By Paul Mills
Kaci Hickox and Ted Wilbur: They have been the protagonists of one of the most riveting public dramas in America last fall. Theirs was rated by Maine’s Associated Press as one of the state’s two top news stories of 2014. Her challenges to government quarantines first in New Jersey and then in Maine won her – along with 21 other Ebola Fighters – a berth among Time’s Persons of the Year.
As with so much of their odyssey, there’s still a fair amount of misconception about them. Google her name, for example, and the first item that still pops up is a reference to a Huffington Post report that they were moving out of state the second week in November. Reports of their departure, to paraphrase Mark Twain, however, are “greatly exaggerated.”
Yes, they did leave Ft. Kent but they continue to reside in and have an affection for Maine.
I recently had an opportunity to sit down with both of them and learned more not only about the celebrated manner in which they confronted their recent perils but also how they met, why they came to Maine, what they have done, and what they plan to do.
Since leaving Ft. Kent in November, Hickox and Wilbur have indeed still been in Maine, first with some of Wilbur’s family in the Freeport area and then more recently at a rented home in Yarmouth.
Though out of the limelight enough so that as Wilbur observes, “We have been out a few times now where no one recognized us, which is nice,” Hickox remains in demand as a speaker both at academic institutions in southern Maine but also at such places as McGill University in Canada.
Hickox also has been “trying to network and pursue options here in Maine,” especially with her background in public health, she being not only a registered nurse but also the holder of a masters degree in public health from Johns Hopkins University.
She also looks forward to the possibility of perhaps returning to West Africa.
It was while Hickox was working for the federal government’s Center for Disease Control in Las Vegas that, a year ago Christmas Eve, she met Wilbur, then a ranger at Death Valley.
He had grown up in metropolitan southern California. She was raised in Rio Vista, a village of just 900 people in a rural and Republican area of central Texas. (Ft. Kent is at 2,400 a bit more urban and voted for the Democratic nominee in the last six presidential elections.)
“I’m a Southern girl,” her speech still laced with a noticeable though not overwhelming Texas accent, she remarked on explaining her observance of traditional etiquette whereby she refrained from asking Ted out for a date when she first met him and waited for him to take such an initiative.
It was Texas that provided her with not only her sense of personal decorum but also her education and first experiences as a hospital emergency room nurse. She had always had her eye on going overseas, however, and when just 10 years ago the tsunami hit the coast of Indonesia she applied to go there. After her return she eventually signed on with Doctors Without Borders. Its assignments included two years in Burma, “my favorite place in the entire world.” This was followed by postings to the Sudan where occupational risks included kidnappings of foreign nationals, Nigeria, Uganda, and other acute emergency settings. Intervening between the last of these overseas missions was time in Baltimore, where she earned the Johns Hopkins public health masters degree in 2012 followed by two years with the federal CDC.
Even though she does not possess an inherently assertive demeanor, is socially deferential, her experiences bestowed upon her the temperament and knowledge that gave her the ideal means with which to confront the authoritative impulses that sought to bring her down last fall.
Wilbur, for his part, just this past week, began academic studies at Southern Maine Community College. There, he will be taking prerequisite courses aimed at a return to the University of Maine System to resume studies in an accelerated nursing program, similar to the one in which he was originally enrolled at Ft. Kent but for which he will this spring be undertaking at the university’s southern Maine campus instead.
The USM nursing program was one to which he had been accepted a year ago but had then passed up in favor of Fort Kent. In explaining his original preference for Fort Kent, Wilbur referred to its 50 percent reduction in out-of-state tuition fees and also remarked, “I thought it would be amazing – the Acadian influence – the fact that we were right on the Canadian border.”
Since he had recently been a ranger at a number of national parks, Wilbur was also attracted by Ft. Kent’s close proximity to the area’s nature environment and the Allagash Waterway.
Though he is now seeking a nursing bachelor’s degree, Wilbur is not an academic neophyte. He already holds a degree in British history and comparative religion from California’s Chico State and a masters that focused on Japanese American history from Boise State.
Ironically, his masters thesis, written several years before he met Hickox, was on the internment of the 110,000 Japanese Americans during World War II. This is a feature they both understandably seen as having a number of parallels to Hickox’s quarantine dilemma, one common thread being racial discrimination. Caucasian Italians and Germans were not quarantined by FDR but Japanese were. Medical professionals treating white Americans such as Dr. Craig Spencer at New York’s Bellevue Hospital are not quarantined but those who like Hickox treated Blacks in West Africa are.
After graduate school, Wilbur spent two years teaching in Japan and then put in another two years working with Habitat for Humanity in Central America and Sri Lanka.
Both Hickox and Wilbur left Fort Kent disenchanted with the inability of the campus leadership there to abate misplaced anxiety of some fellow students over his return to classes. They still harbor some positive memories of their experience there, however.
