Ebola: Flight 1143, A Passenger’s Perspective

The incessant buzzing of my cell phone woke me, text after text pouring in. Rolling over in bed, I saw that the messages were from my dad. Our text conversation was as follows:

Dad, “2nd healthcare worker tests positive for Ebola...you know, the ones wearing hazmat suits.”
Dad, “77 additional hospital workers quarantined in Dallas...boyfriend of nurse infected showing symptoms.”
Me, “That’s not cool.”
Dad, “Nope…”
Me, “Wish I could get out of Dallas for a while.”
Dad, “Yep.”
Dad, “If it starts spreading it will go everywhere.”
Dad, “What city did you fly from Monday evening?”
Dad, “The nurse who has it was on a flight from Cleveland to Dallas Monday evening. Flight 1143.”
Icy dread seeps through my entire body. My hands start to shake.
Me, “Shut the fuck up.”
Is he screwing with me? How could he know the flight I was on Monday?
Dad, “Where did you fly from?”

I’m now fully awake. Climbing out of bed, I shrug off any last vestiges of tiredness and call my dad. He answers immediately.
“You weren’t on that flight were you?” His voice is strained.
“Dad, are you messing with me. This isn’t funny.”
“I’m not playing with you. I just read it in a CNN article.”
“Damn. That was my flight.”
“1143?”
“Yes.”
“Shit. The CDC is saying that the nurse was asymptomatic while on the airplane, but she went to the hospital shortly after getting off. That’s pretty close. I’m sending you the article. You need to call the CDC.”
“Okay. I’m going to call my friend that was next to me on the plane. He is planning on driving to Houston today, but we need to make sure we’re isolated.”
“Okay. Call me back.”

Ending the call with my father, I dialed Taylor’s number. I had just woken to one of the worst possible nightmare scenarios I could imagine.

We had both spent the last week in Ohio at a conference for our publishing company, Ellora’s Cave. We’re both romance novel cover models and authors. I just released my novel Primal Desire last week and Taylor has released several novels over the past three years.

Upon arriving at the airport a week earlier we felt secure that there was a very low chance of contracting the Ebola virus. After all, everyone had been quarantined right?

Taylor answered the phone. He is nearly always cheerful. “Yo what’s up?!”
“I have bad news.”
“What’s going on?”
“A nurse that was taking care of Thomas Eric Duncan was on our flight from Cleveland to Ohio.”
“No way! Are you serious?”
“Yes. Flight 1143.”
“How could that happen?”
“I don’t know. I was under the impression that all 77 people that had been taking care of patient 0 had been quarantined.”
“Damn. What the hell?”
“I know. I’m going to call the CDC and see what they want us to do, but I’d keep yourself quarantined. Definitely don’t go to Houston today. We’re going to have to take the next 3 weeks off work.”
“Shit. Okay. Let me call my family and tell them not to come over.”

After getting off the phone with Taylor I called the CDC. They have a wait time of 81 minutes. I opted for them to call me back. I spent the next 2 hours in a panicked state, trying to piece together as much information as I could. Reading article after article and seeing pictures of what happens to those who contract Ebola… I finally broke down.

I stepped away from my computer. Tears were pouring down my face. Just a few hours ago everything seemed fine. Now I’m facing a hard fact that I may start to develop symptoms in the next 1-20 days. If that happens I stand a 10%-50% chance of survival. It’s a very hard truth to think that I may not be here in just a few weeks or less.

It’s not looking good for the passengers of flight 1143. Although I’m reading lots of reports that it can only be spread through bodily contact, there’s plenty of articles suggesting otherwise. In fact, it could be so easy as the nurse, now identified as Amber Vinson, rubbing a sweaty palm across the top of a seat. Walking through the narrow isle I could have placed my hand on that same seat as I make my way through the plane. Sitting down, I might have rubbed my sleepy eyes. BAM—I could have just contracted Ebola.

That’s the problem with this. No one knows how bad it is precisely, and it’s insanely scary. The CDC is staunchly maintaining their stance that it can only be transferred through bodily fluids and those in close contact with someone showing symptoms. There are other reports suggesting it could be spread through saliva droplets in the air within a 3 foot span.

So who do I trust? The CDC that said Amber Vinson was asymptomatic boarding the airplane?

A little later in the day I’m hearing something different. Tom Frieden of the CDC said, the nurse “had a slight fever of 99.5 degrees when she boarded Frontier Airlines Flight 1143 from Cleveland to Dallas/Fort Worth, but it did not register at the 100.4 degree ‘fever threshold’ that would have flagged her for an Ebola test,” according to the Washington Examiner.

This isn’t helping my trust. What I want to know is why the CDC cleared that nurse to fly commercially? It’s absolutely ludicrous.

Now the CDC is trying to placate the situation. Frieden has since stated that “other exposed healthcare workers will now be banned from taking public transportation until they clear the virus’ incubation period.”

Seriously? Are you joking with me? NOW? Why weren’t they banned in the first place? This virus is terrible. Reading on how it affects the body and slowly tears it apart gives me nightmares. Now I just found out that, because of the CDC’s ignorance, my friend and I have been exposed to it!!

So what am I going to do about it? Well the CDC finally called me back and took down my information and—that’s it. They said they’d be in contact. I was given no extra information.

That’s comforting. Not. It’s not the CDC’s responsibility to handle everything though. I’m going to stick it out in a self-imposed quarantine the next 21 days. Why? Because I care about those around me and have a greater responsibility to the public.

I’ve been heralding messages all day from my family and friends attempting to assure them I’m okay. It’s going to be hard. Hopefully I haven’t contracted Ebola, and hopefully this will blow over like nothing happened. Hopefully I’ll be able to pay my bills and everything will work out.

What’s not okay, is putting my friends and family in danger of myself. That’s the most selfish thing I could do. So here is my question to you—what would you do if you woke up and were told you had been exposed to one of the most deadly viruses on the planet?

If we want to ensure this doesn’t happen to more people, then I say we band together as a country and take responsibility. I don’t want to scare people. I don’t want to start a frenzy. I want to be solution oriented. I just want this to stop. To do that, it’s going to take every single person doing their part.

At this point, my part is going to be isolating myself. But ask yourself, what is your part? I do NOT want you going through this! I still haven’t been contacted further by the CDC and I’m not very confident in their abilities.

Whether it’s private organizations or the government, everyone that has come in contact with someone that has Ebola should be quarantined. No questions. As a country this should be easy to raise enough money and find the manpower to provide for people that have possibly been infected.

And why is it important to do this? Because if it goes further the country as a whole won’t be able to support the number of infected. At that point there will be no stopping it.

My pen name is Axl Goode. I’m a cover model and proud author for Ellora’s Cave Publishing. I’m 26-years-old and I’m scared I’m going to die. I love people and I love life. If you would like to contact me, please do so via Axlgoode@gmail.com.