Lisa Delaney and Marilyn Duffoo

00:02 Hi, I'm Maryland Pho 43 today is January 20th. We are here today at the Centers for Disease Control and prevention in Atlanta, Georgia. And I am here with my colleague and kindred spirit from the Ebola response.

00:26 Hi, my name is Lisa Delaney. I am 40 years old is probably the last time I will be able to say that my birthday is tomorrow. Today is January 20th, and I'm here in Atlanta, Georgia at the Centers for Disease Control with Maryland to Pho.

00:45 Great Lisa. So tell me about your experience with the Ebola response your work leading up to your deployment. Do I work for one of the centers at niosh at CDC the National Institute for occupational safety and health and I got a call in January in July 2014 Thor just as TDCJ was standing up the Emergency Operations Center and expanding the response. And so I was one of the first people that nice to get called in and I led the workers taking health Team. So our focus is really on all workers. Not just the healthcare workers, but all workers who may be at risk of exposure to a bowl of it. So we supported both the domestic and international response throughout the fall when they were really seeing a lot of cases and it was either very stressful time and a lot of work and developing guidance documents or Friday of workers.

01:44 Head for the helpful Institute, I serve as the lead as I head of the emergency preparedness program there and I let the response to the whole fall and into the winter. And when I think we got to get a handle on on that I requested to employ to hopefully I actually I was going to Liberia and then up Sierra Leone and I really felt like that balanced my work of damping more the coordination and policy and working in the emergency Operation Center to actually getting that field experience was really important to me to round out my entire Ebola response. So for me that it's her marked almost at the end of Thor punctuated my my time working on the response being able to deploy. I'm how about yourself?

02:32 Well, I certainly wasn't involved as heavily as you in the early days of working in the Human Resources office. We were charged with creating a ebola toolkit for our supervisors because many of our employees who were deployed at questions regarding pay and leave and overtime hazardous duty pay.

02:56 And so we quickly created a supervisors Ebola tool kit on our website I had wanted to

03:06 Volunteer in deploy, but didn't see that they would possibly be in need that I would deploy. However, when I got the call and mid-march, I was ecstatic to go. So excited that I would be honored in order to go to Liberia and serve as their information officer.

03:30 And then before my deployment had the role of safety officer added on to my duties and Country and I know that is really your back ground, right? I am training. So we had we had a lot of concerns that there were as the response ramped-up and CDC was deploying so many people to West Africa really unprecedented and we never sent that many people to a deployment domestically let alone internationally there's a lot of complications as we know it's of the challenges of getting to deployed abroad. So when we are Leone in the response really advocated for the position of a safety officer and that person would be responsible for the health and safety of deployed staff and I think you know what any given time especially during some of the peak peak times and we had a hundred South Indian Guinea or may not get any because we had new challenges and finding a lot of French speakers, but certainly in Liberia and Sierra Leone roughly a hundred or so stop.

04:30 Any given time that we're doing a variety of things all over the country in the various districts as well as that the headquarter. So I think there was a real need for someone to two-step in a coordinate with the embassy security officers and work with the team leads and the leadership and Country leadership to help provide a health and safety and also resilience that you're right. So it's really important to manage your resiliency and how you deal with being in such stressful conditions.

05:01 Yeah, I saw that in Liberia. We had about sixty five plus staff on any given time Liberia was the first country to reach 0 and when I arrived and Country in mid-march, we are on our way to our countdown. We did reach our zero during my deployment. We did have a case pop up and we had to start 42 days again, but thankfully because my extension and Country and I was there about 65 days. I was actually able to see it get to zero during my time and Country being there. It opened my eyes to the need for a safety officer. I'm being a single point person that everyone TV y2kountry relied on my at my joke is it it's like hurting

