Passengers disembark Hantavirus-hit cruise ship: What's next?

0:00 We just learned that passengers have started to disembark

0:03 the cruise ship at the center of a hantavirus outbreak.

0:06 The MV Hondius is anchored at the Port of Grenada in the Canary Islands.

0:10 Passengers are being escorted off the ship according to their home country.

0:16 So the plan will be that the ship will anchor,

0:19 and that there will be small boats that will take some

0:22 of the passengers and it will be done in a very choreographed,

0:24 coordinated way, in a very protected way.

0:27 Bring those passengers to shore.

0:29 There will be a screening that will take place.

0:31 Right now, there's nobody on board that has any symptoms,

0:34 including passengers and crew.

0:35 That's great news.

0:39 Centers for Disease Control officials will be

0:41 there to escort 17 Americans back home.

0:44 Now, none has symptoms,

0:45 but they will go to a special facility in Nebraska for monitoring.

0:49 After that, they will self-monitor for six weeks at home.

0:52 CNN's Melissa Bell is live from the Canary island of Tenerife.

0:56 Melissa, good to see you.

0:57 Tell us what happens next.

1:01 So what we've seen over the course of the last couple of hours down here,

1:03 there's very first small boat loads of people being taken off

1:08 the coronavirus stricken ship and onto shore on once on shore,

1:14 taken onto these busses that are ferrying them

1:17 on to the airport where their airplanes are waiting for them.

1:19 The first batch of people to be taken off the ship were Spanish.

1:24 They are even now making their way onto

1:26 that flight that will take them on to Madrid,

1:28 where they will be taken to a, a military

1:31 hospital and kept in quarantine for seven days, monitored, no visits for them.

1:36 So whilst this part of the ordeal is over for these passengers,

1:38 remember that whatever their home country is,

1:41 there's a whole process ahead of them.

1:42 In the case of the Spaniards, seven days in that military hospital.

1:45 And then there's very long isolation time,

1:48 the world Health Organization is recommending a six week period.

1:51 So these people have been on this ship for more than five weeks now.

1:56 And ever since the virus was first identified in early May.

2:00 Entirely uncertain of their fate,

2:02 of what their final destination would be and of how long they

2:06 were going to be on this ship in these very difficult conditions.

2:10 In fact, what we heard yesterday was a direct letter from Doctor Tedros,

2:14 the head of the World Health Organization, to the people of China,

2:17 thanking them for their solidarity,

2:18 for their humanity and allowing this very complex operation to take place,

2:23 on their island, but also acknowledging the fact that people are afraid.

2:27 Ever since the Covid days.

2:28 And it's normal that these kinds of viruses,

2:31 but also pointing out that everything was

2:33 going to be done to ensure their safety.

2:35 And that's really what we've seen today,

2:37 a very transport, operation, a very careful operation.

2:41 And exactly as they'd said,

2:43 those those passengers taken off in small groups by nationality to the shore,

2:48 onto their planes and then onward to their next destinations.

2:52 Danny.

2:54 Yeah, you can just tell that the relief, I'm sure, is massive,

2:57 even as this massive operation is taking place before our eyes.

3:01 Melissa Bell, thank you so much for that report.

3:03 I want to bring in Doctor Scott Miscavige,

3:06 president and CEO of Premier Medical Group USA.

3:08 He joins us live from Kailua, Hawaii.

3:11 Good to see you again.

3:13 So, last we spoke, the passengers were still on the ship.

3:17 Now, according to the Spanish authorities, some have been brought to Tenerife.

3:23 Reyes sharing news.

3:25 None of the passengers are symptomatic.

3:27 That's what we're being told.

3:29 I want to get your thoughts just on the process

3:31 that we're seeing unfold before our eyes here.

3:36 You know, Kim, as as I'm sitting here with you

3:38 over the past hour and a half listening to this.

3:42 You know, the thing that comes to mind for me is this is terrific.

3:48 Why is it terrific?

3:50 Because the world has learned.

3:52 We learned from the past pandemic that we're

3:56 taking all the proper precautions right now.

3:59 So when I'm hearing the detail of the great

4:02 reporting we just had from the two ladies,

4:05 this is exactly what you want to do when

4:08 you have something where you have a major question.

4:11 So I'm very pleased to see what they're doing as we talked about last hour,

4:16 it's probably overkill because this virus is not Covid.

4:21 But overall, I'm very pleased that they're all in full PPE.

4:25 The all the countries are preparing.

4:28 But I do want to note this.

4:30 Kim, where's the U.S.?

4:32 Where's the CDC?

4:33 We we're we're just nowhere to be found,

4:36 which is a concern for Americans because

4:38 of how much we've dropped out of the world.

4:40 Yeah.

4:40 Well, listen, I was going to ask you some other questions first,

4:43 but since you just brought this up, I mean, the U.S.

4:46 pulled out of the show earlier this year,

4:48 some public health experts are saying that this means

4:51 that we don't have access to the same surveillance data,

4:55 contact tracing on this outbreak.

4:56 On top of that.

4:58 We have cuts to the CDC in in a case like this.

