CPAC attendees mocked online and urged to self-quarantine after coronavirus exposure: ‘Stay off the internet, too’

Published March 7, 2020 By Bob Brigham


The coronavirus may be spreading through the elite ranks of the conservative movement after a positive test for COVID-19 coronavirus at a conference attended by 19,000 people.

“The American Conservative Union (ACU), which hosts the high-profile Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), confirmed Saturday that one of this year’s conference attendees has tested positive for the novel coronavirus,” Fox News reported Saturday. “The conference is attended by many lawmakers, politicians and White House officials. President Trump and Vice President Pence also spoke at this year’s event.”

The announcement came one day after the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) announced that two attendees at their recent conference have tested positive. The AIPAC convention was also attended by Trump and Pence.

Here’s some of what people were saying:

You all said it was a hoax.
— JenniferM (@jennifermcc6) March 7, 2020

This is the most meta thing ever. An attendee at a conference that emphasized that the Coronavirus was a hoax has tested positive. It’s like someone at an anti-climate change conference drowning in the remnants of a melted ice cap.
— Gritty’s Political Brother (@grittypol) March 7, 2020

Poor dead irony dies again and again. https://t.co/Vtwbsx5Z1X

— Molly Jong-Fast (@MollyJongFast) March 8, 2020

That’s called Karma. Do they still think it’s a hoax?

— Disgusted American (@coreysneena) March 7, 2020


Please everyone that attended CPAC- please quarantine yourselves for a few months. Thank you from the public. Just to be safe. Stay off the internet too.

—  
(@NatureFarmGirl) March 7, 2020

It’s all good. Dr Trump said don’t worry and Pence will send prayers
— Top Gunn (@jcgunn724) March 7, 2020

Ok, now quarantine everyone who was spreading fascism at the conference.
— Charles Louis Richter (@richterscale) March 7, 2020

Pray it away
— SFMNLVR (@slanderson2474) March 7, 2020

Matt Gaetz who joked around with a mask is probably on his way to get tested for Coronavirus right about now with the CPAC news.
— Adam Parkhomenko (@AdamParkhomenko) March 7, 2020

CPAC chairman Matt Schlapp tells me he interacted with attendee who has tested positive for coronavirus. While the timeline is unknown, Schlapp shook Trump's hand on stage the last day of the conference. https://t.co/lR5DfHiy8
— Colby Itkowitz (@ColbyItkowitz) March 8, 2020

Wait, I thought Dear Leader had this under control?
— Jason Avant (@PetCobra) March 7, 2020

pic.twitter.com/ME8FlO38aJ
— dᴜʀᴡᴏᴏᴅ, TV/VCR Repair (@_Durwood) March 7, 2020

Thoughts and Prayers
— Seth Scoville (@budkin) March 7, 2020

Get gulping down that colloidal silver solution. You'll be fine.
— RChappo (@RichChappo) March 7, 2020

Irony…at this same event the corona virus was called a hoax
— Cristian (@calvarez813) March 7, 2020


Just tell them that as long as they’re not tested, they’re fine!
— christine d. (@lolottedamour) March 7, 2020

God's will and all that pic.twitter.com/BKvTj4ZUjT
— The world needs more Goldens, STAT! (@auggiesnoise) March 7, 2020

This CPAC person is just talking about the coronavirus to hurt the president! https://t.co/8js044qgSB
— Mrs. Betty Bowers (@BettyBowers) March 7, 2020

https://twitter.com/PamKeithFL/status/1236424142758518785

#CPAC attendee—who was exposed to #coronavirus PRIOR to the conference—has tested positive.@realDonaldTrump and #COVID19 task force “leader” @Mike_Pence attended the conference.

Maybe now, they’ll admit that the #CoronavirusOutbreak is NOT a “hoax.”

https://t.co/mqtN0zaetf
— Dr. Dena Grayson (@DrDenaGrayson) March 7, 2020

CPAC confirms an attendee tested poaitive for coronavirus.
Last week at CPAC, the outgoing WH Chief of Staff characterized coronavirus media coverage as designed "to bring down" the president. pic.twitter.com/joYAtHnDBl
— Anthony L. Fisher (@anthonyLfisher) March 7, 2020


Thoughts and prayers
— DanG (@DanLGrafford) March 7, 2020


People think a member of Trump's team might have spread coronavirus at CPAC

Picture: CSPAN/Screenshot

With the spread of coronavirus continuing to dominate headlines it would have come as a shock to many that an attendee at the recent CPAC event, which hosted a speech by Donald Trump, tested positive for the illness.

