A dangerous delay

I
Now, the 18-year-old freshman was curled up in the fetal position on the floor of her dorm room at Elkton Hall in College Park, her brown hair resting on the shaggy white rug. She warned her friends, Sarah Hauk and Riley Whelan, to stay away from a plastic bag where she had just vomited.
The teenagers hoisted Olivia up and shuffled to the elevator. Once inside, Olivia leaned against the wall and slid to the floor.
“Don’t sit down,” Riley said. “Come on it’s just a short ride. You can do this.”
“I literally can’t,” said Olivia, the words slicing her sore throat like knives. “I have to lay down.”
Olivia had been sick most of her first semester living in an overcrowded dorm that was infested with mold. But her symptoms now were far worse than a cough and congestion.
Her skin was pale, dark circles cupped her eyes. The lymph nodes in her neck had swollen so much they felt like golf balls. The freshman — who turned late-night trips to the dining hall into stargazing adventures, belted out Miley Cyrus songs on demand and easily flipped strangers into friends — was sprawled across the elevator floor.
Sarah and Riley linked arms with Olivia and made their way through the dorm lobby into the cool night of Nov. 8. They watched as Olivia trudged to a parking lot where her dad was waiting in his car. She didn’t turn back to wave goodbye.
As Olivia battled her mysterious illness, the University of Maryland was rocked by turmoil. Widespread mold that fall had forced the temporary evacuation of nearly 600 students in Elkton Hall after outraged parents besieged officials at the state’s flagship university.
The administration already was dealing with a full-blown scandal over the death of Jordan McNair, a 19-year-old football player who succumbed to heatstroke in June after athletic trainers waited more than an hour to call 911 after he showed signs of extreme exhaustion. His death exposed deep problems within the athletic department and led to the dismissal of the football coach and the resignation of the university president and the chairman of the university system’s governing board.
In November and December, the University of Maryland would become the epicenter of an outbreak of adenovirus, which can have symptoms similar to the cold or flu. But certain virulent strains can seriously sicken healthy individuals and be particularly dangerous to people with weakened immune systems — people like Olivia, who was on medication for Crohn’s disease, a serious digestive tract condition.
In these cases, medical experts say early detection can be key to treating severe adenovirus.
But it took university officials 18 days to publicly disclose that the virus was present on campus. And as the days passed, more and more students fell ill.
At one point, officials discussed notifying students with compromised immune systems and residents living in Elkton Hall but the university waited until they were ready to tell the entire community , according to records reviewed by The Post.
Many parents and students have denounced the administration’s handling of the viral outbreak and the mold infestation, complaining their actions endangered the roughly 40,000 students on campus. In the end, more than 40 students were sickened, and at least 15 of them treated at hospitals.
Mold does not cause adenovirus, but can set the stage for  other health problems. The director of the student health center, in emails to university administrators, acknowledged that mold exposure can cause respiratory irritation and “may increase susceptibility of any viral infection.”
In recent statements to The Post, University officials defended their actions, saying they hired a remediation company to remove the mold in September and provided  guidance to students on how to prevent the spread of viruses. They said they went beyond what was legally required to address the adenovirus outbreak and public health officials advised that it was not necessary to inform the public about the virus. In April, the university commissioned a report by outside doctors who found the university had “frequent, timely, and appropriate” communications on adenovirus.
“The actions we took are in line with CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] guidance on adenovirus outbreaks and were consistent with the University’s strong commitment to the health and safety of our students,” said Dr. David McBride, director of the student health center.
In early November, the virus was quietly colonizing the campus, but few people outside of McBride knew it. Only days after Olivia had slumped in the elevator at Elkton Hall, she was fighting for her life at Johns Hopkins Hospital.
On Nov. 13, her father frantically called the university from the intensive care unit in Baltimore. When McBride called back, Olivia’s father pleaded for information. What’s going on with the mold? Or is there something else on campus making students sick?
August 24: Off to college, but close to home
Olivia, or Livy Shea as her family and friends called her, grew up in small community west of Baltimore and considered going to college in South Carolina. She loved beaches and had a soft spot for country music. Mostly, she wanted a university with a lot of school spirit. She planned to study criminology, inspired by the TV show “CSI.”
During her senior year of high school, Olivia was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, an incurable condition. She began treatment at Hopkins that left her immune system weakened. At college, she would give herself injections of Humira, an anti-inflammatory medication, every two weeks. Olivia’s parents, Ian and Meg Paregol, wanted their daughter, the baby of the family, to stay close to home.
When Olivia was accepted at the University of Maryland, it checked all the boxes and it was only an hour away. After Olivia learned she had been assigned room 3152 at Elkton Hall, she felt lucky to have landed in a dorm with air conditioning.
On Aug. 24, Olivia’s family stuffed two cars with dorm supplies and headed to College Park. She had coordinated colors with her 18-year-old roommate, Megan Sassaman, and bought a cream-colored tapestry with a map of the world to hang in their third-floor dorm room. Olivia’s parents tucked handwritten notes of encouragement in her dresser drawer before saying goodbye.
Elkton Hall, an eight-story, red-brick dorm located in the shadow of the university’s football stadium, was bursting with students. Built in 1966, it was designed to hold about 530 students, but nearly 570 were squeezed into the building because of an unusually large freshman class. Study lounges had been converted to dorm rooms for four students and some rooms for two residents now housed three. Students crammed the narrow halls and communal bathrooms on each floor.
They waited endlessly for elevators because one of the three was always broken.
Sept. 18: “we got mold”
It was one of the soggiest summers in Maryland history. By the end of September, more than 50 inches of rain had fallen. Eventually, 2018 would go down as the region’s wettest year on record.
Olivia’s room felt like a swamp, so humid that bath towels never dried. The air conditioning unit in her room stopped working in the first week of September and had to be fixed repeatedly. By mid-September, Olivia and her roommate Megan had persistent coughs, and it seemed harder than usual to breathe.
A pungent odor hung thick, impossible to ignore whenever Riley and Sarah, 18-year-old freshmen who lived together on the eighth floor, came down to visit Olivia’s room.
Mold had surfaced earlier that summer in Elkton Hall and other dorms across campus. Campus officials dispatched housekeeping staff to wipe off visible mold before students arrived in August, according to workers interviewed by The Post. With damp conditions and overcrowding, it didn’t take long for the mold to return.
It began to invade Elkton — on the blinds, under the beds, inside sneakers, and all over the cooling units.  On Sept. 18, a resident assistant sent a message to students on Olivia’s floor instructing them to check their rooms for mold: “Best way to see it is in the dark using a flashlight … It’ll probably look fuzzy and green.”
“we got mold,” Olivia texted Riley later that day.
“how bad,” Riley asked.
“look under ur drawers on ur dresser,” Olivia responded. “that’s where we have it.”
The campus again sent housekeeping staff, untrained and without protective gear, to wipe down desks and chairs with an all-purpose disinfectant. The workers said they were beset by scratchy throats, itchy eyes and headaches. Some called in sick and visited the health center.
After Megan’s mother complained, staff replaced their dresser, blinds and desk. But the mold grew back in rooms across Elkton. Housing officials hastily called a meeting on Sept. 21 to address the mold in Elkton Hall as parents descended on the campus that Friday for Family Weekend.
“You have a sick building with 600 children,” one mother told university officials at the meeting. Students cried about being ill.
McBride, 50, handed out business cards and told the roughly two dozen parents and students to call him at the health center if they had concerns.
He had spent his early career as a physician at a community health center outside Boston. It was there, he said, that he learned the importance of engaging with people outside of the clinical setting. McBride later led student health services at Boston University before arriving at the University of Maryland in 2014.
During the meeting at Elkton, housing officials insisted they only learned of the latest outbreak of the mold in recent days and blamed it on the unusually wet weather.
Hours after the meeting, administrators announced they would move students out of the dorm over the coming weeks and pay for them to stay in local hotels. They would hire an outside specialist to clean the mold and an engineer to examine the underlying cause.
That report would find that at Elkton Hall, there were “longstanding concerns for humidity levels.” Cooling systems installed in 2011 were not designed to remove moisture from the air and allowed humidity to rise, making the building susceptible to mold growth, the report said.
