Speaker 1: Hey, that folks. It is Monday, May eleventh, and they
Speaker 1: are here. Seventeen Americans who were aboard that stricken hantavirus
Speaker 1: cruise ship just landed back in the United States, and
Speaker 1: two of them got sick on the flight home. With that,
Speaker 1: Welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ. Robes. Let's
Speaker 1: start with that. Seventeen Americans came back on a flight
Speaker 1: essentially chartered by the United States and on the way
Speaker 1: back to got sick. And one of them, we know
Speaker 1: Robes at this point, has the virus.
Speaker 2: Yes, and I believe they were evaluated as displaying symptoms
Speaker 2: before they got on board that flight. So those two
Speaker 2: actually were transported in the planes bio containment units and
Speaker 2: one of them, yes, tested positive. The other one they
Speaker 2: suspect is positive is displaying symptoms. So while everyone this
Speaker 2: is a special plane that the United States brought these
Speaker 2: seventeen passengers back into this facility that they'll be at
Speaker 2: for a while in Nebraska. But yes, those two passengers,
Speaker 2: and by the way, before any of these flights came
Speaker 2: to repatriot all of these citizens aboard this plane, the
Speaker 2: cruise ship was saying up until the very last moment,
Speaker 2: no one is displaying symptoms.
Speaker 3: And yet here we are.
Speaker 2: Here, we are with the Americans, and we also have
Speaker 2: a situation with the French.
Speaker 1: Okay, so let's get you all caught up. You've been
Speaker 1: watching the news over the weekend. Hantavirus ship was able
Speaker 1: to make it to the Canary Islands and everybody was
Speaker 1: able to get off. They did them in small groups.
Speaker 1: They did it very carefully. But Robes, there were citizens
Speaker 1: from how many countries again, twenty twenty three, so they
Speaker 1: had to get everybody off, just small groups at a time.
Speaker 1: They essentially handed them back over to their own countries
Speaker 1: and they have to follow their own protocols. So that's
Speaker 1: what happened. So now this plane of Americans took off,
Speaker 1: it just landed. We watched it happen live here about
Speaker 1: two three in the morning, and they're in Nebraska. But
Speaker 1: ro So that's the latest, and we'll talk more about
Speaker 1: the Americans. But what are our numbers now, I know
Speaker 1: you were struggling to try to piece it together. I
Speaker 1: was struggling to piece it together. But the official numbers, now, well,
Speaker 1: this ship.
Speaker 2: Honestly, because news agencies and a lot of folks are sleeping,
Speaker 2: they haven't come up with a consensus. But I did
Speaker 2: the math and I believe we now have twelve confirmed
Speaker 2: slash suspected cases of hantavirus, and I can go over
Speaker 2: what those are. Obviously, we had the three debts and
Speaker 2: we had the five suspected cases, so.
Speaker 3: We had eight for a very long time.
Speaker 2: Now there is a situation in Spain which would be
Speaker 2: the ninth confirmed case. She is a thirty two year
Speaker 2: old woman who shared the plane with a positive cruise
Speaker 2: ship passenger now is showing symptoms and they believe she
Speaker 2: may have the haunt of virus.
Speaker 3: So that's number nine.
Speaker 2: And then of course we've got the confirmed US passenger,
Speaker 2: the suspected US passenger, and then now a French passenger,
Speaker 2: so that would be twelve.
Speaker 1: Is that two French you mentioned and that last group?
Speaker 1: Was that two French you mentioned in that last group, No.
Speaker 2: There was a Spanish woman who was There was a
Speaker 2: Spanish woman aboard a plane, and then the French passenger
Speaker 2: who was evacuated from the cruise ship. That was the
Speaker 2: passenger who passed the test whatever the testing phase was,
Speaker 2: got on the plane with five other French citizens and
Speaker 2: while she was on the plane got sick and then deteriorated.
Speaker 3: And then tested positive.
Speaker 2: So yes, now all those other folks who are on
Speaker 2: the plane with her are in strict isolation until further notice.
Speaker 1: And that's the scary part of this thing. Robes a woman,
Speaker 1: as a matter of passing a test and being able
Speaker 1: to get aboard this flight in a matter of hours hours,
Speaker 1: becomes ill and I guess symptomatic, and I guess contagious
Speaker 1: at that point. Now I assume we're reading up this morning.
