Tennessee doctor got his GOP rep to overrule CDC & repatriate infected cruise ship passengers. [View all]

[SunSeeker]

This is how California got infected with Covid-19, and why we have a Covid-19 infected California woman who never left California fighting for her life now at a California hospital. As Rachel Maddow mentioned tonight, a Covid-19 infected Tennessee doctor from the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan got his GOP Representative to pull strings in the Trump administration to overrule the CDC & repatriate the infected passengers. The CDC wanted the Covid-19 positive passengers to stay in Japan, and only have passengers who tested negative be repatriated. Trump's State Department ultimately overruled the CDC.

Tennessee doctor sparked evacuation from cruise ship

A Tennessee doctor with a friend in Congress was instrumental in bringing home hundreds of Americans who were stuck in Asia on a coronavirus-laden cruise ship, according to a new report detailing the government decision to evacuate the ship.

Dr. Arnold Hopland, who runs a clinic in Elizabethton, remains quarantined in Japan with his wife, Jeanie, who has tested positive for coronavirus. The couple were passengers on the Diamond Princess, a cruise ship where about 3,700 people were quarantined in their cabins for weeks as the infection spread.

While Hopland remains in Asia, his calls to Tennessee Rep. Phil Roe appear to be at least partially responsible for the decision to rescue other Americans from the ship. Hopland, who is friends with Roe, detailed the deteriorating conditions on the ship to the congressman, who then pushed the State Department to bring the travelers home.

In the end, Hopland's details and Roe's urging prompted officials to finally evacuate the ship, according to a deeply-soudeeply-sourced report by The Washington Post. "That tipped the balance," an unnamed senior administration official told the Post.

https://www.columbiadailyherald.com/news/20200222/tennessee-doctor-sparked-evacuation-from-cruise-ship

Then Trump's HHS sent unprotected, untrained HHS employees to greet these 14 infected evacuees. Trump had disbanded the pandemic response team. These HHS employees were not quarantined and mingled in the community surrounding Travis Air Force Base in California where the evacuees were supposedly quarantined. At least one HHS staffer stayed at a local hotel and left on a commercial air liner. About 10 days after the infected evacuees arrived, the woman from the area came down with Covid-19 and checked herself into a local hospital 10 miles from Travis.

It is now in our communities, thanks to a Tennessee doctor who had GOP connections strong enough to overrule the CDC. Then Trump's HHS and State Department made things worse by accepting the evacuees in the most incompetent, unsafe way possible.

Never mind the stock market, people will die because of this. And my beautiful state is now ground zero, thanks to Republicans.