A U.S. nurse who spent nearly three days quarantined in a New Jersey hospital despite testing negative for Ebola after her return from West Africa said she will challenge Maine's instructions to self-quarantine, further claiming that she will end her voluntary isolation on Thursday instead of waiting until Nov. 10, Reuters reported.
"If the restrictions placed on me by the state of Maine are not lifted by Thursday morning, I will go to court to fight for my freedom," she said in an interview on NBC's "Today" program on Wednesday from her home in Fort Kent, Maine.
On Oct. 24, Kaci Hickox was taken to Newark's University Hospital after a non-contact thermometer test at Newark Liberty International Airport registered her to have a slight fever. However, an oral thermometer recorded no fever during a second test at the hospital, according to an op-ed she texted to the Dallas Morning News over the weekend.
Even though her test results came back negative by Saturday morning, the hospital decided to keep her quarantined for two more days. She was finally released on Monday afternoon.
In Wednesday's interview, the 33-year-old epidemiologist claimed to be in good health, stating that she had been monitoring her condition and taking her temperature twice a day, according to several media interviews.
Since she is not carrying an infection that could prove contagious, there was no reason for her to remain quarantined until Nov. 10, a date that will complete three weeks since Hickox had contact with an Ebola patient in Sierra Leone, according to NJ.com.
"I truly believe this policy is not scientifically nor constitutionally just, and so I'm not going to sit around and be bullied around by politicians and be forced to stay in my home when I am not a risk to the American public," Hickox said.
Deeming Maine's restrictions as unconstitutional, Hickox said she was "appalled" at their state guidelines, which would require her to stay isolated at home for 21 days.
"I don't plan on sticking to the guidelines," she told NBC, adding that she would sue if Maine attempted to keep her under quarantine.
Additionally, Hickox's attorney told ABC and NBC that Maine officials would have to go to court to get an order to enforce a quarantine and that, if the state does, their client planned to challenge it.
Meanwhile, Hickox, who works with the medical organization Doctors Without Borders, plans to return to West Africa to continue to treat patients suffering from the deadly virus.
