Eight Americans who spent six weeks held in a Nebraska quarantine unit after exposure to hantavirus on a cruise ship were released Monday, as the U.S. Health and Human Services Department formally ended the mandatory isolation that one passenger said the government imposed against her will.
The eight were among 18 Americans transferred to the national quarantine unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha after an outbreak on the Dutch-flagged cruise ship MV Hondius killed three people and sickened others. The U.S. health department required 42 days of isolation — the maximum incubation period for the Andes strain of hantavirus, which is the only strain known to transmit between humans.
HHS spokesperson Emily Hilliard said in a statement that the enforced quarantine was necessary for the public good, according to a report from the Guardian.
“Through close collaboration among federal, state, and local partners, HHS helped protect the American people, contain potential risks, and bring this response effort to a successful conclusion,” Hilliard said in an email.
Passenger Angela Perryman said she was locked in her room until shortly before the release. Speaking to the Associated Press, Perryman said the remaining eight were told Sunday lunchtime the quarantine had ended and they were free to leave.
“We were locked in our rooms until 1:55 p.m.,” Perryman said. “And at two o’clock, ‘OK, well, everybody walk out and go home.’”
She said she insisted on a flight to her Florida home that night, which the government paid for, while most others chose to stay overnight and leave Monday. Perryman accused Kennedy of orchestrating “a political stunt.”
Health law experts said the detention was a dangerous overreach. Lawrence Gostin, a health law professor at Georgetown University Law Center, told the Guardian that “cavalierly detaining somebody for no good reason, no crime and no significant public risk” was arbitrary and unjust.
James Hodge, professor and director of the public health law and policy center at Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, said health officials should never “use unconstitutional, ill-advised, unproven techniques to control infectious diseases.”
HHS Secretary Kennedy ordered the quarantine over the advice of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which had recommended that those exposed to hantavirus should self-quarantine at home.
None of the Americans taken to Nebraska were reported to have contracted the disease. Seven other Americans who disembarked before the outbreak was documented were allowed to monitor for symptoms at home.
Another passenger, Jake Rosmarin, a Boston-based travel blogger with 165,000 Instagram followers, posted a video Monday entitled “I’m finally coming home,” showing him leaving his room with two suitcases. He later posted a second video of the Omaha skyline from his airplane window.
Earlier, Rosmarin posted a tearful farewell video thanking the quarantine unit staff, the Omaha community, and his family and friends.
“Thank you for showing us kindness, compassion, and humanity every single day,” he wrote. “You went above and beyond to make an impossible situation more comfortable, and I will never forget that.”
Sixteen Americans were evacuated to the Nebraska quarantine unit on May 11, and two others joined them a few days later. During their stay, Omaha restaurants and food trucks delivered special meals almost daily, and nurses made occasional runs to Starbucks, passengers said. They spent their time in hotel-like rooms with desks, televisions, internet connections, and exercise equipment.
Most of those evacuated from the ship were from other countries. Among those who died was a Dutch couple who health officials believe were the first exposed to the virus while visiting South America. Thirty other passengers disembarked before the outbreak was documented. When the ship reached the Netherlands, 25 crew members and two medical personnel on board were required to enter quarantine.