5:02 I mean, it may not be for this particular outbreak,

5:05 because of some of the things that we've talked about.

5:07 But certainly it does bring it to mind.

5:09 Are we more vulnerable now?

5:11 Are you worried?

5:13 Oh, absolutely.

5:15 We are more vulnerable as a country than we ever could have been.

5:19 And also, just look who is standing up on top and running these organizations.

5:26 We don't have medical people.

5:27 They've cut their budgets.

5:29 What?

5:29 Nearly in half.

5:31 And you know, the the international components of the CDC,

5:36 we always had a major presence in a lot

5:40 of the areas where you had all of these zoonotic,

5:44 infections, which is what we're worried about as the population grows.

5:48 And we could be right there on the front

5:51 lines with our science, with our expertise.

5:54 It's gutted.

5:55 It's gone.

5:56 And so I think we are vulnerable as a country.

5:59 And, the world is more vulnerable because we're not investing as much.

6:04 We know how much our budgets have cut.

6:06 So yeah, I'm very concerned.

6:07 All right.

6:08 Well, let's focus on what we're seeing here.

6:10 We're seeing some of the passengers presumably being

6:12 taken away now in one of those busses,

6:15 Spanish passengers, the first to come off the ship.

6:18 And later American passengers as well, will be repatriated.

6:22 We know the CDC is sending a team, to meet those American passengers.

6:25 They'll be taken by charter flight back to the US.

6:28 Take us through what happens to those Americans

6:31 once they're back on American soil?

6:34 Well, they're going to be evaluated by medical

6:37 personnel and hopefully very well trained infectious disease, personnel.

6:42 They should have, complete evaluation looking

6:46 for any inch of any respiratory symptoms,

6:49 which is key with the Andes virus and any even GI symptoms or fever.

6:54 And again, they have not announced it, but I'm hoping they are doing the PCR,

6:58 which we're all familiar with in the nose and doing

7:01 blood tests for the had the virus IgG and AGM,

7:05 which will be very definitive of any active infection.

7:09 But as we've talked about prior,

7:11 there's usually not a symptomatic, carriers of this virus.

7:16 So then the other thing that concerns

7:18 me with the loose information we're getting out

7:22 of Nebraska is they are claiming that if

7:24 patients are asymptomatic and request to go home,

7:28 they're sending them home to be on home isolation.

7:33 We know what that was like during Covid.

7:34 It didn't work out too well.

7:37 Can you just when we hear, you know, they're being sent to Nebraska,

7:41 many of our viewers might wonder, like, Why Nebraska?

7:44 Why a facility there?

7:45 Can you take us through?

7:46 Why why they're being taken there specifically?

7:50 Well, that is the number one, quarantine isolation facility.

7:56 That is, has has been built and prepared for anything like this breaking out any

8:04 type of infectious disease or anything that is

8:08 so crucial that it needs to be isolated.

8:10 So it's a large facility that can accommodate

8:14 a significant number of patients and keep it isolated.

8:18 And, you know, has the ventilation where it doesn't,

8:22 you know, leave the building.

8:24 And, it's prepared for this.

8:26 So that's why Nebraska.

8:29 Yeah, we're watching live pictures.

8:31 We saw, moments ago, a bus, pull away full of, people in full PPE.

8:38 Presumably those were some of the, passengers of the ship, and we're just,

8:42 watching some more live pictures

8:43 of those busses waiting for presumably more, passengers.

8:47 In the meantime, some of the passengers who got off the ship earlier and I mean,

8:51 before they got to, to Spain,

8:54 maybe weeks ago, some of them are hospitalized, I believe,

8:58 in six different countries, from South Africa to Switzerland.

9:01 How much concern is there for you

9:04 that this has already spread into the community?

9:08 In a much larger way?

9:11 Well, I think I you know, I have studied this fairly intensely.

9:16 All of these individuals except, the one,

9:19 lady that was sitting on the one flight that was transporting an infected woman.

9:26 She all the others were, in close contact with the, index case.

9:33 We believe the index case is the gentleman

9:36 who died from, from the Netherlands and his wife.

9:40 And so we really, from what I can tell right now,

9:44 only have one person outside the ship.

9:47 And then if you think about the fact we

9:49 had 147 individuals on that ship, and, you know,

9:52 when you come at the extra staff, etc.,

9:55 almost 200 individuals, and then we only had seven people infected.

10:01 That also tells you that they had to have very close contact,

10:06 because that seven out of that number is not

10:10 a very high percentage compared to when we had Covid.

10:14 You know, half the ship would walk away infected.

10:17 So, what we do know about this virus is that particle has

10:22 to get very deep inside the lungs and find receptors deep in the lungs.

10:27 So that's why it's believed this is truly,

10:30 really close contact with the large amount

10:34 of secretions that are infected to spread.

10:36 So it's not going to be just this random

10:39 walking by 15 second exposure that could give people Covid.

10:44 It's it has to be very close contact and prolonged contact.

10:49 Joining me now is doctor H.

10:51 Davies.

10:51 He works at the Nebraska facility where

10:54 the American passengers will eventually go for monitoring.

