Posted on 10/17/2014 11:21:09 PM PDT by Steelfish
Ebola Scare Sends Caribbean Cruise Ship Back Home Oct 17, 2014 By MEGHAN KENEALLY
PHOTO: Jeremy Malone saw 30 to 40 crew members with buckets of disinfectant who were lined up on along his hallway as they prepared to clean the ship
The presence of a woman who helped care for an Ebola patient who died has left a Caribbean cruise ship unable to dock at foreign tourist ports and is now heading back to Texas.
One passenger said the announcement of the woman's presence has created "utter panic" on the Carnival Magic cruise ship, while others remained outwardly unfazed, sunbathing by the outdoor pool.
"People are scared,” passenger Jon Malone told ABC News as the ship was waiting miles off shore from Cozumel, Mexico. "I’ve seen people crying.”
The chaos started this morning when there was an announcement on the ship’s intercom saying "that someone who worked in the lab who handled the person in Dallas’s blood was on the ship,” Jon’s brother and fellow passenger Jeremy Malone told ABC. The cruise line said the woman is in isolation on board the ship.
"You're using the same buffet line as someone else, the same waiters, the folks that clean the state rooms. If someone was cleaning their state room and cleaned yours right after, the exposure that you have there to elevators..." he said. "It's very tight quarters and a lot of interaction. It's really difficult to control any type of virus that's on a cruise ship. It's like a floating petri dish. It spreads very rapidly."
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
I don’t know. Reports in Belize said that she was, and that is why they refused the ship’s request to dock. Then the reports later say, “No, no.” She and her husband were notified by the CDC that she needed to self-quarantine, so she was doing that. She is perfectly fine, just isolating herself per CDC direction.
Then why the medivac plane, if she isn’t sick? Why the big hullabaloo?
It just doesn’t make any sense.
Here is the report I am talking about:
http://belizean.com/belize-confirms-patient-with-ebola-symptoms-on-cruise-ship-off-its-coast-1814/
There are some fairly knowledgable and revealing comments at the end of the thread topic article. Sounds as if there may have even been an effort to fly her to the airport, seaplane I guess? We’ll likely never know. There’s not even been any report that they were allowed to reboard after all that, they could be “self-quarantined” with the ship’s tender being towed behind like a dinghy for all we know.
But he made it to the Acropolis!
A link to this thread has been posted on the Ebola Surveillance Thread
It’s all becoming a big cover up & I expect there’ll be more cover ups.
So, she and her husband aren’t in the cabin under self-quarantine out of an “abundance of caution”? Or did the cruise line relent and let them back on?
Update From Carnival Cruise Lines: John Head, Carnival Senior Cruise Director wrote on his FaceBook Page:
“Late afternoon on Wednesday, Oct. 15., we were made aware by the U.S. CDC of a guest sailing this week on board Carnival Magic who is a lab supervisor at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital. At no point in time has the individual exhibited any symptoms or signs of infection and it has been 19 days since she was in the lab with the testing samples. She is deemed by CDC to be very low risk. At this time, the guest remains in isolation on board the ship and is not deemed to be a risk to any guests or crew. It is important to reiterate that the individual has no symptoms and has been isolated in an extreme abundance of caution. We are in close contact with the CDC and at this time it has been determined that the appropriate course of action is to simply keep the guest in isolation on board.”
_________________________
The reports on this are all over the place.
The FB posting makes it sound as if they just quietly self-quarantined, once the CDC contacted the cruise line. Did the cruise ship just want them off then and told the CDC to just “get them off our ship!”? Then, they told Belize they had an Ebola passenger on board? How did the Health Ministry of Belize know unless the ship told them? And why would they tell them it was someone exposed to Ebola? Talk about starting a fire!
And again— why the medivac plane?
None of this makes sense. I know I am like a dog with a bone; it must be my mini-detective. Or I am sleep deprived.;^)
Someone wake me when they’ve made sense of this.
LOL to your last sentence! :^D
Now I really am going to bed!
“There are some fairly knowledgable and revealing comments at the end of the thread topic article.”
I like the comment that the ship is now being called...’The Glove Boat’!
This article definitely says “SYMPTOMS” are we hearing a cover up from CDC? http://beforeitsnews.com/earthquakes/2014/10/belize-confirms-patient-with-ebola-symptoms-on-cruise-ship-off-its-coast-2517068.html?utm_term=http%3A%2F%2Fb4in.info%2Fpho5&utm_medium=twitter&utm_content=beforeit39snews-buttonsunderheadline&utm_campaign=&utm_source=http%3A%2F%2Fl.facebook.com%2Fl.php%3Fu%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fb4in.info%252Fpho5%26h%3DqAQG1k9ud%26enc%3DAZMtdUbaU5IE0Oz-P5SU7B-QwdY38ZKNq-MVAWT3c13tK0E8nkLgD6Hz4NQ_BDMZ1Xj5Ip3uEE4-nmoCcN68OjQs28t0C6GwjUSJaIK1cdpvnA%26s%3D1
Wow... talk about hysterical overreaction to nothing.
I guess anyone who works in a lab is an epidemic or pandemic waiting to happen.
Are those of us who work in labs going to have to start wearing biohazard, radiation hazard, carcinogen hazard, etc., signs when we go out in public, so as to warn people that being around us is dangerous?
This situation is absolutely ludicrous, IMO.
Three years ago, I was on a trans Atlantic cruise and one day out of port it was announced that a handful of people on board (mostly crew) had NorvoVirus. The ship wasn't at quarantine levels, but they staff wanted to prevent an outbreak.
By announcing exactly what happens rather than "reassuring the public" people feel more like part of the solution and take appropriate measures themselves. Also, those who feel ill tend to self-isolate. Cruisers accepted restrictions without question.
Judging by this experience, I'd say that letting people know exactly what the situation is probably helped stem the possibility of a spread of disease.
Considering that symptoms can appear anytime between 21 and 45 days after exposure, I think the med-evac plane (if this part of the story is true) is precaution. If the woman was handling samples in any way similar to how the directly involved health care workers were exposed, I’d say she’s a pretty good candidate for displaying symptoms within the next month. Better to get her off the ship before she erupts than wait for the eruption. She’s another “health care” person who needs to have her head examined for common sense. “Oh wow, I’m on paid leave for 3 weeks, lets go on a cruise!” Geeze.
She was a hospital lab worker who handled vials of Duncan’s blood. Probably was never even on the same floor as him in the building.
If a person works in a lab dealing with ebola - AND doesn’t follow protocols - yeah - they’re a threat. Of course that doesn’t hold a candle to the plane loads of ebola carriers Obama wants to welcome to our country.
Ebola virus can live outside the body for days...
Some infected African can push an elevator button you use and eight days later you’re coming down with the disease...
And plastic gloves?
Trying to stop a virus with a plastic glove is like trying to stop a bullet with a chain link fence.
The cruise was probably booked last year with a hefty deposit. Very difficult to cancel, especially if the CDC was telling them it was A-OK to travel if there were no symptoms apparent.
Deliberate and intentional
There’s a serious freakout going on beneath the radar and behind the “keep calm all is well” PR, is the only conclusion I can reach. Enough detail from last night’s report out of Belize is confirmed that this being imaginative or purely the result of confusion is unlikely.
She'd have been scheduled for vacation days then, if that's the case.
Just look at the posters who have shown up here early this morning, and some newbies as well.
The 0bama coverup team is in full court press mode right now, and the old lies are being told over and over again to make them sound familiar. Lots of “experts” with no more medical creds than the new 0bolo Czar.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.