Speaker 1: Hey there, folks. It is Wednesday, May sixth, and this
Speaker 1: Honta virus horror story above a border cruise ship, I
Speaker 1: should say, is getting scarier by the moment. It's not
Speaker 1: just concerned now concerns about the people who are on
Speaker 1: that ship. There are concerns that some people who might
Speaker 1: have been infected got off and not exactly sure where
Speaker 1: they are. And with that, welcome to this episode of
Speaker 1: Amy and TJ. Robes. I was stuttering and fumbling through
Speaker 1: that intro because this story, to be quite honest with you,
Speaker 1: we have written it several times this morning and had
Speaker 1: to keep rewriting it because it has been changing by
Speaker 1: the moment.
Speaker 2: Yes, this is a developing story that is changing by
Speaker 2: the moment. Here are the latest developments. So last night
Speaker 2: when we all went to bed, Spain said, it is
Speaker 2: our moral obligation, it is our humanitarian obligation to welcome
Speaker 2: the ship to the Canary Islands. We will have the
Speaker 2: facilities available to screen these passengers, treat those who might
Speaker 2: be sickened or infected, and we'll take this on. Well,
Speaker 2: just moments ago, the Canary Islands are rejecting now the
Speaker 2: docking of that cruise ship. So there is now a
Speaker 2: back and forth as to where this ship is headed.
Speaker 2: Right now it is stranded, and we now know that
Speaker 2: at least three people have been evacuated just moments ago
Speaker 2: from this ship. But there are a lot of questions,
Speaker 2: as you pointed out.
Speaker 1: So folks, horse, we want to let you know. If
Speaker 1: you've been following us, you know we have been traveling
Speaker 1: and in the background you might hear some wins, some seagulls,
Speaker 1: and yes, some waves. Those waves are to the Atlantic
Speaker 1: Ocean and far far north and to the east of
Speaker 1: where we are is where this ship is robed and
Speaker 1: where it's been for several days. Now, this was a
Speaker 1: reminder here, folks, supposed to be about a month long
Speaker 1: tour that these people were taking on this adventure of
Speaker 1: a life sign bucket list. I think they were saying,
Speaker 1: type of cruise ship. Now we have three dead and
Speaker 1: another three we know sickened, suspected hunt of virus. A
Speaker 1: reminder their robes of what this is is usually found
Speaker 1: in rodents. Now that gets us caught up.
Speaker 2: We're actually four seconds, so it's total of seven. Now, yeah,
Speaker 2: the numbers keep changing.
Speaker 1: So robes. This gets us caught up on this ship
Speaker 1: that now nobody wants it to dock, and there's very
Speaker 1: good reason for that, and maybe even more so now
Speaker 1: Robes because at first we were told, yes, it's so
Speaker 1: rare that this thing gets passed from human to human.
Speaker 1: Well they're giving us a heads up now they believe
Speaker 1: that that nightmare is coming true.
Speaker 3: Yes, they do believe.
Speaker 2: This is the Andes strain of the haunt of virus
Speaker 2: that can and this is a rare, rare form of
Speaker 2: this virus or strain of this virus that allows for
Speaker 2: human to human contact. Because they now believe, and look,
Speaker 2: this is a preliminary assessment of what's going on, that
Speaker 2: the virus was brought onto the ship by someone who
Speaker 2: was traveling in Argentina. So I actually have a timeline,
Speaker 2: because it's been very confusing the information.
Speaker 3: We now know.
Speaker 2: There's someone in the hospital in South Africa in intensive care.
Speaker 2: There is someone in a hospital in Switzerland who is
Speaker 2: now being treated with hauntavirus, and we have three now
Speaker 2: en route to be treated as well. So you've got
Speaker 2: sickened passengers now around the world, and some of them traveled,
Speaker 2: at least those who died.
Speaker 3: Two of them traveled with.
Speaker 2: People who might be god knows where on planet Earth.