The likes of Trump Jr, Ivanka Trump, Mike Pence and numerous members of the Trump administration were at the four day gathering in Washington DC but reportedly didn't come into contact with the infected individual, which didn't seem to bother Trump anyway.

The president was quoted as saying:

I'm not concerned at all. We'll have tremendous rallies. We're doing very well.
We've done a fantastic job, with respect to that subject, on the virus.

That seems fair enough but one of the many speeches at the event did see Trump's now-former chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, gave a talk on how the White House is dealing with the deadly outbreak.

Rather than give some reassurances, Mulvaney proceeded to lambast the media for their coverage of the virus, claiming that it was a ploy to oust Trump from office.

Mulvaney wouldn't have been able to have foreseen that someone at CPAC would have coronavirus but he clearly wasn't practising great hygiene at the event anyway.

In footage from his talk, Mulvaney coughs into his hand, which is not the recommended thing to do (according to the CDC you should cough into a tissue or on your sleeve) then, just moments later, shakes the hand of Stephen Moore, after presumably not washing.

Now, we aren't saying that Mulvaney is the person with the coronavirus at CPAC but this video has given people ideas.

Trump, a notorious germaphobe, might have gotten wind of this as he sacked Mulvaney from his current position at the weekend and replaced him with North Carolina lawmaker Mark Meadows.

Mulvaney is now set to become the US special envoy to Northern Ireland. Let's just hope he practises better hygiene in his new role otherwise he might risk being told off by his boss again.

Arizona Congressman Dr. Paul Gosar and staff in self-quarantine for coronavirus after CPAC contact

Ted Cruz interacted with coronavirus-infected CPAC attendee — and won’t return to Washington

CPAC founder who touched both Trump and virus patient insists president ‘scrubbed’ hands at event

Days After Rep. Matt Gaetz Wore a Gas Mask to Vote on COVID-19 Funding, the Virus Killed One of His Constituents

Tara Law, Time•March 8, 2020

As Congress worked to pass an $8.3 billion emergency funding to address the mounting coronavirus outbreak on Wednesday, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida wore a large gas mask on the House floor.

Gaetz posted an image of himself wearing the mask on Twitter Wednesday, later tweeting that he had ultimately decided to back the funding bill, but “didn’t feel good” about its cost.

Reviewing the coronavirus supplemental appropriation and preparing to go vote. pic.twitter.com/wjJ4YY4VZz
— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) March 4, 2020



Gaetz’s decision to wear the mask during the legislative session was immediately criticized by some of his colleagues, including Rep. Sean Maloney, a Democrat of New York, who said that Gaetz had shown “extraordinary insensitivity to people who have lost loved ones and are now scared about what’s going on.”

Just two days later, Florida announced that two people had died after contracting the virus, including one of Gaetz’s own constituents.

On Saturday, Gaetz released a statement to say that he was “extremely saddened” by the news.

“I’m confident our community will continue to remain vigilant in combating this disease and pray there will be no further contractions of the virus in Northwest Florida,” Gaetz said.

However, others said that the gas mask incident showed that Gaetz had failed to grasp the seriousness of the outbreak.



Walter Shaub, the former director of the Office of Government Ethics, tweeted on Sunday, “Matt Gaetz mocked fear over the coronavirus. Now one of his constituents is dead. The family of the deceased has got to be wondering whether their representative will finally get serious about protecting them or continue the frat boy pranks.”

Matt Gaetz mocked fear over the coronavirus. Now one of his constituents is dead. The family of the deceased has got to be wondering whether their representative will finally get serious about protecting them or continue the frat boy pranks. pic.twitter.com/48PIKfBlAI
— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) March 8, 2020

Before the constituent’s death was announced, Rep. Bobby L. Rush, a Democrat, noted that he had been treated very differently when he wore a hoodie on the floor of the House to draw attention to racial profiling in 2012.

