The mystery has been solved concerning the identity of a man wearing street clothes, and not a hazmat suit, while Dallas Ebola patient Amber Vinson was being boarded onto an airplane headed for the Emory University Hospital in Atlanta Wednesday.
The man, wearing slacks, a button-down shirt and sunglasses on the airport tarmac and holding a yellow envelope is a team medical safety coordinator for Phoenix Air, which transported Vinson, reports
NBC News.
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"His role is to oversee the process of transport including on the tarmac," said Randy Davis, a vice-president for medical transport service Phoenix Air, declining to give the man's name. "Part of our protocol is to have one person not in a bio-hazard suit."
Davis told NBC News that standard procedure for the safety coordinator to wear regular clothing, rather that biohazard suits that can block a wearer's hearing and field of vision.
The man is ready to "suit up" if needed, said Davis, and is trained to keep a safe distance from the patient being transported.
"Our medical professionals in the biohazard suits have limited vision and mobility and it is the protocol supervisor's job to watch each person carefully and give them verbal directions to ensure no close contact protocols are violated," an unnamed Phoenix Air spokesman also told
ABC News.
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"There is absolutely no problem with this and in fact ensures an even higher level of safety for all involved," the spokesperson said.
The mystery started when news programs showed Vinson being transported, reports NBC.
Three workers in the full suits helped the Dallas nurse, who was also wearing protective gear, into the specially-equipped jet to take her to Emory, while the man stood nearby.
The man stood near one of the workers and took what appeared to be a container from that person. Further, he was nearby when one of the workers came off the plane holding a red bag with items from the plane, then took an unused red bag from the worker, and then handed it to the workers as they bagged up more items from Vinson's ambulance ride.
On the video, the man also talks with workers wearing respirators while the red bags were put onto the plane, and then took the container from the stairs and boarded the plane to leave for Atlanta.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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