Update: This story now has a happy ending. Just around the time this article went live — about 20 hours after nurse Kaci Hickox requested a pizza — a Bangor Daily News reporter tweeted this photo of the pizza being delivered. The company apparently did indeed get the Maine police’s sign off.
Just let Kaci Hickox have a pizza
First, it was Kaci Hickox, a nurse with Doctors Without Borders, who was held in quarantine at Newark Airport when she returned from treating Ebola patients in West Africa — even after she tested negative for the disease twice. She is now in quarantine at her house in Maine for no apparently good reason, and was trailed by police Thursday when she went on a one-mile bike ride.
Now, it is Hickox’s pizza is being held captive. ABC News reports that a local pizza place called the Moose Shack (it gets 2.5 stars on Yelp) would like to send Hickox a pizza. This is a very thoughtful thing for a local business to do for a nurse who helped battle a vicious pandemic.
While Hickox told reporters last night she would enjoy a pizza, it still hasn’t been delivered. This is because the Moose Shack is still “in contact with the police department to see whether they can deliver a pizza.” We’re now at about 20 hours since the ask was made — and no pizza.
Yes, we've learned that Ebola can be transmitted in ways we didn't expect before this outbreak had begun. But it is literally impossible to imagine how Ebola could be transmitted in this particular scenario, which involves a health worker who has twice tested negative for Ebola and a pizza delivery person who has not recently traveled to West Africa. The risk of transmission is non-existent because nobody involved in the exchange has Ebola.
This is arguably the height of absurdity in how the United States has treated returning health care workers. Hickox came home from a harrowing experience and she just wants to get a pizza from a local place that she likes. And for some reason, the Maine police’s response is not a clear yes, of course you should have access to a comfort food. So, hurry up and do the right thing, Maine: let Kaci Hickox have a pizza.
By Julia Belluz and Alex Ward
