In February 2020, David Cates, a psychologist, was working with passengers of the Diamond Princess cruise ship who had been exposed to the coronavirus and were quarantined at a special facility in Omaha.
In a meeting among passengers and their doctors, there was talk of testing, meals and logistics, he recalled, and then one person asked, “Is there a channel on the TV that can help us relax?”
That’s when Dr. Cates realized that those passengers, among the first who had been exposed to a deadly virus — and who were now isolated in 300-square-foot rooms — might need regular psychosocial support.
Every day of their weekslong quarantine, Dr. Cates facilitated virtual discussion sessions about stress, mindfulness and healthy thinking. A passenger spoke of fearing eternal isolation. The doctor encouraged a different thought: “This is much longer than I wish, but eventually, I will be able to leave.”
Six years later, Dr. Cates is once again supporting cruise ship passengers exposed to a deadly virus. But this time, it’s 16 Americans who came in contact with hantavirus on the MV Hondius, and who could be isolated in Omaha’s National Quarantine Unit for as long as six weeks. One of those passengers, who tested positive for the virus, is in a separate biocontainment facility nearby.
Quarantine comes with many possible psychological harms, said Dr. Cates, who works for the health care system that directs the facilities. Those include depression, anxiety, sleep disturbances and even post-traumatic stress disorder.
“You lose control over many aspects of your life,” he said, pointing to being in a confined space for an unknown period of time, unable to socialize, work or take care of other responsibilities. “All of that is stressful.”
Social support, even if it’s just a daily hourlong virtual meeting, is “so critical as a buffer to stress,” he said, comparing the benefits to choosing not to smoke “up to 10 cigarettes a day.”
Other doctors who worked at the facilities during the pandemic said they saw firsthand the impacts of those meetings.
“The passengers at that time in the Diamond Princess felt like that was a really helpful aspect of allowing for some socialization,” said Dr. Angela Hewlett, who directs the Nebraska biocontainment unit.
Togetherness can help during frightening times. So far, at least three MV Hondius passengers have died. Jake Rosmarin, one of the Americans quarantining in Omaha, said in an interview on Tuesday that the vessel was a small ship with fewer than 150 passengers, where most people knew one another well. He was close with at least one of the passengers who died.
“It was a really hard time for me,” he said.
Passengers naturally wonder whether they may be next. “We have people who may have been exposed to it, waiting to see if they come down, hoping that they won’t,” Dr. Cates said. “That has the potential to be deeply upsetting, if not traumatic.”
The hantavirus quarantine could last, at maximum, six weeks, although officials said on Monday that some people were likely to have the option to leave earlier and isolate at home.
Dr. Cates is still figuring out what this group needs, he said. The passengers had their first session on Tuesday afternoon with Dr. Cates in a conference room and those in quarantine dialing in from their isolation rooms on their phones, laptops or iPads.
For now, Dr. Cates said, he’s going to make sure they are comfortable — that they have the food they want, that their Wi-Fi is working and even that they’re getting their laundry done.
“When your world is confined to a room, your perspective on what’s important changes what’s important to you,” he said.
So far, Dr. Cates said, the group seems well-connected.
“If a group goes into quarantine already with support, that is tremendously helpful, and then we don’t need to try to engineer social support less organically,” he said. “It’s already organically happened, so that’s very good news to me.”
Sonia A. Rao reports on disability issues as a member of the 2025-26 Times Fellowship class, a program for early-career journalists.
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