Nurse Apologizes And Promises To Stay Out Of Maine Town Center

ADDS RESTRICTION THAT AP MEMBERS MAY NOT USE THE PHOTO IN THEIR ONLINE EDITIONS - Kaci Hickox, a nurse who treated Ebola patients in West Africa, and boyfriend Ted Wilbur take questions from the media outside her hom... ADDS RESTRICTION THAT AP MEMBERS MAY NOT USE THE PHOTO IN THEIR ONLINE EDITIONS - Kaci Hickox, a nurse who treated Ebola patients in West Africa, and boyfriend Ted Wilbur take questions from the media outside her home in Fort Kent, Maine on Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2014. Hickox, the first person forced into New Jersey's mandatory quarantine for people arriving at the Newark airport from three West African countries, vowed to defy Maine's voluntary quarantine . (AP Photo/Portland Press Herald, Whitney Hayward) MANDATORY CREDIT. FOR PRINT EDITIONS ONLY. NOT FOR ONLINE USE. MORE LESS
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Kaci Hickox, the nurse who returned to the U.S. from treating Ebola patients in Sierra Leone in October, this weekend promised to stay away from the center of town even though she won’t be required to stay in quarantine.

“I didn’t mean to bring this media storm onto this community, either, but I think unfortunately sometimes, especially when up against governors, you don’t always have an option,” she said Sunday, according to the Portland Press Herald.

She said that she and her boyfriends want to respect town residents’ request that she stay out of the town center in Fort Kent, Maine.

On NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Hickox apologized to the town residents.

“I understand that the community has been through a lot in the past week and that I do, you know, apologize to them for that,” she said. “I will not go into town, into crowded public places. You know, I have had a few friends come visit me in my home and that’s absolutely fantastic.”

She did maintain, however, that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was wrong to quarantine her as soon as she arrived in the U.S.

“I just read an op-ed by Bill Fahey today. And he said, you know, when Governor Christie stated that it was an abundance of caution, which is his reasoning for putting health care workers in sort of quarantine for three weeks, it was really an abundance of politics,” she said. And I think all of the scientific and medical and public health community agrees “with me on that statement.”

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  1. “She said that she and her boyfriends want to respect town residents’ request”

    BoyfriendS?? I admit I haven’t been following her story very closely. Did I miss the part about her being a swinger? In any case it’s nice to hear that all of them have such respect for the town residents.

  2. Hey Kaci, a lot of us sane, level headed average people agree with you too. I want to thank you personally to help make Christie look like the fool, political opportunist, and just plain shameless bully that he is. You go girl!

  3. Here’s a headline alternative: “Nurse apologizes to neighbors for political firestorm.” A hell of a lot more accurate than the implication that she was self-quarantining.

  4. She has one boyfriend and they live together. That was what we call a typo.

  5. My guess is that she got a few Ebola Kaci hate-mails & phone calls, and wisely conducted some damage-control p.r. More importantly, she needs to pick another color for her eyebrows. Bluish gray doesn’t serve her well.

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