06:01 For being the soccer mom or soccer coach that we really need to take care of our team members and you mentioned a great point with resiliency. Daft many of our staff members might have been shot and when they came back to Atlanta or to their respective location, and I know your office worked very closely with other offices to create information. What was one of your most memorable experiences and Sierra Leon. There's so many to choose from

06:44 I think one of the more difficult that certainly memorable was we had drivers a pool of drivers and we relied on them. We didn't drive and you typically have someone assigned to you. So certain teams would have certain drivers that you know, they they worked with on a daily basis and you would sign up and and I know that you had someone to help you get around the country, but they really the drivers Beyond being driving you from point A to point B U. They were your friends. They were your security they were your protectors and people really formed bonds with their drivers and we've always made sure to bring them food. So anytime you got in a car you grab a granola bar or a bottle of water to make sure that your driver had food for the day and we found one of our drivers unconscious in the parking lot at the Radisson, which is where we were

07:44 Play headquartered sale in Sierra Leone Freetown. We stayed almost at ICI stayed in the the the Radisson we worked out of what we were actually referred to as a cave and then as needed Stafford and teams would go to the district's during the weekend and come back on the weekends to it's where the headquarters and so we we found on the driver unresponsive and two of the Physicians donned to put on their personal protective equipment. And even though we are we really couldn't provide medical care, you know, they helped get him turned over and just sort of we're closed until that at ambulance could come in. That's I'm using that term loosely cuz they really don't have that kind of Emergency Response structure and Country, but it was a real tense couple of hours. I'm waiting for the ambulance to come and just being very concerned for the driver and I the safety officer also donned person protect.

08:44 Equipment and help set up a Decon line and provided support to the two Physicians. And then after the ambulance came we had to do the Decon line and properly remove our personal protective equipment. And then the next day I met with the household decontamination Cruz came to the site, even though we were outdoors and and did some preliminary decontamination Outdoors, but unfortunately the driver to pass away in the on the way to the hospital and so is really very scary moment because we didn't know we didn't think that he had a Bola but we know you can't assume that he didn't and it took several days for the test results the lab results to come back that showed. No, he didn't have a bowl and it was really tough because we felt that he was part of our CDC families extended family and Sierra Leone and it is an impacted all of the staff and

09:44 And we took up a collection and had a memorial service a couple of weeks later that was attended by his family. And I think it was for me probably the toughest time. I was mentally prepared to leave my family and I have two young sons and the the the driver he also had a young son and that was sort of like my really only tense moments of really just being so so sad because I just put myself in his place of having this young child, and he doesn't know I'm no longer has a father but it was also really inspiring because we had people he drove for the vaccine team. So we have people in Atlanta say, how can we help can we contribute and we were able to I think we had about over $3,000 in donations that we were able to donate to the family. But the money in Sierra Leone was $20 20 US dollars with a hundred thousand Sierra Leone's and so can you imagine an end? We only they only had at 10?

10:44 $20,000 bills so it can you imagine what we had to find to pulled the 3,000 to give to his family to give him that much cash, but it was just wonderful to see all the CDC team and stuff that was in country at the time but also the staff that had for turn back to Atlanta and other locations in the US come together and I'm just attributes and the kind stories that they shared was was really memorable and it was it was it was really sad. That was also a good moment to see how we all came together as a family and you bring up a good point that we're in this together and it's really all of humanity that were here for it. Not just the good of the American public where CDC is located but really A went around the world because we are so can

11:44 Dad and they bring up a good point with the humanity and our heartstrings. There was a responder in Liberia who once said you may leave Liberia, but Liberia never leaves you and that was just never so true until I left and when I came home it was all I could think about was going back and then I need to do more I saw the real Public Health action the boots on the ground where we saw what we were doing were making an impact so quickly.