“Guess which one of us was forcibly removed,” Rush wrote.

In 2012, I wore a hoodie on the House Floor to make a statement about the deadly consequences of racial profiling. On Wednesday, @RepMattGaetz wore a gas mask in the chamber, making light of an epidemic that has killed 14 Americans.

Guess which one of us was forcibly removed. pic.twitter.com/nh2LHPeIFW
— Bobby L. Rush (@RepBobbyRush) March 6, 2020

Gaetz deflected criticism against the gas mask on Twitter Sunday, arguing that he had not been mocking the outbreak at all.

“Made light?!?! I was quite serious. The threat to Congress is real, as I explained based on travel and habits like selfies and handshakes,” Gaetz tweeted.

Made light?!?! I was quite serious.
The threat to Congress is real, as I explained based on travel and habits like selfies and handshakes. https://t.co/O9MDM3kAiq
— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) March 8, 2020

Matt Gaetz Wore Gas Mask To Mock Coronavirus Concerns. One Of His Constituents Just Died From It.
Sebastian Murdock, HuffPost•March 7, 2020


Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) mocked coronavirus concerns by wearing a gas mask on the House floor just days before an infected man from his district died.

“Reviewing the coronavirus supplemental appropriation and preparing to go vote,” he said in a tweet Wednesday before the Senate approved an $8.3 billion emergency funding bill to combat the virus.

In the tweet, Gaetz is seen wearing a gas mask.

Reviewing the coronavirus supplemental appropriation and preparing to go vote. pic.twitter.com/wjJ4YY4VZz

— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) March 4, 2020

Just two days later, Gaetz released a statement saying a death from COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, had occurred in his district.

“I’m extremely saddened to learn of the first fatality in our district from coronavirus, a Northwest Floridian residing in Santa Rosa County,” he said. “Our prayers are with his family and loved ones during this difficult time.”

Florida officials announced two deaths from the virus on Friday, including the Santa Rosa County man, as well as two new cases in Broward County. That brings the total number of confirmed cases in Florida to seven, according to CBS News.

So far there have been 17 documented deaths from the virus in the U.S., with hundreds more infected across the country. At least 3,000 people have died worldwide. The situation has been further exacerbated by a lack of CDC testing kits for the virus and by an administration that continues to downplay the growing threat.


Matt Gaetz allowed to mock coronavirus with gas mask in congress, after black lawmaker 'forcibly removed' for wearing hoodie

Posted  by Sirena Bergman in news

Getty/Twitter/indy100

Democratic congressman Bobby Rush has called out the double standards of the House of Representatives after Republican Matt Gaetz was allowed to wear a gas mask in congress, making light of the coronavirus epidemic, while Rush was "forcibly removed" for wearing a hoodie to raise awareness of racial profiling of black men.

In 2012, Illinois representative Rush wore a hoodie on the house floor. Rush, who is African American, was trying to raise awareness of racial profiling following the shooting of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin. At the time, the incident was widely reported, with some estimates suggesting it received more press than the presidential election.

George Zimmerman, who shot Martin, would go on to be acquitted of murder in 2013, sparking the #BlackLivesMatter movement.

Around one in every 1,000 black men and boys die in America at the hands of the police, making it one of the leading causes of death among this demographic (needless to say, this is not the case for their white counterparts).




It's an issue which lawmakers had systematically failed to address, and Rush's acknowledgement of that fact was important both in its symbolism and visibility – but the establishment disagreed.

Rush was removed based on a rule which doesn't allow members of congress to wear hats, but a hoodie is clearly not a hat. Neither is a gas mask, obviously, but both cover parts of the head and face, so it's hard to understand how logically one could be allowed over the other.

Trump supporting Matt Gaetz presumably thought it would be amusing to come into congress wearing a full gas mask as some sort of joke relating to coronavirus, which has killed 14 Americans.

He claimed that members of congress were the most likely to become infected with coronavirus, because "we fly through the dirtiest airports" and "touch everyone we meet".


