Travel Creator Documents 42-Day Quarantine After MV Hondius Andes Virus Exposure

Jake Rosmarin, a travel content creator from Boston, boarded the MV Hondius on April 1 as part of a content partnership. After a Dutch passenger died on April 11, his wife died in South Africa on April 26, and a German woman died on May 2, Andes virus was identified in outbreak samples on May 2. Rosmarin evacuated with 17 other Americans to the National Quarantine Unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. He has voluntarily committed to a full 42-day quarantine despite testing negative twice with no detectable antibodies. Ten people from the ship have tested positive; three have died. Rosmarin documents his daily routine—temperature checks, meals, exercise, puzzles—and credits Nebraskans' kindness with restoring his faith in people. He emphasizes the Andes virus is not COVID and spreads primarily through rodent exposure, with rare person-to-person transmission only occurring in symptomatic cases.