Our state is host to 57 Americans who had been traveling in China at the time of the Corona virus outbreak. They flew into Eppley Air Field a couple of days ago. These are people who have no sign of illness at present, but are required to be quarantined for 14 days because of concerns about the virus spreading. The Nebraska location was chosen because of the University of Nebraska Medical Center's biocontainment unit, which previously treated some Ebola victims.
The location where the travelers will be housed is Camp Ashland, a National Guard facility near Lincoln and Omaha. The article describes the barracks where they will be staying as hotel-like. The pictures of the interiors that I have seen look more monastic than resort-like. But still, decent amenities. A lot better than the green tents when my husband was in the guards.
Note that the buildings in the picture are elevated on pillars. Apparently the military believes climate change.
From the World Herald article:
"Those quarantined at Camp Ashland will wake or go to bed when they wish, get meals delivered to them and watch television, exercise and read to pass the time."
"A federal Department of Health and Human Services official said late last week that authorities will strive to treat those in quarantine well and respond to reasonable requests from them. Besides concerns about the disease, though, health authorities must also consider the travelers’ emotional well-being."
"Capt. Dana Hall, incident commander with Health and Human Services’ agency for preparedness, said it “behooves us to always put the human element first” in such situations."
"A study out of Canada during the SARS outbreak of 2003 indicates quarantine may have emotional ramifications for some who must endure it."
“We’re health and human services,” said Hall, who has been deployed to Nebraska to assist in the quarantine. “And the second word in HHS is ‘human.’ “ A spokesman for the health and human services said psychologists would be available for any quarantined individual who wanted one."
"Besides Camp Ashland and Miramar, there are quarantined groups at Travis Air Force Base near Sacramento and Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio."
I'd like to know how they're handling people.who have run out of prescription meds. One woman currently quarantined on a formerly-cruise-now-plague ship for 14 days says she will run out of blood pressure meds because she only brought a week's extra. I expect there are diabetics, asthmatics, and others with chronic conditions that require management. Hoping The Authorites are alive to these issues.
ReplyDeleteI'm assuming since they're working closely with medical staff, that those people could call the hometown doctors to verify the prescriptions, and bring them refills.
DeleteIt would be more difficult if you were on a ship, though I suppose they could drop-ship stuff.
Somewhere I read or heard the cruise line that has passengers quarantined in Yokohama is getting necessary meds for its passengers. I bet the cruise line is paying a lot less for them in Japan than if they were quarantined in Long Beach, CA.
DeleteOur granddaughter who teaches on Taiwan arrived for a visit just as the coronavirus news went international. While she was here, she tried to pick up the right kind of face masks to take back with her, and there weren't any in Florida. Between Australian fires and California fires, the manufacturers were barely keeping up. The virus is the straw that broke their back.
ReplyDeleteHer friends said good masks are not to be had in Taiwan, either. They are encouraged to use regular surgical masks until better ones are available, but surgical masks keep your germs in; they don't keep others' out. I suggested wearing them inside out. Katie was not amused. But she flew back as scheduled anyway. Taiwan hasn't been especially hard hit, and all it would take is one goofball for whom the rules don't apply (of whom we have legions) to make Florida sicker than where she went.
Tom, one of my sons was teaching in Taiwan during the SARS epidemic. After securing a teaching job he was supposed to go to Hong Kong to get his temporary residency and work visas put in his passport. But Hong Kong was the ground zero for SARS, so the Taiwanese govt let him go to one of their own offices for the paperwork. Not sure why he had to be out of the country for this, but it's common practice I think. A French friend who lives in the US always had to get her work/residency visa renewals put in to her passport in Paris.
DeleteThere was no shortage of masks in Taiwan during the SARS crisis.
Anne, That's odd. Hong Kong, everybody admits, is part of China, but Taiwan insists that it isn't. Katie says the mask problem -- they need N5s, or something with that kind of nomenclature -- is mostly due to virtually the whole continent of Australia needing them all at once.
DeleteAnyhow, it is the year of the Rat, so what would you expect?
Taiwan has a consulate in Hong Kong. Not officially recognized by the Chinese govt of course. It was the closest place with a Taiwanese consulate handling visa work. Even though unofficial. Another son went to grad school in England. Because of a paperwork snafu, with a flight keaving in a couple of days after it got straightened out, he had to go to NYC for a day and walk it through the consulate there. Couldn’t be done in England and time had run out to do it by mail. The English embassy in DC doesn’t have a consulate in it, only a drop box for visa paperwork to be sent to NYC. Our French friend always went to the American consulate in Paris but she could have gone to US consulate in any country.
DeleteMaybe they weren’t specific on the type of mask for SARS. He could have named his own salary after a while in Taipei for teaching English as most of the expat teachers left during the epidemic.
One of the young guys in our choir has some internet friends in China. These girls are Catholic, and I guess there is a large Catholic community there. Anyway they haven't been able to go to church because all public gatherings are shut down because of the virus. So they say the rosary. They said that the place is eerily quiet, nobody is going anywhere. Some are going to work, but not everyone can. That has to impact their economy, not to mention household income.
ReplyDeleteThe corona virus outbreak is believed to have originated in Wutan's wildlife meat market. It is called a "wet" market, meaning it is open with animal waste on the ground. It features exotic animals, "...dozens of species that rarely, if ever, come in contact with one another in the wild."
ReplyDeleteI find this puzzling; the Chinese have ordinary farm-raised meat the same as we do. Why would anyone decide that they need a meal of this mystery meat. "Honey, let's pick up something at the market, we haven't had pangolin stir fry in a long time." or "Bat soup is always good on a cold day." The Chinese government doesn't seem to have any trouble shutting down stuff they don't want, I'm surprised they didn't shut down wild meat markets decades ago.
Katherine, I think it's the old
DeleteChinese beliefs that ingesting certain animals and animal parts has medicinal value. For instance, rhinoceros horn, properly prepared, can alleviate erectile dysfunction. One time we had a consultant at work with family in the PRC. When he found out a colleague of mine was a gun owner, he offered him $700 (2000 dollars) to shoot a bear for its liver. Bear livers are supposed to have their special medicinal properties. My friend turned him down. Poor bears. Poor rhinoceri. I don't know what pangolins are supposed to cure.
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ReplyDeleteUh, Oh. Our site has been invaded by a troll. Can David block this person?
ReplyDelete