As Kaci recalled for this columnist, “So many of the media outlets portrayed us leaving as us shunning the people in northern Maine but in general the people that were willing to speak out and stand up were very supportive, amazing people.
“We had the chief of police bringing us groceries, we had a neighbor the day after we arrived drop off homemade maple syrup…There was this woman named Roxanne whom we never met before and she brought us probably $200 worth of groceries from the local grocery store saying ‘I do not know what you have but me and some of my family got together and put some money to bring this.’
“Moose Shack brought us pizza after I had mentioned all I wanted was to go with Ted to the Moose Shack and have a pizza because I was not sick and knew that I was not a danger to anyone…One of Ted’s professors brought us over groceries and banana nut bread and almost every couple of days she drops something off for us and a note and those were the things that sustained us.”
The excursions they undertake do not draw the attention they did just two or three months ago. Their profile has indeed been so low that some online media outlets have lost track of their whereabouts even though it is well known that they no longer live just a few minutes from Moose Shack Pizza. Nevertheless, it is clear that their eventful narrative, whether in Maine or elsewhere is not likely to be over soon.
Paul H. Mills, is a Farmington attorney well known for his analyses and historical understanding of public affairs in Maine. He can be reached by e-mail: pmills@myfairpoint.net.
As a Maine licensed R.N., I objected to the media calling her a Maine Nurse. She has never had a license to practice in Maine. With all the uproar around her, she did not represent the real Maine Nurses well at all.
I do commend her for the work she did. I Do Not commend her for her actions here. When she arrived, she would have had to be segregated for less than 2 weeks, a small price to pay to ensure safety. At times, I wear masks, gowns, and always disinfect my hands between contacts to ensure that not only am I not contaminating myself but other around me, including my patients. After what she saw in Africa, I find it deplorable that she would not do what was advised to ensure everyone’s safety. Luckily she was well, but what about the next person who says they are, but are not. Interesting article Paul, but there were many more questions she should have answered.
Well said Farmingtonite, I agree completely.
If she had stayed in NJ, and kept quiet, we may very well have a different governor now.
LePage, together with his pall Christie used her to a magnificent political advantage- one that James Michael Curly would have admired.
“Medical professionals treating white Americans such as Dr. Craig Spencer at New York’s Bellevue Hospital are not quarantined but those who like Hickox treated Blacks in West Africa are.”
Why do/did “the rules” differ?
Thankful that she did not stay in New Jersey so LePage could be our Governor
Speaking of acting irrationally in the face of Ebola has anyone done a followup on the teacher from Strong who visited Dallas at the same time the was a patient being treated for Ebola in a hospital there and was not allowed to go back to work in the public school system in Strong for a brief period? Thank you Paul for this great piece.
Quite hard to beat a well written follow-up piece by Paul Mills that elicits, inane self serving commentary re Maine nurses, politics, anonymous general commentary otherwise , history, that is based somewhat on still current events (not quite cooled off), etc
I frankly found the couple, Kaci Hickox and Ted Wilbur rather articulate re their past public comments and positions taken thereon, certainly not a couple of losers or trouble makers
They do seem to be a fairly well centered and traveled couple that might be fun to hang out with given their stated affinity for pizza avec implied beer (at least by my standards) or have as neighbors
As to historical accuracy, and Ted Wilbur’s thesis and the internment of American of Japanese “heritage”, I’m pretty sure that there were Americans of German and Italian “heritage”, that were similariry treated during WWII
Thank you for this informative article, Paul Mills.
Thank you, Kaci Hickox for being compassionate, well-educated, and articulate.
Best wishes with your studies, Ted Wilbur. Welcome to nursing.
M Kendall, MSN, RN.
Chuck Davis: Read the book, “The Last Hurrah”, By Edwin o’Connor, or watch the movie, (the 1958 version). Both very enjoyable.
Then you will better grasp the intended tone of my comments.
As to Japanese internment; American citizens, born here, with full uncontested citizenship, were locked up, incarcerated, without due process, solely because they were of Japanese heritage.
It was perhaps the single most incontrovertible breach of constitutional rights since the founding of our country.
Oh, the good old days, when our country was still great.
(Snowman)
I do have a “grasp” of all I see the need to carry around in my travels!
I have seen the movie and may have read the book
Our local PBS station ran “Children Of Internment” late last year (Nov) which complements previous earlier documentaries like http://www.pbs.org/childofcamp/ which were “Japanese specific”
ChildrenOfInternment.com
“It is a common misperception that only Japanese Americans were interned during WWII. The German American wartime experience remains largely overlooked by historians and generally unknown to most Americans. Nearly 11,000 German aliens were interned, and tens of thousands more suffered illegal searches, seizures, relocation, harassment, interrogation, family separation, scapegoating, deportation and repatriation.”