Speaker 2: Here is the timeline that we know. On April first,
Speaker 2: this boat left Argentina. On April eleventh, a passenger died
Speaker 2: on board. That was the seventy year old man. They
Speaker 2: did not know how he died, They did not know
Speaker 2: why he died. So on April twenty fourth they removed
Speaker 2: his body in Saint Helena and his wife, that sixty
Speaker 2: nine year old woman, accompanied him and accompanied his body.
Speaker 2: Now we're learning she's a Dutch national as well, that
Speaker 2: she became unwell.
Speaker 3: We heard she collapsed in the airport.
Speaker 2: Now we're understanding she actually got on a plane from
Speaker 2: Saint Helena to Johannesburg and she died there. So think
Speaker 2: about all the contract tracing that's now going on from
Speaker 2: anyone who is on that plane with her from Saint
Speaker 2: Helena to Johannesburg. Then we know on May second, a
Speaker 2: German passenger on the board on board the ship died,
Speaker 2: and then four others have been sickened since, and we
Speaker 2: don't have the dates of them, but they have all
Speaker 2: seemingly now been evacuated just moments ago from the ship.
Speaker 2: So as it stands right now, the rest of the
Speaker 2: one hundred and fifty plus passengers and crew are quarantined
Speaker 2: on that ship and they have nowhere to go, nowhere
Speaker 2: to dock. And we here's the other thing we understand
Speaker 2: now that they are sending two infectious disease physicians from
Speaker 2: the Netherlands to go onto the ship to help try
Speaker 2: and quarantine and evaluate and determine what's going on there.
Speaker 2: So they actually have two infectious disease experts being air
Speaker 2: lifted basically to the ship to stay with the ship
Speaker 2: until it figures out where to dock.
Speaker 1: This is an incredible story. This isn't what's happening aboard
Speaker 1: the ship is one thing. But robes, we have seen
Speaker 1: enough movies, We have seen enough scenarios just in our
Speaker 1: lifetimes and stories we've covered robes. What is the absolute
Speaker 1: disaster scenario? Oftentimes when they're talking about trying to track something,
Speaker 1: it's when somebody gets on a plane. You get on
Speaker 1: a plane full of how many another two hundred three
Speaker 1: hundred people? Now we have to go track down those
Speaker 1: two hundred and three hundred and see where they are
Speaker 1: and see who they've been in touch with, and then
Speaker 1: we have to actually monitor those people for how long?
Speaker 3: Robes two months.
Speaker 2: So here's the other big issue, this hauntavirus and this strain.
Speaker 2: They say the incubation period before you start exhibiting symptoms
Speaker 2: can be anywhere from one week to eight weeks, and
Speaker 2: that means that people not just on board that ship
Speaker 2: are likely going to be stranded, so to speak, or
Speaker 2: at least quarantined, I guess would be the better word
Speaker 2: for eight weeks. All this contact tracing that's now going on,
Speaker 2: and by the way, we've pointed this out, but this
Speaker 2: is all happening on one hand, thankfully in one of
Speaker 2: the remotest parts of the world. But on the other hand,
Speaker 2: at least for the folks who have now potentially been exposed,
Speaker 2: it's deeply concerning because they don't have the facilities and
Speaker 2: the ability to handle and tackle a situation that could
Speaker 2: have significant worldwide implications. We're hearing from the World Health Organization. Oh,
Speaker 2: the risk of spreading is low. Okay, if you're on
Speaker 2: that ship, if you're in one of those ports, if
Speaker 2: you're on.
Speaker 3: That plane, how are you feeling right about now?
Speaker 1: And how does it go? Robes? It's one thing. The
Speaker 1: couple is one thing. You can see why they had
Speaker 1: close intimate contact. Why a crew member and that one
Speaker 1: was a doctor is.
