Kaci Hickox, a nurse placed under mandatory quarantine had some harsh words for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on this Sunday's State of the Union on CNN: Isolated nurse slams Chris Christie's Ebola quarantine policy:

The first nurse to be isolated under New Jersey’s new Ebola rules has slammed governor Chris Christie’s decision to quarantine health workers returning from west Africa, saying he is “not a doctor” and calling the policy “poorly planned” and “not evidence-based” .

Her remarks came as it emerged White House officials were pressing Christie and the governors of New York and Illinois to reverse plans to quarantine all health workers returning from west Africa who have had direct contact with people suffering from the disease.

Kaci Hickox, who spent a month in Sierra Leone, was quarantined when she arrived at Newark Liberty airport on Friday and on Sunday was in an isolation unit at University Hospital in Newark. Having tested negative for Ebola, she subsequently criticised her detention in a piece for the Dallas Morning News.

On Saturday, Christie said Hickox was “obviously ill”, and added: “I’m sorry if in any way she was inconvenienced, but the inconvenience that could occur from having folks who are symptomatic and ill out and amongst the public is a much, much greater concern of mine.”

On Sunday he defended his decision that his state, alongside New York and Illinois, would implement a 21-day quarantine programme for people returning from Guinea, Liberia or Sierra Leone if they had had direct contact with Ebola patients, even if they show no symptoms of infection.

Speaking to CNN on Sunday, Hickox said her treatment had been “inhumane”. She added: “I also want to be treated with compassion and humanity and I don’t feel I’ve been treated that way in the past few days.”

“This is so frustrating for me,” Hickox said. “First of all I don’t think he [Christie] is a doctor, secondly he’s never laid eyes on me and thirdly I have been asymptomatic since I’ve have been here. I feel physically completely strong and emotionally completely exhausted.”

She said she wished Christie would be “more careful” in his public statements. “I am not ‘obviously ill’,” she said. “I am completely healthy and with no symptoms. And if he knew anything about Ebola he would know asymptomatic people are not infectious.” Read on...

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