Kennedy Orders Hantavirus Passenger Quarantine Amid CDC Dispute

ordered Angela Perryman, a 47-year-old American passenger exposed to hantavirus on the MV Hondius cruise ship, to remain in federal quarantine against her will on June 15, despite the CDC allowing other symptom-free passengers to complete their quarantine at home. Perryman is one of eight passengers still quarantined at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska, after 18 American passengers returned to the U.S. from the cruise ship on May 11.

Initially, 16 passengers were quarantined at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and two at Emory University Hospital. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) permitted multiple passengers to leave the Nebraska unit on May 31 to finish quarantine at home.

Perryman claims she is "caught in a power struggle" between federal health officials and the state of Florida. Kennedy's order, signed on June 15, states that "the evidence demonstrates that Ms.

Perryman remains reasonably believed to be infected," according to Inside Medicine, overriding the CDC's earlier allowance.