12:22 And as you pointed out the driver provided that needed resource, it became a family member in Liberia. We had individuals who were deploying to Liberia. That staffed are CDC Thailand office are CDC Kenya office. We had staff from our field epidemiology laboratory training program from Nigeria that was there to help and the response efforts and I still talk with those individuals and email them and because I do still feel like they're part of my family and in a really are there part of the CDC family and we are one

13:06 Even though we are just in a world apart. So how did you know, I think that's a really compelling rationale for why we wanted to deploy but how did your family react when you told them that you were going to West Africa where there was a current outbreak of Ebola virus disease? Well, I I got the email that came across my desk that said, you know your your name was referred. Would you like to go and I just got butterflies in my stomach was excited ran to tell my supervisor. She's like you want to go and I'm like absolutely this is an honor. She said. Port you and I go home and I tell my husband and I said will someone recommended that I go and his first response was do they not like you? Why do you want to go to a country that has Ebola?

13:57 And I had to tell him, you know, this is a great honor to represent CDC and to connect with the Liberian people and I think are when you are working at CDC and you have so many different colleagues are going if it doesn't become the scary thing to you and you realize it's going to be safe and you know that there are processes to help you during deployment there and keep you safe. But your your family doesn't have that same perspective and I thought that was really great. One of the things that TDCJ. It is part of the deployment process as they offered a friends-and-family call at night. So family members who were concerned about the deployment could dial in and ask questions. And and so I course my kids and my husband were like, yeah, Mom, you'll be fine. My mom was so so it shouldn't you put on a brave face will say that but they weren't I think they were very worried about me going but I listened in on one of the family friends and family calls and forced my kids and my

14:57 Open to listen and there were some really interesting questions of I know when Mom asked me if I'm sure either she had a grown daughter that was was deploying and she said why is CDC recommending that they take knives with them aren't they going to be safe here? This is the they should be going if they need not as well. The recommendation was a pocket knife in case you needed to cut a robe or even more for your daily activities not for protection, but it got misinterpreted by that Mom. So I thought you know that's really is great that were offering those opportunities to help loved ones deal with the deployment as well because we're we're it was more comfortable for us to go I think and I think you're right because we both worked at CDC for 20 plus years and it's you know, it's in our bones that you know were called to serve the publicly and promoting the Public Health Mission and taking care of each other in those around the world for me. It was it was a no-brainer.

15:57 I knew that I was not going to be In Harm's Way at all and hadn't anticipated having to Don my personal protective equipment though and have that. If a couple of days of not really knowing whether I'd gotten too close to a bowl or not, but it comes with the job, right? And I remember when you were in Sierra Leone and Liberia and we had those weekly safety officer calls and a you would miss one of the calls that we go. It's like well she said she's working on something right now. She's dealing with something and it was just like my heart went out to you like oh my goodness and but it was also a reminder that we still need to keep Vigilant. Although. We're getting to zero we still need to ensure the safety and security of our CDC stock. Number one making sure that they are protected. I'm in there. You're following the pop proper procedures to

16:57 Hats off to your group that laid the Fallon, you know the groundwork to get safety officers and Country and now is that it was a big effort and we had with our first person we deployed to health and safety professionals one person from my emergency preparedness office and then a veterinarian and they went and November over the Thanksgiving holiday. I think they didn't come home until your Christmas Eve and they first when they went to Liberia to try to socialize that concept because I don't think people really understood the benefit of a safety officer. I'm at our role isn't to prevent CDC staff from not being able to go into the important work of of helping us get to zero cases where there to make sure they're healthy to be able to go and do the work and I think it was an important role and it's one that we're working now to solidify that has a standing position and expectations that will

17:57 Position when we if we have any other future International responses, and I think you know, we have a lot of support from the right people wouldn't to make sure that that continues what kinds of cases of an issues. Did you did you see you while you were there and you come a little too some trips and falls and lacerations, but we did we had the normal GI issues of individuals not following safety officer recommendations and making sure you wash your fruits and vegetables and not eating from vendors off the street to only go to places that we knew had some past certain protocols and in hand-washing techniques and all but we did have individuals fall and break their ankle. I just on the sidewalks they were not even at all. We had an individual that suffered a mild concussion had to incur stitches so I accompanied the individual.

