CDC Requests Input on Resumption of cruises and the public can participate

[sandebeach]

I posted some photos on the “TUI cancellation thread” that I borrowed from a FB poster who is currently on the three-day Mein Ship cruise out of Germany. It shows social distancing at the pool and the men’s room!

[bigrednole]

I skimmed through it and I am nowhere near qualified to even comment. What I find fascinating is that Cruise Lines are singled out this way. 100% of what is in this document pertains to 100% of every day life in the US. You could tie all of this to the following:

1. Uber/Lyft: If any passenger in an Uber/Lyft vehicle tests positive or has symptoms, Uber/Lyft must accept all financial hardships, quarantine everyone that was in contact and everyone they were in contact with, they must have medical and quarantine facilities

2. All airlines must follow the same policies

3. All forms of public transportation must be tracked by persons onboard

4. All people at hotels, AirBNBs, VRBOS, etc must track all guests and assume responsibility

5. All retails stores, grocery stores, and drug stores must maintain lists of all people who come and leave the store so they can be responsible for CV19 contamination. They are financially responsible for quarantining everyone exposed

6. Public and Private schools must have protocols in place to fund medical staff, frequent testing of all that come into the school, fund quarantine and medical facilities for those that could have been exposed. Staff and faculty continue to get paid while in quarantine.

 

 

I think the issue is someone is trying to single out an industry that is not registered in the US and force their hand. I can agree to an extent. However, we have bigger problems locally and need to have far more stringent rules in place.

[ipeeinthepool]

On 7/24/2020 at 11:12 AM, plosfas said:

These feel like questions I am in no way qualified to answer 🙂

 

Please don’t feel bad that you are not qualified to answer these questions, the cruise lines don’t have the answers either. 😉

[bouhunter]

2 hours ago, ipeeinthepool said:

 

 the cruise lines don’t have the answers either. 😉

And that is the problem.  Everyone wants to talk about masks and social distancing on ships.  The bigger issue they have to deal with is positive tests onboard.  A detailed plan to deal with that is needed and they are in a tough place.  

[ECCruise]

On 7/25/2020 at 2:53 PM, cltnccruisers said:

After the good Dr's agonizing first pitch the other night, he was shown in the stands with 2 other people.  Masks down and seated next to each other.  My wife tells me not to voice my opinion on the govt handling of this - but I'll bet you can guess.

Facts matter:

1) 3 people in the stands.  Fauci, his wife and an associate.  Both wife and associate were fully masked.

2) Fauci had a water bottle directly in front of him.  Perhaps he had just taken a drink?  This exactly what he said on a Fox News interview.

[ONECRUISER]

15 hours ago, sandebeach said:

I posted some photos on the “TUI cancellation thread” that I borrowed from a FB poster who is currently on the three-day Mein Ship cruise out of Germany. It shows social distancing at the pool and the men’s room!

Pool areas on Royal ships 30yrs ago was more spacing. Back then had table between every 2 Pool Chairs. Was nice used for Drinks & Ash Trays and so not sitting right up on strangers. Looking forward returning to some distancing

[rimmit]

17 hours ago, MISTER 67 said:

Read an article today that the virus could become endemic which means it will never go away and a vaccine is our only hope.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/05/27/coronavirus-endemic/

Thanks for the article.  Well written and informative, but I in all honesty I didn’t realize this was news.  Maybe I just haven’t been paying attention.   
 

Since the beginning of this and especially after two months of lockdown, I thought the assumption was that this would become an endemic disease.  While vaccination will help,  the obvious hesitation from a large portion of the public in getting a vaccine was never going to allow us to eliminate this disease like small pox.  I didn’t think the end goal at this point was elimination as it just isn’t feasible given the widespread nature and the level of anti vaccination  sentiment.

 

The assumption was that we would eventually hit a steady state of deaths much like flu, heart disease, etc.

Edited July 27, 2020 by rimmit

[cured]

On 7/25/2020 at 12:53 PM, cltnccruisers said:

After the good Dr's agonizing first pitch the other night, he was shown in the stands with 2 other people.  Masks down and seated next to each other.  My wife tells me not to voice my opinion on the govt handling of this - but I'll bet you can guess.

Are you sure that those people hadn't been tested that day?  

 

I have faith in Fauci to stand up to the government's reckless handling of this pandemic.  He has served 5 presidents successfully so has the experience to navigate the political minefields on both sides. 

 

Dr. Redfield not so much. Especially since he caved on the school reopening guidelines and allowed non-medical to rewrite the school reopening guidelines and politicized it.

