UPDATE: Atlanta-based Phoenix Air officials confirmed to ABC News Thursday that a man in plain clothes seen on the tarmac at a Dallas airport as an Ebola patient was being loaded into a plane for Emory University Hospital was their medical protocol supervisor. They said he was purposefully not wearing protective gear.
“Our medical professionals in the biohazard suits have limited vision and mobility and it is the protocol supervisor’s job to watch each person carefully and give them verbal directions to ensure no close contact protocols are violated,” a spokesperson from Phoenix Air told ABC News.
ORIGINAL STORY: The inquiries immediately started pouring in to media outlets.
Who was the man on the tarmac at a Dallas airport Wednesday night? The man in plain clothes carrying a clipboard and standing among four medical workers in full white hazmat gear. The man standing a few feet away from nurse Amber Vinson as workers loaded her on a plane headed to Emory University Hospital for Ebola treatment.
Then a second mystery man — this one in a T-shirt — appears at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta as the 29-year-old Vinson arrives by ambulance accompanied by workers in hazmat gear and the man in the T-shirt.
The questions on many minds: Why weren’t these men suited up? And were they safe?
“On social media, and on the CBS 11 News phone lines, the biggest question became — who was the guy not wearing protective hazmat gear?” CBS Dallas reported.
According to CBS Dallas, that man boarded the plane with the others and reemerged on the tarmac in Atlanta. People wondered if he were a CDC official overseeing the transfer? A CDC official in Dallas didn’t confirm to CBS Dallas that the man was a CDC staff member, but noted he kept a safe distance from Vinson, who fell ill after caring for Thomas Eric Duncan at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital. He died from the disease.
The CDC has also not identified the second man who was on the scene when Vinson arrived at Emory.
Business Insider notes that the hashtag #clipboardguy has gone viral on Twitter, with people wondering why anyone would not suit up while transporting a patient suffering with Ebola, which has killed thousands of people in Africa.
Meanwhile, a Harvard School of Public Health poll released Thursday found that most believe Ebola likely is spread by multiple routes, including sneezing and coughing. But people in the survey were optimistic about surviving the deadly disease: 85 percent think someone in their community would likely survive the infectious disease if they received immediate medical care.
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