How We Are Being Protected: Our Center for Disease Control Asleep On The Job

On March 5, 2020, the Cosa Luminosa, an Italian cruise liner owned by Carnival (one of the cruise lines the GOP wants to bail out)with 1,400 passengers  left from Fort Lauderdale to head on a planned cruise to Antigua, Puerto Rico, Málaga, Spain, the Canary Islands and Marseille. See here.

You may remember that on February 4, 2020, over a month earlier the Diamond Princess was quarantined off of Japan for days because of a coronavirus outbreak. Then on the date of March 5 there were reports of another cruise ship, the Grand Princess, being held up off the coast of California because of coronavirus concerns.

On March 15, 2010, the Miami Herald reported: “A 68-year-old Italian man, who became the Cayman Islands’ first confirmed coronavirus patient and its first virus-related death Saturday, was on the same Italian cruise ship carrying Puerto Rico’s two first COVID-19 cases. The death was reported Saturday. Carnival Corp.’s Costa Luminosa landed in Grand Cayman on Feb. 29 after its Italian passengers were barred from disembarking the day before in Ocho Rios, Jamaica, due to fears over the potential spread of the novel coronavirus, which causes the flu-like COVID-19 disease. Days later, the ship arrived in Puerto Rico, where officials announced that a 68-year-old female passenger from northern Italy had been evacuated from the cruise ship with pneumonia, accompanied by her 70-year-old husband.”

This ship was allowed to land in Ft. Lauderdale after Jamaica banned its Italian passengers from disembarking.  Were they barred in Ft. Lauderdale? Three days after leaving Ft. Lauderdale it dropped the two Covid-19 passengers in Puerto Rico.  Neither Antiqua or Spain would let the ship disembark its passengers. Finally, in Marseille on Thursday the passengers from France, Canada and the U.S. disembarked.  36 of the French people tested came back positive. Ten American and Canadian passengers were tested and three came back positive. They were put on buses and taken to the airport. One person described it as: “It was so crowded. There were so many sick people coughing.”

They finally got upon a plane chartered by Carnival and were flown into Atlanta. Three people were taken off the plane who tested positive for coronavirus. Kristen Norland for the CDC said: ““Passengers with no symptoms upon arrival were given health information advising them to stay home for 14 days after returning from travel, monitor their health and practice social distancing as they continued to their final destination.”  Even people who had high fevers were allowed to leave if their fevers dropped. The passengers then headed off to take flights to the other parts of the U.S.

Ms Nordland “did not respond to questions asking whether it made sense to allow people who had been instructed to self-isolate to travel on commercial aircraft, potentially exposing them to other passengers.”

A Georgia state official who was not authorized to speak about the case said the three people who tested positive for the coronavirus were not exhibiting symptoms, and that 13 others, who were sick on the plane, had not been tested.”

This just happened. A ship from hell dropping people off at various ports who are sick with coronavirus barred in Jamaica, lands in U.S. and Puerto Rico (how many infected mingled with those populations) again barred in two ports unloads a group of passengers where about 40 test positive for coronavirus. Part of them fly back to the United States aboard a plane on which one passenger said: “This plane is a medical disaster” 

It lands in Atlanta, a cursory check is done, three are found to test positive, others not tested and released into the general public. They fly off to other parts of the United States infecting who knows how many other people.

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I look at the statistics between Italy and the United States. By this time in their crises Italy had taken drastic steps to keep people apart. Despite that their deaths started to climb quickly. They now report 5,476 deaths out of a total of 59,138 cases. The U.S. has had about 25,000 cases reported and 340 deaths. The figures are out of whack with each other; especially since the U.S. still, as shown above, is having a half-hearted response to it.

I wish I knew the answer.