18:57 Do the embassy Personnel to get stitched up and holding their hand or if they're doing this?

19:05 And it really was the I was the point person that and I was also serving as the information officer is why the Orient staff coming in country and I would tell them I'm your safety officer is well and I am available 24/7 and I think I found comfort in that that when they called me at 2 or 3 in the morning that I answer the phone right here. We had individuals that had gotten locked outside their apartment and had lost their apartment key and it's raining and it's 2:00 in the morning on a Saturday and you know, you're the go-to person for what they did not necessarily health and safety issue, but the security issues so it's good that you were that with that position was there to help people who absolutely in for the the work that your office did and that they are in you and training me because this is not my background, right?

20:05 I think that was one of the things we were really looked at this in three phases the pre-deployment during deployment and post-deployment that you can't just focus on the during deployment. And so one of the things that we did is as people were preparing on on Deck to deploy that you started joining those calls when we had weekly calls with the in-country safety officers and also the unit that coordinated the safety officers and all deployments and said it was supposed to be sore of an easy transition into preparing you to deployed understand swear. What are the relevant issues because they're going to continue while you're there I know for me it was really great for me. I think I was an advantage haven't been so intimately involved in the response for 6-9 months before because there were very few flights flying into Sierra Leone. Most of the airlines had pulled out and I had the benefit of two of my direct staff in my office were serving of safety officers before me.

21:05 And came back and so we had at a half a day orientation the day before I left if if she showed me around the share drive and some of the documentation and and then when I left Saturday night, I wish I was a fly out Saturday night and then arrive in Sierra Leone essentially 24 Sunday night 24 hours later, but we had engine trouble is in Atlanta that causes to be delayed. So we missed the connection and there's only the next flight. So Sunday we missed our connection from Brussels to Freetown and half of us were able to be rerouted the following day and to Casablanca where we were essentially had about six hours to kill and that airport and then took a red-eye into Freetown. So basically had two and a half days of travel for me to get in there and then I had about a day and a half of overlap with the current safety officer. So I was really really grateful for all the the the pre-deployment activity because

22:05 You're you're you're so out of sorts when you first arrived and you don't even realize it until afterwards and you think I didn't really retain half of the stuff. So thankfully we had lots of transition notes and other things that happened prior because I don't think I retained a whole lot of it is just completely jet-lagged and had about an hour of sleep before we work spent the day working and I thought. Was going to be a long month. I don't know how much I'm going to like it here because it was so that the learning curve is so Steep and you get there and in my my predecessor Jill Swaggart, you know, she knew everybody everybody was walking past and asking her questions and she knew all the answers. I thought how in the world am I ever going to know all these people for a while and then be able to answer their questions and of course you're alive very quickly you you're like a sponge absorb it all and then by the end of the deployment, I was in the same boat, you know transitioning to my safety officer is replacing me saying

23:05 It was really a remarkable how much you were able to retain and and integrate into the response in such a short. Of time and I was only there 30 days you were there for over sixty which is a really long deployment. Did you extend call you were there or had you always planned on being there for 60 days or the original request was for about 45 days, but I had known that extensions were probably likely so I went in knowing that I would probably be there about 60 days and had I not had to get back from my little girls dance recital. I would have stayed another 3069 Saturday just because I I loved it so much and the people of Liberia. We're so grateful for the work that we were doing our partners to provide these life-saving and services and supplies and in the contract racing and helping them to get to zero, you know, but like you said you when you have almost two full days of travel

24:05 You arrived and Country in the middle of the night and you know, you're trying to get acclimated and you start the net very next morning. The person is overwhelming. I would say you hit the ground running and they're leaving on the you arrive on a Monday night and they're out on the flight Friday morning in Liberia. And I was trying to cross train with two individuals for two separate roles and trying to make it my own but like you said you were a sponge and you're just you don't realize you're able to do that and I think that's part of the CDC culture that we're just Learners. I want to learn what help and we want to help that do never wrote the sleeves and do whatever needs to be done to get us-20 not was the the mission. Yes, and we have individuals who that may not be a certain role that they're in but they're going to take on that role or responsibility pitch in to our team members.