Speaker 1: They separate them in some kind of way. They're not
Speaker 1: on top of each other on these planes.
Speaker 2: No, they're not sitting next to each other and coach seats. Now,
Speaker 2: these are a lot of these planes. At least we
Speaker 2: know that the US one was specialized to actually transport
Speaker 2: folks who had potentially highly contagious diseases. So a lot
Speaker 2: of these planes or facilitating they're capable of creating isolated areas.
Speaker 2: So let's hope that this French woman that I'm sure
Speaker 2: they all had masks.
Speaker 3: If you saw any of the.
Speaker 2: Video, any of the images of anyone receiving passengers, people
Speaker 2: look like they were in full bio hazmat suits. I mean,
Speaker 2: all precautions were being taken and even the US has
Speaker 2: said the two folks who were transported in those bio
Speaker 2: containment areas, they said that they did this out of quote,
Speaker 2: an abundance of caution. And we keep hearing that from
Speaker 2: health officials that this the risk to any member of
Speaker 2: the public is extremely low, that we're not going to
Speaker 2: be looking at a pandemic, that that's not how this
Speaker 2: particular virus operates. But obviously all of us are still
Speaker 2: shell shocked from six years ago, and we are kind
Speaker 2: of well skeptically awaiting what happens next.
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter how many times how many doctors we
Speaker 1: get on television saying there's nothing to worry about. It
Speaker 1: just doesn't sit right with us because we were told
Speaker 1: once before there was nothing to worry about. We get it.
Speaker 1: This is a different virus that's been around for a while,
Speaker 1: and they've got some baseline information on it. Fine, but
Speaker 1: still robes. Now, folks are going to be waking up
Speaker 1: this morning to that news that the Americans who were
Speaker 1: coming over, seventeen of them that we were told were
Speaker 1: okay by the time the damn thing lands, we're told
Speaker 1: two of them might not be okay. All right, So
Speaker 1: what happens. Now the reason. First of all, they went
Speaker 1: to Nebraska. This is quite possibly the best facility in
Speaker 1: the world for this type of thing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's funny. I would never have thought Nebraska. And
Speaker 2: then I thought, actually, that makes a lot of sense. A.
Speaker 2: The facility is there, but you probably don't want it
Speaker 2: near a major urban area if you're planning on where
Speaker 2: to house something like this. So this is called the
Speaker 2: ASPR Regional Emerging Special Pathogen Treatment Center, or it's funny
Speaker 2: riesp TC. So that's all I could think of when
Speaker 2: I saw the acronym.
Speaker 1: So, yeah, we needed a lighter moment throughout this. Thank
Speaker 1: you for that.
Speaker 3: If you see it, when you read it, it looks
Speaker 3: like ariesp TC.
Speaker 2: All right, the passenger who tested positive will go to
Speaker 2: the Nebraska I guess is now going to the Nebraska
Speaker 2: bio Containment Unit upon arrival.
Speaker 3: That was in quotes.
Speaker 2: And then the passenger who has mild symptoms is headed
Speaker 2: to the National Quarantine Unit for assessment and monitoring. Now,
Speaker 2: I like how basically if you read this just you
Speaker 2: can see how much Health of Visuals are trying to
Speaker 2: keep concern at a minimum. They have said that the
Speaker 2: passenger tested mildly positive. Now I remember from COVID you
Speaker 2: could get a maybe a stronger line. But like I'm
Speaker 2: laughing at that. Oh okay, sorry, they're only mildly positive.
Speaker 2: Are you mildly pregnant? That just made me laugh, Like
Speaker 2: somehow they think we're stupid.
Speaker 1: I don't know what the point of that was, are
Speaker 1: they or not? I would just say we have a
Speaker 1: suspected positive. Why would you say a mild positive.
Speaker 2: I don't because maybe the number of pathogens that were
Speaker 2: found aren't as high as they could have been if
Speaker 2: it was a more robust case.
Speaker 1: So you can be kind of pregnant when it comes
Speaker 1: to the ANDES virus.
Speaker 2: I don't know, but that's what they're saying. And then
Speaker 2: so they've used mild a lot. They said they mildly
Speaker 2: tested positive. And then the other passenger has mild symptoms.
