Kaci Hickox: Public Health and the Politics of Fear

Steven H. Milesa*a University of Minnesota Address correspondence to Steven H. Miles, MD, Professor of Medicine, Maas Family Foundation Chair in Bioethics, Center for Bioethics Suite N504, Boynton, University of Minnesota, 410 Church Street Southeast, Minneapolis, MN 55455-0346, USA. E-mail: miles001@umn.edu Kaci Hickox was a nurse who worked with persons who were infected with Ebola in West Africa. When she returned to the United States, the governors of New Jersey and Maine intervened to confine her to inpatient quarantine despite the fact that she was asymptomatic and had no serological evidence of infection. She defied the quarantine which resulted in enormous public attention and discussion of quarantine and public fear. This article summarizes the case discussing the history of the case, the government actions, and the final legal rulings.