Mold outbreaks on campus were not new or confined to Elkton, according to workers, articles in the Diamondback, the student newspaper, and documents reviewed by The Post. Since 2017, the college has received reports of mold at 37 of its 38 residence halls in College Park, records show.
In recent years, other colleges have grappled with mold outbreaks. In October, the University of Tennessee closed a dorm housing roughly 600 students for the rest of the year. Last fall, Montclair State University in New Jersey tested mold spore levels before and after remediation even though there are no federal requirements to do so.
The University of Maryland, where in-state tuition, housing and other costs run about $27,000, took a different approach. They would rotate students out floor by floor while the remediation was ongoing, starting at the top of Elkton, where more residents had complained about mold. And, at the recommendation of the campus environmental safety team, the college decided against testing the type of mold or specific levels, noting that the CDC and Environmental Protection Agency have said such testing is unnecessary.
Sept. 23: Hazmat suits and dehumidifiers
Riley and Sarah, who both battled coughs and congestion, on Sunday, Sept. 23 moved to the nearby Cambria Hotel with other eighth floor residents. Contractors in hazmat suits and masks began cleanup efforts at Elkton.
Mold under a bed and in the air conditioning unit in Olivia Paregol and Megan Sassaman's dorm room. (Photos by Megan Sassaman)
A health and safety specialist who inspected Elkton on behalf of the campus labor union said the building’s condition was so bad that it looked like it had been filled with floodwater.
Workers placed dehumidifiers in the hallways throughout the building. On Olivia’s floor, a plastic tube drained water from a dehumidifier into a drinking fountain. Olivia and Megan weren’t scheduled to move out for another ten days.
Olivia, meanwhile, couldn’t stop coughing.
On Monday, Olivia’s roommate, Megan, walked to the student health center, a red-brick building in the heart of campus for the second time that month. Megan said that during a breathing test a physician assistant asked whether she was trying hard enough because her oxygen levels had dropped.
Megan complained in an email to university officials about how she had been treated. “[It] made me feel as though my symptoms were pushed under the rug yet again,” Megan wrote on Sept. 25 to University of Maryland President Wallace D. Loh and others. She mentioned Olivia’s illness and said, “I continue to live in an unhealthy environment. The lack of communication and lack of acknowledgementof the mold issue saddens me and comes across as if the University puts student health as a low priority.”
After more than a week of relentless coughing, Olivia now had a sore throat and chest congestion. On Sept. 26, she also visited the student health center at the urging of her parents. There, Dr. Chelsea Cosby diagnosed her with an unspecified viral upper respiratory infection with a cough and “exposure to mold,” according to her medical records. She was prescribed cough syrup and a nasal saline spray.
In an effort to understand the impact of the mold infestation, health center staff, at McBride’s direction, had begun to take note of where students who came for treatment were living and if their respiratory symptoms were worse inside any of the dorms.
After the relocation plan was announced on Sept. 21, Megan’s parents, Kim and Kevin Sassaman, sent emails to top university officials asking why Megan and Olivia couldn’t be moved to a hotel sooner, given their poor health. With approval from a top housing official, the two students moved into the Cambria on Sept. 26 five days after the announcement.  The roommates stocked up on beauty masks and snacks for their makeshift dorm room.
Two days after they checked into the hotel, McBride, the director of the health center, wrote Olivia: “Dr. Cosby let me know that you’re feeling unwell and that mold may be a factor. I know that you’re scheduled to move for cleaning in early October. Do you want for me to advocate for a sooner move to another location on campus until after the cleaning is complete?”
Olivia responded: “My roommate actually already had us moved. Thank you for reaching out, but I’m already in a hotel at the moment.”
After 11 days in the hotel, Olivia and Megan moved back into Elkton Hall, where the remediation was winding down.
Oct. 8: “It was almost like a factory.”
Parents increasingly took to social media to vent about conditions on campus. On Oct. 8, families started to complain on Facebook that their children were misdiagnosed at the student health center, told they had unspecified viruses or couldn’t even get an appointment.
In an interview, Angela Hayes said her son, a freshman who lived in Easton Hall, repeatedly sought help for a sore throat and high temperature. Health center staff told him he had a virus. When he didn’t improve, she said, he went to a nearby urgent care center, where he was diagnosed with acute tonsillitis and prescribed antibiotics.
“It was almost like a factory,” Hayes said of the health center. “They’d tell students ‘you’re fine, you’re fine, you’re fine.’ ”
McBride told The Post that in October he had noticed an uptick of fever-associated illnesses that were not the flu. He scheduled a meeting in early November of the campus infectious disease management committee, a group that evaluates health threats.
In mid-October, Debbra Aiello’s 18-year-old son, who lived in La Plata Hall, called her at home in New Jersey complaining of a bad headache, sore throat and high fever. She drove down to College Park and brought him back to a pediatric emergency room in New Jersey. He had a 104-degree fever and after a battery of tests, doctors determined he had an ear infection and adenovirus.
Aiello said she had never heard of adenovirus and had no clue that it could severely sicken a healthy teenage boy. It took him nearly a week to recover at home.
When his father drove him back to College Park, the son fell ill again so they headed to the student health center.
But there was a two-hour wait. They left campus and drove to an urgent care facility, where they told the medical staff that the student had tested positive for adenovirus. Had the health center been able to treat the student, the university might have learned much earlier about the dangerous virus snaking its way through campus.
Oct. 31: “I can’t swallow my own spit”
Midway through the fall semester, the death of Jordan McNair that summer still dominated headlines.
In late October, the University System of Maryland Board of Regents huddled behind closed doors to discuss a report launched in the wake of his death that detailed poor management of the athletic department. During a May workout, Jordan had hyperventilated and complained of cramps, but athletic trainers waited for about an hour to seek emergency help. He underwent a liver transplant before dying in June.
“You entrusted Jordan to our care and he is never coming home again,” President Loh told the McNair family.
The case led to a review of the university’s accreditation, which could threaten the school’s federal funding.
On Oct. 30, the Board of Regents recommended that football coach DJ Durkin keep his job, triggering a barrage of criticism, including from Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan. The next day, the university reversed course and dismissed Durkin. The chairman of the Board of Regents resigned.
As this was unfolding, Olivia languished. She bailed early from a Halloween party, where she was dressed as one of the Three Blind Mice. She had painted her glasses black, dark enough to cover her puffy eyes and told friends it pained her to speak.
“i can’t swallow my own spit,” Olivia texted Sarah on Oct. 31, “and my neck is so lumpy bc my lymph nodes so swollen.”
That day she went to her family doctor, where a pediatric nurse practitioner tested her for strep, but found none. Two days later, on Nov. 2, as her symptoms worsened, Olivia’s father urged her to visit the campus health center. There, she complained to a physician that she had a fever, fatigue and a sore throat and mentioned that a friend had mono. The doctor, Juliana Aruna, ordered a test for mono, but Olivia didn’t have time to wait at the lab.
That evening, she was headed to a birthday celebration for her sister. At the dinner, Olivia whispered in between coughs that she was sure she had mono. Her father worried about her weakened immune system and was determined to take her home from school. To his surprise, she did not object.
Olivia soon retreated to her childhood bedroom. Over the weekend, she complained of chills and took hot showers to soothe her shivering body.
“r u coming back today?” Riley texted her on Nov. 4, a Sunday afternoon.
Olivia replied that she didn’t know.
“my fever won’t break,” she wrote.
Nov. 9: “This is no cause for alarm”
The university’s first warning of adenovirus among students came the day before Olivia’s Nov. 2 visit to the health center. McBride received an email from a physician at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore, who told him about a College Park student who had been hospitalized there and tested positive for the virus.
“I thought it best that you know in case there are more,” the physician, Dr. James Campbell, wrote.
In a follow-up phone call, the physician told McBride that the student had been admitted with a high fever and pneumonia. It was “an unusual presentation” of adenovirus, he told McBride.
The virus was in the news: It had been linked to the deaths of children with weakened immune systems living at a long-term care facility in New Jersey. The outbreak had sickened 27 children and killed 11. Some of the survivors had been treated with anti-viral medications.
Certain strains can severely sicken healthy adults. The military has had multiple fatal outbreaks in barracks. A vaccine is available to military personnel, but has not been approved for the general public.
Soon after the phone call with Campbell, McBride learned that a student who had been seen at the health center with a fever and respiratory problems had been admitted to Washington Adventist Hospital in Maryland. McBride suspected it was a second case of adenovirus and asked the hospital to run a test, he later told The Post.