 

 

 

 

6 Comments

  1. Hindsight is 20/20. You didn’t know it then, but you know it now.

  2. William M. Connolly

    Matt: no one has all the answers. Folks who’ve studied biology, medicine and public health their entire lives, like Dr.Fauci, don’t have all the answers. But it’s good we’re asking questions. Keep things in persepective:

    1. The Cruise Ship “left Ft. Lauderdale on March 5 on a fifteen-day cruise.” On March 5, almost all universities, colleges and public schools were still open. Experts were still deciding on how best to respond to the Coronavirus. Strict quarantines were not yet in place. The St. Pat’s Parades in Boston, New York and Chicago were not called off till the last moment. Even so, as I read your articles about the cruise ships, I thought the public health authorities acted reasonably and cautiously, howsoever imperfectly.

    In retrospect, it looks like we botched it with the Cruise Ships. Perhaps we should have refused docking and isolated all Cruise Ship passengers offshore, taking the sick, one by one to local hospitals. But all that is Monday Morning Quarterbacking.

    Just recently, Fort Lauderdale shut its beaches. Perhaps, it should have done so earlier. Who knows? Perhaps the universities, bars and restaurants should have closed in February.

    2. This is a “novel” virus. Human beings are not supposed to have any natural immunity to it, yet 90% who have become infected have mild or no symptoms.

    3. Think of these two studies: From University of Texas study: March 16, 2020 “Infectious disease researchers studying the novel coronavirus were able to identify how quickly the virus can spread, a factor that may help public health officials in their efforts at containment. They found that time between cases in a chain of transmission is less than a week and that more than 10 percent of patients are infected by somebody who has the virus but does not yet have symptoms.”
    Now from a March 9 German study. “People who contract the novel coronavirus emit high amounts of virus very early on in their infection. . . .At the same time, the study suggests that while people with mild infections can still test positive by throat swabs for days and even weeks after their illness, those who are only mildly sick are likely not still infectious by about 10 days after they start to experience symptoms.”

    4. So, (1) about 90% of cases are from people with symptoms and (2) people with mild symptoms (90% of cases; 81% of overall infected) are no longer infectious after 10 days.

    One Answer: Isolate (home confinement) all folks with mild symptoms for 14 days, and with moderate to severe symptoms for one month. This will drastically cut down on transmissions. We’ll still have transmissions from the pre-symptomatic (about 10%-plus), and their transmissions will be mitigated by the social-distancing, washing hands, and other practices we already have put in place.

    THE GOOD NEWS: (1) In Australia, “the most detailed scientific study yet of a coronavirus patient” SHOWED SHE DID HAVE A ROBUST IMMUNE RESPONSE AND DEVELOPED ANTIBODIES AGAINST THE VIRUS. “Researchers at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity in Australia attributed her recovery “to an unexpectedly strong immune response.” (2) As more people develop immunity, HERD IMMUNITY will build; amplified by future vaccines. (3) President Trump sent 70000 doses of hydroxychloroquine and 10000 doses of Zithromycin to New York, and Governor Cuomo announced clinical trials will begin tomorrow. (4) South Korea is continuing to see a decline in new cases: down to about 54 new cases yesterday.

  3. John King McDonald

    Just listened to Charlie’s presser. I’ve always liked Charlie. Sure he’s a somewhat stolid character. And his politics are not mine. But I have always identified that he is a steady Eddie, and a guy you could have a Guinness with and not feel uncomfortable. He outlined the features of the shelter in place, and the particulars regarding essential or non-essential businesses. What quickened my attention was when he started to talk about purpose. He placed it in the context of the spiritual. He had tele-conferenced with a couple of places of worship. He had noted that people really were out of sorts as regards the big picture so to say, whether their lives had purpose, and how did they fit into what seems like an increasingly frightening Universe of possibilities. He suggested that in the solidarity of caring for each other, facing this public health crisis, that we clearly were fulfilling a noble purpose. And that we should take pride and comfort in that. Good on you Charlie I said Good On You !!! …. Charlie has stepped up to the plate .

    • John:

      Nice post – seems something like the old saying “there are no atheists in a foxhole.” Good to hear from you. Take care of yourself.

      • John King McDonald

        Same here Matt. — God — is a word even the most devout atheists somehow unconsciously use in times of crisis. Stay safe and don’t be embarrassed to duck if you hear a sneeze. This situation is going to improve !!!