25:05 In contract racing or whatever the case may be to ensure that we're getting the work done that we're getting to zero and we're helping the people of West Africa orientation. So as soon as you stop arrived before they can do anything they had to sit through an orientation and learn about the safety hazards and issues and how to protect themselves as really at that point. I felt like a bowl. I was probably the issue of least concern for them. It was more in a foodborne issues malaria and reminding people to take their antimalarial medications trips and falls personal Safety and Security having is using your stop phones and your tracking devices that the embassy gave us so that you know, if you had you basically could push a button and be able to to let you know that they would send a signal back to DC to let folks know that you needed help managing all of that out to me was sort of

26:05 The more relevant issues and I thought that we're in Tatian was really important and people seem to be really appreciative of giving them that information. Some of that was just you got a pre-deployment briefing for our briefing on safety and health and other things before you left Atlanta, but I think there was still really country specific information that you needed and and I know that people were really grateful for a forgiving that orientation and for the most part I think that you know, we're all grown adults. I can only give you the information and hopefully you choose to adopt some of those great behaviors and not put yourself In Harm's Way, and I'm did you find that people are appreciative? Yes and again because we were the point people when they're coming in the office or the ones that we want to make sure that they've arrived safely in the middle of the night that they know where they're going the next morning because our staff were staying at hotels and apartment and we had to get them to the old Embassy compound where we already had at office established and like you said a bowl

27:05 With our least concern we were more worried about crossing the street and getting hit by a car. I really worried about motor vehicle accidents that kept me up at night that you know, stop sign for decorations. Oh you have thoughts. I don't think we had stop signs in Sierra Leone and interesting because you basically going into you have the right away to enter the traffic circle in everyone in the traffic circle seem to like they were supposed to stop for a it was really an opposite concept and lots of people on those scooters in Liberia. It was whoever had the biggest in the fastest car got to go first and moved you out of the way and that you took your life into your own hands outside crossing the street and again, and as you mentioned the trips and fall hazards the sidewalk with broken up. I was an unfortunate victim that myself paying no attention and walking.

28:05 Mamba Point Hill texting on my BlackBerry trying to talk on my cell phone and it tripped and had scrapes on my knees and and hands and was more embarrassed than anything else. But at least I could give our new staff arriving in country note around with a reality check that you really have to take care of yourself because if you're not able to take care of yourself and you're not well, you can't perform your function you're letting your other team members down down and you know it if you get sick and it whether it's a GIS you or or just a common cold that you caught and we need to make sure we're trying to keep that at Bay when I think one of those what would I observed in my time? There is people were working every single day. Some of them were that there for 30-day deployment some had been there 60 and and longer and it really takes its toll physically on you and when people get sick

29:04 There they been was Panic especially depending on when you're with their symptoms are if they start to get at their feverish I think deep down know that they likely were not exposed to Ebola mean the type of where they did we didn't we didn't have our CDC staff in hospitals providing clinical care, but you can't rule it out. And so anytime they had those the more generic symptoms that could be the same symptoms as an ebola disease. They really panicked and you were there to provide that moral support because they didn't eat there were very few resources and places for them to go out at to get treatment. And so I think being there and just providing that support was so critical and that was a role that we can play and then we took that burden from a team lead who really needed to focus on the mission of the team that maybe that would be the role that they would assume. So I think that was so important.