This is clearly false. For starters, people in China, which has reported around 80 per cent of the 102,000 cases we've seen thus far, are clearly more at risk than anyone in America. When it comes to risk of death, the main contributing factor is pre-existing conditions.

It's worth noting that in the US 44 million people don't have health insurance, while a further 38 million have "inadequate" insurance. The cost of testing for coronavirus can reach $3,270, more than 3.5 times the average weekly income in America ($865), according to 2017 figures.

The coronavirus outbreak has led to the spread of misinformation (including by President Trump himself), leading to arguably unwarranted panic. However, as cases rise in America, there is clearly reason for concern.

In one fell swoop Gaetz managed to feed in to the hysteria while also mocking a situation which has led to thousands of deaths. Pretty shocking behaviour for an elected official entrusted with representing the interests of the American people.

Lawsuit alleges college textbook publishers conspired to 'monopolize the market'


Aarthi Swaminathan Reporter, Yahoo Finance•March 7, 2020

A new antitrust class action lawsuit alleges that textbook publishers and on-campus college chain bookstores conspired to monopolize the textbook market, forcing students to pay higher-than-market prices for course materials.

Plaintiffs argue that publishers built the “Inclusive Access” model — a digital textbook market in collaboration with top publishers ostensibly aimed at reducing the cost of course materials — “to monopolize the market for textbooks in Inclusive Access classes and thereby raise prices, are actionable violations of the federal antitrust laws.”

Singling out the big three publishers — Cengage, Pearson and McGraw-Hill, as well as on-campus bookstore chains — the lawsuit filed in a New Jersey federal court argues that the practice is illegal under the Sherman Antitrust Act and the Clayton Antitrust Act.

A University of Colorado sophomore watches as employees carry away his textbooks after selling them back to the CU bookstore inside. (Photo: Jeremy Papasso/Digital First Media/Boulder Daily Camera via Getty Images)

“This suit by a student standing up for all of her peers against the the potential harms of Inclusive Access … and ultimately, like these, this suit could affect every student in America,” Kaitlyn Vitez, higher education campaign director for the progressive non-profit U.S. PIRG Education Fund, told Yahoo Finance. “We're talking about a really huge segment of America's college population.”

The textbook market — which Vitez previously called a “broken marketplace” — has been dominated for decades by a few dominant publishers that leverage deep expertise in educational materials and relationships with universities. Vitez said that the lawsuit “has the potential to really shake up the publishers’ plans to eliminate the used textbook market.”

Textbooks - Filed Complaint by Aarthi on Scribd

‘Pearson stands by the Inclusive Access model’

While the amount of money an average college student spends on textbooks has declined slightly in recent years, the lawsuit contends that the publishers’ introduction of an online model has resulted in the loss of choice.

“Inclusive Access increases students’ costs and eliminates their choices in order to increase the profits of textbook publishers and on-campus college bookstore retail chains,” the lawsuit asserts.

In response to this story, textbook publishers defended the model.

“We believe Inclusive Access benefits students by making our first-class instructional materials available to them at below competitive rates, and we believe the lawsuit has no factual or legal merit,” a McGraw-Hill spokesperson said in a statement.

A Pearson spokesperson said: “Pearson is aware of this lawsuit and is reviewing the complaint. Pearson stands by the Inclusive Access model, which offers real benefits to students, instructors and institutions.”

“Cengage is prepared to defend vigorously against these allegations,” a spokesperson from the company stated. “Cengage has been and remains a forceful advocate for student and textbook affordability.”

A student stands in from of books in a campus bookstore. (Photo by: Jeff Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
‘That’s gas money’

Online textbooks in the “Inclusive Access” model sometimes come with access codes to quizzes, homework assignments, and even exams. Some of the prices of the textbooks can run pretty steep, and in many cases, students can’t rely on a used textbook at cheaper rates.

Publishers emphasize that there’s always an “opt-out” option. But schools sometimes sign up for these textbooks in advance to secure discounted rates from the publishers and, in some cases, tacking that cost on to their students’ tuition and fees.

