The Centers for Disease Control asked people to comment on whether they feel ready to board cruise ships again despite the not-yet-out-of-control pandemic. If the public comments are to be believed, the answer is a resounding yes.
The cruise industry is currently under a No sail order by the CDC after the ships became COVID-19 incubators in the early days of the epidemic. That order is set to expire on September 30th.
There have been more than 1,500 comments posted on the website since this writing. Merciful to us, Business Insider combed through and found something good:
“I think it would be good to open the cruise lines with proper cleaning and sanitation,” one anonymous commentator wrote. ‘There is no difference and to go to a supermarket or shopping mall or eat with hundreds of people. I would go on a cruise tomorrow when they reopen. ”
Others downplayed the risks of capturing COVID-19 at sea, accusing the CDC of unfairly imposing its will on cruise passengers and cruise operators, while allowing other forms of transportation to continue. That is despite cruises being a form of transportation that people take for pleasure as a necessity, and the fact that from March 1st to July 10th, nearly 3,000 U.S. cruise passengers fell ill with COVID-19 and died 34.
“Please start cruising,” one respondent said wrote. ‘No matter what we try to prevent people from getting Covid and most will be fine. It makes no economic sense to ruin our country. ”
“STOP FEAR MONGERING!” another person wrote. “LET US RIGHT TO LIFE AND CROSS.”
What enthusiasm! Unfortunately, cruise fans want to think twice about how safe their cruise actually is, seeing those thousands of infections and dozens killed earlier this year. That does not include cases from before March 1: The Diamond Princess cruise, which began with 10 cases of COVID-19, involving more than 700 passengers infected by the virus as they docked in Japan.
Last month, BI reported that only 40 percent of cruise ships operating in U.S. waters regularly test the crew for COVID-19. These ships were able to continue working after the 10-sail ban on April 10 to repatriate crew members.
G / O Media can get a commission
Even if you love cruises, just read the questions that the CDC is currently struggling with past, every traveler would have to take a break. Here is just one of the 26 posed by the center:
16. What steps should cruise ship operators take to prevent the introduction of COVID-19 on ships after continuing passenger work?
in. Should cruise ship operators refuse boarding to passengers with COVID-like illness or confirmed infection with COVID-19?
b. Should cruise ship operators in the past 14 days refuse boarding to passengers with known exposure to a person with COVID-19?
c. What methods should cruise ship operators use to screen for exposures and detect COVID-like disease in passengers wishing to board a ship?
d. Should cruise ship operators refuse boarding to passengers coming from COVID-19 geographic areas with high incidents?
e. How should cruise ship operators manage crew members with COVID-like illness, known exposure, or come from geographic areas with high incidents after resuming passenger operation?
f. Should cruise ship operators test passengers and crew in advance? If so, what should the test protocol be?
g. Do cruise ship operators have to move the transport and domestic passengers and crew to board at the seaport in order not to expose the public?
This question only sounds like a nightmare of constant screens and legal misery. Cruises are all about getting laid and new places disappearing while relaxing. Is there now a way to do that safely? Probably not, especially now that we know more about how infected COVID-19 can be in confined and common areas. It does not help that cruises already exist breeding grounds for gastrointestinal diseases known as noroviruses.
It would be one thing for travelers to pose a risk only to themselves, but that is not the case. Another CDC question asks if the cruise line would be liable if travelers carrying COVID-19 in port communities. Now, what was once a whole holiday is turning into an international incident.
Many of the comments from cruise enthusiasts refer to how well the crew cleans the ship, but it is now strongly suspected that COVID-19 is at its most contagious when spreading person-to-person through small droplets of saliva called aerosols. , according to Nature magazine. I can not imagine ships requiring a mask rule on passengers, which logically should always be carried in common areas and in ports of call. Cruisers also tend to be older: About a third of cruise passengers are older than 59, according to The New York Times, and therefore more risk of serious complications should they be infected with COVID-19.
Honestly, at the moment it just sounds like a lot of hassle and danger for not really that much fun.
.