Speaker 2: Sick well doctor on board this cruise ship is actually
Speaker 2: described as critically ill. He has just been airlifted now
Speaker 2: and is heading now for treatment. There are there's another
Speaker 2: British crew member who is ill and they have a
Speaker 2: German female passenger who is now exhibiting symptoms too, So
Speaker 2: they were all just airlifted. This is scary as hell
Speaker 2: because they believe if that one seventy year old man
Speaker 2: who died, if he is the one who brought it
Speaker 2: on board, then every single other person because by the
Speaker 2: way they have set up mouse traps, they have mouse
Speaker 2: traps on these cruise ships.
Speaker 3: They have not found any dead mice.
Speaker 2: They have not found any evidence that it came from
Speaker 2: the ship. They believe right now it came from a
Speaker 2: passenger who was traveling through Argentina.
Speaker 1: Tell of the timeline again, of it left win and
Speaker 1: he died when.
Speaker 2: So April first, it left Argentina. He died on April eleventh.
Speaker 2: That just shows you the incubation period.
Speaker 1: But babe, that's a week and a half of hanging
Speaker 1: out with everybody else.
Speaker 2: Correct, And his wife didn't die until April twenty four
Speaker 2: that's incorrect.
Speaker 3: So it took two weeks later.
Speaker 2: That's in Core now, and now you've got this German
Speaker 2: passenger who just fell ill and now they're evacuating her.
Speaker 2: So we just you don't know. That's why all of
Speaker 2: these folks are being quarantined, and that is why no
Speaker 2: one in the region wants this ship to dock. I
Speaker 2: just thought it was so interesting Spain put out this,
Speaker 2: the Ministry of Health put out this big statement last night,
Speaker 2: and it's it's interesting because they were talking about how
Speaker 2: this was their moral obligation, how this was their humanitarian obligation,
Speaker 2: and made a big point to say this was their
Speaker 2: duty to do so and basically instructed the Canary Islands
Speaker 2: to take this on. And the Canary Islands now have
Speaker 2: just said we are not doing this, and they have
Speaker 2: requested an urgent meeting with this Spanish Prime minister to
Speaker 2: discuss the issue because they don't want these folks coming
Speaker 2: onto their islands.
Speaker 1: Who this is such a we're not familiar with this.
Speaker 1: I mean, we hear it hauntavirus. We heard it not
Speaker 1: too long ago when about Gene Hackman's wife she died
Speaker 1: of it. But roll, this is not something we're familiar with,
Speaker 1: and this is scary. We don't know, and again a
Speaker 1: reminder not even that there's not a cure, that's not
Speaker 1: even clear on how to treat this damp thing.
Speaker 2: There's no treatment, there's no cure. All they can do
Speaker 2: is basically it's kind of like the flu monitor.
Speaker 3: You give you fluids.
Speaker 2: And if your lungs fill up with your own bodily fluids,
Speaker 2: they can put you on a ventilator.
Speaker 3: But short of that they really can't do.
Speaker 2: It's kind of like COVID in that sense where initially
Speaker 2: when it seemed so fatal, it was so scary because
Speaker 2: there was no cure. There's no vaccine. That is exactly
Speaker 2: what this hauntavirus is posing right now. And to read
Speaker 2: this morning literally like moments before this recording that suddenly
Speaker 2: there's a crew member, oh sorry, a passenger who is sick,
Speaker 2: and Swiss officials are saying that it has been confirmed
Speaker 2: that this Swiss passenger being treated in Zurich right now.
Speaker 2: A man has been confirmed has tested positive for the
Speaker 2: Andes variant of the virus and is in isolation right now,
Speaker 2: and his wife who was with him on the trip,
Speaker 2: is there. Hasn't shown any haunt of virus symptoms, but
Speaker 2: is self isolating as a precaution. In Switzerland. He must
Speaker 2: have left from a port and just went home because
Speaker 2: he wasn't feeling.
Speaker 1: Well, just on a what a plane?
Speaker 2: Yes, christ So now, but the Swiss government is saying,
Speaker 2: or like telling their folks there's currently no danger to
Speaker 2: the Swiss population.
