Nurse says she won't be 'bullied,' won't obey Ebola quarantine
Kaci Hickox, the Maine nurse who was the first person forced into a 21-day quarantine under the policy created by Gov. Chris Christie (R-N.J.) and Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-N.Y.), has no plans to wait it out.
Hickox was allowed to return home to Maine after she spent three days in a New Jersey isolation tent upon returning to the U.S. from Sierra Leone, where she treated Ebola patients. After testing negative for the disease and blasting the mandatory quarantine policy as "inhumane," Hickox is now supposed to spend her days self-quarantined in her Maine home.
But Hickox said on the Today show Wednesday that she won't "sit around and be bullied by politicians," and she plans to leave her house in Maine. The quarantine would prevent her from leaving her house until Nov. 10.
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"I don't plan on sticking to the guidelines. I remain appalled by these home quarantine policies that have been forced upon me, even though I am in perfectly good health and feeling strong and have been this entire time completely symptom free," Hickox said.
Hickox added that the quarantine policy is "not scientifically nor constitutionally just," and she plans to challenge Maine's policy in court if her restrictions aren't lifted by Thursday. --Meghan DeMaria
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Meghan DeMaria is a staff writer at TheWeek.com. She has previously worked for USA Today and Marie Claire.
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