[Exports_project_office] Things that NEEDS to be resolved before Thursday

Tue Mar 16 16:59:12 PDT 2021

Hi Ivona,

I’ll write to Guy with our questions.

Regarding shortening of quarantine… this is a very bad precedent. I understand the rationale behind letting Meg fly a day later, but it is a slippery slope. The logical extension of shortening Meg’s quarantine is that it’s OK to shorten the quarantine of everyone who is vaccinated. How much shorter? Can we shorten it for the non-vaccinated as well? CDC says isolation periods could be shortened considerably, but that’s for a land-based scenario - not one where we're placing people on ships, in close quarters, and sending them to sea (though not terribly remote, this time). I do not believe that we should shorten the quarantine. You’ve heard the arguments, and I will not repeat them here. We’d previously agreed to apply the same rules across the entire science party. This has now changed.

Regarding Sari’s situation, what is the current NOC protocol? My recollection is that it’s a shorter quarantine, all taking place on the ship. Augmented by self-imposed home isolation in the days prior to moving aboard. Allowing her to follow whatever the rest of the (local) crew follow would be consistent, and probably no riskier than what we’re already exposed to with the crews. As with the rest of the NOC folks, we are relying on her compliance with the pre-boarding protocol, though.

Craig

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Craig M. Lee
University of Washington
Applied Physics Laboratory
1013 NE 40th St.
Seattle, WA 98105-6698
craiglee at uw.edu
(206) 685-7656
(206) 543-6785 (fax)
http://iop.apl.washington.edu
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> On Mar 16, 2021, at 4:19 PM, Ivona Cetinic via Exports_project_office <exports_project_office at espo.nasa.gov> wrote:
> 
> Hi to all,
> 
> Before we give a final ok to people we need some things resolved. I would prefer that the questions that go to Guy are coming from one of the chief scientists:
> 
> 1) seafarers agreement (Guy) - when will that document be provided to our scientists? Prior to trip makes their entrance to UK easier. It makes also our tests independent and not reportable to UK government. 
> 
> 2) Demob (Guy) Currently demob is scheduled to last two days. What does that mean? Are scientist staying aboard for one night after arrival or two nights? 
> When (generally) does the vessel return to the port?
> How fast upon our return can we have medics come on board to do tests?
> 
> We need clarity on that as to say to people when to book their flights back to USA. I am counting on 24 hour turnaround for tests and if they are spending only a single night aboard, I will need to get rooms for all, and then they should all be flying out on June 3rd.
> 
> 
> 3) for PO today I got an email from Sari (sailing on process ship) asking if she can do an NOC and not an exports quarantine. She was calling herself on documents provided to us, and I asked her for additional clarification  on details.
> 
> 4)For PO  Meg E. Called me today from pharmacy saying she can get a vaccine today only if she flies one day later. I made on spot decision to allow that and I will organize a separate transport for her. She will start quarantine one day later, but she will be fully vaccinated.
> 
> 5)for PO fkn emmanuel boss (who texted me today at least million times) heard about that I allowed Meg to fly a day later and now he is asking if he can fly a day later bc he needs to teach. I don't believe that is the same situation as Megs. I am pretty pissed at him for sending me texts all day, and now some quotes from CDC trying to prove that it is ok if he quarantines 13 days. I will leave it upon you. But note that for each one of them I need to organize a separate transport. 
> 
> Thank you. I appreciate your help on resolution of these things. Note if anyone from the science party texts me during dinner again (and they are not in terrible emergency or they want to share puppy or baby photos), I will quit. 
> 
> Thank you so much
> 
> Ivona
> 
> 
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