The debate over the nation’s ebola response suddenly coalesced around nurse Kaci Hickox this weekend, after she was quarantined when she landed at the Newark Liberty International Airport from treating ebola in west Africa.
Hickox was initially believed to be feverish, but later tested negative for the virus while in isolation at a Newark hospital. She then harshly criticized her quarantine conditions in a phone interview with CNN and characterized the protocols as chaotic and disorganized in a piece in the Dallas Morning News.
Sunday night photos of her isolation unit were released, these two via FiOS1 reporter Myles Miller:
This is the tent Kaci Hickox is being quarantined in, she spoke with her lawyer through a plastic screen, pic.twitter.com/uj16iEDkmk
— MYLES MILLER (@mylesmill) October 26, 2014
Here's nurse Kaci Hickox seen smiling at University Hospital during a meeting with her lawyer Norman Siegel. pic.twitter.com/3hkqGd2t0c
— MYLES MILLER (@mylesmill) October 26, 2014
Hickox herself snapped the following photo with her iPhone, which she demanded to bring with her into the isolation unit:
A peek inside the #Ebola quarantine in NJ, from quarantined nurse #KaciHickox. http://t.co/Ra6CIei8XK #cnnsotu pic.twitter.com/pM16Mos6pi
— State of the Union (@CNNsotu) October 26, 2014
Hickox’s criticism, which was especially directed at New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, elevated the pressure on Christie and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to ease the quarantine protocols. Monday morning Cuomo announced that asymptomatic health care workers would be allowed to serve out their twenty-one day quarantine at home and be compensated for lost income.
Hickox is considering legal action to force the state of New Jersey to release her from quarantine.
[Image via University of Texas-Arlington]
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