American passenger is angry about hantavirus quarantine order : NPR

The Davis Global Center on the University of Nebraska Medical Center campus houses the National Quarantine Unit where two passengers were ordered to stay after returning from the MV Hondius cruise ship that was hit by a hantavirus outbreak.

Dylan Widger/Getty Images

hide caption

toggle caption

Dylan Widger/Getty Images

Angela Perryman says she trusted federal officials when they brought her and 17 other Americans back to the United States after the cruise ship MV Hondius was hit by the deadly hantavirus outbreak.

Their stay at the Nebraska National Quarantine Unit was voluntary, officials said publicly. In fact, Trump administration officials, clearly sensitive to post-pandemic backlash against lockdowns and mandates, were careful to avoid even using the word “quarantine.”

So Perryman says she came up with a plan to leave Omaha and monitor herself for the virus in Florida. But when she and at least one other passenger tried to leave, they received a legal order on May 18 requiring them to stay until the end of the month, she said.

“I’m angry. I feel betrayed,” said Perryman, 47 and living mainly in Ecuador. “I’m imprisoned. It’s a nice prison. But this is a prison. Let’s be clear: I’m being held against my will.”

Federal officials did not respond to NPR’s questions about Perryman. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has publicly acknowledged only two mandatory quarantine orders and has not named those individuals. Perryman shared the documents she received from the government with NPR.

This is the first time the federal government has issued a mandatory quarantine order since the COVID-19 pandemic began and only the second time in about half a century. Public health experts say the country could face similar situations with other outbreaks, including the large Ebola crisis currently underway, primarily in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“Extremely stressful period”

Perryman says she understands that hantavirus poses a serious threat. But she doesn’t understand why she can’t take her own temperature every day and be on the lookout for any signs that she’s getting sick at home, just like nearly two dozen other passengers who were on the ship and returned home.

She said she had only passing contact with a passenger who became ill and showed no symptoms. The virus generally only seems to spread through close, prolonged contact, but Perryman says she would remain very cautious. She says she knows that three passengers who were on board the Dutch ship died.

“I’m completely OK with home quarantine. I’m completely OK with being monitored by public health officials,” she says. “I understand how dangerous this disease is and I will absolutely never do anything that would put individuals in the community at risk.”

Perryman, a nature lover, says she just wants to be able to go out in the sun in her backyard to watch bees pollinate flowers, lizards scamper along the fence and mockingbirds wiggle in a tree while she counts the days to confirm she hasn’t caught the hantavirus.

“I would like to be able to sit in the yard and breathe fresh air. I would like to be in a comfortable environment during this extremely stressful time,” she says.

Legal arguments

Some independent legal experts say the CDC’s order has solid grounds.

“The evidence in favor of the CDC is very strong,” says Lawrence Gostin, a public health law expert at Georgetown University. “She has clearly been exposed to a rare form of hantavirus. The virus clearly poses a risk to others, from person to person, and she needs to be separated from the population for a period of time.”

But other experts say Perryman might have a good argument.

“In the absence of more direct evidence of the real risks these individuals pose and their potential reluctance to adhere to a home quarantine or something less restrictive than being detained in a federal facility in Nebraska, there is a very real legal case that could be made to say, ‘This is a violation of due process. You are infringing on my liberty without sufficient direct evidence,'” says James Hodge, director of the Center for Public Health Law and Policy at Arizona State University.

Perryman says she plans to challenge her confinement.

“If they can do this to me, they could do it to anyone. They could issue a similar, baseless order and lock you up in the same facility,” she said.

But Perryman isn’t optimistic he’ll be free before his quarantine ends, which is supposed to end in 10 days.