In that case (someone in the ICU on a vent with no known cause) trust me, the nursing staff is all gowned up with masks.
This is the case during a normal flu season.
Since the days of Aids, the nurses have been hyper-vigilant in the ICU units. In many cases the ICU IS the isolation ward. Obviously in the larger hospitals there are special rooms. Not so much in rural and community hospitals.
This thing needs more than ‘gowned up with masks’. That protocol did nothing to protect the health care workers in China before they knew what this was.
In the case of the ICU being the isolation ward...it’s not just for infectious stuff. My dad was in there after a heart attack. There was no ‘isolation’ for him. All the ICU rooms were connected via sliding door to a central desk.
It only takes one case and everybody else in the ICU will have this, shared air supply like that ship.
Even all hazmat-ed up, two of the nurses treating the Ebola patient in Dallas caught it.