I still remember being shocked that we were bringing people from Wuhan into the UK, Brize Norton and then transferring them to Liverpool, my experience of infectious disease with travelers was immediate quarantine, and seeing the driver below surrounded by hazmat suited medics is hard to forget, perhaps a sign of what was to come, and the reason I went into lockdown before being told to.
It's five years since he had his face splashed across the news, and Andy Simonds still gets asked about the image - anxious expression, hands gripping the wheel, as a medic in a hazmat suit is seated behind him.
"I've seen people on social media question 'how is he, is he alive?' 'Is he dead?' 'What happened to the poor driver?'," he says now with a wry smile.
The job that day? Transporting passengers who had just landed in the UK from Wuhan, China to a secure medical facility - at a time when coronavirus fears were spreading rapidly.
The saga for Andy, 62, who now lives in Newport, even included a call from chief medic Chris Witty offering him advice.
With concerns about the virus rising, he also had to flee a shopping centre after being recognised as one of the bus drivers involved in transporting people.
But he insisted: "I'd do it again................
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj67rpn2z6ro
