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Kaci Hickox
Kaci Hickox has argued that forced 21-day isolation orders are medically unnecessary and violate her civil rights. Photograph: Whitney Hayward/AP
Kaci Hickox has argued that forced 21-day isolation orders are medically unnecessary and violate her civil rights. Photograph: Whitney Hayward/AP

White House 'does not support' Kaci Hickox's flouting of Ebola quarantine

This article is more than 9 years old

Standoff between nurse and state officials in Maine continued after Hickox defied demands to stay at home and went for a bike ride

The White House said on Thursday that it did not support the decision by a nurse in Maine to flout the voluntary quarantine imposed upon her by state authorities concerned about her exposure to Ebola.

A spokesman for Barack Obama said that it was up to states to set their own public health rules, although he believed they should be guided by science.

The standoff between state officials in Maine, and the nurse, Kaci Hickox, continued on Thursday when she defied a demand to stay at home and went for a bike ride with her boyfriend. But a threatened court order had not materalised by Thursday afternoon.

Hickox has argued that forced 21-day isolation orders are medically unnecessary and violate her civil rights. She hired two New York City-based attorneys to fight Maine’s orders that she stay isolated indoors until 10 November. The governor of Maine, Paul LePage, said on Thursday he would back down, but only if Hickox agreed to take a blood test.

“We have been in negotiations all day with the state of Maine, and tried to resolve this amicably but they will not allow me to leave my house and have any interaction with the public even though I am completely healthy and symptom-free,” said Hickox from her front porch in Fort Kent, at a press conference on Wednesday evening.

Maine state police followed Hickox on her bike ride with boyfriend Ted Wilbur to monitor her interaction with the public. Norman Siegel, one of Hickoxs attorneys, defended his client’s decision but noted that she avoided the centre of town so as not to “freak people out.”

He added: “Since there’s no court order, she can be out in public. Even if people disagree with her position, I would hope they respect the fact that she’s taking into account the fear, which is based on misinformation about the way the disease is transmitted.”

LePage, a Republican facing a close re-election battle, said negotiations between Hickox’s attorneys and the state failed, and he would continue to pursue legal action.

In a statement, the governor said he would allow quarantined healthcare workers to “walking or jogging in a park,” but would not allow them to attend public gatherings, travel or come within three feet of others. The state is likely to seek confidentiality on any paperwork it files with local courts.

Nurse Kaci Hickox on a bike ride with her boyfriend Ted Wilbur on Thursday. Photograph: Robert F Bukaty/AP

“I was ready and willing – and remain ready and willing – to reasonably address the needs of healthcare workers meeting guidelines to assure the public health is protected,” he said.

In an earlier interview with ABC News, LePage said the issue could be resolved if Hickox took a blood test. “This could be resolved today. She has been exposed [to Ebola] and she’s not cooperative, so force her to take a test. It’s so simple.”

Obama’s spokesman said that the president, who was coincidentally campaigning in Maine on Thursday, had no plans to visit Hickox and would remain some distance away in Portland.

“The president believes the state can and should be responsible for the policy, they should be guided by the science but ultimately it is their decision,” spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters during a briefing on Air Force One.

Asked whether that meant the administration believed Maine was not following the science, Earnest told the Guardian he was not in a position to judge.

But he said officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had been in touch with the state to stress the importance of following scientific guidance when setting quarantine policy and “risk assessments should guide the degree to which the health of an individual” poses a risk.

Armed state troopers have been posted outside Hickox’s house since Wednesday, standing outside with a huddle of reporters.

Hickox hired attorneys after she was questioned and detained at Newark Liberty Airport in New Jersey on her return from working with Ebola sufferers in Sierra Leone on Friday. Airport officials questioned Hickox for three hours before detecting an elevated temperature with a heat-scanning gun (which researchers do not consider reliable), and bringing her to a nearby hospital where she was kept in an isolation tent before being allowed home on Monday.

The Ebola virus can have an incubation period of up to 21 days before infected persons show symptoms, typically first a fever. Ebola is only contagious when those infected are symptomatic.

The isolation measures have brought widespread condemnation from the medical establishment and the White House. Aid organizations say the mandatory isolation periods will make it more difficult to recruit volunteers, who typically serve in west Africa for only a few weeks.

In response, the governors of New York and New Jersey announced a program to “encourage” healthcare workers to go to west Africa. A press release said the program “would be modeled on benefits and rights provided to military reservists,” and said that returning workers would be compensated for “any quarantines that are needed”.

Doctors Without Borders, an international aid organization that responds to public health crises, commented on Hickox’s isolation saying it “strongly disagrees with blanket forced quarantine for healthcare workers returning from Ebola affected countries.” The organization added that “such a measure is not based upon established medical science”.

“Kaci Hickox has carried out important, life-saving work for [Doctors Without Borders] in a number of countries in recent years, and we are proud to have her as a member of our organization. [Doctors Without Borders] respects Kaci’s right as a private citizen to challenge excessive restrictions being placed upon her,” the organization said in a press release.

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