Ebola nurse Kaci Hickox refuses to follow quarantine protocol in Maine

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Nurse Kaci Hickox, 33, said on Wednesday that she would go to court to fight a mandatory quarantine placed on her at her home in Fort Kent, Maine
She told Today: 'I don’t plan on sticking to the guidelines. I am not going to sit around and be bullied by politicians and forced to stay in my home when I am not a risk to the American public'
The Doctors Without Borders nurse was quarantined for four days at University Hospital, New Jersey under new quarantine rules in the state

By Louise Boyle and David Mccormack for MailOnline

Published: 07:48 EST, 29 October 2014 | Updated: 09:23 EST, 29 October 2014

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A nurse who has been quarantined despite having no Ebola symptoms declared today that she will not be bullied by 'appalling' confinement rules and plans to fight for her freedom if restrictions are not lifted by Thursday.

Kaci Hickox, 33, said her lawyer will go to court in Maine on Thursday to demand that authorities lift the 21-day quarantine placed on her at her Fort Kent home as she is in 'perfectly good health'.

She told Today: 'I don’t plan on sticking to the guidelines. I am not going to sit around and be bullied by politicians and forced to stay in my home when I am not a risk to the American public.'

Miss Hickox, who treated Ebola sufferers in Sierra Leone with Doctors Without Borders for four weeks, was the first person forced into New Jersey's mandatory quarantine after arriving at Newark Airport on Friday with a fever.

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Fighting for her freedom: Doctors Without Borders nurse Kaci Hickox, 33, (pictured today at her home in Fort Kent, Maine) is demanding to have a quarantine on her lifted because she is 'perfectly healthy'

The Doctors Without Borders nurse was self-monitoring at her home in Fort Kent, Maine on Wednesday but planned to fight her mandatory quarantine by the Maine state authorities on Thursday

Nurse Hickox, sleeping at her home in Maine where she is currently under quarantine by the state authorities, is due to launch a court battle on Thursday for her freedom

Nurse Kaci Hickox says she won't obey Ebola quarantine

The nurse insisted today that her elevated temperature of 101F - which is considered an Ebola symptom - was caused by a faulty thermometer and the chaos at Newark-Liberty Airport on Friday.

She said: 'This whole time I have been symptom-free. I believe the forehead scanner was inaccurate. My temperature was normal when taken by oral thermometer.'

She said that she understood the Ebola fears among the public but added: 'The issue at Newark Airport is different - I saw complete disorganization, no leadership and if you're going to put a policy like that in place that impedes on my civil rights, you need to have it worked out before you start detaining me in an airport.'

Miss Hickox appeared on the Today show via Skype today where she told host Matt Lauer that she was back at her house in Fort Kent, Maine.

She said that she was appalled by mandatory quarantine policies, adding: 'They are not based on science or evidence.

Hickox, who spent the weekend in a quarantine tent in New Jersey, said she never had Ebola symptoms and her temperature was normal on an oral thermometer reading - despite showing 101F on a forehead scanner

'If the restrictions by Maine are not lifted by Thursday morning, I will go to court to get my freedom.'

Her lawyer, civil rights attorney Norman Siegel, told Today that there was absolutely no basis in medical science to quarantine his client at this time.

The 33-year-old nurse believes authorities should 'stick to the facts of science' and follow the reasonable steps of an organization like Doctors Without Borders who recommend 'self-monitoring twice a day and if you develop symptoms then you need to be tested'.

Nurse Kaci Hickox was held for four days in a quarantine tent at University Hospital in New Jersey after showing a temperature of 101F at Newark Airport on arrival from Sierra Leone

Miss Hickox said: 'I truly believe that this policy is not scientifically or constitutionally just. I am not a risk to the American public.

'Of course I do understand that it has created a lot of fear but we have to make policies based on evidence.

She added: 'We need more education about the disease and should not be taking these mixes messages from politicians.

'Currently, I am the one that's suffering.'

The nurse plans to return to West Africa in the future to help in the fight against Ebola.

Hickox will abide by all the self-monitoring requirements of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the state of Maine, her second attorney, Steven Hyman, said.

On Monday, Hickox traveled from New Jersey to Maine, where her boyfriend is a senior nursing student at the University of Maine at Fort Kent.

Her boyfriend has decided to spend time with her during the quarantine period, officials said on Tuesday.

If Hickox were to show Ebola symptoms, then her boyfriend and any others who had contact with her also would be subject to quarantine, Maine health officials said.

Maine health officials said on Tuesday that they're prepared to legally enforce the state's ‘voluntary’ quarantine on health care workers who've treated Ebola patients.

Department of Health and Human Services Commissioner Mary Mayhew said her department and the attorney general's office were prepared to take legal steps to enforce a quarantine if someone declines to cooperate but did not refer to Nurse Hickox specifically.

Mayhew said: ''We do not want to have to legally enforce in-home quarantine.

Quarantined nurse Kaci Hickox pictured with the prominent New York civil rights attorney Norman Siegel, seated, at the isolation tent at University Hospital in Newark on Sunday

Ms Hickox did not have access to a flushable toilet and was forced to use a port-a-potty in her isolation tent at the New Jersey hospital over the weekend

New Jersey tent Ebola nurse Kaci Hickox now back in Maine

'We're confident that selfless health workers who were brave enough to care for Ebola patients in a foreign country will be willing to take reasonable steps to protect residents of their own country.

'However we are willing to pursue legal authority if necessary to ensure risk is minimized for Mainers.'

At present, Maine quarantines 'high-risk' people who have had contact with Ebola patients while others who have been to the Ebola 'hot zone' countries of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, will be monitored.

Ebola has infected more than 10,000 people and killed about half of them, the vast majority in the West African region. There have been some cases outside the worst-hit countries, including in the United States.

Governor Chris Christie (pictured left) said his mandatory quarantine policy for New Jersey will not change as President Obama said on Tuesday that America is not 'defined by fear'

Both New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo have been sharply criticized for ordering mandatory quarantines.

Governor Christie defended his policy on the Today show on Tuesday, saying that the nurse had presented at the airport with a fever after having direct contact with Ebola patients.

Christie said: 'I am going to be on the right side of science and public opinion, ultimately.'

He added that his policy will not change.

President Obama appeared to condemn Governor Christie in a speech on Tuesday on the lawn of the White House.

'America in the end is not defined by fear – that's not who we are,' President Obama said, calling for 'new monitoring and movement guidance that is sensible'.

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