20-year-old University of North Carolina at Pembroke student Jorge Castillo told Yahoo Finance that as part of his school’s pilot program to increase students’ access to education materials, “one of the classes … had automatically charged me for a book. And this book — I already had bought it before.”

Castillo added that “the book that I had bought before was 50% cheaper than the book that was automatically charged to my fees. They charged me $45 on tuition and fees. Doesn't sound like a tremendous amount, but in reality, if I can get a book for $20 on Amazon, that’s gas money and money I can use for other [things].”

Follett, the company running the program, insisted that an “opt out” feature allowed students like Castillo were free to do so and buy alternative course materials at a cheaper rate.

But Castillo said it wasn’t that simple.

“It’s not easy to opt out,” he said. “So for instance, I have my school email and they sent it to another email that I normally don't use… that I had in high school.”

—

Aarthi is a writer for Yahoo Finance. She can be reached at aarthi@yahoofinance.com. Follow her on Twitter @aarthiswami.

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Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance

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Power, privilege and glamour in 1920s London: Inside the glittering world of the Bright Young Things

The hedonistic youth culture of the inter-war upper crust is examined in a new exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery

Cecil Beaton’s Bright Young Things
Show all 13





The end of the First World War may have brought peace to London, but by the late 1920s the children of the elite were on a mission to stir up the rigid conventions preserved by their Victorian parents.

They threw wild parties, pranks, treasure hunts and pageants, and broke taboos with their cross-dressing and revealing outfits.

This group of young upper classes included poet John Betjeman and novelists Nancy Mitford and Evelyn Waugh, the latter of who satirised his peers in his 1930 novel Vile Bodies. Alongside the artists and Hollywood actors invited into their fold, this loose group was dubbed the Bright Young Things by the mesmerised press, who breathlessly recorded every boozy party.

Beaton, pictured, was known for his shocking yet tantalising photographs (Estate of Paul Tanqueray)

Aside from the tabloids, their most ardent documenter – as well as one of their wildest members – was photographer and diarist Cecil Beaton. Beaton published his Book of Beauty in 1930 in which he describes his early obsession with glamorous society women, before musing on the modern beauties in his set. He also documented their luscious costumes and fantastical set designs; he would later go on to work at Vogue and Vanity Fair.


His archive is spotlit in the upcoming exhibition Cecil Beaton’s Bright Young Things at the National Portrait Gallery, bringing together what Dr Nicholas Cullinan, director of the National Portrait Gallery, says is Beaton’s rarely-seen “dazzling photographs, high on art and artifice”.

Through Beaton’s lens, we see the Young Things from the inside, as they wished to be seen – ravishingly glamourous, pushing the boundaries of fashion and taste with androgynous silhouettes and avant-garde costume ideas.

Read more

A visual history of the dark side of Los Angeles, 1920s-1950s

Their antics may look fairly harmless from a modern perspective. At the time though, public view was split between fascination over their whimsical extravagance, and disgust at the hedonistic frittering of their privileged lives. Elizabeth Ponsonby, the daughter of a baron and a leader of the Young Things, outraged the public by throwing a party in which guests drank alcohol from bottles wearing their pyjamas, a move considered scandalously degenerate. She would later hold a mock wedding in a West End restaurant, causing outrage once again. “I revel in insult,” Ponsonby said in a 1929 interview. “I crow when I hear old ladies disapprove. That part of it I love.”

The Bright Young Things’ extravagant ways fell out of favour with the onset of the Great Depression and the Second World War, when they eventually drifted apart. Beaton got a job with the British government photographing the bomb-ravaged city where he once partied; the scandalous Elizabeth Ponsonby died in 1940, a lifelong alcoholic. Yet Beaton’s photos preserve them in their moment: gorgeously decadent, frivolous and forever young.

