Gov. Paul LePage, terrified.
Kaci Hickox, the nurse who volunteered to treat Ebola patients in Africa with Doctors Without Borders, and returned last week, not to grateful thanks for fighting the epidemic there to keep it from coming here, but to involuntary quarantine in a tent without a flushing toilet or shower in New Jersey, is back home in Maine and taking on Gov. Paul LePage with what Fox News clearly believes is a
homicidal bicycle ride.
Yes, Hickox has gone for a bike ride with her boyfriend, and the media has gone wild. As has LePage.
Kaci Hickox and her boyfriend stepped out of their home Thursday morning and rode away on mountain bikes, followed by state police cruiser.
Police were monitoring her movements and public interactions but couldn't detain her without a court order signed by a judge.
Hickox contends there's no need for quarantine because she's showing no symptoms. She's also tested negative for the deadly disease. […]
But Maine Gov. Paul LePage, who canceled campaign events to keep tabs on the situation, maintained that the state must be "vigilant" to protect others.
And state officials will go to court to try to get an order to detain Hickox, according to the AP report. Of course they are, because LePage clearly thinks this issue is the most important thing happening in his state right now. However, they might have a harder time convincing a judge of that, says attorney and health law expert said attorney Jackie L. Caynon III: "If somebody isn't showing signs of the infection, then it's kind of hard to say someone should be under mandatory quarantine." Which is Hickox's point entirely.
Keep in mind that only one Ebola patient in the United States has died, because he was initially incorrectly diagnosed. That's a 90 percent survival rate in what is a very small sample. Because when treated quickly and appropriately, Ebola doesn't seem to spread. Keep in mind that even the family of that victim, Thomas Duncan, who lived with him while he was sick, have all remained healthy. None contracted the disease. Nor did the families of the first two doctors to be treated in the US, both of whom are now perfectly healthy. So far no one close to the two nurses who contracted it from the very sick Duncan has become ill.
Also keep in mind that Hickox has every intention of staying alive. She's witnessed Ebola at its worst, and you can bet she doesn't want to get sick with it, or to transmit it to anyone else. You can also bet she's taking her temperature regularly to make sure she gets immediate treatment if she doesn't remain healthy. Which she is right now—healthy. Not sick. Not contagious. Because as all the experts know and have been telling us over and over and over again, someone with Ebola is not contagious until they are actually sick.
Let's give LePage a real reason to be running scared. Help elect Mike Michaud with your $3.
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But that's just logic and scientific and medical expertise. LePage sure as hell doesn't have time for all that. Not when he might be able to pick up a few votes from the easily terrified crowd. You know, Fox News viewers.