On Nov. 7, McBride convened the meeting of the campus infectious disease management committee, which included about a dozen officials from student affairs, athletics, communications, housing and other departments. They discussed updating the campus plan for disease outbreaks. McBride told them about the increase in fever-associated illnesses on campus and several cases of hand-foot-and-mouth disease, which causes a mild rash and mouth sores.
McBride, however, did not advise the committee of the confirmed case of adenovirus or the second suspected one, according to meeting minutes. Asked why he didn’t bring up adenovirus, McBride told The Post that it is “not currently a reportable condition … we were more focused on what we knew at that time.”
Unlike some other infectious diseases, adenovirus is not governed by mandatory state or federal reporting requirements – doctors or hospitals are not required to alert health officials or the public when the virus is discovered.
Two days later, on Nov. 9, Andrew Catanzaro, a physician at Washington Adventist, followed up with McBride and told him by email he was concerned about “others coming into the hospital who are quite ill … Perhaps you have an outbreak of Adenovirus on the campus.”
That day the student health center began testing for adenovirus. At 6:31 p.m., McBride sent out a campuswide email about flu and virus prevention techniques, such as washing hands, and noted that there had been several cases of hand-foot-and-mouth disease. He made no mention of adenovirus.
“This is no cause for alarm,” he wrote in boldfaced type, “but it does give us the opportunity to practice effective prevention techniques for these types of illnesses.”
By then, Olivia had been out of school and at home for a week, except for a brief visit to Elkton to pick up her medication. She kept Sarah and Riley in the loop, texting “i just puked blood.”
She visited her family doctor on Nov. 5. The following day, her parents took her to the emergency room at Howard County General Hospital, where doctors treated her as if she had bacterial pneumonia and sent her home with antibiotics.
But the medication wasn’t working and her chest began to hurt when she coughed.
Three days later, she was admitted to Howard County hospital, where physicians tested her for influenza, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), hepatitis and bacterial blood infections, records show. All came back negative. But they did not test for adenovirus.
They knew she had pneumonia but it was unclear as to what had caused it and why she wasn’t getting better. They continued to treat her with antibiotics.
The nasal swab used to detect adenovirus is significantly more expensive than a flu or strep test and it is not available at many primary care and urgent care clinics. Howard County hospital officials later declined to answer questions about why they did not test Olivia for adenovirus.
Ian and Meg Paregol traded off nights sleeping on a small couch next to Olivia’s hospital bed. Ian, an attorney who represents clients with disabilities, had learned how to advocate for patients under difficult circumstances. He barely slept as he watched his daughter’s oxygen levels dip well below normal into the low 80s on Saturday night.
Her left lung was filling with fluid.
Nov. 11: A “particularly nasty” strain
On Sunday, Nov. 11, with her condition worsening, Olivia was moved into the intensive care unit. Doctors suggested puncturing her back with a needle to help drain fluid from her lungs.
Olivia, now struggling to speak, asked: “Will it hurt?”
Suddenly, her eyes rolled back and she suffered a seizure, thrashing against the bed. Medical staff rushed in, and Ian, fearing she was dying, ran from her bedside into the hallway. He fell to his knees and started to pray. Doctors intubated Olivia and administered sedative drugs.
That night, Howard County physicians planned to airlift her to Hopkins in Baltimore, where she could undergo a Hail Mary treatment: the Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation machine or ECMO. Tubes circulate and oxygenate the patient’s blood outside of the body, giving the heart and lungs a chance to recover.
Ian and Meg drove to Hopkins. They took the elevator to one of the top floors of the hospital and stood by the window. There, they stared into the night sky and waited for the flashing lights and whirring blades of their daughter’s helicopter.
Back on campus, Sarah’s text messages to Olivia went unanswered.
“Okay you’re scaring me,” Sarah wrote. “I just wanna know ur okay/coming home tomorrow.”
Olivia’s roommate, Megan, was too sick to leave their dorm room. Megan had tried to get an appointment at the student health center but nothing was available.
On. Nov. 12, Megan’s mother Kim Sassaman wrote to President Loh and McBride about her daughter’s illness and questioned whether mold remained. She asked for “full disclosure” on what was making her daughter and other students sick.
“Her constant illness is not an isolated case in Elkton,” Sassaman wrote. She alluded to Olivia, saying that Megan’s roommate was hospitalized with pneumonia and another student — their 18-year-old friend Humza Mohiuddin — had been hospitalized with respiratory issues.
McBride responded quickly and traded emails with Megan’s mother. “We’ve discovered several cases of a particularly nasty strain of adenovirus (a typical cold virus),” McBride wrote in one message. “If Megan has not been tested for this, we can either perform a swab at the UHC for it or you can ask her current caregiver to test for it.”
By then the state Department of Health was aware of the outbreak. That day — Nov. 12 — Catanzaro, the infectious disease physician at Washington Adventist, alerted the state about two students who tested positive for the adenovirus. The next day, McBride learned that a student tested at the health center was also positive for adenovirus.
At Hopkins, doctors began the ECMO treatment for Olivia and ordered dozens of tests, including a screening for respiratory viruses that included adenovirus.
After Olivia showed no improvement on Nov. 13, Ian, in a panic, called the university.
Hours later, when McBride returned the call, Ian pressed him about her illness and any connection to mold.
“I need some answers,” Olivia’s father pleaded. “I need to know what’s going on because she should not be this sick.”
“We’ve had a couple of cases of adenovirus appear,” McBride responded, according to Ian. He said he told McBride to immediately call Hopkins to share what he knew. Although Kim Sassman had alerted McBride the day before that Megan’s roommate was in the hospital, McBride told the Post that Olivia was not mentioned by name and he did not learn about her hospitalization until Nov. 13.
Later that afternoon, McBride left a voicemail for Ian, saying he spoke to an official at Hopkins: “The state health department is getting involved as well, so we can try to prevent further spread of the virus called adenovirus, which is actually a pretty common cold virus. But every once in a while it causes a more severe illness. So we suspect that’s what it might be.”
Suddenly, Ian had a sobering realization: For the past week, doctors had been giving her a cocktail of antibiotics, which would only be effective if a bacterial infection was the underlying cause.
But the true culprit had been a virus.
Although many people recover from adenovirus on their own, immunocompromised patients with severe cases, such as Olivia, can benefit from anti-viral drugs, such as cidofovir. The drugs carry significant risks, including kidney failure, and have not been approved by the FDA or studied in large-scale trials for use in treating adenovirus.
“You want to start it before the patient gets too sick,” said Ivan Gonzalez, a physician at the University of Miami who has studied the use of cidofovir in adenovirus patients with compromised immune systems.
In Olivia’s case, doctors didn’t wait. On Nov. 13, hours after tests confirmed she had adenovirus, they began to administer cidofovir.
Nov. 15: Five sick, no disclosure
Two weeks had passed since McBride had been told of the first adenovirus case on campus. The unofficial tally of students with the virus was up to at least five, three of whom required hospitalization. There were likely many others who had not been diagnosed. The University of Maryland was now navigating one of the country’s first adenovirus outbreaks on a college campus.
Still, there was no public announcement of its presence.
On Nov. 14, McBride sent an email to Richard Brooks, a CDC employee assigned to the state health department, and shared the university’s campuswide virus prevention email that was sent on Nov. 9. McBride asked Brooks, who works with state officials on outbreaks, if the CDC wanted the university to do more “adeno specific communication” with people on campus.
Later that day, Brooks responded: “Based on our conversation with CDC, we don’t think additional, more specific messaging about adenovirus is necessary at this point in time.”
On Nov. 15, McBride gathered the infectious disease committee — this time to talk about the growing number of adenovirus cases. The university’s plan for responding to low-level health threats states that officials should be “providing information to the community about the infection in question, increasing prevention measures in resident halls/dining halls/public locations.”
The group suggested conferring with Katie Lawson, the university’s chief communications officer, about sending a message to students who had compromised immune systems and to residents at Elkton Hall given “heightened sensitivity” over the mold, according to minutes of the meeting. McBride emailed the minutes to more than 30 people, including Linda Clement, the vice president for student affairs who reports directly to President Loh.
Officials did not send those messages.
But later that day, McBride warned his counterparts at Georgetown, George Washington, American, Howard, Towson and other area colleges. In an email, he told them about a “cluster” of adenovirus cases, noting that three students had been hospitalized, including one in “very serious condition.”
“Please keep your eye out for this on your campuses,” he wrote.
Nov. 17: “what we really need is a miracle”
At Hopkins, additional tests soon revealed that Olivia had adenovirus 7, a virulent strain responsible for the deaths of children in New Jersey.