 

He doesn't have a great reputation anyway,  as his nomination was opposed by the Center for Science for Public Interest based on previous scientific misconduct and his propensity for religious advocacy in response to a public health crisis among other reasons.  No surprise he put out a technical survey to the masses of pandemic illiterate on what the cruise lines should do.

 

I will no longer believe anything the CDC says, he really destroyed the agency's reputation, and will only cruise when there is a safe vaccine and I know my family is protected.  Luckily I have family members working on one of the vaccines, so I can get real information about the efficacy of a vaccine instead of some politicized bull.

 

JMHO - yours might and probably does differ. 

[zekekelso]

3 hours ago, bouhunter said:

And that is the problem.  Everyone wants to talk about masks and social distancing on ships.  The bigger issue they have to deal with is positive tests onboard.  A detailed plan to deal with that is needed and they are in a tough place.  

So 14 members of the Miami baseball team Tested positive over the weekend. And nobody seems to know what happens next. With all the planning that went into putting together a baseball season, nobody has an answer for what to do with an outbreak

 

My takeaways,

- until there’s a vaccine (and almost everybody takes it) there will be outbreaks

- every plan needs an answer for what happens when there’s an outbreak. 

[cured]

Never mind, read the post wrong. Time for another cup of coffee

Edited July 27, 2020 by cured

[Roger88]

I dont believe in that mask nonsense really. There can be 10 people of the same family traveling together and wearing a mask.. or not wearing them, what difference would it make if one of them is carrying the disease? Just a little note - you might not even know that you are a carrier. That is like the most dangerous thing about the virus really 

[DragonOfTheSeas]

I found this article today and thought it was very interesting.  I can see where a coating such as this applied to the many exterior railings and surfaces could be VERY useful for cruises.

 

https://fredericksburg.com/news/state-and-regional/afraid-of-touching-objects-amid-covid-19-this-virginia-tech-professor-has-a-solution/article_ea745ae2-878c-5e81-97be-3d28261a3927.html

 

I feel there are going to be many strategies that need to be implemented to make cruising safe.  We will need some out of the box approaches.  

 

 

 

[Welly9]

On 7/25/2020 at 6:33 PM, cltnccruisers said:

Don't know if it reached the dugout but he had a line on it.  Not sure if I'd do much better, either.

Thats his typical Curve ball he throws, difference is people got a visual finally!!  🤣🤣

[cltnccruisers]

4 hours ago, cured said:

Are you sure that those people hadn't been tested that day?  

 

I have faith in Fauci to stand up to the government's reckless handling of this pandemic.  He has served 5 presidents successfully so has the experience to navigate the political minefields on both sides. 

 

Dr. Redfield not so much. Especially since he caved on the school reopening guidelines and allowed non-medical to rewrite the school reopening guidelines and politicized it.

 

He doesn't have a great reputation anyway,  as his nomination was opposed by the Center for Science for Public Interest based on previous scientific misconduct and his propensity for religious advocacy in response to a public health crisis among other reasons.  No surprise he put out a technical survey to the masses of pandemic illiterate on what the cruise lines should do.

 

I will no longer believe anything the CDC says, he really destroyed the agency's reputation, and will only cruise when there is a safe vaccine and I know my family is protected.  Luckily I have family members working on one of the vaccines, so I can get real information about the efficacy of a vaccine instead of some politicized bull.

 

JMHO - yours might and probably does differ. 

I don't trust anyone involved.  The right hand doesn't know what the left is doing and then they swap positions. Just today there were reports that masks with exhalation ports are pretty much useless.  A recent mandate by our governor prohibits people from sitting at a bar even if everyone is six people apart.  Instead, you are allowed to sit at tables with people much closer together.  Where is the sense in that?

[seaman11]

On 7/24/2020 at 10:44 PM, Grambler said:

I would feel more comfortable if once there is a vaccine, cruisers would have to show proof they have been vaccinated prior to boarding. The  only way to eradicate the virus completely is if  a great majority of the population gets vaccinated. The higher that percentage is, the lower the efficacy of the vaccine can be and at this time we can only guess how effective a virus will be.

 

Why do so many feel a false sense of security with a vaccine, on a virus that could have thousands if not millions of different strands? 

[FOXTROT]

The cruise industry did a lot of this to themselves. Lying to port authorities & passengers has to be addressed. Putting passengers in danger will be a high price the cruise lines will be paying for.

[Iamcruzin]

On 7/24/2020 at 2:31 PM, zekekelso said:

These are the same sort of questions the CDC has back in March. It’s four months later, and as far as I know the major cruise lines have no answers. Until they have an answer, I don’t think we are cruising until Covid is essentially gone. 