Cecil Beaton’s Bright Young Things is open 12 March – 7 June 2020 at the National Portrait Gallery

Maxine Freeman-Thomas 

dressed for Ascot in the year 2000 

for the Dream of Fair Women Ball 

by Cecil Beaton, 1928

The Cecil Beaton Studio Archive

 The Bright Young Things at Wilsford 

by Cecil Beaton, 1927

The Cecil Beaton Studio Archive

 Oliver Messel in his costume for Paris in 'Helen!' 

by Cecil Beaton, 1932

The Cecil Beaton Studio Archive

Edith Sitwell at Sussex Gardens 

by Cecil Beaton, 1926

The Cecil Beaton Studio Archive

 Edward Le Bas as Mrs Vulpy 

in The Watched Pot by Cecil Beaton, 1924

The Cecil Beaton Studio Archive

 George ‘Dadie’ Rylands as the Duchess of Malfi

The Cecil Beaton Studio Archive                                                       

Experts: Cruise ships no place for a coronavirus quarantine

By JAY REEVEStoday

1 of 5

FILE - In this Feb. 11, 2020, file photo, the Grand Princess cruise ship passes the Golden Gate Bridge as it arrives from Hawaii in San Francisco. Scrambling to keep the coronavirus at bay, officials ordered the cruise ship to hold off the California coast Thursday, March 5, to await testing of those aboard, after a passenger on an earlier voyage died and at least one other became infected. (Scott Strazzante/San Francisco Chronicle via AP, File)

Cruise ships hit by coronavirus outbreaks have quickly found themselves with no ports for thousands of passengers as countries on four continents have quarantined vessels or kept them at sea for days.

Keeping all the passengers on board instead of letting them disembark on land is a strategy that can backfire, however, according to experts, because the ventilation systems and close quarters of cruise ships make them ideal places for illness to jump from one person to the next.

“They’re not designed as quarantine facilities, to put it mildly,” said Don Milton, an epidemiologist with the University of Maryland.

A ship with more than 3,500 people aboard was sailing in circles off the coast of California on Saturday after 19 crew members and two passengers tested positive for the new virus. Originally bound for San Francisco, the Grand Princess might be sent instead to a non-commercial port, officials said.

While restaurants and other shipboard locations were closed, passengers were able to watch TV and use the internet, or if they were lucky enough to have one, go outside on their balcony overlooking the water.

Passenger Karen Schwartz Dever said she and her husband were enjoying their balcony and keeping themselves busy with playing cards, while meals and water were being delivered by room service. But she worried about some of the other passengers.

“I met someone who is in the middle of chemo for cancer,” she said. “There are people on oxygen. There are also children on board. I can’t imagine what it’s like if they are in an inside cabin.”

While President Donald Trump has said he doesn’t want the Grand Princess to dock, he also said he would yield to the advice of health officials. Refusing to let the ship into port for an extended period could hasten the spread of the virus on board, experts said.

Milton, who studies the spread of virus particles in the air, said recirculating air on a cruise ship’s ventilation system, along with people living in close quarters and in communal settings, make the vessels vulnerable to the spread of infection.

“You’re going to amplify the infection by keeping people on the boat,” he said.

A Purdue University air quality expert said cruise ship air conditioning systems are not designed to filter out particles as small as the coronavirus.

“The passengers should be quarantined on shore if there is a suitable facility,” Qingyan Chen said in an email message. Grand Princess “should run 100% outdoor air in their air conditioning system and not use recirculated air.”

Top cruise line executives met Saturday with Vice President Mike Pence at Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, after which Pence announced “significant changes” to the industry going forward, but gave no indication what would happen next with the Grand Princess.

Pence said cruise officials agreed to enhanced entry and exit screenings and to establish shipboard testing for the virus, along with new quarantine standards established by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The industry also was asked to come up with and fund a new plan on how to transport cruise passengers who contract the disease.

Princess officials said the new protocols include asking all new passengers to sign a health declaration, and temperature screenings as passengers leave. Anyone coming from a “high-risk area is also undergoing a medical evaluation,” Dr. Grant Tarling, chief medical officer for Carnival Corporation, told reporters.

Government officials made it clear in their language that they were walking a fine line with industry officials about the best way to prevent the disease from spreading without causing significant economic hardship to cruise lines.

“We want to ensure the American people can continue, as we deal with the coronavirus, to enjoy the cruise line industry,” Pence said.

Meanwhile, Princess officials also appeared frustrated about the lack of detail on the Grand Princess’ next steps, repeatedly telling reporters they were waiting for definitive information about when and where the ship will dock, who will be tested, and whether passengers will be allowed to get off.