When Angela Crankfield-Edmond, a health official with Prince George’s County, learned on Nov. 16 that preliminary results showed Olivia had the pernicious strain of adenovirus, she wrote to McBride, “Please do not tell anyone until we get the final result.”
Crankfield said the state instructed her not to make anything public until final test results were available.
Hopkins physicians continued to give Olivia cidofovir and also began a blood treatment designed to boost her immunity.
But it made no difference.
Fluid rapidly accumulated in her once slender 130-pound body. By Nov. 16, she had swollen to 232 pounds. Her blood pressure plummeted. Her kidneys and liver were failing.
Dr. Glenn Whitman – an ICU physician at Hopkins – gathered Olivia’s family in a conference room on Saturday, Nov. 17, to explain the best chance to save her life.
An open cavity abdominal surgery could release fluid and pressure. A plastic sheet would temporarily hold Olivia’s organs in place. If she survived, she could face up to a year of recovery in a hospital bed.
Ian and Meg asked him: What would he do?
Whitman broke down into tears. He had children as well, he told them. And he would do everything to save the Paregols’ daughter, just as if she was his own.
On Facebook, Ian asked family and friends to join them in prayers as Olivia underwent surgery.
The pulse within her feet had become faint. Now doctors were struggling to pick up a pulse in her legs and asked Ian and Meg if they would consider amputation as a last resort.
Ian and Meg tried to channel Olivia’s mind-set. At what cost would she be willing to live?
“Ultimately what we really need is a miracle,” Ian posted on Facebook.
Early Sunday morning, on Nov. 18, the Paregol family made the 45-minute drive home from Hopkins to shower and change clothes. A nurse called with grim instructions: Come back as soon as possible.
With permission from Ian and Meg, doctors stopped giving Olivia blood pressure medication. They warned that she could die within minutes.
Country music – Olivia’s favorite – played in the room as her parents and two siblings, Zoe and Evan, took turns by the teenager’s bedside. They remembered the vacation to Turks and Caicos and trips in the family Prius when Olivia crammed in the middle seat between her brother and sister.
One by one they held her hand for hours that Sunday afternoon and told her how much they loved her.
At 10:15 p.m. on Nov. 18, Olivia Shea Paregol was pronounced dead.
Doctors listed three causes of death: organ failure, acute respiratory distress syndrome and adenovirus.
Nov. 28: “Should have done more”
Early the next morning, McBride wrote to Brooks, the CDC employee working with state health officials, saying he had an unconfirmed report that Olivia had died. Given that she had adenovirus 7, he wondered if they should go public.
“We’ve discussed internally here, and we don’t feel that this changes our plans to do any messaging,” Brooks responded an hour later. “To be clear, we are not recommending that you NOT put out any additional communications (i.e. if you feel the need to send any additional messaging, we are fine with that). We just aren’t recommending that you need to do so.”
After reaching out to the state, McBride faxed the result of Megan’s test at the student health center to her family doctor — she also had adenovirus.
Around 2:30 p.m. that day, Nov. 19, McBride sent out a campuswide email that for the first time publicly acknowledged adenovirus, saying that there were six confirmed cases over the past two weeks. The next day, he revealed in another email to the campus that the virus had killed an unnamed student — Olivia — and urged others to take the virus seriously.
McBride privately expressed concern that an upcoming news article in The Baltimore Sun might suggest that the University of Maryland “should have done more,” he wrote in an email to a Prince George’s county health official. The story questioned whether the university could have done more to prevent Olivia’s death.
“There was nothing else you could have done,” responded Crankfield-Edmond of the county health department, who days earlier told McBride to remain silent. “It’s a cold virus that is in the community.”
The next day, on Nov. 21, McBride appeared on a local television segment and defended the university’s response to the adenovirus outbreak.
“While we want to acknowledge there are cases on campus, we don’t necessarily want to stir up unnecessary angst,” McBride said in the interview.
The Paregol family spent Thanksgiving planning a funeral. Two days later, on a rainy Saturday, the ground so wet that heels sunk into the mud, Olivia’s family and friends gathered at the Good Shepherd Cemetery in Ellicott City, Md.
Olivia’s longtime pediatrician, Dr. Jacqueline Brown, attended the service. Brown kept revisiting the early days of November, when Olivia had come into her office, ailing without an apparent cause. Brown said she would have recommended an adenovirus test if she had known that the virus was circulating among Maryland students.
“If we were looking for it sooner then maybe the treatment might have worked,” Brown told The Post. “I think by the time that that’s what we realized, she was already very sick. And I’m not sure that it started in time to have made a difference.”
The following Monday, McBride publicly announced that there were three more cases of adenovirus.
On Nov. 28, four days after burying Olivia, her father wrote to McBride, questioning the university’s failure to alert the public earlier about the adenovirus outbreak.
“The information could have saved her life and a proper course of treatment could have been identified well before we were told about Adenovirus on 11/13,” he wrote, referencing his phone call that day with McBride. Ian told McBride that had physicians known what to look for, the antiviral treatment “could have been initiated long before she became critically ill.”
The Paregols wanted to sit face-to-face with the university president and try to understand why their daughter was dead. Two teenagers within six months had lost their lives. Ian and Meg wondered: Had the school learned nothing from Jordan McNair?
In early December, the Paregols gathered around a coffee table in the president’s office. Ian sat across from President Loh and Meg faced Linda Clement, McBride’s supervisor. By then, the University of Maryland had disclosed that adenovirus had sickened at least 30 students.
“My condolences to your family,” President Loh said. “This is such a terrible loss.”
After an uncomfortable silence, Ian began peppering Loh with questions.
Ian wanted Loh to understand the connection he saw between the mold infestation and the adenovirus outbreak. Ian said he knew that mold did not cause the virus, but the mold had made Olivia sick all semester. That made her more susceptible to other respiratory infections, such as adenovirus, he said. Her system was already compromised from her Crohn’s medication.
Ian asked Loh who had made the decision to stay quiet about adenovirus since it was discovered on Nov. 1, the day before Olivia visited the health center.
President Loh, according to the Paregols’ recollection, responded that he had many employees and relied on their expertise for advice.
“You’re the president,” Ian said. “You’re the face of this university. You make the decisions. So this is all on you.”
After 30 minutes, a staff person began to usher the Paregols from the room. The family insisted on a few more questions, but left unsatisfied with Loh’s responses.
In a statement to The Post, Loh, who is planning to retire in 2020, said: “I cannot speak to the medical care that Olivia received at emergency rooms or hospitals, or to whether or not an anti-viral medication treatment could have saved her life. We care tremendously about student health and well-being, and we offer our condolences to the Paregol family for this tragic loss.”
A spokeswoman for Johns Hopkins Medicine, which operates both Howard County General Hospital and Johns Hopkins Hospital, declined to answer questions about why Howard County did not test Olivia for adenovirus or how the university’s failure to disclose the outbreak may have affected her treatment.
Instead, Johns Hopkins Medicine provided a statement: “We are deeply saddened about the death of Olivia Paregol. Our thoughts continue to be with her family and friends as they grieve. Ms. Paregol was diagnosed with an adenoviral infection, for which there is no FDA-approved treatment. Her case was quite complex, and it would be difficult, if not impossible, to summarize it in a brief media statement.”
January: Olivia’s smiling face was gone.
At Elkton Hall, students were skeptical of the university’s efforts to eradicate the mold.
Days after Olivia’s funeral, her friends Humza and Megan returned to the dorm and found mold growing on the shoes in their closets. Housing officials gave Humza a humidity monitor for his room.
Left Meg Paregol stands in her daughter Olivia's bedroom at her home in Glenwood, Md. Right, Ian Paregol poses for a photo after getting a tattoo in memory of Olivia.
Megan eventually decided she had enough and transferred to an out-of-state school.
In early January, Olivia’s mom invited Sarah and Riley to join the family at Elkton Hall to clear out the rest of her belongings. Olivia’s parents and sister pulled up to the dorm on a cold, cloudy morning. They stood silently with housing officials and waited for the elevator, holding empty duffel bags.
Ian asked to go the eighth floor where Sarah and Riley had decorated a bulletin board with red construction paper and photos of Olivia’s brief time on campus. They wanted to feel like she was still a part of Elkton. As he looked at his daughter’s face, Ian broke down in tears.
In room 3152, Sarah and Riley began to sort through Olivia’s clothes. They took some T-shirts, a pillow and folded up the tapestry of the world map. They planned to hang it on the wall of their off-campus apartment in the fall.
Sarah laid down on Olivia’s bed and stared at the ceiling. She wiped tears from her eyes.
Several days later, Sarah returned to Elkton Hall to move in for the spring semester.
She walked toward the elevator and looked up at the bulletin board. Olivia’s smiling face was gone. All of it had been taken down.
Julie Tate and Rick Maese contributed to this report.


