| Carnival Magic Passenger Negative For Ebola |
| Mon, October 20, 2014 |
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| On Sunday morning before dawn, the Carnival Magic cruise ship arrived back in port at Galveston, Texas. The good news is that the 59 year old lab supervisor has tested negative for Ebola - 21 days after she handled a specimen from a Liberian man who died from Ebola at the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital.
So, her negative test then should conclusively put everyone in the clear: all those four thousand plus passengers who were on the ship - and the handful of Belizeans who also went on the ship as the boarding party.
But, the scare was legitimate and yesterday Channel 2 in Houston captured the unusual homecoming for the cruise -we rebroadcast that story:…
And while all's well that ends well - some choice remarks by CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer raised eyebrows in Belize. On Saturday Blitzer featured Marie Harf, the Deputy Spokesperson for the State Department - who underscored their disappointment with the Government of Belize for refusing to allow the disembarkation of the 59 year old Lab Supervisor unto Belizean soil. Here's that exchange:
And while Belize is being pilloried for daring to say "no" to the USA - multiple press reports say that Mexico did the same, refusing to allow the ship to stop there for a scheduled day trip in Cozumel. And even the state of Texas didn't let the ship dock until it had sent out a helicopter to collect a sample of the Lab Technician's blood for testing. All this to make clear that Belize wasn't the only one who responded out of what spokesperson Harf glibly referred to as "ignorance and fear."
The Carnival Magic is getting a thorough cleansing and all the customers on that ill fated cruise got a 50% discount on future cruises.
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