Speaker 3: Look, this is like.
Speaker 2: We've seen this movie and we've lived through part of
Speaker 2: this with coronavirus. This is scary, and we're hearing that
Speaker 2: there's a low risk of spread. But we're starting to
Speaker 2: now I'd like to just now hear that there is
Speaker 2: someone who just got positively confirmed is testing for the hantavirus,
Speaker 2: the human to human virus strain is in Switzerland right now.
Speaker 3: Where did that come from?
Speaker 1: And they maybe they didn't know, but they were telling
Speaker 1: us something very different because this story seemed like it
Speaker 1: was no threat to the world. Quite frankly, it's in
Speaker 1: a part of the world most people never even get
Speaker 1: to out there, the Millley Ocean, isolated on a ship.
Speaker 1: That's what initially we thought the danger was just to
Speaker 1: those folks roves. In two days, we have learned that
Speaker 1: now not one, not two, several people from that ship
Speaker 1: got on planes. How would you be feeling if you
Speaker 1: want one of those planes?
Speaker 3: Not good at all.
Speaker 1: Rope Several got on planes and ended up in various
Speaker 1: parts of the world.
Speaker 2: And there's an eight week incubation period. Potentially it could
Speaker 2: be anywhere from one week to eight weeks. So it's
Speaker 2: not even like, okay, well I feel fine now, but
Speaker 2: how about next week?
Speaker 3: How about the week after that?
Speaker 1: It's scary somebody else somewhere possibly could have gotten off
Speaker 1: as well and hasn't gotten sick yet.
Speaker 2: That is why why, and that is why they don't
Speaker 2: want anyone to come or to disembark from that ship
Speaker 2: and come into their community.
Speaker 3: It makes total sense, all right. When we come back.
Speaker 2: There is actually a travel blogger on board that cruise
Speaker 2: ship right now. We heard directly from him, giving us
Speaker 2: a little insight as to what those passengers are feeling
Speaker 2: like aboard this floating Haunt of Virus cruise ship. Welcome
Speaker 2: back everyone to this episode of Amy and TJ, where
Speaker 2: we are talking about a floating nightmare. The Haunt of
Speaker 2: Virus Cruise Ship is what it's being dubbed, basically, because
Speaker 2: that's what it is.
Speaker 1: What are we going to go with, because this story
Speaker 1: is going to be around for a while, so we
Speaker 1: need to agree on what name we're gonna call this.
Speaker 1: Is it a floating nightmare?
Speaker 2: I think it's a floating nightmare. I mean, what else?
Speaker 2: How how else would you describe this?
Speaker 1: It is I don't know, sick ship.
Speaker 3: Uh, that's an understatement. It's a deadly virus cruise ship.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 2: It's one that I would never want to be on
Speaker 2: for sure. And look you the travel blogger who has
Speaker 2: posted a few things to Instagram.
Speaker 3: He's been very emotional.
Speaker 2: He cried through his vlog, so to speak, because it
Speaker 2: was a video log, but he broke down and there's
Speaker 2: no other way to describe it. His name is Jake
Speaker 2: Ross Marrin and he has put a few updates because
Speaker 2: they're all in their cabins, and I know that's that's
Speaker 2: a tough spot, not just the fact that you're quarantine
Speaker 2: and you're stuck somewhere isolated, but you don't know when
Speaker 2: you're getting out. You don't know if you've been infected,
Speaker 2: and that's got to be scary.
Speaker 1: You're sitting around waiting to possibly get sick.
Speaker 3: And with not just oh I might get sick, I
Speaker 3: might die.
Speaker 1: What did you tell me?
Speaker 3: Their death rate on the forty percent?
Speaker 2: And look, if you look at the numbers right now,
Speaker 2: the latest numbers are there are seven people we know
Speaker 2: have been infected, or three of them have died.
Speaker 3: That's forty percent, is it not.
Speaker 2: I'm not great with math, but three point five would
Speaker 2: be fifty percent, So that seems right on.
