- An American passenger on the HV Hondius cruise ship feels misled by quarantine orders.
- Passengers exposed to hantavirus must stay in Nebraska under federal supervision until May 31.
- CDC faces criticism for slow response and poor communication about the quarantine strategy.
OMAHA, Nebraska — 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 requiring him to stay at the National Quarantine Center in Nebraska under federal supervision.
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, reviewed by CNN, was signed by Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, who leads both the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. National Institutes of Health.
Public health officials have repeatedly stressed that the risk to the public from the Andes hantavirus is low. But the outbreak has tested the Trump administration's fidelity to the principles of the medical freedom movement, which has been championed by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his deputies. The medical freedom movement 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 "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 U.S. before the outbreak was identified and the risk was known are being monitored in their homes by state and local public health departments.
In news briefings last week, CDC officials said they were assessing passengers and were 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 complete the remaining 42 days of quarantine. Several had already been in touch with their state and local health departments, which would have been responsible for 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 said none of the passengers want to endanger others, but he plans to challenge the new order that keeps 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 on 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 told 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 said, "and I think that did have an impact in the timing of our meeting."
That answer wasn't satisfying to everyone, the other passenger said. "We always knew more people could come down with the disease."
"We think it's clear that it was a PR decision," he said. "We understand that CDC has gotten blowback for the slow response, their poor communication to the public, and there's a lot of public alarmism and fear about the disease."
In a statement Tuesday, the CDC said 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."
The passenger said that although some people had already planned to spend all 42 days at the National Quarantine Unit, he and others who wanted to go home are angry.
"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. Here, I'm locked in a little room. I can't go outside. Everything I do has to be through these doctors at the front desk," the passenger said. "I don't want to be incarcerated."
At least one infectious disease expert agreed.
"They should (have) remained quarantined, but I don't see why they couldn't be flown in a special airplane and then quarantined at home," said Dr. Peter Hotez, who is director of vaccine development at Texas Children's Hospital. "I would think that would be quite reasonable."
