LePage says negotiations with Kaci Hickox break down over Ebola quarantine

[brooklynite]

Source: Portland Press-Herald

FORT KENT — Gov. Paul LePage says negotiations have broken down with Kaci Hickox, the nurse who treated Ebola patients in West Africa, and that the state is prepared to use “the full extent of his authority allowable by law” to protect the public health.

The governor issued that statement Thursday afternoon, four hours after Hickox returned from an hourlong bike ride with her boyfriend, in defiance of the state’s insistence that she be quarantined in her house for 21 days.

Shortly after Hickox and Ted Wilbur returned to their house in Fort Kent, ABC News quoted LePage saying that the state has sought a judge’s order to compel Hickox to get a blood test and that would be an acceptable substitute for the quarantine. But then the governor’s office put out a statement that read, in part: “Maine statutes provide robust authority to the State to use legal measures to address threats to public health.”

Read more: http://www.pressherald.com/2014/10/30/kaci-hickox-and-boyfriend-leave-home-on-bikes/

---

Maybe the Governor could have someone run alongside her bike in case she skins her knee?

[notrightatall]

1. The state will lose.

[ColesCountyDem]

2. I wouldn't bet the rent on it. n/t

[KMOD]

21. I think he's just blowing smoke now,

He couldn't get the court order, and I'm guessing the told him no on the blood test, that's why he's making this new statement. Note that he doesn't say what he will do. It sure looks like he's desperately trying to save face at this point.

[ColesCountyDem]

63. Oh, there's no doubt that he's posturing. That said....

There's not a great deal of case law on the subject of quarantines. What little case law there is, however, is virtually unanimous in favor of a state's broad public-health power to impose and enforce quarantines.

LePage and the state health department aren't basing their decision on the best scientific knowledge available, obviously, but courts are generally loathe to encroach on broad grants of discretionary power granted to other branches of government.

[ColesCountyDem]

64. I was wrong, and am happy I was.

Common sense and science triumphed.

[SoapBox]

3. OMG!

She was out for a bike ride?

Her nasty attitude and arrogance are endless.

Is she a Puke or Bagger? Her "I don't give a shit what you say" attitude would seem to say that.

Keep this so called healthcare worker away from me.

[Bragi]

7. Your fear has no basis in fact

And she's a public health hero.

[840high]

59. No hero to me.

[AllyCat]

9. She isn't sick! Check the science and not Fox Noise for real info about Ebola

Not one thing wrong with going for a bike ride. The disease is not airborne. She should not be on house arrest.

[HERVEPA]

10. Your ignorance or stupidity is showing. I hope it's ignorance.

[1StrongBlackMan]

24. I was hoping that was sarcasm! eom.

[HERVEPA]

27. Yeh. Unfortunately, I don't think so.

[1StrongBlackMan]

40. It's a shame when "liberals/progressive" ...

fall to the same, completely science/fact devoid fear, as those on the right ... that we typically laugh at.

I am old enough to remember the same fear associated with HIV/AIDS, circa early to mid 1990s ... in the '80s, the fear was somewhat justified in that the science just wasn't there (largely); but by the '90s, the fear was more about bigotry, than science.

[bluedigger]

12. Sorry, you lose, but thanks for playing.

"The Ebola nurse who attacked Governor Christie for putting her in quarantine after returning from Africa is a Progressive with ties to the CDC."

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2014/10/breaking-ebola-nurses-ties-to-cdc-scrubbed-from-website-is-far-left-progressive-obama-supporter/

This is sourced from Natural News so you know it's reliable.

Strange bedfellows, eh?

[peacefreak]

14. Maybe because she's a public health professional

with a better grasp on the subject & who has actually worked in the field, she knows what's she's talking about. My guess she's better versed than both LePage & Christie.

[Shadowflash]

20. You forgot your sarcasm thingy.

[uppityperson]

31. You missed the sarcasm smilie.

[Iamthetruth]

4. Black ball her

If I had a business there I would not allow her in, serve her, anything.

[HERVEPA]

11. Then you are not very bright.

[Iamthetruth]

13. Actually I would say

I am very bright, she is bad for business. Would you allow your child around her, if you say yes you're being political and not a good parent.

[JDDavis]

17. But she is not sick

She has no symptoms. People with no symptoms can't go out for a bike ride in rural northern Maine?

[Iamthetruth]

22. Yet

The doctor in NY did not know he had symptoms either.

[HERVEPA]

28. When he had symptoms he knew he had symptoms.

What the hell are you babbling about?

[Iamthetruth]

49. Facts

Try to keep up

He went bowling, on the subway and he didn't know. Yet we are to believe the nurse. She is not worth the life of one innocent person.

[JDDavis]

56. I think you missed the course in nursing school on

contagious diseases.

Ebola only spreads with contact with bodily fluids from ALREADY SICK individuals.

She is not sick, has no fever, is not contagious.

[HERVEPA]

61. He was not symptomatic then. Ergo, he was no danger. Stop spreading the fucking bullshit will you

[HERVEPA]

19. Well my kids are in their 30's, so they make their own decisions.

And yes I would, if she is not symptomatic, she can't pass anything on. What the fuck can you not understand about that.
Would you kick someone you knew didn't have Ebola but was blowing their nose out of your store?
Because it's a lot more likely that person might have the flu and pass it on and your kid would die from that than their dying from Ebola from a non-symptomatic woman,

[Iamthetruth]

23. She has put herself above others

She does not know more than the doctors that have been infected. She has made this political, I could care less of her views, I care about the safety of people, which is more than I can say about her.

[uppityperson]

36. Yes,I would because I know she's not a danger. You, on the other hand, would be glad to

avoid your business.

