In researching my daily “Covid-19 State by State” summary for California (a great resource for your state! Check out #covid19statebystate) I came across this distressing story of government incompetence, negligence, outright lying, and potentially catastrophic seeding of the virus by newly released passengers.
The Grand Princess was a floating contagion when it docked in Oakland on March 9. 21 passengers had already tested positive, and as a result all of the passengers were quarantined for 14 days when they disembarked. Hundreds of passengers were confined at Travis Air Force Base. A few days before the passengers disembarked, Mike Pence had assured the country that “we will be testing everyone on that ship”, a claim reiterated by HHS officials.
In fact, most of the quarantined passengers — approximately 568 of the 858 at Travis - have turned down the test because they know a positive test will extend the quarantine and they want to go home. And federal health officials have actively dissuaded many from taking the test, saying that it was unnecessary if they had no symptoms after 14 days. As a result, hundreds of passengers will be scattered all over the United States on March 23 and 24 with their coronavirus status completely unknown.
The sheer criminality of this boggles the mind. Passengers were told not to take the test if they were asymptomatic because 14 days “was plenty of time” for symptoms to manifest. Do they bother reading the science? 1-3% of people who contract the disease show no symptoms, meaning some of the newly freed passengers might be contagious even though they are asymptomatic. The only way to find out? Test them.
But even if none of the about-to-be-released passengers are asymptomatic carriers, the government apparently ignored the fact that during the quarantine 20 additional passengers showed covid-19 symptoms. During that time they mingled with the soon-to-be-freed passengers, breathed on them, touched surfaces which they communally shared, etc. Therefore, many passengers potentially had a second exposure. That should have reset the 14 day quarantine clock. Instead, the weary and angry passengers want to go home and most declined the test.
Whether you can force people to be tested is a dicey legal question; the weight of authority (in my opinion) says that you can during a health emergency. Regardless, much of this could have been avoided in a world which no longer exists: a world with a competent, truthful, and prompt federal response. Mistake 1: The passengers were promised they could leave in 14 days if they were asymptomatic. They should have included: and your test is negative. Mistake 2: The government was unable to administer the tests a week ago, which they concede would probably have induced greater test acceptance, because of a lack of trained personnel, protective gear, and — wait for it — test kits.
None of the tests that have actually been done have been returned due to a backlog, there are only 13 staffers at Travis trained to administer the test, and the base is still waiting for protective gear to be delivered. Which means that by the time we get the test results on the 300 passengers who agreed to be tested, a lot of contagious people may be seeding this terrible virus all over the country.
www.sfchronicle.com/...