The first story began with the self-reporting complaints of her forced-quarantine treatment by Kaci Hickox. The ostensibly respectable News4NY report on the night of October 26 claimed that Ms. Hickox -- a nurse quarantined in New Jersey after her arrival at Newark International Airport from Sierra Leone where she had been a Doctors without Borders volunteer fighting the ebola outbreak -- had experienced a fever of 101 degrees and had been sent to Newark's University Hospital for ebola testing, only to have her fever recede, allowing her to be sent back to her quarantine location. The report was accompanied by aerial film footage that presumably showed Ms. Hickox's flashing ambulance being escorted by a corps of equally flashing police vehicles to a hospital that was doubtlessly placed on a panicked high alert over the prospective arrival of an ebola carrier.
News4NY's story conveyed the message that ebola might well have arrived in the NY metropolitan area, lending credibility to the Cuomo-Christie unveiling of a 21-day, forced quarantine plan for all doctors and nurses returning to JFK or Newark Airports from the ebola-affected countries of Africa. More fear-mongering for the public who had already been overfed a diet of ebola terror for the past several weeks.
One problem: almost everything reported by News4NY was wrong. Worse, they missed the truly troubling part of the story. Kaci Hickox had a normal body temperature the entire time (see her own account), as measured by a standard oral thermometer. An "official" (not a doctor or nurse?) who subsequently took Kaci's temperature with a forehead scanner got a reading of 101 and decided the patient had a fever that could signal ebola infection. Ms. Hickox protested, saying that the long trip and her unexpected quarantine treatment at Newark Airport had left her flushed, showing a temperature by forehead scan that was not her true body temperature. The "official" apparently refused any further measurement and instead sounded what turned out (predictably) to be a false alarm. University Hospital took her temperature, told her she was simply flushed, and sent her back to the airport.
The journalistic failure here was inexcusable, as has been the Chris Christie response. However, the really scary part of this story concerns the nurse. The public is repeatedly reassured that these "ebola response teams" are highly trained and well-prepared to handle incoming cases, actual or potential. Yet this unnamed, highly trained, well-prepared "official" could not, or would not, differentiate between a oral thermometer reading and a forehead scan, setting off unnecessary and inappropriate alarms from the airport personnel to the police officer escorts to the emergency receiving doctors and nurses at University Hospital. If this is preparation, the standard falls far below acceptable.
By the way, kudos to Kaci Hickox for calling out Chris Christie and everyone else who have been on the wrong side of this affair. Once again, we find politicians (Cuomo and Christie) who believe their views trump the best available scientific and community health care professional advice.
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