[PSPS]

37. I know!11! Why stop there!!11! Behead her noW!@@!

[KeepItReal]

5. Is a false negative Ebola test possible if done "too early"?

If the test is suspect, then that should be the concern.

[TorchTheWitch]

58. yes

If the infected person is not yet showing symptoms or even just the more mild beginning symptoms they won't normally have enough of the virus in their blood to detect. If testing someone that has not had any symptoms could show a positive result there wouldn't be any need for monitoring or quarantines.

According to the experts it normally takes 3 or even more days for there to be enough virus in one's blood to detect Ebola from the time that the first symptoms begin. Therefore, testing someone who has not shown any symptoms is useless even if they are infected - there won't be enough virus in the blood to detect.

[brooklynite]

6. My emergency management director says the blood test will show nothing...

...unless she's showing symptoms.

[KMOD]

8. Ebola Governor is mad that Kaci won't ride her bike alone.

. But it said she should refrain from going out in public save for solo exercise or walks, submit to direct monitoring, and agree to co-ordinate travel with public health authorities, among other measures.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-29836550

[The empressof all]

15. This has gotten so fricken Crazy

American medical professional have been on the front lines of outbreaks of all sorts of highly contagious outbreaks for years. We have never had an issue with them integrating into the community when they come home. So now because some hospital that wasn't regulated properly by the state of Texas to assure safe guards were in place for infectious diseases, we have to all be subjected to this whipping into a frenzy of fear and panic.

So going with this thinking of fear and doom ----all medical professionals who are working with ebola patients here in the US should now be quarantined in perpetuaty and of course all the ancillary staff who may be exposed as well such as laundry workers and housekeeping.

Thank goodness Obama built those Fema Camps...We are going to need them

[Sunlei]

25. It is crazy. They use it to get through the fall elections. Then the private 'for profit' prisons...

will have State 21 day quarantine cells set-up complete with airport pick-up.

If a regular prisoner can get the 'for profits' 47k a year, an ebola nurse can get them a million a day!

[Gothmog]

16. The state has a weak case here

[alcibiades_mystery]

18. Pound fucking sand, LePage...this is not about public health

If it was, every nurse attending to the flu in Maine would be quarantined for incubation: the flu kills far more people in the state of Maine every year than the ebola virus ever will.

This is pandering and nothing more.

Hickox is a goddamn hero right now, telling all these shitheads to pound sand with their politically motivated fake-ass "public health" decisions.

[vlakitti]

29. Thank you

for a very good and effective statement. And I agree emphatically with every word of it.

[homegirl]

26. Ms. Hickox

is an opportunist, expect to see her story on Lifetime Movie Channel in a few weeks. A few hundred thousand $'s for the rights. So, there will be as much more coverage of this as she can generate.

[HERVEPA]

30. The trolls are out in force today.

[uppityperson]

32. +++++++++

[Pathwalker]

34. I swear, some of these people would have us wearing Redcoats,

or speaking German. Our Forefathers would be ashamed of the cowardice so many are showing today.

[tammywammy]

41. +1

[uppityperson]

35. She forced them to interogate her for hours, lock her in an isolation tent, now to badger her

as she goes about her life? Seriously? How DARE someone complain about her treatment, being detained without due process, without being a current danger to anyone. Look at ALL those press conferences she is holding. It is amazing she can do anything else!!!!

I'm SERIES!!!!!!1111

[PSPS]

38. Yes, she obviously brought this on herself. Shame on her for treating "those people." Amiright?

[Louisiana1976]

33. I think as long as she's healthy, Hickox shouldn't have to be under a quarantine. For the governors

of New Jersey and Maine to demand that she be quarantined is pure political pandering to those who are panicked over Ebola.

[HERVEPA]

46. How many trolls can you fit in one Democratic Underground?

[HERVEPA]

53. Lemme help you, Mr. Pompous. You are clueless.

[pocoloco]

50. Most groups are at about 10 percent.

Unfortunately it's much higher here!

[Adrahil]

60. FEARBOLA!!!!!!!

[TomCADem]

39. Hey Joni Ernst, Can She Stand Her Ground?

This seems to be the type of situatio that Republican Senatorial candidate Joni Ernst said would justify the use of a fire arm.

[onecaliberal]

45. ^^^ That

[rocktivity]

42. Well, defying is not disobeying, is it?

If she IS disobeying "Maine statutes," have one of the cops that followed her on her bike ride arrest her!

As long as she's following the federal CDC guidelines, all LePage can do is sulk.


rocktivity

[onecaliberal]

44. On what grounds?

She does not have the virus. What in the hell

[Jake Stern]

52. zOMG!! She's gonna kill us all!1!!11

[Sienna86]

57. Facts, not fear

We're all going to be okay.

[davidthegnome]

62. I'm not scared in the slightest.

We are better than this. When and if a patient within the incubation period of the disease actually shows symptoms... then there is a possibility (but only a possibility) that you could possibly catch the illness from close contact - but keep in mind that the disease is NOT air born. The person we're talking about is a health care worker who went over seas to save lives. She returns to her home Country... is basically imprisoned in an unheated tent, and when she finally comes back home here to Maine, we have these cowards like LePage - without any kind of medical expertise... at all, telling us that she should be quarantined. What does the CDC have to say? What about our actual experts who have treated the disease? Unless they're worried, I'm not worried.

Lepage is a damn idiot and a coward. Where is the threat to public health? My girlfriend lives in Fort Kent, I visit every week - and despite the current media frenzy in the area, I'm not worried. We're talking about one person who was exposed to an illness, who shows no symptoms of the illness, who therefor is not contagious, who cannot actually spread the disease unless the symptoms begin to develop.

We should honor her courage and the courage of all of those who are willing to risk their own health and their own lives for the sake of others.

The Governor can go fuck himself.

[BadGimp]

65. AssClown Award of thw Week recepient