According to a director at the CDC, the coronavirus epidemic has reached two of the three factors of a pandemic. Wochit
Federal workers did not have the necessary protective gear or training when they were sent to help quarantined Americans who were evacuated from China during the coronavirus outbreak , according to a government whistleblower complaint.
The complaint alleges employees with the Department of Health and Human Services were sent to Travis and March Air Force bases in California without full protective gear and training on how to protect themselves in a viral hot zone.
While helping the evacuees, team members noticed that workers from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were in full gear to protect them from getting sick whereas they had no respirator masks, only gloves and masks at times.
The team consisted of about employees who had been deployed to help connect the evacuees with government assistance from mid-January until early February .
The complaint was first reported by the Washington Post , which was told by the whistleblower’s lawyers that workers did not show any symptoms of infection and weren’t tested for the virus.
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Rep. Jimmy Gomez, D-Calif., Who said the whistleblower contacted his office, said the whistleblower also alleged retaliation by superiors for having filed the complaint.
“My concern from the moment I heard it is that individuals at HHS are not taking the complaints of HHS employees seriously,” Gomez said in an interview. “Their superiors are not supposed to brush them off. By retaliating against people if they do call out a problem, that only discourages other people from ever reporting violations. ”
Gomez’s office said the complaint was filed by a high-ranking official at the Administration for Children and Families, a social service agency with HHS. According to the Post, the whistleblower is seeking federal protection alleging improper reassignment after raising concerns. If the official does not accept the post by March 5, the Post reported that she would be terminated.
Office of Special Counsel, an independent federal watchdog agency that investigates personnel issues, confirmed Thursday that it had received the complaint and opened a case. HHS said it was “evaluating the complaint.”
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“We take all whistleblower complaints very seriously and are providing the complainant all appropriate protections under the Whistleblower Protection Act,” HHS spokeswoman Caitlin Oakley said in a statement.
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar denied the accusation in a hearing Thursday when asked by Gomez if it was possible that protocols were broken given the urgency surrounding the virus, according to (CBS News) .
“Urgency does not compensate for violating isolation and quarantine protocols for personal protection,” he said . “I’m not aware of any violation of quarantine or isolation protocols.”
Lawyer Ari Wilkenfeld, representing the unidentified whistleblower, said in a statement: “This matter concerns HHS ‘response to the coronavirus, and its failure to protect its employees and potentially the public. The retaliatory efforts to intimidate and silence our client must be opposed. ”
The news adds to a growing fear in the United States after the viral outbreak has infected more than 228, 0 people and killed nearly 3, 0 globally as of Friday. Health officials discovered late Wednesday the nation’s first case unrelated to travel to China in Northern California. Meanwhile, China has seen lower numbers of new infections with 388 additional cases reported Friday.
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Diamond Princess passenger dies A A) fifth Diamond Princess cruise passenger has died , According to Japanese news source Kyodo News and the latest Johns Hopkins death count from the ship. The man is from the UK, according to Kyodo and the BBC.
The British passenger is the fifth person to die from the outbreak aboard the Diamond Princess and is the first person from his country to succumb to the virus.
– (David Oliver)
(California monitoring 8, (people for coronavirus) (Across California, more than 8, people who may have been exposed to the coronavirus after traveling to Asia are being monitored, Gov. Gavin NewsomsaidThursday during a press conference.
State and federal health officials are also moving quickly to locate everyone who came in contact with a Northern California woman believed to be the first in the US to contract the coronavirus with no known connection to travel abroad or other known cases.
The woman lived in Solano County, home to the Travis Air Force Base, where dozens of people infected in China or on cruise ships have been treated. There was no evidence the woman had any connection to the base, said California Department of Public Health Director Sonia Angels during a press conference with Newsom Thursday morning. )
Meanwhile, officials in San Francisco and in Santa Clara and San Diego counties have issued emergency declarations aimed at preparing the areas for an outbreak. (Does the Pope have the coronavirus?
Pope Francis has apparently come down with a cold. While the Vatican hasn’t confirmed what the 87 – year-old pontiff has, he was seen coughing and blowing his nose during Ash Wednesday Mass this week.
He also canceled a planned trip across town to celebrate Mass with Rome priests and his official audiences on Friday.
His illness comes amid an outbreak of the virus in Italy that has sickened more than 1080 People, almost all of them in the north. Rome had three cases, but all three recovered. (Japan travel warning: Tokyo Disneyland to close
Tokyo Disneyland said Friday that it would close for two weeks as a precaution against the spread of coronavirus in Japan, one day after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (asked schools nationwide to close for most of March.) The The park will be closed beginning Saturday with plans to reopen March . In a statement on its website, the park cited the elevated risk of infection in crowded venues.
The closures come as the number of cases in Japan continues to climb. According to data from Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering , there have been (cases, not counting the (cases and) Four deaths from the Diamond Princess cruise ship quarantined in Yokohama .
“The coming week or two is an extremely important time,” Abe said Thursday as he asked elementary, middle and high schools to shut down. ”This is to prioritize the health and safety of the children and take precautions to avoid the risk of possible large-scale infections.”
– (Jayme Deerwester)
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