State Dept. sending planes to pick up quarantined cruise passengers . . . so they can be quarantined again here

Would you rather be quarantined on a cruise ship in Japan, or on an Air Force base in the United States?

Not being offered an Option C of “no quarantine at all,” I’d take the Air Force base in a heartbeat. But then, I wouldn’t set foot on a cruise ship if it was the healthiest group of people in the world.

Thus far the coronavirus has killed well over 1,000 people in China, and no one really seems sure how it might spread when people who were exposed in the Far East start showing up in other parts of the world. But the State Department has a responsibility to American citizens, so the “solution” such that it is seems to be that, yes, you still need to be quarantined, but we’ll bring you home and quarantine you here:

The U.S. State Department is sending chartered planes to Japan Sunday night to evacuate the nearly 400 Americans who remain quarantined aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship amid an outbreak of the coronavirus aboard.

Passengers who opt to take the chartered aircraft will be subjected to a second 14-day quarantine in the United States at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, Calif., or Lackland Air Force Base near San Antonio, Texas.  Health authorities will screen all passengers from the ship prior to allowing them to board the chartered flights. No symptomatic or infected passengers will be allowed to board.

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If you’re already showing symptoms or you’re known to be infected, you’ll have to stay behind and receive treatment in Japan. So far we know of two Americans who have tested positive for the virus, and have already been put in isolation at a Japanese hospital. And at least one of the Americans on board who is not infected is not wild about the State Department’s plan:

Please stop telling us to leave everything behind for our health. Our health is fine. And what is likely to happen if we stay here is we will test negative next week and the Japanese will let us go. Your (and our government’s) alternative is to cram us on a bus and a plane

— Matthew Smith (@mjswhitebread) February 15, 2020

with people who have not finished quarantine or been tested, all so we can be locked up for 2 more weeks in the US? That’s just stupid.

— Matthew Smith (@mjswhitebread) February 15, 2020

Smith has beet tweeting photos of the food he’s being served, and says it makes no sense to force people into evacuation if they’re not symptomatic and the Japanese government was prepared to release them from the ship in a few days anyway. He also blames the whole plan on Republican Congressman Phil Roe of Texas, who has a close friend stuck on the ship and has apparently been lobbying the Trump Administration to execute the evacuation.

Passengers do have the option of refusing to leave, and apparently Smith is going to continue sitting on the ship and tweeting pictures of his food. Freedom is a wonderful thing.

I think the State Department did the right thing by at least giving passengers the option of being evacuated. I hope the accommodations in California and Texas are at least somewhat agreeable. This is an awful situation and I’d want to get out of there at the earliest opportunity, but it’s certainly fair to say that what awaits them at home isn’t ideal either.

Pro tips: Don’t go to China and don’t go on cruises. You should be fine, and you’re not missing much in either case.