I'm looking for information about an adenovirus outbreak at the University of Maryland and the related death of Olivia Paregol.

I'm looking for information regarding the adenovirus infection and subsequent death of Olivia Paregol at the College Park campus of the University of Maryland. I'm interested in how and when the university administration became aware of a possible outbreak and what steps were taken to inform vulnerable students and their parents of the risk. Details about other students' affected by the virus are relevant.  Administrative repercussions and actions and any steps taken to mitigate and prevent the spread of adenovirus also are relevant. Do not include any information directly related to students.

Find articles online that answer this question comprehensively.

Maryland university board leader pledges review of adenovirus response at College Park campus

nick.anderson@washpost.com

The leader of the University System of Maryland’s governing board on Friday pledged a   “thorough, independent and transparent” review of top officials’ response to an adenovirus outbreak last fall at the flagship university in College Park that killed one student and sickened dozens of others.
Linda R. Gooden, chair of the system’s Board of Regents, said in a statement that she hoped to meet soon with the parents of the student who died, 18-year-old freshman Olivia Shea Paregol.
“On behalf of the board, I have reached out to Olivia’s parents and soon hope to meet with them and share our condolences, our concern, and our plans for moving forward,” Gooden said. “Those of us who are parents can only imagine the grief and sorrow they must be experiencing.”
Gooden’s statement, during a meeting of the board, came a day after Gov. Larry Hogan (R) prodded the regents to take action. In a letter Thursday, the governor sharply questioned why the University of Maryland waited more than two weeks in November to tell the campus about the outbreak.
Paregol, who had fallen sick weeks earlier, died Nov. 18. The next day, U-Md. leaders acknowledged that adenovirus was present on campus.
“It appears that, at just about every turn, leaders withheld information instead of being open and honest with the student body,” Hogan wrote in the letter. “There should never be a question as to whether the campus community will receive timely and accurate information, especially when it is an urgent matter of public health and safety.”
Hogan does not have direct authority over the university system, but as governor he is responsible for nominating regents to the board when vacancies arise.
The university’s response to the viral outbreak — and persistent problems with mold in residence halls — has drawn fresh attention since The Washington Post reported in May that university officials waited 18 days to alert the campus to the presence of adenovirus on campus even as students were falling ill. The virus sickened more than 40 students, the university said, with 15 treated at hospitals.
On Friday, a U-Md. spokeswoman reiterated a statement from Thursday: “The university remains committed to transparency — and student safety above all — in the handling of mold and adenovirus on our campus. Transparency has been demonstrated through legislative testimony, briefings to our Board of Regents, and real-time publishing of all actions and communications on mold and adenovirus throughout the fall. In addition, the university has made public the external review by medical experts of our response to adenovirus, and the findings support the university’s approach.”
The Paregol family notified the university on May 20 of a potential wrongful death claim. Olivia’s parents believe the teenager — who was on medication for a digestive tract condition called Crohn’s disease — might have survived if her doctors had known sooner about the presence of adenovirus on campus. The virus can produce symptoms similar to cold or flu, but in some cases it can be lethal to those such as Paregol who have weakened immune symptoms.
Gooden said in her statement that the board shares Hogan’s views on the need for a thorough examination of what happened to Paregol. She said the board has received three briefings since December on related safety issues from U-Md. President Wallace D. Loh.
As the board was about to enter closed session Friday, Gooden said regents will “start the process of reviewing and discussing the options for working with President Loh and his executive team to see that there is a thorough, independent and transparent investigation of the work he and his team have done.”
Ian Paregol, Olivia’s father, said he was “deeply concerned” about the wording of Gooden’s statement, especially her expression of intent to work with Loh. “I don’t know how it’s going to be impartial, how it’s going to be independent if they rely on the administration,” Paregol said.
But a spokesman for Hogan praised Gooden’s action.
“This is certainly a step in the right direction toward getting answers for the Paregol family and the U-Md. community,” Michael Ricci, Hogan’s communications director, said in a statement. “The governor believes that the Board of Regents is the appropriate body to conduct this review, and we are encouraged by today’s announcement.”
nick.anderson@washpost.com


No ‘consistent connection’ between mold problem and adenovirus infections, U-Md. says

The University of Maryland sought this week to assuage concerns that adenovirus infections at the school might be tied to mold exposure, writing that it appeared there was “no consistent connection” between the two health concerns. A U-Md. student died Sunday of an adenovirus-associated illness.
The university’s health center on Monday posted online a set of frequently asked questions about adenovirus. Earlier this semester, U-Md. dealt with mold in a campus dormitory — a problem that forced students to temporarily relocate to hotels. One of the questions posted online addressed concerns of a possible connection between mold and the virus.
“The cases of adenovirus-associated illness on campus have been seen both in students living on and off campus and among students in residence halls affected by mold and not,” the website said. “As such, it appears that there is no consistent connection between mold exposure and the incidents of adenovirus infection affecting UMD students.”
Similarly, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said no link exists between mold and adenovirus. That virus usually spreads from one infected person to another, the CDC said. That can happen through touching or shaking hands, or coughing and sneezing. It also spreads when people touch objects or surfaces on which the virus has landed, and proceed to touch their mouth, nose or eyes before washing their hands.
The university on Tuesday said a student had died of an adenovirus-associated illness. The student, identified as 18-year-old Olivia Paregol, had lived in Elkton Hall, a dorm on the College Park campus where mold was discovered this year. Paregol, a freshman at the university, was from Howard County, Md.
Maryland learned on Nov. 1 that a student was dealing with adenovirus, David McBride, director of the University Health Center, said in a statement this week. University officials worked with the state Department of Health and Prince George’s County Health Department to monitor for cases since that discovery.
“The health center staff has been on high-alert and we have reached out to medical facilities in the area to heighten awareness of this illness,” McBride’s statement said.
Since the first case emerged, McBride wrote, five more cases of students with “confirmed adenovirus-associated illness” have been reported. And one specimen, sent to federal officials for testing, showed an adenovirus strain that can lead to more serious health problems.
Adenovirus-related illnesses are usually treated with rest, fluids and medicine to reduce a fever, according to the statement.
“However, vigilance is extremely important for those with chronic medical problems like asthma, diabetes or illnesses that lower your immune system or if you take medicine that lowers your immune system,” McBride said in the statement.
Concerns about mold have lingered this year on the College Park campus, where mold was reported throughout Elkton Hall, home to more than 500 students. The problem, which occurred earlier in the semester, worsened because of “significant rain and high humidity in our area,” according to a university statement at the time.
To deal with the mold concerns, Maryland officials hired contractors, cleaned and replaced furniture and installed “commercial-grade dehumidifiers” in hallways. Students were temporarily relocated, a decision the university said it made “out of an abundance of caution."
A university spokeswoman on Wednesday said the Elkton cleanup was completed in mid-October.


