Coronavirus-infected Americans flown home against CDC's advice

[herding cats]

Source: Washington Post

In the wee hours of a rainy Monday, more than a dozen buses sat on the tarmac at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport. Inside, 328 weary Americans wearing surgical masks and gloves waited anxiously to fly home after weeks in quarantine aboard the Diamond Princess, the luxury liner where the novel coronavirus had exploded into a ship-wide epidemic.

But as the buses idled, U.S. officials wrestled with troubling news. New test results showed that 14 passengers were infected with the virus. The U.S. State Department had promised that no one with the infection would be allowed to board the planes.

A decision had to be made. Let them all fly? Or leave them behind in Japanese hospitals?

In Washington, where it was still Sunday afternoon, a fierce debate broke out: The State Department and a top Trump administration health official wanted to forge ahead. The infected passengers had no symptoms and could be segregated on the plane in a plastic-lined enclosure. But officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention disagreed, contending they could still spread the virus. The CDC believed the 14 should not be flown back with uninfected passengers.

<>

The State Department won the argument. But unhappy CDC officials demanded to be left out of the news release that explained that infected people were being flown back to the United States — a move that would nearly double the number of known coronavirus cases in this country.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/coronavirus-diamond-princess-cruise-americans/2020/02/20/b6f54cae-5279-11ea-b119-4faabac6674f_story.html

[Girard442]

1. As soon as there are more than a few active cases in the US...

...expect the Trump regime to go full North Korea.

Because of our glorious ruler's foresight and brilliant leadership, all Americans are now healthy and virus-free.

[riversedge]

2. The State Department and a top Trump administration health official wanted to forge ahead.

DAMNNNNNN

[zooks]

5. The flight back was much worse then reported in the WP. One of the patients was interviwed

on CBC Radio's As It Happens, a current affairs show. Shocking and terrifying is an understatement. The man interviewed and his friend both tested negative but on the FIVE HOUR bus ride to the airport, then 11 hour plane most people he said weren't wearing masks, some were, like him and his friend, who the their masks the entire time. He said a couple were sitting behind them with NO MASKS and they were coughing the entire journey. When they landed men in Hazmat suits came on board and told the couple to stay on board because they were flying on to Omaha where people who tested positive are being treated.

Its beyond belief. He said plastic sheeting was used to make a cube (here infected people sat however it is clear that not all people who were positive sat in the enclosed area and I have to doubt that a cube would be secure enough to contain the virus.

Its staggering that most people weren't wearing masks. Absolute incompetence.

edit to remove comments that I may not have recalled correctly

[Baitball Blogger]

7. .

[Girard442]

9. The plastic sheeting sounds like play-acting.

To be effective, it would have to be near airtight and negative-pressure with respect to the rest of the cabin. Ventilation air would have had to go directly to the outflow vents, not to the cabin. Any chance this happened?

On edit: Also, passengers to be confined to the isolation area would have to be boarded before the main group and the outer area disinfected. Again, any chance this actually happened?

[docgee]

10. Hey you know it's just like duct tape and visqueen

to keep you safe from nreve gas.

[winstars]

12. THATS WHAT I THOUGHT OF AS I READ THIS BULLSHIT!!!

[Grokenstein]

3. Remember Obama and Ebola?

GOP then: "That ******* is deliberately subjecting MURIKA to an epidemic that will kill us all!"
GOP now: "Stock market's doing well today! ...Has Stone been pardoned yet?"

[yaesu]

6. tRump tweeted back when that went down demanding Obama should resign for letting Ebola

in the country. The old tweet can be found online, tRump should resign if he takes his own advice.

[zooks]

4. The flight back was much worse then reported in the WP. One of the patients was interviwed

on CBC Radio's As It Happens current affairs show. Shocking and terrifying is an understatement. The man interviewed and his friend both tested negative but on the FIVE HOUR bus ride to the airport, then 11 hour plane most people he said weren't wearing masks, some were like him and his friend who the their masks on the entire time. He said a couple were sitting behind them with NO MASKS and they were coughing the entire journey. When they landed men in Hazmat suits came on board and told the couple to stay on board because they were flying on to Omaha where people who tested positive are being treated.

Its beyond belief. He said there was a cube where infected people sat however it is clear that not all people who were positive sat in the enclosed area and I have to doubt that a cube would be secure enough to contain the virus.

Its staggering that most people weren't wearing masks. Absolute incompetence.

edit to remove comments that I may not have recalled correctly

[woodsprite]

8. Should have delivered them directly to Mar-a-lago or the Trump Int'l. nt

[DENVERPOPS]

11. Great idea

Quarantine them at Mar-a-lago for at least a month, after being flown home in Air Force One!!!!!!!!!!

The last thing any of Trump's uber wealthy followers would do is to EVER go into that resort again.........

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

13. You mean the bedbugs weren't enough to discourage them?

[DENVERPOPS]

19. If it's only occupied by the Uber wealthy

pretty conclusive that THEY brought them to Mar-a-lagoon.....

Of course, Trump probably blames the bedbugs infestation on his immigrant staff bringing them in on their shoes......

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

14. But Trump's a stable genius

He figures it's warm enough in Florida to kill the virus.

[LisaL]

15. Why doesn't he let all evacuees recuperate at Mar-a-Lago?

This way heat will kill the virus and all will be good.

[Totally Tunsie]

16. They could quarantine at Doral.

If it was good for the diplomats, it should be great for the evacuees!

[rockfordfile]

17. Trump is at fault for this . What a bunch of corrupt idiots. Drop them off at trump's place

[Dennis Donovan]

20. Kick

This is NOT dissimilar to the Westerdam port call in Cambodia that had experts freaking out:

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-02-17/coronovarius-cambodia-cruise-ship

The company said that out of 2,257 passengers and crew members — including more than 650 Americans — only 20 reported feeling ill during the voyage and were tested for the virus. All tests came back negative. Hundreds of passengers disembarked at the port of Sihanoukville without being screened.

“Obviously in hindsight, this was a mistake,” said Charles Chiu, a professor of infectious diseases at UC San Francisco.

Chiu said that more precautions should have been taken in Cambodia given that the epidemic is in its early stages and can still be controlled. The crowded spaces and communal facilities on cruise ships make it easy for disease to spread among passengers. On the Diamond Princess cruise liner quarantined off of Japan, 454 people have tested positive for the coronavirus.

“Now that the passengers have either gone home or continued traveling in other countries, this only magnifies the global public health challenge of tracking and performing contact tracing for each and every one of the passengers,” Chiu said of the Westerdam. “Self-quarantine measures for 14 days would need to be rigorously enforced to prevent spread by anyone else who may have been infected.”