Passengers exposed to hantavirus blindsided by new quarantine orders
An American passenger who was exposed to the Andes strain of hantavirus on the cruise ship HV Hondius said he feels “blindsided” and “misled” by new orders that require staying at the National Quarantine Center in Nebraska under federal supervision, reports BritPanorama.
At least two passengers were formally ordered to stay in quarantine in Nebraska after they pushed to leave. The others were told that if they did not voluntarily stay, they would also be ordered to remain. The order, which was reviewed by CNN, was signed by Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, who is leading both the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the US National Institutes of Health.
Public health officials have repeatedly stressed that the risk to the public from the Andes hantavirus is low. However, the outbreak has tested the Trump administration’s fidelity to principles of the medical freedom movement, which resists government-imposed public health measures such as vaccine mandates and masking requirements.
Bhattacharya is a co-author of the Great Barrington Declaration, which was written in protest of the “damaging physical and mental health impacts” of the government’s lockdown policies during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“This is another way to sow mistrust in public health,” wrote Dr. Ali S. Khan, dean of the school of public health at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, on social media. “Inconsistent with numerous hantavirus cruise ship passengers in the US who are home monitored without a mandatory order.”
Passengers who disembarked from the Hondius in April and flew back to the US before the outbreak was identified and the risk was known are being monitored by state and local public health departments in their homes.
In news briefings last week, CDC officials stated they were assessing passengers and working with state and local health departments to allow them to quarantine at home. The CDC issued guidelines to assist those health departments in monitoring people who were exposed to the virus, including twice-daily in-person visits.
Until Sunday night, some passengers expected to be allowed to return home as early as this week to finish the remainder of the 42 days in quarantine. Several had already been in touch with their state and local health departments, which would have been in charge of monitoring them.
One passenger, who asked not to be identified out of fear his family could be harassed, said his local health department had drawn up a quarantine order that would have allowed him to live in a guest house on his parents’ property. He had been expecting to leave Nebraska as early as Tuesday.
“It wasn’t even a guideline. It was a legal order,” the passenger said of the local health department’s order. “I would not have objected to that, but I just want to be at home.”
He stated that none of the passengers wants to endanger others, but he plans to challenge the new order keeping him in Nebraska.
“No one here is asking to be released from quarantine,” he told CNN. “We are asking for the less restrictive alternative of a quarantine at home. That is what everyone was planning until this bombshell on Sunday.”
On a hastily arranged video call Sunday, the 18 passengers staying at the National Quarantine Center were told by Dr. David Fitter, who is leading the CDC’s response to the hantavirus outbreak, and Dr. Denis Fitzgerald from the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, that they will have to remain at the facility until at least May 31.
“We were blindsided by that,” the passenger said. The health department contact he was working with in his home county seemed to be unaware of the change in strategy, he said, as were the CDC staff working with the passengers in the quarantine unit.
Another person in quarantine said he expected some changes as more new cases were confirmed among passengers from other countries.
“I was a bit disappointed, and I was taken off-guard, but I wasn’t totally surprised,” said Dr. Stephen Kornfeld, a retired oncologist from Bend, Oregon, who took over caring for passengers after the ship doctor caught hantavirus. Kornfeld is now in quarantine with the other American passengers in Nebraska.
On the call Sunday, the Americans at the National Quarantine Center were informed that the strategy had shifted because three passengers – from Spain, France, and Canada – had tested positive after they’d gotten off the ship on May 10.
“What’s happening in the world around us does have an impact on decision-making, and when I knew that a Canadian was diagnosed with hanta, I figured that was going to have an impact,” Kornfeld stated.
Some passengers expressed dissatisfaction with the CDC’s handling of the situation. “We think it’s clear that it was a PR decision,” a passenger noted, referencing the agency’s prior slow response and the public alarmism surrounding the disease.
In a statement Tuesday, the CDC affirmed it “will continue to coordinate with state and local health authorities as we work together to come up with the best solutions to protect the health and safety of these passengers.”
Although some passengers had planned to spend all 42 days in the National Quarantine Unit, others are upset and feel they should be allowed to quarantine at home. “I don’t see why I can’t be home. If I’m home, I have my stuff. I can go outside in my yard,” a passenger said. “Here, I’m locked in a little room. I can’t go outside.”
This sentiment was echoed by at least one infectious disease expert, Dr. Peter Hotez, who suggested that quarantining them at home while still ensuring their safety could have been a reasonable approach.
