XPost: ba.politics, dc.media, soc.penpals   
   XPost: alt.burningman   
   From: crupert@atheists.orq   
      
   FORT KENT, Maine -- A Maine judge gave nurse Kaci Hickox the OK   
   to go wherever she pleases, handing state officials a defeat   
   Friday in their bid to restrict her movements as a precaution   
   against Ebola.   
      
   In a case that has come to encapsulate the clash in the U.S.   
   between personal freedom and fear of Ebola, Judge Charles C.   
   LaVerdiere ruled that Hickox must continue daily monitoring of   
   her health but said there is no need to isolate her or restrict   
   her movements because she has no symptoms and is therefore not   
   contagious.   
      
   The judge also decried the "misconceptions, misinformation, bad   
   science and bad information" circulating about the lethal   
   disease in the U.S.   
      
   After the ruling, a state police cruiser that had been posted   
   outside Hickox's home left, and she and her boyfriend stepped   
   outside to thank the judge.   
      
   Hickox, 33, called it "a good day" and said her "thoughts,   
   prayers and gratitude" remain with those who are still battling   
   Ebola in West Africa. She said she had no immediate plans other   
   than to watch a scary movie at home on Halloween.   
      
   Gov. Paul LePage said he disagreed with the ruling but will   
   abide by it.   
      
   "As governor, I have done everything I can to protect the health   
   and safety of Mainers. The judge has eased restrictions with   
   this ruling, and I believe it is unfortunate," LePage said.   
      
   Later in the day, the governor lashed out at Hickox, saying:   
   "She has violated every promise she has made so far, so I can't   
   trust her. I don't trust her. And I don't trust that we know   
   enough about this disease to be so callous."   
      
   Hickox was thrust into the center of a national debate after she   
   returned to the U.S. last week from treating Ebola victims in   
   West Africa as a volunteer for Doctors Without Borders.   
      
   On Thursday, after Hickox refused to stay home and abide by what   
   Maine called a voluntary quarantine, the state went to court to   
   try to impose restrictions on her until the 21-day incubation   
   period for Ebola ends on Nov. 10. State health officials were   
   willing to let her go out on a jog or a bike ride, but wanted to   
   bar her from crowded public places and require her to stay at   
   least 3 feet from others.   
      
   But the judge turned the state down.   
      
   In his ruling, the judge thanked Hickox for her service in   
   Africa and acknowledged the gravity of restricting someone's   
   constitutional rights without solid science to back it up.   
      
   "The court is fully aware of the misconceptions, misinformation,   
   bad science and bad information being spread from shore to shore   
   in our country with respect to Ebola," he wrote. "The court is   
   fully aware that people are acting out of fear and that this   
   fear is not entirely rational."   
      
   Hickox's quarantine in Maine - and, before that, in New Jersey,   
   upon her arrival back in the U.S. - led humanitarian groups, the   
   White House and many scientists to warn that automatically   
   quarantining medical workers is unnecessary and could cripple   
   the fight against Ebola by discouraging volunteers like Hickox   
   from going to danger zone.   
      
   Hickox contended that confinement at her home in Fort Kent, a   
   town of 4,300 people in far northern Maine along the Canadian   
   border, violated her rights and was unsupported by science. She   
   twice violated the quarantine by going outside her home - once   
   to go on a bike ride and once to talk to the media and shake a   
   reporter's hand.   
      
   In a court filing, the director of the Maine Center for Disease   
   Control and Prevention backed away from the state's original   
   request for an in-home quarantine and called for restrictions in   
   line with federal guidelines - namely, staying away from crowded   
   public places.   
      
   Hickox has said she is following the federal Centers for Disease   
   Control and Prevention recommendation of daily monitoring for   
   fever and other signs of the disease. She tested negative for   
   Ebola last weekend, but it can take days for the virus to reach   
   detectable levels.   
      
   Her boyfriend, Ted Wilbur, said Friday that the two of them   
   weren't planning to go into town in the immediate future.   
      
   "I'm just happy that Kaci is able to go outside, exercise. It's   
   not healthy to be inside for 21 days," he said.   
      
   On Monday, Hickox told CBS News chief medical correspondent Dr.   
   Jon LaPook that chief among her concerns and that of others is   
   the seeming ad-hoc way in which these quarantines have been   
   implemented.   
      
   "When you're talking about doing the quarantine it seems like   
   audibles are being called, it's being done on the fly," LaPook   
   said. "This is something that has to be thought out."   
      
   http://www.cbsnews.com/news/ebola-standoff-continues-over-maine-   
   nurses-quarantine/   
      
       
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)