Kentaro Iwata is a Professor of Infectious Diseases at Kobe University who uploaded a video on YouTube after boarding the Diamond Princess cruise ship where thousands have been quarantined after passengers were found infected with Covid-19.

On Feb. 18, Iwata shared observations on his short stint on the ship.

Throughout the video, he calls for greater protection for people on the ship.

&feature=youtu.be

If you don't have time for a 18-minute video, here's a summary of it.

"Someone" tried to stop him

Iwata said that he was concerned about the rising number of infected passengers from the cruise ship.

He decided to see how he could help with the disease containment as a professional.

He managed to board the ship as part of the disaster management medical team responsible for managing the infection onboard with the help of an officer.

He had faced some roadblocks as "someone" did not like the idea of having him on board.

Iwata also tried to provide some constructive comments on how to improve the situation after witnessing the situation on the ship.

However, he was allegedly removed by a person from the quarantine office afterwards.

So how bad is the situation on the ship? And what's the infection control like?

Infection control "completely inadequate" with no specialist aboard

Iwata said that the infection control on Diamond Princess is "completely inadequate". He cited that there is no distinction between the free-of-virus zone and the contaminated zone on the ship.

People on the ship, including passengers, crew members, government officials and psychiatrists, were seen walking around and "there's no way to tell where the virus is".

Medical staff in their protective gear are using their phones and some were spotted eating lunch with their gloves on.

A paper of consent was passed around in the ship and that could be contaminated as well.

Furthermore, the frontline workers at the medical centre were also not wearing any protective gear despite being exposed to potentially infected patients. One of the workers he spoke to believed that she was probably infected and so "she's completely given up on protecting herself".

"Everywhere could have the virus and everybody was not careful about it," Iwata said.

Iwata was shocked to find no single professional infection control specialist inside the ship and that the "bureaucrats were in charge of everything".

He described the infection control efforts on the ground as "completely layman work" which will put those in the ship at risk of getting Covid-19.

Never been so afraid of getting infected before

Iwata had been involved in managing a few notable virus outbreaks at the epicentres such as the Ebola outbreak, Cholera outbreak and SARS in the past 20 years, and he has never been as afraid of getting infected.

"I never had fear of getting infection myself for Ebola, SARS, Cholera cause' I know how to protect myself and how to protect others, and how the infection control should be."

And after getting off the ship, he also isolated himself in a room for fear that he could be infected.

He said that after seeing the situation on the ship, he is not surprised to see so many new Covid-19 cases everyday and that other countries are repatriating their citizens from the ship.

Thousands of people could be at risk if there is no proper infection control on the ship and the spread might be much more serious.

For example, the disaster management medical team consists of doctors and nurses who will return to their hospitals and can spread the virus further in Japan, Iwata said.

That is why he could not stay silent and decided to share his thoughts and observations to the public.

"I can’t bear with it. I can't bear with it," he said.

"We have to change, we have to help people inside the ship. Their safety and their life."

As of the time of writing, over 500 passengers have disembarked after 14 days of quarantine.

With many countries organising chartered planes for their respective citizens.

&feature=youtu.be

Top photo collage via Kentaro Iwata's YouTube video and quarantinedondiamondprincess/Twitter