“We need to get the ship into a port as soon as possible,” said Jan Swartz, group president of Princess Cruises and Carnival Australia.

In Japan, leaders were criticized for confining more than 3,700 passengers and crew on the Diamond Princess for two weeks last month because of the virus. About 700 people were sickened on the ship and three died. Japanese health officials defended the quarantine as necessary and adequate.

In Asia, the Malaysian port of Penang turned away the cruise ship Costa Fortuna with 2,000 people aboard because there were 64 passengers from Italy, the center of Europe’s epidemic. It was the second port after Phuket in Thailand to reject the ship, which is now headed to Singapore.

In Egypt, a cruise ship on the Nile with more than 150 aboard was quarantined after 12 people tested positive for the virus. And on the Mediterranean in Malta, which reported its first case of the virus, the MSC Opera agreed not to enter port even though there were no infections confirmed on board.

Art Reingold, head of the epidemiology and biostatistics division at the University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health, said the burden is on authorities to coordinate the feeding and care of so many people without spreading the infection further.

“It’s obviously going to be a real challenge,” he said. “I don’t have any doubt that crew members interact with passengers, so it seems quite plausible there could be additional transmissions.”

The challenge is not an entirely new one: Ships have previously been affected by other diseases, such as norovirus, which causes vomiting and diarrhea and can spread quickly in the close quarters of a ship and among passengers with weakened immune system.

A view of the Costa Fortuna cruise ship, near Phuket, Thailand, Friday, March 6, 2020. Thailand has denied entry to passengers and crew of a cruise ship that arrived at the popular Andaman Sea resort island of Phuket. (AP Photo)

Frustration mounts over virus-stalled ship in California

By DAISY NGUYEN and JANIE HARan hour ago

1 of 8

This photo provided by Michele Smith, shows a deserted lounge area on the Grand Princess cruise ship Friday, March 6, 2020, off the California coast. Scrambling to keep the coronavirus at bay, officials ordered a cruise ship with about 3,500 people aboard to stay back from the California coast until passengers and crew can be tested, after a traveler from its previous voyage died of the disease and at least two others became infected. A Coast Guard helicopter lowered test kits onto the 951-foot (290-meter) Grand Princess by rope as the vessel lay at anchor off Northern California, and authorities said the results would be available on Friday, March 6, 2020. Princess Cruise Lines said fewer than 100 people aboard had been identified for testing. (Michele Smith via AP)

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Cruise officials and passengers confined to their rooms on a ship circling international waters off the San Francisco Bay voiced mounting frustration as the weekend wore on with no direction from authorities on where to go after 21 people on board tested positive for the new coronavirus.

The Grand Princess was forbidden to dock in San Francisco amid evidence the vessel was the breeding ground for a cluster of about 20 cases that resulted in at least one death after its previous voyage. The ship is carrying more than 3,500 people from 54 countries.

Jan Swartz, group president of Princess Cruises and Carnival Australia, told reporters Saturday that cruise officials want guests and crew off the ship so they can receive proper care and evaluation, but they are awaiting direction from federal and state officials.

“Our preference is to get the guests and crew off the Grand Princess as soon as possible,” she said.

The U.S. death toll from the virus climbed to 19, with all but three of the victims in Washington state. The number of infections swelled to more than 400, scattered across states. Pennsylvania, Indiana, Minnesota, Nebraska and Kansas reported their first cases.

In California, officials to bring the 951-foot (290-meter) Grand Princess cruise ship to a non-commercial port and test those aboard.

Vice President Mike Pence said at a Saturday meeting with cruise line executives in Florida that officials were still working on a plan.

“All passengers and crew will be tested for the coronavirus and quarantined as necessary,” Pence said.

As people pleaded Saturday with elected officials to let the ship dock, cruise officials disclosed more information about how they think the outbreak occurred.

Grant Tarling, chief medical officer for Carnival Corporation said it’s believed a 71-year-old Northern California man who later died of the virus was probably sick when he boarded the ship for a Feb. 11 cruise to Mexico.

