LIFE USA TODAY ❚ TUESDAY, MARCH 3, 2020 ❚ 3D
It seemed like the dream retirement
vacation: Six months around Asia and
Australia, including a stint on Princess
Cruises’ luxurious Diamond Princess
cruise ship.
Then, on Feb. 3, John, 63, and Melan-
ie Haering, 58, from Tooele, Utah, were
readying for bed when they learned the
ship would be quarantined for the night.
The confinement was extended as peo-
ple started to come down with
coronavirus. Facing a 14-day quarantine
that saw hundreds get sick, their vaca-
tion of a lifetime turned into a night-
mare.
Making matters worse, the two had
been separated since Feb. 13, when John
became ill, was taken off the ship in Yo-
kohama, Japan, and transported to Chi-
ba University Hospital, where he tested
positive for coronavirus. He is one of
more than 700 passengers who con-
tracted the virus during the ship’s
quarantine, which some officials have
said failed.
On Feb. 16, Melanie left Japan on an
American charter flight with more than
300 other Diamond Princess evacuees.
Since then, she’s been in quarantine at
Travis Air Force Base in California.
It’s the longest they’ve spent apart in
their eight years of marriage, Melanie
told USA TODAY, with a literal ocean
separating them.
“We do a lot of crying,” John told USA
TODAY. Melanie seconded his senti-
ment: “I have tears in my eyes now.”
Three days before John was taken off
the ship, the night of Feb. 10, Melanie
alerted the crew that he was displaying
symptoms of coronavirus, as all passen-
gers on the Diamond Princess had been
instructed to do. Symptoms of the virus
include fever, cough, shortness of
breath and breathing difficulties; if the
virus worsens, it can develop into pneu-
monia, kidney failure, severe acute res-
piratory syndrome or lead to death.
But she said no one responded im-
mediately, and he went untested until
after he was taken off the ship.
“Honestly, it was really backwards; I
called and he had a fever of 104 degrees,”
she said. “The person said to me, ‘We’ll
put him on the list.’ ”
They had to follow up to get someone
to come the next day, John said, and
they learned that Princess Cruises was
removing 60 other ill passengers from
the ship.
The doctors who visited their room
didn’t speak English and didn’t do any-
thing to help. They asked what his tem-
perature was and left. “That’s when I
told Melanie, ‘We are in this alone.’ ”
“So those doctors came in knowing
he was ill, did not take his temperature,
did not swab him and didn’t test me,”
Melanie continued. “We kept asking,
‘Are you going to swab us?’ And he goes,
‘No no no.’ ”
Another set of doctors came in hours
later, by which time John had developed
a rash. Yet he was left in their cabin for
another two days as his temperature
fluctuated before they came back.
“They came and got me out of my
room,” he said, noting that he was given
15 minutes to collect his belongings.
“When they got to the room, I was able
to give (Melanie) a hug and a kiss, and I
couldn’t even look back,” he recalled.
It might seem odd, he understands,
that he kissed his wife goodbye when he
was ill – but they hadn’t been separated
at all, even when it was clear that he was
sick.
“I didn’t think anything of it because
we kiss all the time and obviously had in
our room, so it didn’t even cross either of
our minds that maybe we shouldn’t,” he
said. “We had been in quarantine for 10
days in a small room, in the same bed,
through the worst fever I have ever had,
and Melanie was right there, putting
wet, cold towels on me for days. It didn’t
seem like it would do any harm to kiss
her goodbye.”
Weeks later, things are starting to
look up. John has tested negative for
coronavirus twice, and on Thursday, he
left the hospital to stay at a hotel for the
night. Monday, he had been home for
two days and was planning to head to
the airport to pick Melanie up since her
quarantine at Travis Air Force Base in
California had been completed.
Getting home, John said, was fairly
seamless. He took a flight back to Port-
land, then another to Salt Lake City. The
only hiccup he had was when an Immi-
gration and Customs Enforcement offi-
cer noticed he had been on the Diamond
Princess. After being pulled aside and
questioned, John showed a note from
the Centers for Disease Control and Pre-
vention that said he was free to travel. It
only took 15 minutes, he said.
