Kaci Hickox- what side are you on? Mandatory quarantine or not?

[SnuggleBuggles]

Back story from NYT:
Ms. Hickox returned from Sierra Leone on Friday after spending a month treating Ebola patients with the group Doctors Without Borders. She was isolated in a tent at a New Jersey hospital after she registered a low-grade fever on a forehead scanner. She had not previously registered a fever and has not since.

She has never shown symptoms of the virus, and tested negative for it several hours after being quarantined; the disease is considered contagious only when a person displays symptoms. She was released Monday and allowed to travel to Maine, which also wants her to remain in a quarantine.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/31/us...ials.html?_r=0

I'd love to hear your thoughts on whether she should be under mandatory 21 day quarantine or not or some compromise (like being able to go out but not to crowded places).

[georgiegirl]

I think she she be able to ride her bike on a trail and take walks (not in crowds of course.). I'm guessing if she feels good enough to ride a bike on a trail, she's not contagious...if she did indeed have Ebola.

[JBaxter]

I thought she did have a fever when she departed the plane that was the reason she was confined in NJ. I would have said let her self monitor but since the other doctor self monitored by running around NYC eating out and bowling then came down w/ Ebola a few hours later I'm ready to error on the side of caution. She has a really snarky attitude

[indigo99]

I think the medical groups doing the work there actually recommend that their people isolate themselves and take their temps regularly after returning. I think that people doing that work are likely compassionate and intelligent enough not to put others at risk if they start having symptoms. Those without symptoms shouldn't be quarantined unnecessarily. Instead of bothering with rules against the workers helping the sick, maybe the states should be making rules for the hospitals. I don't think that a tent in October was a good idea. By now, hospitals should be receiving training and have protocols in place to deal with possible cases.

[elliput]

I see absolutely no reason for a quarantine if she is not displaying any symptoms.

[pb&j]

I don't think a mandatory quarantine is necessary, but I do think returning workers should have daily monitoring. I would really like actual medical personnel making the decision about whether or not to quarantine, and not Chris Christie who, last time I checked, has no medical background whatsoever. I worry much more about "quarantine" being used to detain people who have no chance of becoming ill, but who some politician wants to have detained for questionable political reasons.

I also think it is well within that nurse's right to be a little bit snarky after being held in an unheated tent with a chemical toilet, without any personal effects and only paper scrubs to wear.

[Kindra178]

I don't think a mandatory quarantine is necessary, but I do think returning workers should have daily monitoring. I would really like actual medical personnel making the decision about whether or not to quarantine, and not Chris Christie who, last time I checked, has no medical background whatsoever. I worry much more about "quarantine" being used to detain people who have no chance of becoming ill, but who some politician wants to have detained for questionable political reasons.

I also think it is well within that nurse's right to be a little bit snarky after being held in an unheated tent with a chemical toilet, without any personal effects and only paper scrubs to wear.

This. No quarantine. She should be monitoring herself.

[blisstwins]

I get it--there is public hysteria and we are all overreacting. My husband is a physician and I have to listen to his rants all the time. Still, this is serious business. SHE signed up to volunteer in Africa and I am sure she is a wonderful humanitarian. But she was inconvenienced. I really don't want to see her civil rights bike ride or hear her complaints. She had a chance to use a different tone and maybe do a little public education if that was her thing. Instead, I think she is coming off as cavalier and righteous. I do not like her at all.

[DualvansMommy]

I get it--there is public hysteria and we are all overreacting. My husband is a physician and I have to listen to his rants all the time. Still, this is serious business. SHE signed up to volunteer in Africa and I am sure she is a wonderful humanitarian. But she was inconvenienced. I really don't want to see her civil rights bike ride or hear her complaints. She had a chance to use a different tone and maybe do a little public education if that was her thing. Instead, I think she is coming off as cavalier and righteous. I do not like her at all.

Yes yes yes!!!! Agree with every word. She's been all over the news here, and I can't stand her tone either. She had a choice to go and volunteer, which is her within civil rights. But she needs to be careful if she wants to start on her self righteous civil rights kind of tone, when she could be educating the general public given the national spotlight on her.

[123LuckyMom]

I haven't heard her speak, but from the descriptions she does sound strident. I think in her way she IS trying to educate the public by stressing that she and others like her pose no danger to the public and that public hysteria cannot contribute to states taking away peoples' civil rights. I happen to agree with her.