FORT KENT, Maine — Ted Wilbur, the boyfriend of Kaci Hickox, the nurse released from isolation after returning last week to the U.S. from West Africa, where she treated Ebola patients, spoke outside their home on Thursday night and told reporters neither he nor Hickox feel they are a danger to anyone in the community.
“We are not trying to get anyone sick, and we don’t believe we can get anyone sick, [and] we are not trying to put anyone at risk,” Wilbur said. “We are not trying to push any limits. We are members of this community and want to make everyone feel comfortable.”
Hickox and Wilbur did leave their home earlier that day for a 40-minute bicycle ride on a local multi-use trail.
“If anyone noticed, we did not go into town,” Wilbur said. “We did not go to the grocery store or anything.”
Wilbur declined to answer any questions on the status of Hickox’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention monitoring or the legal battle with the state of Maine.
“I like to stay fat, dumb and happy by not knowing what is going on,” he said.
“My feeling personally is my life has been rather disrupted by this whole thing,” he said. “This thing does not just affect Kaci, and when people are coming home from different parts of the world, it is affecting their partners, as well.”
In Wilbur’s case, he is participating in his University of Maine at Fort Kent nursing program via online classes for the 21 days of Hickox’s quarantine.
When pressed, Wilbur said the online option was not, as university officials have said, voluntary.
“This is one of those things when people might say to you, ‘Do you agree to not come to classes?’ and you say, ‘Do I have a choice?’ And they say ‘no,’” Wilbur said. “So I said, ‘Oh, I agree to not come to classes.’”
Wilbur did say UMFK President Wilson Hess likely could have found a way for him to attend classes on campus.
“I think that would be really nice of him,” he said.
Wilbur said the couple spent the day doing laundry, housecleaning, and “all the things you do after a lot of travel.”
They even managed to get some time to watch a portion of the movie “The Avengers.”
Wilbur thanked members of the community who have showed their support, specifically Fort Kent Police Chief Tom Pelletier who, several minutes after the press conference ended, delivered groceries to the house.
“I think that’s fantastic,” Wilbur said.
