U.S. cautions elderly with health conditions about travel

WASHINGTON — Elderly individuals and those with underlying health conditions “need to think twice” about their travel plans, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of the top federal health officials coordinating the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus.

Fauci’s warning during a Sunday appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” came a day after The Associated Press reported that the White House overruled health officials who wanted to issue an advisory urging the elderly and chronically ill Americans not fly on commercial airlines.

“If you’re a person with an underlying condition, and you are particularly an elderly person with an underlying condition, you need to think twice about getting on a plane on a long trip, and not only think twice, just don’t get on a cruise ship,” said Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

The State Department on Sunday issued an advisory stating Americans, "particularly travelers with underlying health conditions, should not travel by cruise ship."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention submitted a plan to the White House last week that called on warning seniors and travelers with underlying health conditions against taking commercial flights, but the proposal was dismissed, according to the AP. Trump administration officials have since recommended that certain vulnerable populations reconsider their travel plans, but those warnings have stopped short of outright urging any group against traveling by plane.

Asked about the report, Fauci told “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace: “Right now I’m telling the American people based on everything that’s agreed upon in the task force if you are an individual with an underlying condition, particularly an elderly person with an underlying condition, you should start to distance yourself from the risk and above all don’t get on a cruise ship.”

Fauci said as the number of COVID-19 cases continues to increase, Americans “need to seriously look at anything that's a large gathering.”

"It’s our responsibility to protect the vulnerable,” Fauci said. “When I say protect, I mean, right now, not wait until things get worse. Say no large crowds, no long trips, and above all, don’t get on a cruise ship.”

A Grand Princess cruise ship, on which 21 of 3,500 people tested positive for COVID-19, is expected to dock in Oakland on Monday.

Asked about the Trump administration’s plans to contain the spread of the disease from those on board, U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, appearing on ABC’s “This Week,” said he did not “want to preview the plan right now," and noted that "it hasn't been fully formulated."

After “This Week” host George Stephanopolous noted that the cruise is docking on Monday, Carson replied: “The plan will be in place by that time.”

U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams, asked by CBS “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan whether the cruise’s passengers would be quarantined at military bases similar to other Americans who returned from infected areas, said: "Well the plans are still being developed.”

The California Governor's Office of Emergency Services said in a statement that passengers who do not require hospitalization "will go to a federally run isolation facility within California for testing and isolation." 

Adams, appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union,” said communities across the United States needed to prepare for the fast-spreading disease.

“Initially, we had a posture of containment, so that we could give people time to prepare for where we are right now,” Adams said. “Now we're shifting into a mitigation phase, which means that we're helping communities understand, you're going to see more cases. Unfortunately, you're going to see more deaths. But that doesn't mean that we should panic. It means that we should take the things that we know work for individuals to protect themselves and make sure everyone is doing those things, like washing your hands frequently, like covering your cough, like staying home if you're sick, and not being around people who are sick. But it also means communities need to be thinking about things like, should we be canceling large gatherings? What are our telework policies? Should we be closing schools?" 

Trump on Twitter defended his handling of the disease, amid criticism that the administration was slow to respond to the global outbreak. CDC officials have acknowledged missteps with the rollout of testing kits that provided inconclusive results and required the manufacturing of new tests. Initially the CDC’s testing criteria included only those who had traveled to China or those who had been in close contact with someone with the virus; the criteria has since been expanded to test those who have traveled to all impacted areas and those exhibiting symptoms even if they haven’t traveled or been exposed to other virus patients.

“We have a perfectly coordinated and fine tuned plan at the White House for our attack on CoronaVirus,” Trump tweeted. “We moved VERY early to close borders to certain areas, which was a Godsend. V.P. is doing a great job. The Fake News Media is doing everything possible to make us look bad. Sad!”

More than 109,000 people in 108 countries have been infected with the disease, with more than 3,800 fatalities reported, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. In the United States, at least 537 cases have been reported in 31 states and Washington, D.C., and 21 people have died.