The passenger visited the medical center the day before disembarking with symptoms of respiratory illness, he said. Others in several states and Canada who were on that voyage also have tested positive.

The passenger likely infected his dining room server, who also tested positive for the virus, Tarling said, as did two people traveling with the man. Two passengers now on the ship who have the virus were not on the previous cruise, he said.

Princess said the ship is about 50 miles (80 kilometers) off the coast of San Francisco. It said a critically ill passenger was taken from the ship to a medical facility for treatment unrelated to the virus.

 

In this image from video, provided by the California National Guard, a helicopter carrying airmen with the 129th Rescue Wing flies over the Grand Princess cruise ship off the coast of California Thursday, March 5, 2020. Scrambling to keep the coronavirus at bay, officials ordered a cruise ship with 3,500 people aboard to stay back from the California coast Thursday until passengers and crew can be tested, after a traveler from its previous voyage died of the disease and at least two others became infected. Airmen lowered test kits onto the 951-foot (290-meter) Grand Princess by rope as the vessel lay at anchor off Northern California, and authorities said the results would be available on Friday. Princess Cruise Lines said fewer than 100 people aboard had been identified for testing. (California National Guard via AP)

While health officials said about 1,100 crew members will remain aboard, passengers could be disembarked to face quarantine, possibly at U.S. military bases or other sites, as were hundreds of Americans exposed to the virus on another cruise ship in January.

Passenger Karen Dever of Moorestown, New Jersey, agreed she should be tested but wants officials to let her go if her results come back negative.

“Fourteen more days on this ship, I think by the end I will need a mental health visit,” she said with a laugh. “I’m an American. I should be able to come home.”

Rex Lawson, 86, of Santa Cruz County in California, said he and his wife were lucky to have a balcony and fresh air. But he feels for travelers confined to interior rooms.

“It’s quite anxious because we don’t know what’s going on. I guess nobody knows what’s going on,” he said. “It looks like we get information from the television first and then the captain.”

President Donald Trump, speaking Friday at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, said he would prefer not to allow the passengers onto American soil but will defer to medical experts.

“I don’t need to have the numbers (of U.S. cases) double because of one ship that wasn’t our fault,” Trump said while touring the CDC in Atlanta. “And it wasn’t the fault of the people on the ship either. OK? It wasn’t their fault either.”

Another Princess ship, the Diamond Princess, was quarantined for two weeks in Yokohama, Japan, last month because of the virus. Ultimately, about 700 of the 3,700 people aboard became infected in what experts pronounced a public-health failure, with the vessel essentially becoming a floating germ factory.

Experts say recirculated air from a cruise ship’s ventilation system, plus the close quarters and communal settings, make passengers and crew vulnerable to infectious diseases.

They said cruise ship conditioning systems are not designed to filter out particles as small as the coronavirus, allowing the disease to rapidly circulate to other cabins.

“The passengers should be quarantined on shore if there is a suitable facility,” said Qingyan Chen, a Purdue University air quality expert, in an email.

Worldwide, the virus has infected 106,000 people and killed nearly 3,600, the vast majority of them in China. Most cases have been mild, and more than half of those infected have recovered.

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A previous version of this story incorrectly reported President Trump made his comments about the cruise ship in an interview with Fox News. He said it during a tour of the CDC in Atlanta.

In this Thursday, March 5, 2020, photo, released by the California National Guard, Guardian Angels, a group of medical personnel with the 129th Rescue Wing, working alongside individuals from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, don protective equipment after delivering virus testing kits to the Grand Princess cruise ship off the coast of California. Passengers on a cruise ship off the California coast were instructed to stay in their cabins as they awaited test results Friday that could show whether the coronavirus is circulating among the more than 3,500 people aboard. (Chief Master Sgt. Seth Zweben/California National Guard via AP)

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Associated Press writers Olga Rodriguez in San Francisco; Julie Walker in New York City; Tom Strong in Washington, D.C.; Gene Johnson, Martha Bellisle and Carla K. Johnson in Seattle; Adriana Gomez Licon in Miami; and Rachel La Corte in Olympia, Washington, contributed to this report.

The Associated Press receives support for health and science coverage from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.