I fear you are correct. The questions are impossible to answer.  Look at what's happening on land.

[Iamcruzin]

6 hours ago, seaman11 said:

Why do so many feel a false sense of security with a vaccine, on a virus that could have thousands if not millions of different strands? 

I don't understand that either. We have to get a flu shot every year and sometimes they don't work. My wife has had the flu after being vaccinated.  

[Iamcruzin]

On 7/26/2020 at 7:52 PM, bigrednole said:

I skimmed through it and I am nowhere near qualified to even comment. What I find fascinating is that Cruise Lines are singled out this way. 100% of what is in this document pertains to 100% of every day life in the US. You could tie all of this to the following:

1. Uber/Lyft: If any passenger in an Uber/Lyft vehicle tests positive or has symptoms, Uber/Lyft must accept all financial hardships, quarantine everyone that was in contact and everyone they were in contact with, they must have medical and quarantine facilities

2. All airlines must follow the same policies

3. All forms of public transportation must be tracked by persons onboard

4. All people at hotels, AirBNBs, VRBOS, etc must track all guests and assume responsibility

5. All retails stores, grocery stores, and drug stores must maintain lists of all people who come and leave the store so they can be responsible for CV19 contamination. They are financially responsible for quarantining everyone exposed

6. Public and Private schools must have protocols in place to fund medical staff, frequent testing of all that come into the school, fund quarantine and medical facilities for those that could have been exposed. Staff and faculty continue to get paid while in quarantine.

 

 

I think the issue is someone is trying to single out an industry that is not registered in the US and force their hand. I can agree to an extent. However, we have bigger problems locally and need to have far more stringent rules in place.

The difference is that cruise ships carry passengers internationally for days at a time. All other forms of transportation are considered commuting. Nobody is going to deny you entrance to your own town or home  when returning from work or the grocery store. There are hospitals on land that can accommodate anyone who is deathly ill. Cruise ships don't have that capability which is why they can't come up with answers to the questions. Nobody wants to be stuck at sea quarantined for 14 days or more. There is no way to contain the spread of the virus in a closed environment like a cruise ship.

[Milwaukee Eight]

18 minutes ago, Iamcruzin said:

I don't understand that either. We have to get a flu shot every year and sometimes they don't work. My wife has had the flu after being vaccinated.  

I had the Shingles and Pneumonia vaccines today at the VA. The dang shingles one hurts. 😱

 

I guess I’m a wimp. 
 

M8

[Iamcruzin]

1 minute ago, Milwaukee Eight said:

I had the Shingles and Pneumonia vaccines today at the VA. The dang shingles one hurts. 😱

 

I guess I’m a wimp. 
 

M8

My aunt who lives in Florida had the shingles vaccine. Guess who is home with the shingles?  My father got the first dose of the shingles vaccine at the VA. The VA closed due to covid. He had to go and get the second dose at a drug store. He paid $118 through his insurance.

[Iamcruzin]

On 7/26/2020 at 12:36 PM, zekekelso said:

You give me a room with a nice balcony, room service and internet access, I could easily spend a month in there without leaving. But the second you said it was mandatory I’d freak out and be frantic to leave. There’s a huge difference between choosing to be on a ship and being forced.  

Not to mention the day your cruise ends will be the last day they serve anything decent to eat or drink via room service or any other way. 

[Milwaukee Eight]

18 minutes ago, Iamcruzin said:

My aunt who lives in Florida had the shingles vaccine. Guess who is home with the shingles?  My father got the first dose of the shingles vaccine at the VA. The VA closed due to covid. He had to go and get the second dose at a drug store. He paid $118 through his insurance.

Yep. Takes two doses. 

[seaman11]

2 hours ago, FOXTROT said:

The cruise industry did a lot of this to themselves. Lying to port authorities & passengers has to be addressed. Putting passengers in danger will be a high price the cruise lines will be paying for.

what about the airlines? they seem to be operating with impunity. 

[bigrednole]

6 hours ago, Iamcruzin said:

The difference is that cruise ships carry passengers internationally for days at a time. 

So, what you are saying is that the only way for CV19 to spread is due to cruise ships. Very interesting that every doctor and CDC is telling everyone to wear face masks in the US, 40% of businesses are still shutdown, and the numbers are still skyrocketing all while cruise ships have been banned from ports since early March.

 

Thank you, I got it now. We just need to let the CDC and the rest of the country be aware of this so we can open everything, stop wearing masks, and go back to normal living. I agree, lets sink all these ships because they are the reason for the spread of CV19.