Speaker 1: And I'm not mildly worried at all.
Speaker 2: Okay, In fact, the fact that they keep saying mild
Speaker 2: makes me more.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's the point of that.
Speaker 2: Now, after the rest of the passengers, the other I
Speaker 2: guess fifteen who aren't exhibiting any mild symptoms or I
Speaker 2: have no mild positive tests, they can isolate at the
Speaker 2: unit there in Nebraska, or they can return home where
Speaker 2: they will be in close contact with health officials for
Speaker 2: the next forty two days, but they will not be
Speaker 2: forcibly quarantined.
Speaker 3: That is a big headline.
Speaker 1: That's the other fifteen correct, correct? Eric? So once they yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, did you just say how long are they
Speaker 1: expected to be this facility?
Speaker 2: It didn't say Okay, they said they can. I don't
Speaker 2: think for long. I think they just need to be
Speaker 2: assessed and then they can return home where they have
Speaker 2: to stay in close contact with health officials.
Speaker 1: I don't know what you do, bab.
Speaker 2: It's everyone's different. And by the way, there is they're
Speaker 2: in New Jersey. There are now two residents being monitored.
Speaker 2: This was the development over the weekend as well. Wanted
Speaker 2: to point this out after they were potentially exposed to
Speaker 2: a cruise passenger with a confirmed case of hantavirus. After
Speaker 2: that person disembarked, So I don't know where that happens.
Speaker 1: Oyah, those who weren't yes, So making clear that other
Speaker 1: folks in New Jersey were not actually on the ship
Speaker 1: but apparently came in contact with somebody.
Speaker 3: Who was and who tested positive.
Speaker 1: Who tested positive. So and those folks are not required.
Speaker 1: That's the part I'm struggling to understand. You're just trusting
Speaker 1: these folks to stay at home, to stay isolated, to
Speaker 1: stay on their own. But they are very free to
Speaker 1: go roam around and pick up vegetables at Whole Foods
Speaker 1: and put them down again. They have free reign to
Speaker 1: do whatever they want to do out in society.
Speaker 3: To seize on the produce if they want.
Speaker 1: Guess that's how it works, and I guess that is
Speaker 1: what you have to do. It just seems something that
Speaker 1: kills forty percent of the folks it infects.
Speaker 3: Ye, it seems a little scary.
Speaker 2: Yes. So we now have six states in this country
Speaker 2: where health officials are monitoring individuals who may have been
Speaker 2: exposed or I guess, who have been exposed to.
Speaker 3: People who may have the virus.
Speaker 2: Arizona, California, Georgia, New Jersey, Texas, and Virginia are now
Speaker 2: all either monitoring passengers who disembarked or folks who came
Speaker 2: into contact with those passages.
Speaker 1: And I have right, the only positive hantavirus patient connected
Speaker 1: to that ship is the one who arrived in Nebraska.
Speaker 1: Everybody else is being monitored.
Speaker 3: I believe that is the case, correct, So this is concerning.
Speaker 2: Also a little update on that British national because it
Speaker 2: look al a lot of this information that came out
Speaker 2: was confusing. But he also remains in isolation on a
Speaker 2: remote island in the South Atlantic, and at first we
Speaker 2: thought he wasn't on the ship that was initially reported.
Speaker 3: Now they're saying, oh, he was on the ship. So
Speaker 3: I just read this.
Speaker 2: So British paratroopers now have parachuted in with medical supplies
Speaker 2: and clinicians to try and help him because he is
Speaker 2: apparently pretty ill. Wow, So now he is stuck there
Speaker 2: in the South Atlantic on this remote island. I mean
Speaker 2: they parachuted in British paratroopers and clinicians, that's how remote
Speaker 2: this island is to get him help. So he had
Speaker 2: been a passenger, so that makes more sense. But still
Speaker 2: it's confusing in the stories. It might not even be
Speaker 2: that the story is changing, but the information perhaps gets
Speaker 2: a little muddled.
Speaker 3: And that's scary too.
Speaker 2: When you think about just the communication and just how
Speaker 2: this has all evolved. I'm concerned about the fact that
Speaker 2: now these passengers after all this time, are just now
Speaker 2: falling ill, which falls in line this up to six
Speaker 2: to eight week incubation period.
