the most interesting thing about being
here is just how they're working through
some of these issues that come up when
you when you house all these people
together and they're kind of cut off
from the rest of the world in this very
very unique situations they put up these
temporary gray metal fencing all around
barricades all around the outside of the
perimeter of the hotel and they have
u.s. marshals guarding us to make sure
we don't go stir-crazy and just make a
run for it the plane and the ride was
wild because it's not a normal
commercial passenger jet the US State
Department had chartered a cargo plane
and they had retrofitted it with seats
and then in the back there was four
porta-potties between the seats and the
porta-potties was a white plastic table
with two State Department workers and
white hazmat suits who would check your
temperatures periodically during the
flight so we got our temper checked
three times I am at the Miramar Marine
Corps Air Station where we are going to
be held in quarantine for two weeks it
is federally mandated basically we're
housed in these living quarters that are
kind of a cross between a dorm and a
motel room we get breakfast lunch and
dinner at designated periods throughout
the day there are people that you know
come and clean every day and you know
I've seen them outside as well I'm
disinfecting the stairwells and the
walls and the hallways on the doors
there are signs saying you know best
practices for reducing infection we get
treated pretty well here this is a
multi-agency effort to make a quarantine
like this work the CDC is here of course
the US Public Health Service the
National Disaster medical system and the
u.s. marshals are here of course
guarding us and also the administration
for Children and Families they all work
to make this quarantine / summer camp
run on a day-to-day basis in the
mornings you ask that we go to the main
hall and get our temperature checked
which is then recorded on our log every
day we have a daily town-hall meeting at
2:00 p.m. dinner is 5:00 to 6:00 and
then at night they also ask that we test
our temperatures by ourselves with the
thermometers that we've been given and
then record those and any potential
symptoms also into our daily log after
being in quarantine in China where we
weren't allowed to leave our rooms this
has been a nice change because not only
are we allowed to leave our rooms we get
to leave the hotel and actually walk on
the grounds of the hotel which there's a
lot of greenery and grass and palm trees
so that's really nice to be able to go
outside and feel the wind and the Sun
and there's a lot of kids running around
playing however we are not allowed to go
further than hotel grounds there's
donations of toys for the kids and
they've been holding these lawn games
they call it so soccer and football
drills and also essentially bootcamp
classes folks here are kind of nervous
because some people from my evacuation
flight are currently in the hospital
being tested for the corona virus we got
word here that one of the evacuees on
the first flight into San Diego had
tested positive for corona virus the
reaction here was basically a lot of
concern a lot of questions particularly
because this patient had tested negative
initially returned to the compound and
then tested positive and was returned to
the hospital the CDC says that the
isolated the patient from the time that
she returned so that there was no risk
to any other residents here some of the
residents here are now asking for
everyone to be tested for the corona
virus and also for people to be confined
to their rooms people here at Travis
were already quite anxious about
socializing with each other most people
are keeping to themselves but after that
news came out they are on heightened
alert I think there's there's a lot of
question
whether it's a good idea to keep having
outdoor group activities like exercise
classes or or letting the kids you know
play soccer or football together so a
quarantine of this scale in the United
States is very unusual
the CDC folks here told me that the last
time we had this kind of mass quarantine
of the population was in the 1950s and
there really hasn't been anything like
this in the US for decades during this
outbreak the US government has evacuated
about 800 American citizens and their
families from move on and put them under
quarantine now that's a reasonably
controlled population but in China we
see that they've put about sixty million
people under lockdown under quarantine
and a quarantine of that size is without
precedent there's never been a
quarantine that size before and it
remains to be seen whether a strategy
like that is successful or not