Airline passengers brought COVID-19 into LAX in March — and no one warned the public

[jmyrlefuller]

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-06-14/travelers-flew-into-lax-with-coronavirus-passengers-were-not-warned

By HARRIET RYAN, KIERA FELDMAN
JUNE 14, 2020

When American Airlines flight 341 to Los Angeles lifted off the tarmac at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport on a cloudy Thursday in mid-March, much of the country was already on coronavirus lockdown. The flight was far from full, but the 49 passengers and eight crew shared restrooms, cabin air and a narrow aisle for the six-hour trip.

Though no one knew it then, a man in first class, a retired Manhattan surgeon, was infected with the virus. The day after the flight, he was rushed by ambulance to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center with a high fever and phlegmy cough. The virus spread quickly among those he had come in contact with in the hours after leaving LAX, including at a Westside assisted living facility where a 32-year-old nurse and a dozen others later died.

L.A. was still in an early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic when the surgeon’s flight touched down, with fewer than 250 confirmed cases. Local health officials regularly assured the public then that the county was investigating each case and engaging in aggressive contact tracing to control the spread of the virus.

Despite these pledges, no one in public health informed any of the passengers and crew who had flown cross country with the surgeon that they were at risk. The airline only recently learned of the case from The Times.

(excerpt)

[PeteS in CA]

https://www.foxnews.com/health/passenger-covid-19-flew-cross-country-flight-march-public-not-warned

Passengers with COVID-19 flew on flights to LAX, public not warned: report

A retired Manhattan surgeon infected with the coronavirus reportedly flew on a cross-country flight from New York to Los Angeles back in mid-March, resulting in the virus unknowingly spreading to others, who later died, according to a report.
...
It was one of two flights with an infected person on board -- the other from Seoul, South Korea on March 8. Both saw more than 200 people returned to their families and local communities without being contacted or alerted, according to the Los Angeles Times.
...
Public health officials reportedly failed to inform anyone on the flight that they were at risk and the airline just recently learned of the case, according to the paper. One of the passengers who flew on Asiana Airlines Flight 202 from Seoul went into cardiac arrest the morning after the flight, and became the first COVID-19 death in Los Angeles County.

... The virus spread from the (New York) flight eventually reached a California assisted living facility where a dozen other people later died, according to the Los Angeles Times.

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention spokesman told the paper that L.A. public health officials never alerted them about the flights, so the spread couldn't be traced.

1. These public health service clowns are the "scientists" to whom Trump is supposed to "listen"?

2. These public health service clowns are the people determining how much LA County and the City of LA can reopen safely!

3. These public health service clowns have the blood of at least those 12 ALF patients on their hands!    

[Applewood]

Not surprised.  The handling of this pandemic has been a mess from the beginning.