Report finds U-Md. followed protocols in mold, adenovirus outbreaks

jenn.abelson@washpost.com

Nearly a year after an adenovirus outbreak killed a freshman at the University of Maryland, an outside review found the college followed protocols in how it responded to the crisis but made numerous recommendations for handling campuswide emergencies.
Olivia Paregol, an 18-year-old freshman, died of adenovirus on Nov. 18, 2018, after suffering from health problems during the several months she lived in a mold-infested dorm. A Washington Post report in May revealed that university officials waited 18 days to tell students about the presence of adenovirus that eventually sickened about 45 students.
The 141-page report concluded the university’s response to the adenovirus and mold outbreaks at the College Park campus “should have been viewed and handled as campus-wide emergencies . . . which would have provided earlier opportunities for escalation and more effective emergency management for both incidents.”
In the wake of the outbreaks, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) requested an investigation, and the University System of Maryland Board of Regents picked six individuals with “subject matter expertise” to conduct a review. The panel said it examined thousands of documents and interviewed university employees, contractors that worked for the college and Paregol’s father.
The report concluded that the university “adhered to the requirements of all local, state and federal regulations and statutes governing reporting and communication concerning infectious diseases” and “the response to adenovirus was in accordance with the University’s own internal policies and procedures.”
But the report identified “areas of weakness” and included 14 pages of recommendations.
Those included more frequent monitoring of disease trends on campus, sharing health information with regional providers, designating an individual responsible for crisis communications and conducting air sampling after mold remediation.
“Our campus works tirelessly on behalf of the health and safety of our students, faculty and staff, and we will carefully consider the report’s recommendations,” university President Wallace D. Loh wrote in a campuswide email Wednesday in response to the report. “The panel unanimously found that university employees prioritized student health and safety above all else. At the same time, our work on campus safety is always ongoing.”
Ian Paregol, Olivia’s father, said he appreciated the panel’s efforts but thought the Oct. 22 interview conducted with him was an “afterthought” because he was the last one scheduled and was asked only three questions.
“We do not want another child and family to suffer through this unimaginable pain, and if pushing for an investigation to evaluate the university’s responses can prevent that from happening and avoids another unnecessary death, then at least we have made some progress in accountability within the UMD system,” Paregol said.
Olivia Paregol visited the university health center with a fever and sore throat on Nov. 2, one day after the university learned of the first adenovirus case. Her condition rapidly deteriorated, and it wasn’t until the teenager was fighting for her life at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore on Nov. 13 that David McBride, the health center’s director, informed the Paregol family about adenovirus cases on campus.
Adenovirus, which is not governed by mandatory state or federal reporting requirements, can produce symptoms similar to a cold or flu. Certain virulent strains can sicken healthy individuals and be particularly dangerous to individuals like Olivia Paregol, who had a weakened immune system.
Katie Lawson, the university’s chief communications officer, told the panel that she was not aware that public health officials had declared an adenovirus outbreak on Nov. 13. At a meeting on Nov. 15, McBride and other college officials discussed sending out an email to students living in Elkton Hall, the dorm where Paregol lived that had been temporarily evacuated because of mold problems.
The report noted that the group decided to send a message about adenovirus to the entire campus but that “there was some delay” and it wasn’t finalized until the following day, on a Friday. The university planned to email it on Monday. Paregol died on Sunday evening, Nov. 18.
“Throughout the handling of adenovirus notices, Ms. Lawson stated there was tension around wanting to be responsive to the community with more information than usual and guidance from state and county health officials, which was also coming from the CDC,” the report said.
McBride, who left his job at the university several weeks after the start of the fall 2019 semester, did not return messages from The Washington Post seeking comment. During his interview with the panel, McBride discussed his efforts to assist students who had health problems related to the mold. He also said the decision not to take air samples before or after the mold remediation was a “subject of controversy.”
The mold surfaced in Elkton Hall and other dorms as early as July 2018. During the unusually wet season, the university received more than 1,800 service calls related to mold at dorms across campus, the report said.
Andrea Crabb, director of residential facilities, told the panel there were “communication breakdowns” with residential facilities staff during the cleaning and remediation. Crabb said she was advised by the college’s Department of Environmental Safety, Sustainability and Risk that air sample testing should not be conducted.
Mold does not cause adenovirus, but McBride, in emails previously reported by The Post, acknowledged that “mold can cause respiratory irritation that may increase susceptibility of any viral infection.”
The Paregol family filed a notice of claim against the college in May and said they intend to move ahead with a wrongful-death lawsuit.
Ian Paregol said university officials “still did withhold the information which caused my daughter’s death. They knew there was an adenovirus outbreak, and they should have told us and her to get checked when she came to the university health center after the first case of the virus.”
jenn.abelson@washpost.com


Stepped up disinfecting of UMd dorm rooms is announced to combat viruses

A total of 30 cases of adenovirus have been confirmed at the University of Maryland, and university officials announced plans to intensify its dormitory cleaning program to help prevent additional infections. An announcement made last week by the university’s department of resident life gave the updated adenovirus infection numbers. Of the 30 confirmed cases, eight of the students have been hospitalized. It said four cases have been confirmed of adenovirus 7, a particularly virulent strain of the virus. One Maryland student has died of what were reported to be adenovirus-related causes. In announcing the disinfecting program, the resident life department said it would go beyond normal winter-break practices, and extend inside rooms to surfaces that are frequently touched inside rooms. Such surfaces include doorknobs, furniture tops, light switches, faucets and bedframes, the department said. The program is to be conducted from January 7 to January 18, the department said. According to the announcement, the aim is to support UMd’s broader effort to prevent the spread of a variety of viruses, “including adenovirus.” The university’s health center said adenoviruses can cause typical cold and flu symptoms. But the center emphasized that it is particularly important that these symptoms not be ignored by those with lowered immune systems. Such persons should see a physician within 48 hours of developing symptoms, the health center said. Martin.Weil@washpost.com

Martin.Weil@washpost.com


How has foreign travel been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic?

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, foreign travel is being severely restricted in an attempt to prevent further spread of the disease.  Travel bans are in place for Americans traveling to certain foreign countries, as well as for foreigners who want to travel to the U.S.  According to research, over 93% of the world's population live in countries with sudden new border restrictions.  It is estimated that at least 140 countries have closed their borders to some or all foreign travelers.  Information about current rules and regulations, as well as indications as to what factors influence those decisions, are relevant.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, foreign travel is being severely restricted in an attempt to prevent further spread of the disease.  Travel bans are in place for Americans traveling to certain foreign countries, as well as for foreigners who want to travel to the U.S.  According to research, over 93% of the world's population live in countries with sudden new border restrictions.  It is estimated that at least 140 countries have closed their borders to some or all foreign travelers.  Information about current rules and regulations, as well as indications as to what factors influence those decisions, are relevant but anything about air travel is not.

Find current travel restriction information relevant to this question.