Speaker 3: With what scientists have said.
Speaker 2: This disease kills four out of ten people infected.
Speaker 1: Do what do we know about the third death?
Speaker 3: Not much, just that it's a German citizen.
Speaker 1: Okay. The other two the couple, they were elderly in
Speaker 1: their seventies I.
Speaker 2: Think sixty nine and seventy, both from the Netherlands. And
Speaker 2: then the other person who died was a German national.
Speaker 3: That's what we know.
Speaker 2: But those who've been sickened are German, British, Dutch, and
Speaker 2: I think that's it right, German, British and Dutch. We
Speaker 2: know seventeen Americans are on board the ship. We did
Speaker 2: get that number from the World Health Organization.
Speaker 1: Guy in Switzerland, is he Swiss?
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, he's Swiss. I knew there was another nationality, Swiss.
Speaker 2: So yes, you have four different countries. Now you have people,
Speaker 2: they're citizens, who have either died or have been sickened
Speaker 2: by this hauntavirus, and several of them have returned home.
Speaker 2: And now we have one person in fighting for his
Speaker 2: life in Johannesburg who's a British national, and that the woman,
Speaker 2: the wife of the initial man, the patient zero, she
Speaker 2: died in Johannesburg. And look, we initial reports were that
Speaker 2: she collapsed in the airport and was taken to a hospital.
Speaker 2: I didn't realize she collapsed in an airport in Johannesburg
Speaker 2: after getting off a plane.
Speaker 1: I'm confused by something. Who else is in Johannesburg that's being.
Speaker 3: Treated a British national?
Speaker 1: How did he get there?
Speaker 4: Unclear's a lot going on in Johannesburg right now. Yeah,
Speaker 4: it's disturbing. It is disturbing. But this blogger, oh, I
Speaker 4: wanted to give you his verbatim because he talked a
Speaker 4: little bit about what it's like to be on board
Speaker 4: that ship right now, and again he said this all
Speaker 4: through tears.
Speaker 2: He said, what's happening right now is very real for
Speaker 2: all of us here. We're not just a story, We're
Speaker 2: not just headlines. We're people, people with families, with lives,
Speaker 2: with people waiting for us at home. There is a
Speaker 2: lot of uncertainty and that is the hardest part. All
Speaker 2: we want right now is to feel safe, to have clarity,
Speaker 2: and to get home.
Speaker 3: Sounded an American.
Speaker 2: Yes, oh yeah, yeah, So one of seventeen Americans that
Speaker 2: we know were on that ship. And yes, they may
Speaker 2: be on that ship for eight weeks. They may be
Speaker 2: floating at sea, they may be just getting folks either
Speaker 2: at doctors and as we mentioned, infectious disease.
Speaker 3: Doctors are coming to board that ship.
Speaker 2: But even the people we saw going out to inspect
Speaker 2: were in full hasmat gear. Do you saw those images right,
Speaker 2: like full outbreak gear that you see from the movies
Speaker 2: as they go on to this ship. But man, this
Speaker 2: is a floating disaster. This is a floating nightmare. And
Speaker 2: let's just hope that this can be contained and handled
Speaker 2: with the absolute scientific precision it needs to be for
Speaker 2: this not to go beyond because this was a strain
Speaker 2: of a virus that was truly isolated. I'm telling you,
Speaker 2: I've been in USHUEA is this It's called the bottom
Speaker 2: of the Earth. It's the last civilized populated city in
Speaker 2: the world at the bottom of our globe, so it
Speaker 2: was in an incredibly remote location. If that strain of
Speaker 2: this virus has just now reached other parts of this world,
Speaker 2: that is scary and we will of course be following
Speaker 2: this story as it develops, and it's been developing quite
Speaker 2: a bit. With that, everyone, thank you for listening to us.
Speaker 2: I'm Amy Roboch alongside TJ.
Speaker 3: Holmes. We'll talk to you soon.