.
Email: fallon@northjersey.com and oneillj@northjersey.com
I answered your question. The only way she would have had it and spread it is if she had exhibited symptoms, and then continued to defy the quarantine. And if she had done that, then of course I would be criticizing her.
“The only way she would have had it and spread it is if she had exhibited symptoms,”
That has not been shown to be fact, so no you did NOT answer the question.
http://throb.gizmodo.com/turns-out-the-ebola-virus-can-be-sexually-transmitted-1737730480
No symptoms exhibited, spread it anyway.
Actually, nurse Hickox moved from Maine to Oregon.
When she came back from Africa, she flew to Liberty Int’l Airport in Newark. That entry point was where Christie wanted to quarantine her, because she had just returned from an Ebola affected area of west Africa.
She bolted and made her way back to her (then) home state of Maine.
Quarantines are based on risk to the public, not risk to her boyfriend, so the sexual transmission is irrelevant. But, fine:
The only way she would have had it and spread it is if (1) she had exhibited symptoms, and then continued to defy the quarantine; or (2) if she had ebola, with a low viral load, and had unprotected sex with her boyfriend, transmitting it to him. And if she had done that, then of course I would be criticizing her.
And, in any event, that's wrong. The guy who spread it was a survivor - he had previously exhibited symptoms (meaning that his viral load had become elevated enough to transmit in his bodily fluids, including his semen). The virus remained in his semen AFTER he no longer exhibited symptoms, but that is not evidence that it can be spread BEFORE symptoms arise.
“Quarantines are based on risk to the public, not risk to her boyfriend, so the sexual transmission is irrelevant. But, fine:”
“ (1) she had exhibited symptoms, and then continued to defy the quarantine; “
http://throb.gizmodo.com/turns-out-the-ebola-virus-can-be-sexually-transmitted-1737730480
NO SYMPTOMS, SPREAD IT ANYWAY.
Ebola is present in ALL body fluids, sweat, tears, nasal discharge, urine, sexual fluids, etc.
People can and have gotten ebola from touching linens that were contacted by ebola victims.
Is any of that getting through to you?
“And, in any event, that’s wrong.”
No, you keep claiming: “. Ebola cannot be spread prior to the onset of those symptoms. “ and that it cannot be spread without showing symptoms.
THAT guy wasn’t showing any.
He was “cleared”.
You are being disingenuous. You skipped the second part of my response, which directly addresses the sexual transmission angle that you are pushing so hard. It is present in all bodily fluids when the victim is exhibiting symptoms. It stays in some fluids (notably, semen) for some time after symptoms end. But:
1) There is NO evidence that it remains in OTHER bodily fluids after symptoms dissipate.; and
2) There is NO evidence that it can be contracted BEFORE symptoms appear.
That guy spread it AFTER showing symptoms and AFTER being cured. Because it remains in SOME fluids for a period of time after the victim recovers.
But that does not mean that it can be spread BEFORE showing symptoms, or through OTHER fluids once symptoms dissipate.
Do you have any evidence that it can be spread through the blood, sweat, saliva, etc. of someone who is not showing symptoms?
“You are being disingenuous.”
No, I am not.
You keep claiming that it cannot be spread without symptoms.
I showed you just such an instance, and you keep saying it is irrelevant.
You are being disingenuous.
Also, spreading information that is not correct.
You are pointing to a very narrow exception to the general rule that it can’t be spread without symptoms. The exception is that AFTER recovery, it remains in sexual fluids for some time. You are pointing to that exception to suggest that it can be spread without symptoms generally, and to imply that it can be spread BEFORE symptoms appear.
I keep asking you to show me ANY evidence that it can be spread in other fluids without symptoms, or that it can be spread BEFORE (as opposed to AFTER) symptoms arise. You have failed to respond.
I do agree that government has the right to quarantine someone who has been in a outbreak area among the very ill as a measure of ensuring the safety of others, but that requires strict monitoring and release the minute it is proven the disease is not in the quarantined.
However, to say she doesn't give a crap about others???!!!
Where were YOU when thousands of poor Africans were dying? Have the children who died not deserved a warm (although completely gloved and protected) hand and a smile from someone, perhaps a doctor or nurse? In God's eyes, she did far more than you or I.
Still, I think she should lose her suit. The government has a responsibility to protect the rest of us, first, and then see to her rights. She was not beaten, tortured, but only held against her will until it was determined she wasn't diseased and would be no harm to others.
Still, I must, as a Christian, admire any of these doctors or nurses who went to help.
Matthew 25:36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
“You are pointing to a very narrow exception to the general rule “
I am pointing to a rather serious flaw in your argument.
But continue to hold on to your fantasy.
Will you host the next round of people exposed to ebola in your house?
If not, why not?
I agree completely, we weren’t too crazy about her being in our state. We should have put her on one of our many uninhabited islands.
I hear that Plum Island is available in NY.
Yes, we have thousands of them.
So, I take it you are not going to answer my questions?
1) Any evidence of asymptomatic transmission by any means other than sexual transmission? In any other fluids?
2) Any evidence of pre-symptomatic transmission, by any means?
I gave you the link for your first “question”, not my fault you can’t follow it.
And the other link about lack of a fever was a couple posts back.
Happy hunting.
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