US citizen feels 'imprisoned' in federal quarantine after hantavirus outbreak

Angela Perryman says she trusted federal officials when they flew her and 17 other Americans back to the U.S. after the MV Hondius cruise ship was hit by the deadly hantavirus outbreak.

Their stay at the National Quarantine Unit in Nebraska was voluntary, officials publicly stated. In fact, Trump administration officials, clearly sensitive to the post-pandemic backlash against lockdowns and mandates, took pains to avoid even using the word "quarantine."

So Perryman says she worked out a plan to leave Omaha and monitor herself for the virus in Florida. But when she and at least one other passenger tried to leave, they were handed a legal order May 18 requiring them to stay until the end of the month, she says.

"I am angry. I feel betrayed," says Perryman, who's 47 and mostly lives in Ecuador. "I'm being imprisoned. It's a nice prison. But this is a prison. Let's be clear: I am being detained against my will."

Federal officials did not respond to NPR's questions about Perryman. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has only publicly acknowledged two mandatory quarantine orders and has not named those people. Perryman shared the documents she's received from the government with NPR.

It's the first time the federal government has issued a mandatory quarantine order since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and only the second time in about a half century. Public health experts say the country could face similar situations with other outbreaks, including the big Ebola crisis underway right now largely in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

"Extremely stressful time"

Perryman says she understands the hantavirus is a serious threat. But she doesn't understand why she can't take her own temperature every day and be on the lookout for any signs she's getting sick at home, just like almost two dozen other passengers who had been on the ship and returned home.

She says she only had passing contact with one passenger who got sick, and hasn't had any symptoms. The virus generally only appears to spread through prolonged close contact, but Perryman says she would still be very careful. She says she is aware three passengers who were on the Dutch ship died.

"I'm absolutely fine with home quarantine. I'm absolutely fine with being monitored by public health officials," she says. "I understand how dangerous this disease is and absolutely would never do something that would put individuals in the community at risk."

Perryman, a nature lover, says she just wants to be able to step outside into the sun in her yard to watch bees pollinate flowers, lizards scamper along the fence, and mockingbirds fuss in a tree while she counts down the days to confirm she didn't catch the hantavirus.

"I would like to be able to sit in the yard and breathe fresh air. I would like to be in a comfortable environment during this extremely stressful time," she says.

The legal arguments

Some independent legal experts say the CDC order is on solid ground.

"The evidence in favor of CDC is very strong," says Lawrence Gostin, a public health law expert at Georgetown University. "She was clearly exposed to a rare form of hantavirus. The virus is clearly a risk to others person-to-person, and she needs to be separated from the population for a period of time."

But some other experts say Perryman may have a good argument.

"Absent more direct evidence of the real risks that these persons present and their unwillingness potentially to adhere to home quarantine or something less restrictive than being held in a federal facility in Nebraska, there's a very real legal case that could be made to say: 'This is a due process violation. You're infringing my liberty without direct sufficient evidence,'" says James Hodge, director of the Center for Public Health Law and Policy at Arizona State University.

Perryman says she's planning to challenge her confinement.

"If they can do this to me they could do it to anybody. They could come up with a similarly unsupported order and lock you up in the same facility," she says.