Nurse Breaks Quarantine, Shakes Reporter's Hand
A nurse who was forced into a mandatory quarantine in New Jersey by Bruce Springsteen fan Chris Christie is now back in Maine, but she's not staying inside.
Kaci Hickox, a nurse who had treated Ebola patients in West Africa, was quarantined in a hospital this weekend after she landed at Newark Airport. After registering a slight, temporary fever, she was placed in an unheated quarantine tent despite testing negative for the virus.
At the time, Christie told the nurse to sue him ("get on line") and called her ridiculous because she had been the fortunate recipient of Newark's best takeout food, a dubious claim which has not yet been verified.
On Wednesday, Hickox—now staying at home in rural Kent, ME—stepped outside despite requests that she self-quarantine, telling reporters, "I'm not willing to stand here and let my civil rights be violated when it's not science-based."
Kaci Hickox broke her quarantine by leaving her home with her boyfriend and speaking briefly to reporters in her driveway Wednesday evening. State and local police could only watch from across the street because a judge hadn't signed off on a court order sought by state health officials.
Then she shook an unnamed reporter's hand, the AP reports.
To persuade a Maine court to enforce the quarantine, the state must show Hickox is "a clear and immediate public health threat." Hickox's legal team says that a mandatory quarantine is unconstitutional because she's asymptomatic.
[image via AP]