Two Texas strippers were asked to voluntarily quarantine themselves for 21 days because they were on the same Frontier Airlines flight as Amber Vinson, the second U.S. nurse diagnosed with Ebola. According to the Daily News, Axl Goode and his friend Taylor Cole were told by the CDC that they sat within three feet of Vinson on Monday night's flight from Cleveland to Dallas.
The two romance cover models were attending a conference in Ohio and made their way back to Texas on the same flight as Vinson. Goode wrote on Facebook that he first learned he may be at risk of having Ebola from his dad, who texted him to see what flight he had taken to get back home.
Immediately after hanging up from his dad, Goode said he called Cole to tell him the disheartening news and then he dialed the CDC hotline. Goode wrote that he was on hold for 81 minutes before someone picked up.
"I spend the next 2 hours in a panicked state, trying to piece together as much information as I could. Reading article after article and seeing pictures of what happens to those who contracted Ebola... I finally broke down," he wrote on Facebook. "I stepped away from my computer. Tears were pouring down my face. Just a few hours ago everything seemed fine. Now I'm facing a hard fact that I may start developing symptoms."
Reportedly, officials would not say what seat Vinson had sat in but told Goode that he was sitting very close to her. The male stripper was then told to voluntarily isolate himself and keep a journal of his temperature. Goode said he has to check his temperature twice daily.
"It is pretty scary sitting inside quarantine waiting around because you don't know," Goode told the Associated Press. "What if my thermometer - all of a sudden the temperature jumps - and I find out that I'm running a fever?"
Cole, who's been sharing updates of his health on Facebook, told CBS Dallas that he was having a hard time digesting the news.
"The worst that could happen... that's what's going through my mind," he said.
According to the Daily News, Goode said he has not been contacted by the CDC since making that first phone call and he's "not very confident in their abilities."
Vinson, who is now receiving treatment in Atlanta, contracted Ebola while she was caring for Thomas Eric Duncan - the first man to get sick with Ebola on U.S. soil - at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital. Nina Pham, the first nurse to contract the disease from Duncan, was transferred to a hospital in Maryland.
The Daily News reports that Frontier Airlines has asked all 132 people aboard the plane to contact the CDC.
