A five-week transatlantic cruise that began as "one of the most amazing trips of my life" ended in fear, trauma, and a six-week quarantine in a Nebraska medical facility for travel content creator Jake Rosmarin.
"I think over time I'm going to learn to love to travel again, it's just going to be a little hard," Rosmarin told HuffPost from his sealed room inside the National Quarantine Unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
The specialized facility has housed Ebola patients, some of the earliest known COVID-19 cases in the United States, and now 15 former passengers from a ship at the center of a deadly hantavirus outbreak that has killed three people.
Rosmarin, among more than 140 passengers and crew on the vessel, said his spirits are improving. "I'm in good spirits. I feel good, I have no symptoms. I have my daily temperature checked," he said, noting his morale has lifted since disembarking the ship, which spent its final days marooned off the coast of Africa amid fears of the virus spreading.
"I was in a really dark place those seven days," he recalled of the uncertain period, during which he posted an emotional video on Instagram asking for "kindness and understanding."
Because it can take up to six weeks for symptoms of the virus—which has a high mortality rate—to appear, American passengers are under a 42-day quarantine at the nation's only federally funded quarantine unit. Health officials say the quarantine is voluntary, and passengers can opt out to self-monitor at home at any time.
Rosmarin plans to stay the full duration. "I knew before we even got here that we would have the opportunity to stay the whole time if we wanted to, and that's the decision I made from day one," he said. "I think it's a mix of being safe for my friends and family and knowing that in the worst case scenario, I have the best medical team and medical care that I could possibly get here."
Asked if he is worried about being infected, Rosmarin answered: "I'm honestly trying not to think about it." Instead, he focuses on staying positive, avoiding sulking, which he said would "only make my situation worse."
In cheerful Instagram videos, he has showcased his private bathroom, exercise bike, and the Starbucks coffees, hot meals, and Amazon packages delivered by nurses to his door. "I think we're being treated very, very well here," he said of his stay in the one-window room, which he keeps closed due to media gathered outside.
He talks with nurses when they appear outside his door and can call other quarantined passengers, though he has not yet done so. He declined to say whether he knows them or if they intend to stay the full six weeks, and would not disclose whether he had physical contact with those known to be infected.
"It's a small ship; we all at least knew each other's faces," he said, declining to say more out of respect for privacy.
Rosmarin said he is focused on staying positive and looks forward to hugging his family and loved ones in Boston and New York upon release. "Because that first hug that I get to give is going to be the best thing in the world," he said.
He has travel plans already booked but not on a ship. At the time of the outbreak, he was working as an unpaid brand ambassador for the ship after quitting his TV advertising job in 2022 to travel for a year.
"I think that travel's going to be hard," he said, "and I'm going to have to push myself relatively quickly to face this trauma that I now have to face with travel because travel is something that I love so much, and this experience has really definitely traumatized me in that aspect."