“As far as the government, I’m in the
clear,” John said. “Melanie will be the
same way, but we’re imposing a 30-day
quarantine on ourselves.”
His doctor in Japan told him that
while a patient may show no signs, the
virus may still live on in their body.
They are worried that they could get
others, including their elderly parents,
sick. So they’ll hole up in their house,
have groceries delivered and plan their
next vacation over the next month.In quarantine in a Japanese
hospitalAware that it might be a while before
he saw his wife again, John called to let
Melanie know where he was a few hours
after his arrival at the hospital.
Communication initially was difficult
due to the lack of an internet connec-
tion, but they purchased a hotspot,
which costs $10 per day, to remedy that
problem.
He liked his doctor there; he commu-nicated with staff through a translator.
“I think he knows what he is doing,”
John said during his quarantine. “But
I’ve talked to him in total – out of 10 days- maybe 15 minutes total.”
While in isolation, John didn’t re-
ceive much care. There were no pills to
take, no vitamins, no procedures. Once
a day, his vitals were taken. They hoped
his body would fight off the virus.
“They absolutely don’t know how to
handle it,” he said. “And I don’t think
they’re incompetent by any means.”
He developed pneumonia, but by the
time he left his Japan quarantine, 50%
of the pneumonia cleared up, according
to scans. Earlier in the week he also had
a rash and diarrhea.
But the recovery was more than
physical.
“Mentally, it’s a little tougher; I’m iso-
lated,” John said while he was quaran-
tined. “I feel like a pariah a little bit be-
cause anyone that comes in my room for
any reason is completely masked,
gloves, tape.”
Food arrived in boxes through his
door. Everything that left his room was
placed into a container. He had to do his
laundry in the shower.
Meals came regularly, though he said
he wasn’t provided with enough food.
John is 6 feet, 6 inches tall and weighs
250 pounds – or did.
“I told them I needed more food –
they said I am being fed the same
amount that the person who weighs 100
pounds across the hall is being fed,” he
explained. “I am losing weight.”
He also wasn’t provided with water,
just a cup of tea with each meal. He
asked a nurse to buy him some from the
convenience store downstairs. He esti-
mates he’s spent about $20 on water
since he’s been there.
“It’s not like that at all the other hos-
pitals,” Melanie said. John explained
that he had a friend at a hospital in To-
kyo whose nurses brought him food and
dropped it off in his room. He was also
allowed to order food for delivery, they
said.
John said he would have loved to be
taken back to the United States for
treatment.
“I feel that nobody wants me there
because of the disease that I contract-
ed,” he said. “And I wholeheartedly un-
derstand that, but if they put me in a
care facility that I’m not around other
people at ... the virus doesn’t jump a
mile.”
Inside U.S. quarantineMeanwhile, Melanie was at Travis
Air Force Base in California. She waitedanxiously for several days to receive her
own coronavirus test results.
She learned her tests were negative
last week. She is one of the passengers
who evacuated the quarantined ship on
an American charter flight Feb. 16,
which required an additional 14-day
quarantine.
“I’m basically in the lap of luxury in
comparison to where he’s at,” Melanie
said.
She had a full apartment, her laundry
was taken care of and she was fed three
meals daily. She was allowed to go out-
side with a mask on. Her temperature
had been taken twice daily throughout
the quarantine there.
Coming back to the states was a re-
lief, she said. She is confident that if she
contracted the virus, she would have re-
ceived good medical care.
“I can’t even tell you how proud I am
to be an American,” Melanie said. “A lot
of things can be said about the United
States, but I’ll tell you what, we do a lot
of things right.”Situation ‘is a big circus’On Wednesday, John tested negative
for coronavirus. But he was not com-
pletely out of the woods. He needed to
test negative again before he would be
allowed to leave. Thursday, he tested
negative again. He was clear of the virus
but was still dealing with pneumonia.
“I don’t know what this virus has
done to my health,” he said. “And I don’t
want to have any long-lasting effect.”
