FORT KENT, Maine — Gov. Paul LePage said Wednesday that Ebola nurse Kaci Hickox was "unwilling" to follow state health guidelines and that he was seeking legal authority to force her to remain quarantined at a rural home in Maine for 21 days.
Hickox, who does not have any symptoms of the deadly virus, briefly left her home Wednesday night for an impromptu press conference with her boyfriend at her side. She reiterated her concerns about the state's quarantine. Police watched from across the street.
Maine health officials say until a judge signs off on a court order they don't have the authority to prevent her from leaving her home.
Hickox said earlier Wednesday she plans to defy the quarantine rules that she said were "not scientifically nor constitutionally just."
For now, Department of Health and Human Services Commissioner Mary Mayhew says police will monitor the nurse if she leaves her house. But Hickox can't be detained without the judge's approval.
"I don't plan on sticking to the guidelines," Hickox told Today show's Matt Lauer via Skype. "I am not going to sit around and be bullied by politicians and forced to stay in my home when I am not a risk to the American public."
Hickox, a 33-year-old nurse with Doctors Without Borders, arrived in Maine on Monday after being forcibly held in an isolation tent in New Jersey for three days under that state's strict new law for health care workers who have recently treated Ebola patients in West Africa.
Two state police cars were stationed Wednesday outside the rural home of her boyfriend, Ted Wilbur, in Fort Kent where she has been living,