Speaker 1: Which doesn't make sense, Babe, when you talk about what
Speaker 1: we know about, why are they just being allowed to
Speaker 1: roam free? Go back there? Thing left April first, The
Speaker 1: first guy got sick April sixth, died April eleventh, Robes,
Speaker 1: we are talking about a month ago.
Speaker 2: It was May eleventh. Yeah, it's May eleventh today, exactly
Speaker 2: one month ago.
Speaker 1: And people are just getting sick. What happened in that month?
Speaker 1: How early were they exposed? How late were they exposed?
Speaker 1: Was his wife still roaming around or was she did
Speaker 1: she settle in somewhere where? What is happening? Robes? A
Speaker 1: month has gone by, Gary, right, and somebody just got
Speaker 1: sick yep.
Speaker 3: On the plane.
Speaker 2: The French woman got sick on the plane and then
Speaker 2: they said deteriorated overnight. This is somebody who you would
Speaker 2: imagine having been on that cruise ship for literally almost
Speaker 2: a month after the first person died, they, after I
Speaker 2: guess a few weeks, realized what was going on. They've
Speaker 2: been in isolation. They've been adhering your protocols. They've been
Speaker 2: wearing masks, they've been using hand sanitizer and still somehow
Speaker 2: she got on that plane with hauntavirus, and same with
Speaker 2: the American, we don't know, and then a suspected second American.
Speaker 2: We don't know if they're related, We don't know if
Speaker 2: they were in the same cabin. We don't know how
Speaker 2: those two possibly even interacted. So there's so many questions.
Speaker 2: But when we come back, we will tell you just
Speaker 2: about how many hauntavirus cases are here in the United
Speaker 2: States each year and how many of them have been fatal.
Speaker 2: And welcome back everyone to this episode of Amy and
Speaker 2: TJ where we are monitoring this constantly developing story. And look,
Speaker 2: it hasn't risen to the level of I don't think fear,
Speaker 2: but there is concern when you start to hear, hey,
Speaker 2: no one on the ships had symptoms for weeks. We're
Speaker 2: all good, We're going to repatriate all of these citizens.
Speaker 2: We're going to be careful, we're going to be coordinated,
Speaker 2: and we're going to make sure that we contain this.
Speaker 2: And now we already have reportedly as many as three
Speaker 2: new cases that popped up while people were being sent
Speaker 2: back home, So two of them here in the United States,
Speaker 2: one of them in France, and now a woman in
Speaker 2: Spain possibly with the virus as well, after she was
Speaker 2: exposed on a plane a couple of weeks ago. So
Speaker 2: this is deeply concerning.
Speaker 1: These folks know what they're doing. We have to trust
Speaker 1: these doctors when they say this is not like coronavirus.
Speaker 1: Certainly doesn't spread like that. But it's also not a
Speaker 1: brand new thing. We haven't seen or haven't heard it.
Speaker 1: We have ideas of how to deal with this one,
Speaker 1: and robe you have to trust the But it just
Speaker 1: they went so hard on telling us how difficult human
Speaker 1: to human transmission is, and now humans keep popping up
Speaker 1: with the damn virus and they're all with the place now,
Speaker 1: and now you're telling me they're fifteen folks. You're just
Speaker 1: gonna let out here in the United States to go
Speaker 1: back to wherever the hell they're going.
Speaker 3: And hope that they voluntarily isolate.
Speaker 1: And are they being told to do that?
Speaker 2: I think they are telling them that out of an
Speaker 2: abundance of caution, that is what they should go. But
Speaker 2: I don't think they have the legal right to tell
Speaker 2: them they have to unless there's some medical reason why.
Speaker 2: I mean, I would think that would be something I
Speaker 2: would be okay with I had a long time though
Speaker 2: I mean long time. Forty five days is kind of
Speaker 2: the standard what folks are saying, and it is interesting
Speaker 2: in other parts of the world. I was looking to
Speaker 2: see how they're handling and every country is handling it differently.
Speaker 2: By the way, I know that we didn't mention this.
Speaker 2: The ship, what's the ship doing? It actually is keeping.