30:04 We did two to keep the mission going in the activities of the team. They also being there for our employees and in your right there when you're in West Africa, there's not just the access to the healthcare resources and just going down to the local pharmacy to get a box of aspirins or Band-Aids that you had. So we really needed to make sure that we were taking care of our staff and and checking on them and offering that moral support because we know even Communications we had a phone but keeping that contact with our family members. Maybe we couldn't get in contact with them a lot or typing an email. You're you're pushing a button in your typing an email on your you're finished and then you just have to sit back and wait for a few minutes before the words to appear on the crazy and I had such a greater appreciation and what we take for granted here and I would FaceTime my husband in my in my

31:04 Family and it would cut out every few minutes and he would get frustrated and I was like across an ocean across the continent look on the map where I'm at and where you're at and you just don't have those technology. I think we take that for granted sometimes know how did that I think we actually get a you grow accustomed to that. I mean power would go out internet with Spotty phone sometimes doesn't work on we certainly in Sierra Leone didn't have access to a lot of the same foods and we discourage people from eating a lot of the freshly cut fruit and vegetables because of and the water wasn't clean. So what what did you this is what we all talked about a lot of what do you mess with your first meal when you go when you go home at what was the one thing you really wanted ice cream ice cream. Yes ice cream or ice-cream what I wanted because again you talk about just the support of the CDC staff here bass in it.

32:04 And they would ship us or Mula said we call it in their backpacks and stuff a chocolate or granola bars. So sick of granola and I just couldn't bring myself and my beer we were very fortunate or they were pretty much back to normal. Really. I'm in the stores that open the embassy had shuttles that take us to the market and I just couldn't bring myself to pay the 499 for a small little I would say sample of the Haagen-Dazs ice cream. I would have done it like I splurged on the Oreos for I think 799 for a small package of Oreos and it lasted me pretty much about 40 days. I just want to ask it wouldn't it was a ration them. I didn't I really thought I was going to have it.

33:04 Difficult time with the food I didn't really have a special meal that I wanted when I went home, but I wanted cold drinks always I want my ice and cold drinks and I want it clean smells. Like I was really tired of a lot of the smells and I was really looking forward to clean.

33:24 I think my biggest Choice when I got home is because when were there we only pack kind of what we think we're going to need and as a woman having different shoes and clothes and jewelry and all these different choices my first thought when I got back on a Sunday night and had to be at work bright and early Monday morning cuz I looked in my closet and I was over what I've lived on 10 outfits and two pairs of shoes for 65 days. Now what it what am I going to do? And I thought it was so trivial but it's hard how did reintegration I mean that was something that we also place a lot of importance on that the post-deployment and how our staff integrated back into the the other day job. And for me I knew I would continue working on a Bola so I didn't have a hard time letting that piece of it go because you know, I deal with an emergency.

34:24 He's an NN. There's always that sort of Fast Pace until for me. I knew that would continue but I know for a lot of people when they returned home that was going to be the end of their deployment and they had a hard time going back to the minutiae of the slower-paced a job where they didn't see that immediate impact of the war that they were doing. Did you have a little bit of that? I think I did feel some of that but I have been very proactive and wanting to stay involved and making sure that I'm still on the mailing list with all the updates from our desk officers. We've had some good together with staff that we really bonded with during our time their emails again for those deaths. I bonded with a narc Kenya and our Thailand office and just you know, what I really appreciate the DRM you and they set up those monthly Thursday.

35:24 Counters in volunteer Saturday work events really to keep the the spirit right alive because it again it's this it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for cc&r public health in action and just the

35:42 It's almost Indescribable my recommitment to Public Health and my desire so much to just help no matter what the hell is going to be whether it's to playing out of country. Whether it's here in the emergency Operation Center or just staying staff behind and and backfilling and having to take on those additional duties for staff that are deployed and a way it did it just it felt special and I know I haven't had a lot of international travel for work and I say I did go this December to World Health Organization Switzerland to follow up with some of our a bowl of work and promoting the health and safety of responders during emergencies and outbreaks and I thought Boys still so different, you know, it doesn't feel you're going to Switzerland and going to these meetings was very different experience when I went and in April of that of 2015.