Travel prices are dropping almost everywhere as coronavirus fears take over

Matt Hribar likes to travel as much as possible. But the 25-year-old Cleveland resident whose many jobs include DJ, trivia host, podcaster and musician typically can’t swing the price of a flight and hotel to most of his dream spots.
But these are not typical times, as the spread of the new coronavirus pummels demand for travel around the world and pushes prices for flights, hotels and cruises down.
That’s how Hribar found himself with round-trip plane tickets for this spring to Miami, where he intends to “kind of quarantine myself on the beach,” for about $100 and to Los Angles for about $200.
“I took a look and I liked what I saw, so I booked,” he says.
Travel industry observers think there will be a lot for bargain hunters to like in the coming days, especially as they consider the typically expensive summer vacation season. But those travelers will have to navigate a rising number of cancellations, travel restrictions and public-health warnings as they plan vacations.
“What’s going to happen is, the hotels and airlines and especially the cruise lines, when they think they’re going to lose some business, they start offering deals,” Roger Dow, president and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association, said in an interview this month. He cautioned that he doesn’t think the low-price stretch will last too long. “I think there is going to be an opportunity for Americans to get some good deals as the marketplace reacts and says: We’re going to price to increase occupancy.”
Health experts have said travelers should heed specific travel warnings from the U.S. State Department and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention when planning any trip, and prepare in case they get caught up in restrictions or an unexpected quarantine. And they should be cognizant of their own risk factors — especially age and underlying health issues — before traveling.
Late Wednesday, President Trump announced a ban on foreign travelers from most of Europe — excluding the United Kingdom — to the United States for 30 days starting Friday. The U.S. State Department advised U.S. citizens to reconsider travel abroad altogether, in part because of the potential for quarantines and border restrictions. And the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned against all nonessential travel to most of Europe.
The result of so much upheaval: Travel companies have gotten desperate for customers.
Bob Levinstein, CEO of the cruise shopping site CruiseCompete, says that based on the business he’s doing, cancellations in March are way up and bookings are “through the floor” — down 68.5 percent. As a result, he says he’s never seen lower prices or better offers. That included a balcony room for a week-long Caribbean cruise for $250 and another cruise for $599 that includes $400 in onboard credit. Two cruise companies, Viking Cruises and Princess Cruises, have suspended voyages altogether for the near future.
“Basically in the cruise business, rule number one is always fill the ship. And that’s because empty cabins don’t spend money at the bar, they don’t buy alcohol, they don’t gamble at the casino, they don’t buy shore excursions,” Levinstein said. “The ships keep sailing and they just have to keep reducing the prices, and that’s what’s going on. They’ve never been lower, and I suspect over the next couple of months, they will continue to go lower.”
Travel data firm STR said in a report Wednesday that U.S. hotel occupancy in the first week of March dropped 7.3 percent compared with about the same time last year, and average daily rates were down 4.6 percent. The biggest drop in rates came from the San Francisco area, where average prices per night fell 30 percent to more than $212.
“This is quite likely the beginning of a bad run that will get worse before it gets better,” Jan Freitag, the company’s senior vice president of lodging insights, said in a statement.
Tim Hentschel, CEO and co-founder of the bookings site HotelPlanner, said Europe has seen 50 percent price drops in the past week, and the U.S. has seen prices go down by 30 percent in major cities.
He said in an email that travelers looking for the biggest discounts should look in a city where big citywide events have just announced cancellations. If the Summer Olympics are canceled or postponed, he said, that could be a time to find a great deal in Tokyo. The CDC has recommended that travelers “practice enhanced precautions” in Japan due to the virus.
Airline prices typically rise this time of year. But the airfare booking app Hopper says domestic fares dropped an average of 14 percent between March 4 and Saturday, though some routes are seeing rates 70 percent lower than average. International fares are down, too, but the company has seen a surge in searches for domestic travel.
“Not only are we seeing prices are down, but they’re also down across the board,” says Hayley Berg, the company’s economist. “So these fare sales, they’re not limited to one or two routes. We’re seeing a significant impact across many, many major routes.”
Scott’s Cheap Flights regularly flags flight deals to global destinations, but founder and CEO Scott Keyes says that what stands out now are the typically rare summer deals. He said he’s found round-trip deals from U.S. airports for $260 to London, $500 to Japan, $200 to Vancouver and about $650 to Fiji.
“That’s kind of the airlines’ cash cow is the summer travel months — everybody’s out of school, … the weather’s nice, everybody wants to travel then, that’s when great deals are least likely to pop up,” he says. “And yet, because bookings are down so much, they’re available now.”
He says airlines’ “peace-of-mind” offerings — more leeway for cancellations and rescheduling — make it easier for passengers to pull the trigger when they see a good deal.
“It’s a privilege that is never afforded to travelers, especially on the cheapest fares, to be able to have that kind of flexibility,” he says.
Jack Ezon, founder and managing partner of the travel agency Embark Beyond, said in an email that he is urging clients to book travel for spring and summer now knowing that they can easily change plans if necessary.
“With so many people around the globe reacting strongly to the developments, prime space at hotels all over the world is suddenly available,” he said in an email. “Airline costs have plummeted. Any good buyer knows to buy when a market is weak — as we like to say, ‘Don’t waste this crisis.’"
Joe DeSimone, 30, of Austin, saw stories about empty flights and figured airlines would be eagerly searching for people to fill some of those seats. So he took advantage of lower prices within the past month to book flights to Toronto two weeks from now, for a little over $200, and London two months from now, for slightly more than $400. Both trips are for upcoming conventions, but, he says, even if the conventions get canceled, he’ll be happy to spend time in both cities.
“These were things that I knew I was going to want to do, but was on the fence about,” says DeSimone, who runs an after-school program that teaches game design to high school students and works in food service at Alamo Drafthouse. Plus, friends in London said he could stay with them for up to three months.
He says he wouldn’t book a flight anywhere that has severe travel restrictions in place, because that wouldn’t make for a great vacation.
“Otherwise, if the government’s not on lockdown, and I don’t see like photos that make it look like something out of the Black Plague, … I’m probably okay,” DeSimone says.
Read more:
Everything travelers need to know about being sick overseas
How to think about travel as the coronavirus threat evolves
Everything you should and shouldn’t do to stay healthy on a plane


Every day for the past two weeks has set a record low for traveler screenings, TSA reports

The Transportation Security Administration has reported a record low for traveler screenings every day for the past two weeks. TSA agents screened 124,021 travelers at U.S. airports on Thursday, its lowest number in the past decade. On the same day last year, the agency screened 2,411,500 travelers. TSA checkpoint data With many U.S. states issuing stay-at-home orders, Americans have been advised by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to forgo all nonessential travel to slow the spread of coronavirus. The center has also issued a special travel advisory that urges “residents of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut to refrain from nonessential domestic travel for 14 days effective immediately.” The State Department is advising U.S. citizens to avoid all international travel at this time due to the pandemic, and is only offering passport services to people with “qualified life-or-death” emergencies that require immediate international travel. Since the global spread of the coronavirus in January, tens of thousands of flights have been canceled, and the International Air Transport Association estimates that 1.1 million flights will be canceled through June 30, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday. Read more: How coronavirus grounded the airline industry Why outbreaks like coronavirus spread exponentially, and how to “flatten the curve” Some airlines and hotels suspend redemption options for loyalty programs

TSA checkpoint data Read more:


Coronavirus now a global pandemic as U.S., world scramble to control outbreak

The World Health Organization on Wednesday declared the coronavirus a global pandemic as countries and municipalities took increasingly dramatic measures to slow the spread of the deadly contagion, including President Trump’s announcement that he is sharply restricting travel to the United States from Europe for 30 days, beginning Friday at midnight.
In an Oval Office address Wednesday night, Trump said that his European travel restrictions will not include the United Kingdom and will include exceptions for Americans who have received “appropriate screenings.” He and administration officials later tweeted that the restrictions apply only to people, not goods and trade, and will not include a bar on U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents. Trump spoke sternly about what he called a “foreign virus” that “started in China and is now spreading throughout the world.”
“The virus will not have a chance against us,” Trump said. “No nation is more prepared or more resilient than the United States.”
The WHO declaration was a reflection of the alarm that countries are not working quickly and aggressively enough to fight the virus and that the control measures now in place might have come too late. There are now more than 125,000 confirmed cases worldwide, with more than 4,600 deaths.
“We are deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity and by the alarming levels of inaction,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
That message appeared directed squarely at the United States, which saw its first cases in January but where significant steps to help stem the spread were just taking effect within the past 48 hours. The NCAA announced Wednesday that its massively popular March Madness basketball tournament games will be played with nearly no spectators in arenas nationwide, a decision it said was made in the “best interest of public health.” The National Basketball Association announced Wednesday night that the current season has been suspended indefinitely after a member of the Utah Jazz tested positive for the virus, and actor Tom Hanks said on Instagram that he and wife Rita Wilson tested positive for the coronavirus while in Australia.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) announced he was limiting large gatherings statewide, and schools around the country are closing for deep cleanings and so staff can plan for possible long-term shutdowns.
All 12 of Florida’s state universities are closing their dormitories and presenting classes online. Health officials in Wisconsin are warning residents not to engage in nonessential travel. In Seattle, officials told people not to stand or sit shoulder to shoulder in the city’s bars. A New York suburb continued to be under close scrutiny amid a government-imposed containment zone aimed at controlling a cluster of cases there.
U.S. officials said the worst is yet to come. There are now more than 1,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus in 39 states. More than 30 people, most of them elderly and with underlying respiratory conditions, have died.
“We will see more cases,” Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told lawmakers at a congressional hearing Wednesday. He said the virus has proven to be 10 times more lethal than the flu and can no longer be contained nationwide because it is widely spreading in some communities. “And things will get worse than they are right now.”
Trump initially described his restrictions on travel from Europe as a total ban, telling the nation that the United States “will be suspending all travel from Europe to the United States for the next 30 days” and saying that “these prohibitions will not only apply to the tremendous amount of trade and cargo but various other things as we get approval. Anything coming from Europe to the United States is what we are discussing.”
The president corrected himself on Twitter shortly after the Oval Office speech, noting that “trade will in no way be affected by the 30-day restriction on travel from Europe. The restriction stops people not goods.”
Ken Cuccinelli, acting deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, also tweeted a clarification, saying that the restrictions do not apply “to American citizens or legal permanent residents or their families,” indicating that the restrictions would apply only to foreign nationals. Much of the community transmission of coronavirus in the United States thus far has been linked to U.S. travelers who visited foreign countries or who contracted the disease at gatherings in the United States.
Aside from restricting travel from Europe, Trump’s announcement Wednesday night was largely focused on the U.S. economy, which continued to slide amid global economic fears related to the virus. He prodded Congress to provide payroll tax relief and to direct the Small Business Administration to provide low-interest loans to affected small businesses. Trump also instructed the Treasury Department to defer tax payments without interest or penalties.
“This is not a financial crisis,” Trump said. “This is just a temporary moment of time that we will overcome together as a nation and as a world.”
European fears also heightened as covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, appeared to be picking up pace there, moving northward. More than 600 people have died in Italy, where the government announced it is closing all shops except grocery stores and pharmacies. German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned that as much as 70 percent of her country’s population could be infected if no medications or vaccines to treat or prevent the disease emerge soon.
Merkel urged Germans to help slow its spread: “The virus has arrived.”
India has effectively closed its border by suspending existing visas, with some exceptions, and Lebanon has halted travel to four affected countries. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a $2.8 billion relief package to stabilize the economy after requiring everyone arriving in the country to self-quarantine for 14 days.
The Trump administration is considering moving all of Europe to a Level 3 travel advisory, discouraging all nonessential travel there. The federal government was developing contingency plans to have employees telework, and it barred State Department and USAID employees from all but mission-critical travel. State and local authorities across the United States stepped up social distancing policies to discourage large crowds, where the virus could spread widely and wildly.
The crisis continued to cause economic panic, with the Dow Jones industrial average reaching bear-market territory on a nearly 1,500-point skid amid fears of recession. It also continued to affect the U.S. presidential race. Democratic nominee hopeful Joe Biden announced he will hold “virtual events” in Illinois and Florida at the urging of state health officials.
Washington state has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the United States, including a cluster of coronavirus fatalities linked to a nursing home that accounts for about two-thirds of all the deaths nationwide. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) is prohibiting gatherings of more than 250 people in three hard-hit counties until the end of March. Jeffrey Duchin, health officer for Seattle and King County, went a step further, barring all social events — even those with less than 250 people — unless organizers can take steps to minimize risks to attendees.
Inslee recommended that businesses allow for employees to telecommute or, if not possible, implement social distancing to the extent possible. He expects the outbreak of the virus to last for weeks or months.
“We expect a large-scale outbreak in weeks, and this will be a very difficult time,” Inslee said. “It’s similar to what you might think of an infectious-disease equivalent of an earthquake that’s going to shake us.”
In Ohio, DeWine said on Twitter that he is limiting public gatherings because the United States has the “potential to become like Italy,” which is in a nationwide lockdown because of the virus. “We are taking the actions we are taking now to try to avoid that.”
Officials in Santa Clara County, Calif., barred all mass gatherings this week.
New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) said all workers in the state will be given two weeks of paid leave if they are quarantined or isolated because of the virus. New York has the second-highest number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the country.
Cuomo said the City University of New York and the State University of New York, which together enroll more than half a million students, will shift to online learning for the rest of the semester. But he said he does not plan to bar large public events.
“Look, you don’t want to shut down society, right, because that’s massively disruptive to the economy, to life, etcetera,” Cuomo said. “But your main concern here is the public health crisis.”
Cuomo on Tuesday ordered the closure of schools and other gathering places within a one-mile radius in New Rochelle, a New York City suburb where more than 100 people have tested positive for the virus. The goal, he said, is to ensure large groups of people are not congregating. The area is not locked down, and people are free to come and go.
In New Rochelle’s commercial center, outside the containment zone, residents said it appeared fewer people were out Wednesday than on a typical weekday.
Those people who were outside tended to walk briskly. One elderly woman had pieces of tissue smashed into her face, a haphazard attempt at making the kind of face mask that public health officials caution is unwarranted.
For local businesses, the ongoing crisis is creating a feast-or-famine economic situation, depending on what goods or services they offer.
At Mayflower Cleaners, a local laundry and dry-cleaning service, Byunghun Han said his business has fallen by more than 50 percent this week. Han typically receives 120 pieces of laundry a day. In recent days, he said, he has been lucky to collect “30 or 40.”
“People just are not coming,” said Han, 62. “It’s just very slow and very sad.”
Han makes sure he uses a spritz of hand sanitizer after he touches each piece of unwashed clothing to try to protect himself from possible exposure. But he is starting to wonder what his life will be like if the virus continues to spread here in this densely populated corner of Westchester County.
“My brother and sister live in South Korea, where there is also the virus, but they live in a very small town and have no problems,” he said. “Small towns seem safer.”
A few doors away, the owner of New Rochelle Wines said his business is booming. Sanju Kanam offers more than 1,200 brands of liquor and wines, and sales are up about 30 percent this week.
“It’s going up because people are getting panicked,” Kanam, 39, said. “They don’t know if something is going to go wrong and are now worrying they will be stuck in their homes without liquor.”
The uptick in sales comes with potential hazards: Kanam is engaging with more customers. He now stands several feet behind the counter during transactions, and he no longer touches credit cards.
“I’m just trying to keep myself clean and not touch the people and not the touch the ID cards,” he said.
But Kanam’s biggest worry comes when he closes his store at 9 p.m. He has twin 5-year-old boys at home.
“When I reach home, I really know the risks,” Kanam said. “I now go into the garage and take a shower before I even go into the house to touch the kids. I’m handling cash all day, so I can’t go just from the car to the kids because I think the cash may be an issue, because who knows who touches this cash.”
Oscar Salomon, 18, and his mother, Marin, were standing outside his apartment talking about how they planned to stay healthy.
Marin works as a house cleaner — her business is also way up this week — and Oscar was handing her a bin of cleaning wipes that he found at a local supermarket.
“She is doing even more jobs now that the virus is outbreaking,” he said. “There are a lot of people wanting even more deep cleaning.”
But Oscar said he believes everything will be okay — if his neighbors just stay calm.
“I know a lot more people still die from the flu,” he said. “This is major to people who overthink it, but other than that, it’s not major to me.”
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