Speaker 2: I think they'll finally get everyone who needs to get
Speaker 2: off board off board by today, sometime this afternoon. But
Speaker 2: after they get that all those passengers off and most
Speaker 2: of the crew off, skeleton crew will stay on board
Speaker 2: head to the Netherlands. And by the way, the body
Speaker 2: of the passenger is still on board. The German national
Speaker 2: is still on the ship.
Speaker 3: Yep.
Speaker 2: So the Dutch couple got off and their respective bodies
Speaker 2: ended up back in the Netherlands. But there is a
Speaker 2: German national whose body is still on board that ship.
Speaker 2: And they said that the body will have to be disinfected.
Speaker 2: They just didn't have the capability of doing it, so
Speaker 2: they have to wait, keep the body there and then
Speaker 2: they'll disinfect the body before they remove the body from
Speaker 2: the ship. I forgot to mention that. I thought that
Speaker 2: was pretty fascinating. In something I had completely forgotten about.
Speaker 2: But look, everyone's different. A lot of folks say they're
Speaker 2: going to insist on isolation. Some countries are saying you're
Speaker 2: free to go. So it just depends on country to country.
Speaker 2: But here in the US, we have less than thirty
Speaker 2: cases of the haunt of virus a year. But it's
Speaker 2: not the Andes virus. We're just talking about the other
Speaker 2: strain that only can be contracted by ingesting or inhaling
Speaker 2: mouse or rodent feces or urine. This specific Andes virus,
Speaker 2: this human to human spread, we don't have here in
Speaker 2: this country. There's no rodent that's ever tested positive for
Speaker 2: that strain of the virus ever ever.
Speaker 1: And but it might be here on US soil for
Speaker 1: the first time ever today.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Look, that's no small thing in medical history. This will
Speaker 1: get looked at. This This is historic. This might be
Speaker 1: the first time this virus has been ever in the
Speaker 1: United States, ever been detected, ever been known. We talk
Speaker 1: about that. That's a big deal. Something that was isolated
Speaker 1: in the part of some part of the world found
Speaker 1: its way to Nebraska.
Speaker 3: It's really frightening.
Speaker 2: Now, it is scary, and I know we've talked a
Speaker 2: lot about the death rate of the Andes strain of
Speaker 2: the Haunta virus being at forty or fifty percent, depending
Speaker 2: on who you ask. But here in the country haunt
Speaker 2: the virus cases a third of folks who have contracted
Speaker 2: this disease have died here in this country, And it
Speaker 2: was interesting. We were talking to my dad who's a microbiologist,
Speaker 2: and his big thing was, hey, look, we yes, there's
Speaker 2: no cure technically, but we can treat it. And if
Speaker 2: you can get early intervention and get the right kind
Speaker 2: of meds to reduce fluids and to be monitored, make
Speaker 2: sure you have enough fluid, but your bodily fluids don't
Speaker 2: overtake your lungs, et cetera. That you you know most
Speaker 2: likely can pull through. And so he was really he
Speaker 2: made me feel a little bit better saying, look, we
Speaker 2: we can treat it. We can't cure it, we can't
Speaker 2: save people at a certain point, but we can treat it,
Speaker 2: just like we can treat the flu we can intervene
Speaker 2: in a way that limits the death toll.
Speaker 1: Now, I guess it helps to know if somebody comes
Speaker 1: sick that we know to look for haunt a virus
Speaker 1: because most would not, and that's where you end up
Speaker 1: getting in trouble.
Speaker 3: Like you exactly right, so exactly at least they know what.
Speaker 1: They're looking for, what they're doing now. But I mean,
Speaker 1: what a Robes. This thing was way the hell off.
Speaker 3: Somewhere else near Antarctica.
Speaker 1: Isn't that crazy? Even when the strip was the ship
Speaker 1: was stricken for the first time off the west coast
Speaker 1: of Africa. Robes, it's here. Isn't that crazy? We were
Speaker 1: talking about this a month. It's here now in the
Speaker 1: United States.
Speaker 2: I know, all right, Well, we will continue to monitor
Speaker 2: this as I'm sure you all are doing as well.
Speaker 2: But in the meantime, thank you so much for listening
Speaker 2: to us, every one. I'm Amy Roeboch alongside TJ.
Speaker 3: Holmes. We'll talk to you soon.