Dr. Cindy Prins, as an epidemiologist at the University of Florida, once told me that COVID-19 is a “behavioral illness”. What she meant is that people who work from home or who generally avoid others have a very low risk of becoming infected. This is because the coronavirus spreads from person to person, through respiratory droplets from coughing, sneezing or talking. This is part of the reason why remote locations where people rarely go – like Antarctica – have so far managed to avoid their deadly control.
Unfortunately, the icy southern continent is no longer affected by the pandemic.
Last week, Chilean authorities confirmed that the new coronavirus appeared in Antarctica, meaning that it has already infected humans on every continent on Earth. According wall street newspaper, 26 military personnel and 10 civilians, hired by a maintenance company for the research base General Bernardo O’Higgins Riquelme, are infected. All were evacuated to the city of Punta Arenas, in Chile, where they are being isolated and monitored. Until December 22, none of those infected had severe symptoms.
According BBC News, the navy ship Sergeant Aldea arrived at the research station in Antarctica on November 27, 2020. Before departure, everyone on board underwent a COVID-19 PCR test with a nasal swab and negative results. He returned to Chile on December 10, the date on which part of the crew disembarked from the ship, when some members began to show symptoms. On December 14, two people tested positive. Therefore, all members of the ship’s crew had to be tested again and quarantined. But while this was happening in Chile, people at the Chilean base in Antarctica developed symptoms of COVID-19.
So how did the new coronavirus get to such a remote location, when everyone was tested before departure? While the investigation is still ongoing, there are immediate clues available.
“My guess – and that’s it – is that the original infection occurred in Chile before departure, or on board a ship or aircraft during transit to the station,” said Arctic expert Alan Hemmings Euronews. “Once there is a single infected person at the station, proximity and proximity are likely to favor its wider spread.”
Did the spread happen on a ship? At the beginning of the pandemic, cruise ships were one of the main coronavirus spread vector. In fact, rooms near a ship are the main conditions for the coronavirus to spread.
Even so, it is curious that everyone was tested before the trip and received negative results, which can speak of the failures inherent in the tests.
According to a study by Johns Hopkins researchers, if a patient with a positive coronavirus is tested too early in the course of infection, it is likely to result in a false negative test. There is a reason why state health departments recommend that asymptomatic people who think they are at risk of contracting COVID-19 be tested five to seven days after exposure.
“A negative test result just means that you did not have COVID-19 at the time of the test or that your sample was collected very early in your infection,” says the Center for Disease and Control. “If your test is negative for COVID-19, you probably weren’t infected at the time your sample was taken; that doesn’t mean you won’t be sick.”
In that sense, the outbreak in Antarctica may be similar to that of the White House in that it reveals the deficiencies of our test technology. After President Donald Trump tested positive, several people close to him initially tested negative after being exposed and finally tested positive after a few days. It may take days for someone who has been exposed to the virus to develop symptoms or a positive test.
Although Antarctica is now affected by the pandemic, there are other places in the world where the pandemic is under control and outbreaks are a thing of the past. In New Zealand, the the coronavirus was eliminated. Like BuzzFeed recently reported, life has returned to normal in parts of Australia, South Korea, Taiwan, China and Thailand.
Perhaps the most impressive aspect of the Antarctic outbreak is how it summarizes the incredibly virulent spread of the virus. The continent is sparsely populated by scientists and temporary military personnel and is a symbol of isolation, psychological tension and limited resources. Even so, in the midst of the pandemic, Antarctic residents had more freedom of movement and interaction than the rest of the world. As a field guide said AP News in September: “In general, the freedoms granted to us are more extensive than those in the UK at the height of the blockade; we can ski, socialize normally, run, use the gym, all within reason.”
Since there are 70 research bases in Antarctica, this outbreak is unlikely to spread to other people.
“US Antarctic Program station personnel had no interaction with the Chilean stations in question or the personnel residing there,” a spokesman for the US National Science Foundation (NSF) told CBS News. “NSF remains committed to not changing staff or accepting tourists at USAP stations.”