Notwithstanding it was primarily “aliens” that were interned, the internees were oft interned in the same camps with/as the Japanese
A brief view below for anyone desirous to know more or find something else to “comment” on
Chuck, the operative word, in my view, is “Aliens”.
Sure we locked up German, Japanese, Italian etc. aliens. Not, nice, but it was a war.
What I referred to, was the incarceration of CITIZENS. Full, complete, born here, in the USA, to the parents of US citizens. You can be of German heritage and change your name to anglicize it, and no one knows. As did the British royals. But, if you look like a Japanese, it doesn’t help.
@Farmingtonite
Actually, she did follow safety protocols, to the letter; the safety protocols of the most knowledgable and experienced organization in history with containing epidemics: Doctors Without Borders. What she rightly objected to was following additional, medically unsound procedures created by politicians, against the advice of, again, Doctors Without Borders. I’m not a health care professional, but I’m reassured when those that are act according to best practice, and rely on expert scientific advice. Had she allowed Paul LePage to dictate her safety protocol, I would be deeply concerned. DWB has outlined the various real ways that forced quarantines *increase* the danger of a worsening outbreak; their position warrants consideration: http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/article/q-msf’s-ebola-response-and-protocols#13
Kaci Hickox is a national hero and a Maine nurse. Haters gonna hate but she proved that rational, scientifically backed up knowledge is accurate and safe. Anyone who thinks that what she did was dangerous, especially any medical professionals, needs to come to the realization that the voodoo policies of hate and ignorance have no place in our society (and I apologize to any voodoo believers out there, it just sounds good). Thank you Paul for a well written and informative column.
The entire Kaci Hickox sideshow (and it was!) as it played out nationally, and in Maine, had its origins in right wing attempts to find some quantum of fault in how President Obama articulated the idea that maybe “The Ebola Crisis” was not as “critical” here in this country as it was elsewhere
Thank you all, Chuck Davis, Anon. Fan, KES Parent for giving your voices to disspelling the notion that LePage & Christie were on the right track when they called for Kaci Hickox to be quartantined. It was either a political calculation on their part, or at best, the result of listening to the WRONG advice.
Meredith Kendall also ‘gets it’ regarding the merits of Kaci Hickox. snowman, probably does, too.
Kaci Hickox, went to Africa, ( not an inexpensive thing to do) to help care for people stricken with Ebola. How many did she help? dozens? Hundreds? This, a disease that kills most of it’s victims. Measures to help prevent the spread of the disease saves lives, helping those afflicted, while humanitarian, is not going to change the death toll by much.
Meanwhile, it was all but a sure thing that, had Mike Michaud won the race for governor, Maine would have expanded Medicare coverage for it’s population. Many thousands of people would have been made healthier, would have received preemptive care, would have had more help with addictions, would have been able to be more productive members of our society.
So, Kaci stood up for her rights. She stood up to the bully LePage. She stood up to LePage’s buddy Christie. She showed the country, the world, that science trumps politics.
She played right into the hands, the plans, of those politicians. They didn’t care about her, they didn’t care about the possibility of Mainers or New Jersians contracting ebola. If lePage had given a hoot about Mainer’s health, he wouldn’t have blocked the affordable care act being implemented in Maine.
kaci Hickox detracted from the health of far more people than she has helped.
Don’t misunderstand; I don’t blame her. It was foolish of the democrats, to think that because LePage was perceived as so unpopular that even a mediocre politician, with a lackluster record in Washington, who never saw fit to get even an online degree in anything- in all his years in office and who also though he might as well try to become the Nation’s first gay governor- in a rural, undereducated and fairly conservative state at that, and especially after having not voted for pro-gay rights, yes, and even then, he just might have pulled it off- except LePage did a masterful play at mass hysteria, getting the ignorant populace of Maine to get wound up on not just ebola, remote a threat as that, but to tie it into the threat of illegal immigrants. Another non-existent threat to Mainers and their way of life. If we elected Mike Michaud, we were sure to have hordes of ebola infected Mexican children swarming across our state border.
Still, I wonder how Kaci feels, knowing that, had she just sat in NJ and kept quiet, it would have had a far greater positive impact on more people than perhaps any other single person in Maine would have the opportunity to do in this decade.
I still think Michaud would probably have made a good governor. We’ll never know.
Farmingtonite – Kaci DID do what was recommended by the Federal CDC, WHO, and Doctors Without Borders. Why our governor decided we needed to go beyond those recommendations is beyond me – it catered to fear at a time when we desperately needed leadership.
I salute Kaci Hickox for standing up for what was right. We need to understand the actual risks of the Ebola threat and respond appropriately to them – in scientifically valid ways.
Our society has a tendency to respond to a perceived threat irrationally and often brutally – the war on poverty, terrorism, drugs, immigrants. We would have much better outcomes if we dug a little deeper and learned about the threat before deciding to make draconian steps that are as likely to backfire on us as not.