A cruise ship passenger who was exposed to hantavirus in early May is still being held at a quarantine facility in Nebraska, against her wishes and against the recommendation of a medical review from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
On Monday, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a staunch proponent of medical freedom, signed an order to continue quarantining Angela Perryman, 47, even though others who had been held at the facility have, since May 31, been allowed to return to their homes if they wished to do so.
In a telephone interview with The New York Times, Ms. Perryman, who has tested negative for the virus and says she has not had any symptoms, expressed anger and frustration. She said she learned of Mr. Kennedy’s decision when a copy of his order was slipped under the door to her room.
After a hearing to dispute her quarantine order, Dr. Michael Bell, the C.D.C.’s quarantine medical reviewer, recommended on Thursday that Ms. Perryman be allowed to return home for the remainder of her 42-day quarantine, with remote symptom monitoring once daily and access to 24-hour help “in the event she develops symptoms.”
“In my professional judgment, this less restrictive alternative is adequate to protect public health,” Dr. Bell wrote in the review.
“This is the final proof that there is no check and balance on a basically indefinite detention under the public health law,” Ms. Perryman said.
The Department of Health and Human Services declined to comment.
Ms. Perryman is one of 18 passengers who were on a cruise ship that became the center of a hantavirus outbreak that killed three people, sickened several others and unnerved people around the world. They were flown back to the United States on May 11 and quarantined at the National Quarantine Unit in Omaha, Neb.
The passengers were initially set to return to their own states, but were then ordered to remain in Omaha at least until May 31. Ms. Perryman publicly challenged the order.
“I think this is obvious malice and retaliation,” she said on Monday.
Some passengers were allowed to quarantine at home until June 22, or 42 days, provided local health officials committed to having a law enforcement or community health worker monitor them. Ms. Perryman is one of 10 passengers still in Omaha, she said, but the only one being held against her will.
Ms. Perryman lives in Florida part of the time and wished to quarantine there. But Florida refused to comply with the administration’s requirements, according to Steven Hyman, Ms. Perryman’s lawyer.
But now, the order by Mr. Kennedy to keep Ms. Perryman in Omaha “flies in the face of the findings of the medical reviewer,” Mr. Hyman said.
At the Omaha facility, officials take Ms. Perryman’s temperature twice a day and provide her with food on request. She can also request access to a rooftop for about an hour each day, under the watch of armed guards.
“They’re polite and they’re not using physical violence against me, but otherwise it’s a prison,” she said.
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