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Nurse Blasts Mandatory Ebola Quarantine After Returning To New Jersey

A nurse is blasting a mandatory Ebola quarantine for health care workers after she was taken to the hospital upon returning to the U.S. this week.

The woman, Kaci Hickox, was placed under quarantine in a New Jersey hospital under a new rule issued by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, requiring all health care workers returning from West Africa after contact with Ebola patients to undergo a mandatory 21-day quarantine.

Hickox criticized Christie, saying that he is not a doctor and that she has remained asymptomatic, slamming the governor for calling her “obviously ill.”

The Obama administration has told governors in New Jersey and New York that there are “concerns” about the mandatory quarantines. Florida, Illinois and New York have similar mandatory quarantines. The Obama administration said it is concerned about the unintended consequences of such policies that are not based on science and may harm efforts to combat Ebola at its source, ABC reported.

President Obama recently held a meeting with top advisers to craft a policy reassuring Americans they are safe from Ebola while following guidance of scientific advisors. The policy should be ready in days, and the government will urge states to follow the recommendations, The New York Times reported.

The issue has quickly become a point of contention, angering human rights groups that say health care workers should not be punished for doing their duty and working to stop the spread of the disease. Hickox said she has been treated like a “criminal,” despite having no symptoms of Ebola.

[quote text_size=”small” author=”– Kaci Hickox” author_title=”Quarantined nurse”]

For the first 12 hours, I was in shock. Now I’m angry.

[/quote]

Hickox said she is held in a structure “with a port-a-potty like structure and no shower and no connection to the outside world except my iPhone,” according to a CNN interview.

Hickox’s attorney, Norman Siegel, is planning to file a federal lawsuit to challenge the nurse’s confinement if she is not released.

Hickox is an epidemiologist who helped treat Ebola patients in Sierra Leone. She has twice tested negative for Ebola and does not have symptoms of the virus.

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