My family and I took an @StateDept evacuation flight from Senegal to the US on Friday. I’d like to say a few things about that, focusing on 1) The people who work for State (wonderful) & 2) The impression it left me about coordinated US airport response to COVID (disturbing). 1/
First, let me just say my family and I were and remain fine – like I imagine many of my fellow passengers, we took the flight over worries about (Senegal’s) closed borders and what might happen IF things got bad there/we couldn’t get back to America for some time. 2/
So it came to pass that on April 3 we joined 150 or so other Americans, many quite sad to be leaving Senegal and possibly worried about at what lay ahead of them in America, at Dakar’s very empty airport. 3/
The repurposed cargo plane that we entered that morning was operated by the US Department of State’s Operations Medicine team. We all wore masks, the evacuation team PPE. Here’s a photo (which hopefully sets the scene without personally identifying any fellow passengers). 4/ 
After everyone received a medical check, the man in the photo above addressed us all from the front of the plane – he had to shout, as cargo planes don’t come with speakers (I suppose boxes are not a terribly attentive audience). 5/
“Listen up! This isn’t a normal flight, and we’re not flight attendants – we’re medical professionals. Our job is to get you home safe. Please clean up after yourselves – we only have a few hours in the US before we take off again; we need every minute we can get.” 6/
“How many days you been doing this – flying back and forth evacuating people?”, a passenger asked.
"Six. Liberia yesterday, somewhere else day before that, another place tomorrow”, the man replied.
“Do you get overtime for this?” another passenger asked.
7/
"Six. Liberia yesterday, somewhere else day before that, another place tomorrow”, the man replied.
“Do you get overtime for this?” another passenger asked.
7/
The man laughed. “We’re government employees. No. This is our job.” He paused for a moment. “This is why I signed up for this job. I’m proud to do this – I’m honored to help y’all get home.” 8/
Then something remarkable happened – someone started clapping. And then a plane full of people joined in. We were applauding this individual, and his sacrifice, and his help to us. But I was applauding something else too – and I bet I wasn’t the only one. 9/
I, and I think others, were also applauding a Government that managed to have people like this man working for it, and the hope it gave me that America might just get through the pandemic whose peak in the US we were flying towards. I felt calmer than I had in a few hours. 10/
I’m currently writing a book on “Mission-Driven Bureaucrats” – that’s what I’d been researching in Senegal - and here was one standing right in front of me (and not the first - embassy staff in Dakar were also wonderful, dedicated, kind throughout this process). 11/
Also true to the narrative of the book, these Mission-Driven Bureaucrats are VERY hard to "see" most of the time. The relevant State Department Bureau (medical services) doesn’t have any obvious mention of Operations Medicine at all (state.gov/bureaus-office…). 12/
I only figure out who the director of Operations Medicine was (William Walters, a senior civil servant) by finding a right-wing screed criticizing him and State for bringing infected Americans home.(frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/03/ob…) 13/
So I’m writing this in large part to say thank you to Mr. Walters, @StateDept, and all the other heroes – from grocery store attendants to hospital orderlies to doctors – sacrificing of themselves these weeks. 14/
But I also want to point out what happened after our flight from Senegal got to Washington Dulles, which I have less positive feelings about. We landed. A “mobile lounge” (a shuttle vehicle that normally carries passengers between terminals) pulled up to the plane's back door.15/
“Where are we going?”, I wondered. Given medical checks on the way onto the flight I assumed there would be some on the way off, too. And instructions about self-quarantining, or at least an orientation to local rules (Virginia already had a “shelter in place” order active). 16/
But no; nothing like that. Our mobile lounge pulled up to normal international arrivals. We used our global entry status as normal on the kiosks (thus touching keypads many others had presumably also touched), and had to go looking/asking for hand sanitizer afterwards. 17/
We went through normal baggage claim, received no instructions of any sort from anyone, and walked into America. Other than the airport being very unusually empty and the immigration officer wearing a mask, it was like any other international arrival. 18/
I arrived back to Senegal from a trip to Europe on March 3 on a commercial flight. My temperature was checked; I had to give my phone number on arrival; I had a cold, and thus was given a 14-day stay-in-place order, after which a doctor checked on me by phone every day. 19/
I arrived in America April 3 on a State Department medical evacuation flight. No medical check; no data collection; no instructions. A very critical month later, and the US still seems to be behind where Senegal had been a month prior on systems/policies. 20/
Maybe there’s a reasonable logic to not bothering to contain spread from new arrivals given the existing scope of the spread in America; but if so, why the plane as it was? Hazmat suits on the plane and a standard “welcome to America” arrival on the ground don’t match. 21/
And that’s the other reason I’m writing this. I celebrate the individuals working on behalf of government. But I also think I should share what I saw – and my worry that it suggests a policy response that continues to lag, or at least could benefit from further coordination.22/
Probably more than enough from me, but maybe one last thing. The Jewish holiday of Passover starts tomorrow night, during which Jews around the world will tell the story of the Jews’ biblical exodus from Egypt. 23/
In arguably the “climax” to the Passover action, as the 10th plague falls on Egypt, the Jews are not physically together; they are, rather, each in their own homes. A critical community moment occurs while the community is socially distanced, each 'sheltered in place'. 24/
I hope we look back at this as a time that brought us together, and just maybe that led us to recognize the heroism and sacrifices of those we may oft overlook (h/t @MollyKinder). Thanks for reading; hope you and yours are and remain well. (end)