10:57 Doctor, thank you so much for joining us

10:59 on such a busy and consequential morning for this story.

11:02 Let's set this up, though.

11:04 Tell us about this specific facility and what it

11:07 is used for when it comes to cases like this.

11:10 So we have, the, only nationally designated monitoring center,

11:15 and this is a place is a 20 room unit that looks pretty much like a hotel room.

11:21 However, it's specially designed with, what we call negative pressure room,

11:25 so that any kind of, deadly disease is kept inside the room.

11:29 And then we have specially engineered controls so that any air

11:33 that leaves the room is filtered

11:35 through high efficiency particulate air filtration.

11:38 And then the rooms themselves, because, you know,

11:40 we expect that people may have to stay there for prolonged periods of time.

11:44 I like hotel room actually more than a hotel room, because in the rooms we have,

11:48 equipment where, the people living there can, can have access to, do exercises.

11:55 They have, room service there to, to help them,

11:57 have the activities of daily living.

11:59 They have monitors Wi-Fi so they can communicate with their families.

12:02 So this this particular setup is really if our federal partners

12:06 determine that they would like any of those passengers to stay,

12:09 that they can be as comfortable as possible.

12:12 Well, that's truly remarkable.

12:13 Can you tell us a little bit more, doctor,

12:15 about what patients can expect once they actually arrive at the facility?

12:19 How are they going to be processed?

12:21 And is the protocol perhaps any different

12:23 considering at the moment they're all asymptomatic?

12:26 Right.

12:26 So these so these, you know,

12:28 we call them passengers since they don't have any symptoms that you,

12:30 as you've pointed out, what they would expect is that we would welcome them.

12:34 Obviously, we're delighted to have a fellow American citizens,

12:37 back home, as you've pointed out.

12:39 We would then work with our federal partners, with the CDC and others.

12:43 We would, check to make sure that none of them

12:46 have any of the symptoms that we would be concerned about.

12:49 Like fever, muscle aches, you know, often headaches,

12:52 maybe some GI symptoms like stomach, pain, diarrhea, etc.

12:58 that those are some of the early

12:59 stages of things that you'd expect with hantavirus.

13:02 And later on, of course, where they get more sick is when they get

13:05 the difficulty with coughing and breathing and, you know,

13:08 fluid in their lungs and ultimately, have low blood pressure.

13:12 So we would just basically assess them.

13:15 And then our federal partners will make the determination

13:17 of which one stay here in our special monitoring unit.

13:20 And those that they consider, they would like to sort of stand closer to home,

13:25 if for whatever reason they do stay here, we have highly specialized, personnel,

13:30 interdisciplinary teams, doctors, nurses, physical therapists,

13:35 you know, all kinds of, interdisciplinary workers ready, to handle, them.

13:41 And if any one of them does turn sick,

13:43 we have a biocontainment unit where we've handled

13:46 patients with Ebola and Covid in the past successfully.

13:49 So we're very comfortable and confident that we'll be

13:51 ready to take care of our fellow citizens right here.

13:55 Well, doctor, once you are able to release

13:59 some of these people back to their homes,

14:01 can you give a sense of what home monitoring might actually look like

14:05 and what will happen to these people if they do start to exhibit symptoms?

14:10 Well, so that determination to release them to their homes will be,

14:14 most likely made by the by the federal partners,

14:18 the CDC and if they do make those determinations,

14:20 then they would be monitored the same way that I just described.

14:23 They will be asked to, check their temperature.

14:26 They'll be asked to monitor for all the signs of muscle aches and, GI symptoms.

14:31 They'll be asked to, obviously,

14:33 if they have any of those symptoms to seek help immediately.

14:36 And then the ideal scenario,

14:39 depending on the perceived risk upon the time they arrive in terms

14:43 of their contact with somebody who may have had the disease,

14:46 is you probably want them close to a place

14:48 where they could be quickly, cared for.

14:51 So, you know, those who may be farther away from a specialized

14:55 unit than us may be held closer to those units,

14:59 and those who are closer may be allowed to stay at home.

15:03 And then, you know, knowing that they can get that care very fairly quickly.

15:08 Doctor, what do you see right now is the risk to the general public,

15:11 as these Americans are set to head back to the states?

15:16 Well, I would say that the risk is low, Danny, because, you know,

15:20 unlike Ebola or Covid, these, the and this virus is one that is not easy to get.

15:27 You have to be in fairly close

15:28 contact with someone who has developed the symptoms,

15:32 not somebody who's well, but somebody who's developed the symptoms.

15:35 And, so the risk of actually transmission is low.

15:39 If you do, get it, then the, the, the disease

15:43 itself can be very highly, you know, deadly.

15:47 But it's not one that we generally worry

15:49 about in terms of transmission to the general public.

15:52 So for those people who are in contact with somebody who's,

15:55 well, generally the risk is low.

15:57 And most of these people, as you know,

16:00 coming off a boat where there were over 100,

16:03 150 people and to our knowledge, I believe about seven have been sick.

16:07 So the risk of transmission itself is low.

16:10 Obviously, the risk of the diseases is significant.

16:13 So the the general public should feel very safe.