Reaction and Over-Reaction

"Coercive measures like mandatory quarantine of people exhibiting no symptoms of Ebola and when not medically necessary raise serious constitutional concerns about the state abusing its powers."
Udi Ofer, executive director, American Civil Liberties Union, New Jersey

"This is not a situation I would wish on anyone, and I am scared for those who will follow me. I am scared about how health care workers will be treated at airports when they declare that they have been fighting Ebola in West Africa. I am scared that, like me, they will arrive and see a frenzy of disorganization, fear, and, most frightening, quarantine. The U.S. must treat returning health care workers with dignity and humanity."
Kaci Hickox, New Jersey quarantine

Doctors Without Borders whom the world at large has supremely good reason to hold in the utmost respect for their selfless dedication to aiding the unfortunates of the world, urges "fair and reasonable treatment" of health workers fighting the Ebola outbreak. And this is a fair and reasonable request, since the humanitarian group-without-peer is hugely dependent on the intentions of volunteers to aid them in their work.

Should those volunteers feel put-upon, unfairly targeted, held responsible for something beyond their control, and fear facing discrimination on their return home after volunteering their time and medical expertise in West African countries facing the current Ebola virus epidemic, they will not feel quite so eager perhaps to embark on those missions, fearing the outcome on return. They are, however, exposing themselves to a dread disease and could conceivably contaminate others on return home.

Kaci Hickey, a nurse who volunteered with Doctors Without Borders and was placed in quarantine at a New Jersey hospital as a result of having had contact with Ebola patients as a medical volunteer is hugely critical of the manner in which she was bundled into quarantine. Taking note of the incubation period of Ebola, New York and New Jersey governors imposed a mandatory quarantine for all travellers having had contact with Ebola patients in Ebola-ravaged West-Africa.

Handout image  Kaci Hickox is seen sitting inside the isolation tent she has been housed in at University Hospital in Newark, New Jersey.

Fresh from her work in Sierra Leone, nurse Hickox was detained at Newark Liberty International airport on Friday, closely questioned and taken to a hospital in a state of nervous distress. There she remained isolated. "The best way to protect us is to stop the epidemic in Africa, and we need those health care workers so we do not want to put them in a position where it makes it very, very uncomfortable for them to even volunteer to go", said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

The governors felt that quarantine was a necessary measure to protect public health. They await the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to validate their decision. Their own decision was arrived at in the wake of a New York doctor, Craig Spencer, freshly returned from Guinea, where he had been working for Doctors Without Borders, being diagnosed with having contracted Ebola. But not before he had been on public transportation and come in casual contact with a circle of other people.

Currently being treated at Bellevue Hospital Center, his condition has taken a turn for the worse, although he is expected to survive the virus replicating and spreading throughout his body. Common sense and caution would seem to mitigate in favour of mandatory quarantine. It seems reasonable that health workers, knowing the devastating effect on their profession in West Africa, would agree to surrendering their freedom for the 21-day incubation period until given a clean bill of health.

Morgan Dixon Community/Facebook   Dr. Craig Spencer and his fiance Morgan Dixon are seen in this undated photo from Morgan Dixon Community Facebook.

But nurse Hickox is outraged at her temporary loss of freedom and no doubt she equates it with a loss of personal dignity and autonomy. Her discomfort and misery at her position, being held without her will to agree has infuriated her, and because she was a selfless volunteer, others in her profession have come to her defence. She has been given leave to return to her home state of Maine to serve out the remainder of her quarantine period at home.

And she promises to sue the federal government for illegal confinement.