Virus upends Warren family

Ex-teacher in hospital; spouse, son social-media targets

A 62-year-old retired teacher from Warren who planned her family’s “trip of a lifetime” to Europe tested positive for covid-19 days within returning home, family members said Thursday.

Beverly Reep has been hospitalized at CHI St. Vincent in Little Rock since Tuesday after testing positive for the virus, said her husband and son, who were separately quarantined inside their homes.

Reep was in stable condition and using a ventilator to help her breathe Thursday, her husband Gregg said in a telephone interview.

“She’s hanging in there,” he said. Gregg Reep was Warren’s mayor for 18 years and a state lawmaker from 200510. “Our main concern right now is her health, getting her better.”

While Beverly receives emergency care, the Reeps have been confronted with vitriolic social media posts critical of the family, they said.

Interviews with the Reep family and an Arkansan who

returned Thursday from Germany add depth as to how people are experiencing illness, travel, health care and, in this case, social blowback amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“My whole world is different right now,” Gregg said. “I know it is for a lot of other people in other ways, too. I really don’t know how to explain it. It’s got everything turned upside down, but it’s the way we’ve got to function right now.”

Beverly is among 62 people who have tested positive in Arkansas for the coronavirus, a potentially deadly respiratory illness that has swept the globe since emerging in China late last year. The World Health Organization has declared covid- 19 a pandemic.

More than 242,000 people worldwide and more than 13,000 in the United States had been infected as of Thursday evening, according to a database published by Johns Hopkins University.

American health and government officials have advised people to avoid large gatherings and to distance themselves socially in order to slow the spread of the virus, fearing that a spike in infections would overwhelm the country’s hospitals.

Anyone can catch and spread the virus, but the elderly and people with autoimmune diseases, diabetes, an underlying respiratory illness or other preexisting conditions face an elevated risk of dying.

The Reeps consulted with their travel agent before their vacation, which began March 5. At the time, the federal government had not suspended travel to Europe, and the Reeps perceived any risk as “remote,” said Rob, their 31- year- old son who traveled with his parents and his wife, Jessica.

The Reeps stocked up on small bottles of hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes, which they used to clean airplane and train seats.

“We became clean freaks,” said Rob, who owns the local news website salineriverchronicle.com.

The family visited London, Paris and Normandy — taking in sights that included Westminster Abbey, the Palace of Versailles and the beaches stormed by Allied forces during World War II. None of the four had previously visited Europe.

Beverly, who taught history, delighted in the Palace of Versailles, her husband said, and was proud to plan the visit to Normandy, her son said. Gregg, who called himself a student of history, said his uncle died in France during World War II, though not on D- Day.

“That was a big deal [ for Beverly] to see such a place and to give that to my father,” Rob said.

TRAVEL SCREENING

On the morning that the family left France to come home, they woke up to learn of President Donald Trump’s travel restrictions on European countries, Rob said. The Reeps boarded their previously scheduled flight and flew to Little Rock, connecting in Atlanta.

Despite the new travel restrictions, they weren’t screened.

“When we came through the airports, there was no instruction — nothing,” Rob said. “Nobody told us, ‘ you’ve got to go into quarantine.’ … Even when they checked our passports in Atlanta, there was no discussion about any of that.”

Another Arkansan unrelated to the Reeps said Thursday that government screening of travelers flying in from countries singled out as travel risks was lacking.

Passengers who flew on American Airlines into DallasFort Worth from Germany on Thursday afternoon were handed a generic form that asked about covid- 19 symptoms, but that was the extent of their screening, said Brian Storrie, a 74- year- old Arkansas resident.

The form, handed out about 20 minutes before the flight landed, asked for passengers’ names, addresses, flight information and whether they had fever, coughs or shortness of breath, Storrie said. Passengers gave the forms to an officer after getting off the plane.

Fliers were not subject to temperature checks, he said. They were advised to voluntarily quarantine themselves for two weeks and were given vague directions to leave their homes only “minimally,” Storrie said. Storrie said he has not shown symptoms.

“It comes across as a totally voluntary effort,” Storrie said during a telephone interview. “Minimal is a term that is interpreted in different ways by different people. … To me, this is not a serious effort to track people in a way which would actually make people feel like it was serious and had some consequences.”

Germany is among the European Union countries to which Trump has banned travel. Americans who were abroad were allowed to come back to the U. S.

BACK AT HOME

After the Reeps returned to Arkansas late March 12, they began taking precautions, they said.

Rob closed his news website’s office to the public. They planned to skip church for at least two weeks. Beverly and Gregg did their grocery shopping at 5: 30 a. m. Saturday to avoid crowds. They used drive- thru windows at fastfood restaurants, but otherwise did not go out in public, Gregg said.

Beverly, who is diabetic and had open- heart surgery, began feeling sick to her stomach Sunday, her husband said. She didn’t have a fever or otherwise show symptoms linked to covid- 19, such as labored breathing or a cough.

Beverly went to her doctor’s local clinic Monday. She was admitted to Bradley County Regional Medical Center.

Although she did not exhibit covid- 19 symptoms, officials ordered a test because she had just returned from overseas travel and because her underlying health conditions elevated her risk of a bad outcome, Gregg said.

After the test came back positive, Beverly was transferred to CHI St. Vincent. Her family has not been able to visit her, but they talked by phone until Beverly was placed on a ventilator. The hospital staff has maintained regular contact with Gregg to provide updates, he said.

Social media posts heaping scorn on the family circulated Thursday. Rob and Gregg said some of the vitriol directed toward them has been threatening.

“Luckily my mom is not where she could hear it because it would crush her knowing what some people, including family, are saying about it,” Rob said. “They’re saying things out of fear and anger.”

Gregg hasn’t yet been tested for the virus. Health officials instead told the family to quarantine inside their homes and report if they show any symptoms, he said.

“I was told there wasn’t a whole lot of test kits,” Gregg said.

Rob said he and his wife, Jessica, were given oral and nasal swabs and got back test results, but they weren’t sure whether they were tested for covid- 19. Either way, they have no covid- 19 results, he said. The family members believe they will be tested in the coming days, he said.

Arkansas Health Department spokeswoman Danyelle McNeill, speaking generally, said people who have not shown covid- 19 symptoms aren’t being tested for the virus, even if their spouses have tested positive for the coronavirus.

“In general, asymptomatic contacts to cases are monitored for symptoms,” McNeill said. “When they develop symptoms, they are tested for covid- 19. However, they are not tested prior to developing symptoms.”

The contagious virus spreads when people are in close contact or through respiratory droplets when an infected person coughs or sneezes, according to the federal Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Social media posts heaping scorn on the family circulated Thursday. Rob and Gregg said some of the vitriol directed toward them has been threatening.