36:42 Felt like what you were doing was so important and it is very very different to travel internationally at the end of the year as opposed to my other trip, but I thought I had a challenging reintegration. I felt was so I had a very single singular mission in Sierra Leone and working on the response and then coming back and have it being spread. So thin I I had I felt very overwhelmed and then on top of that week after I came home we had another separate emergency that popped up that we had to respond to and I thought can I just please go back to Africa? It was so much easier. I was just a safety officer and I'm feeling a little overwhelmed trying to catch up on the More Than A month's worth of work that's piling up staff that need me to weigh in and presentations and conferences that I was planning on going to so it took me a good I think six weeks to kind of get back to my normal.

37:43 Yeah, I was very thankful for my supervisor who and it welcomed me back that you know, we want we don't want to dump your projects back on. Thankfully I had about 30 days before I deployed so I was able to coordinate a lot of my projects to have them taken over while I was away. My supervisor was wonderful and allowing me some extra time to spend with my family cuz I had Miss so much time with my family and I spring break and and Mother's Day and my son's first prom and getting his license and getting our daughter register for kindergarten you all the things that are other family members have to do. Yeah. I flew home. I said they wanted me to extend extended a couple days, but I can't do it any longer and I landed on my son's birthday.

38:35 So that was really special and in my might take away with it, you know, so many individuals had sacrifice Christmas and Thanksgiving and anniversaries and and birthdays and I thought you know, this is just one Mother's Day. This is just one spring break and I miss Mother's Day. She I forgot about that. I spent it without my children. I was going home and I thought okay. I thought we were really benefit from having email and FaceTime and Skype so that I think you didn't feel as isolated that I actually my husband and I don't care about you know, usually until I had to say hey, I really need you to let me know what's going on. So he wouldn't really deliberately write these nice long email. So let me know what was going on in the kid's life. And so I appreciated that but it was interesting cuz we not really ever communicated like that before technology was wonderful and my husband and I were able to FaceTime for our daughters parent-teacher conference.

39:35 Great, and I had a Mother's Day program that he's FaceTime me for and I was able to watch it and kudos to those are awesome husband watching the kids and being single dads for for my husband for pretty much the better part of a year on we are just getting back to normal with me not working 24/7 and and nights and weekends. And then I said I want by the way now I'm going to leave for a month what but he really understood and was very supportive and I think that unable to Saul to do the work that we were doing at CDC. Yes, and I'm very grateful for my husband is well because the passion that I fell in the spark again for my Liberia trip, it was just so amazing that now we're just now on a path to see how we can transition our whole family either to Liberia or another country where CDC has a present so that we can be active and inhale

40:35 In our fellow, you know fellows and we're not that much different not at all though. I am traveled all the way to Liberia to meet us CDC Stafford. That's part of our own one of our health department in Alabama to find out she is from the same small town in Georgia that my mother is wrong and it was so unusual. I'm in so that was another great contact that we met and now we keep in touch. I actually met people where I only was involved in both conferences with them because I don't work on the main campus. And so I actually met them in Africa through it took coming to Africa to actually see you in person to finally meet you in person. So that's pretty remarkable. So we just

41:26 I think we take for granted how small we really are and how connected we are as human beings and around the world and cuz again, it does take every single person coming together to accomplish the CDC Mission whether it's here in Atlanta, Georgia in the US or abroad really to keep everyone safe and secure. I love working at CDC.

41:54 Me too.

41:56 Thanks Marilyn. It's been fun catching up and and seeing you in person. And we spent a lot of time on phone calls together across the across the way yes, and and likewise a nice why I call you not just a colleague but my kindred spirits and we didn't meet face-to-face until actually we got back from her deployment. So it's been a great. I feel like I have a new friend at CDC now safety health and safety friend. Yes.