Former FDA chief Scott Gottlieb, left, and former Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael Leavitt, center, are advising Royal Caribbean and Norwegian on security protocols for navigating the pandemic era. Royal Caribbean CEO Richard Fain says the findings will be made public.
Getty Images (1); Bloomberg (2)
Text size
Royal Caribbean Cruises and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings have enlisted a panel of experts to review and strengthen their safety and health protocols as they seek to reassure cruise ship passengers amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
The companies have contacted Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and a public health expert during the pandemic, and former Utah Governor Mike Leavitt to co-chair an expert panel. . Panel members will be consistently compensated by senior subject matter experts; Panel expenses will be divided between the two cruise operators.
Cruise lines, which have been closed since mid-March, are in the process of submitting improved health and safety protocols to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC has had an order not to sail until July 24; that is expected to spread.
The panel will “evaluate, complement and refine” any presentation that Royal Caribbean and Norwegian make to the CDC, Governor Leavitt said. Barron’s. Leavitt’s experience also includes serving as Secretary of Health and Human Services during the presidency of George W. Bush.
The big wild card for the cruise industry is whether it can resume navigation without a Covid-19 vaccine. “It is one of the questions that we are dealing with,” said Gottlieb. Barron’s Monday.
He added that “we are developing a set of recommendations that can improve health and safety in a Covid environment and then we are superimposing it with an evaluation of what is the general risk in the population, what is the prevalence of infection. That will ultimately affect what you can do and what you do. “
Even if there is a vaccine and the prevalence of the virus drops dramatically, Gottlieb said, “There are probably still things that industries are doing to do differently, including the cruise industry. We will have to think differently about respiratory health in perpetuity after this event. ”
However, Gottlieb believes that even without a vaccine, cruise operators can resume business with the proper protocols.
He says “it is possible to create a protective bubble around the cruise experience,” adding: “It is a controlled environment and it becomes a question of what you are capable of, what you are willing to do, and there is still residual experience. that’s attractive to consumers there. But it’s an environment we can control. “
However, he said, “You will never have a zero risk environment.”
“What we are trying to solve is to dramatically reduce the risk of putting a case on the boat and dramatically reduce the risk that if there is a case put on the boat,” an outbreak is avoided.
Richard Fain, CEO of Royal Caribbean, said Monday that the information the panel receives will be open to the entire industry. “We do not compete in security,” he said.
The panel has been working for about a month and is expected to publish its recommendations in early August.
It is still unclear when cruise operators will be able to resume their voyages. The summer season is almost gone. The International Association of Cruise Lines, a trade group, said last month that its members had voluntarily suspended travel from US ports until September 15.
Shares of Royal Caribbean (ticker: RCL) and Norwegian (NCLH) rose Monday morning: Royal by more than 1% and Norwegian by 0.3%. Cruise ship stocks have lost more than 50% annually to date due to concerns about the pandemic.
Separately, Carnival (CCL), the United States’ largest cruise operator, said Monday that he and the World Tourism and Travel Council will co-sponsor a summit on Covid-19 later this month.
The summit, which is open to the online public, is scheduled for July 23. It will include world experts in science and health.
Topics to be covered include the status of vaccines being developed, transmission, detection and testing, risk mitigation and therapeutics being developed.
Carnival shares were at $ 15 and change Monday morning, down 1% on the session.
Write to Lawrence C. Strauss at [email protected]
.