As of Monday, more than 89,000
people had contracted coronavirus
worldwide, and more than 3,000 had
died, according to Johns Hopkins data.
While doctors in Japan told him he
didn’t need a follow-up appointment,
John said he still plans to see a doctor in
the U.S. His doctor in Japan told him
that it would be difficult to contract the
virus a second time.
After they complete their self-im-
posed 30-day quarantine, John said he
and Melanie would go to their local
health department to get tested again.
“We’re not going to take that chance.”
As he waited for the results of a CT
scan assessing the progression of his
pneumonia and his second coronavirus
test results during his quarantine, he
said there were so many things still in
question:
❚Figuring out how to deal with an
unknown virus.
❚Wondering if the CDC will allow me
to go home.
❚Not knowing if the damage done by
the virus is permanent.
❚Not knowing how the details of get-
ting home work.
❚Concerned about how people back
home will accept me.
❚Still don’t know if my test will come
back negative; one positive and we start
all over again.
“It really is a big circus,” he said.
And the fact that he and Melanie
couldn’t be there for each other in per-
son made everything harder.
“It’s really hell because we’re so close
and we have such a good relationship,”
Melanie said. “I always take care of him
and make sure he has the best, and he
takes care of me and makes sure I have
the best.”
It goes beyond their own relation-
ship, too – both were feeling the differ-
ence in the quality of life without hu-
man touch. Neither of them had human
contact in the weeks of their quaran-
tine.
“One of my doctors shook my hand a
couple days ago, and I thought ‘Wow,
that’s actually human touch.’ Of course,
he had two layers of gloves and all taped
up,” he said, calling it a “kind gesture.”
Contributing: David Oliver, USA TO-
DAYpectedly in Cambodia this month. The
company is refunding the diverted pas-
sengers the cost of the cruise and offer-
ing them credit toward a future cruise.
Standard policies should cover pre-
paid, nonrefundable expenses, such as
tours and hotels travelers miss if they
are quarantined. According to Square-
Mouth, travelers should be covered for
their return flight, as well, though the
cruise operator may offer to pay for that
expense.
Princess Cruises is refunding just
about everything for the passengers
quarantined in Japan, including airfare,
hotel, ground transportation and pre-
paid tours onshore. It has also offered
the passengers vouchers for a future
trip.
According to the U.S. Travel Insur-
ance Association, travelers should beport of Yokohama, Japan. Hundreds ul-
timately contracted the virus, including
as many as 42 Americans.
According to SquareMouth, a change
in itinerary such as docking at a differ-
ent port than scheduled, is not reim-
bursable with a standard travel insur-
ance policy.
But passengers may be covered for
their meal and hotel expenses while
waiting for a return flight. Because of
the extraordinary nature of the corona-
virus outbreak and its effect on their
passengers, cruise companies have
shown themselves willing to cover such
costs, plus the expense of the return
flight.
Holland America did that for its pas-
sengers who found themselves unex-covered with a standard policy if they
are quarantined at an airport, at a port
of entry or on a cruise ship. In any event,
travelers should check with their insur-
ance providers to see what specific sce-
narios are covered.Choosing an insurance providerAirlines offer the option of insuring
your flight. That may be fine for a short
trip that doesn’t involve a lot of prepaid
activities, but according to
Nerdwallet.com, the best options are
sold by independent parties.
The U.S. Travel Insurance Associa-
tion recommends its member
companies, which adhere to the group’s
standards. You can also compare
companies to find out which one offers a
policy that best fits your needs.CORONAVIRUS
Husband: ‘We do a lot of crying’
Couple in quarantine
separated in Japan, US
Morgan Hines
USA TODAY
Diamond Princess passengers John and Melanie Haering have been separated
since Feb. 13. JOHN AND MELANIE HAERING“I always take care of him
and make sure he has the
best, and he takes care of
me and makes sure I have
the best.”
Melanie HaeringTravel
Continued from Page 1D
Alitalia flew 40 passengers from the
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LUCA BRUNO/AP