by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist
When this worldwide pandemic eventually comes to an end, as it will some day, one of the images that will be hard to set aside will be of the viral outbreaks on board ships. We will remember the cruise ships that were denied permission to offload passengers because some on board were symptomatic of the virus - sailing from port to port seeking a safe haven while governments tried to figure out what to do about their citizens who were aboard the distressed vessels.
Cruise ship companies, most of which are headquartered in the United States but fly foreign flags and pay taxes - at lower rates - to foreign governments, are seeking bailouts from US taxpayers as they contend with cancelled cruises and a justifiable growing public concern about the safety of cruises.
And military ships - like the USS Theodore Roosevelt - at sea as cases of COVID-19 were being confirmed among members of its crew. The situation became so dire that the ship's captain eventually felt compelled to make the his vessel's plight public in an effort to force his superiors to acknowledge the crisis and take action.
That naval drama resulted in the captain being relieved of command after taking his ship into port in Guam, nearly two hundred sailors (at last count) who were on board testing positive for COVID-19 - as well as the captain himself - and the Acting Secretary of the Navy being forced to resign after referring to the captain as being either "naive or stupid."
Today Rachel Maddow of MSNBC is reporting that yet another US aircraft carrier has left port with sailors on board who are suspected of being positive for COVID-19.
And somewhere a cruise ship company is busy planning a special promotion to get tourists back to sea.
And somewhere hundreds of the world's downtrodden are crowding onto ill-equipped vessels to make a valiant attempt to reach a better life.
The floating hells will survive this awful plague - and they will be in place and ready to help spread the next one.
Citizen Journalist
When this worldwide pandemic eventually comes to an end, as it will some day, one of the images that will be hard to set aside will be of the viral outbreaks on board ships. We will remember the cruise ships that were denied permission to offload passengers because some on board were symptomatic of the virus - sailing from port to port seeking a safe haven while governments tried to figure out what to do about their citizens who were aboard the distressed vessels.
Cruise ship companies, most of which are headquartered in the United States but fly foreign flags and pay taxes - at lower rates - to foreign governments, are seeking bailouts from US taxpayers as they contend with cancelled cruises and a justifiable growing public concern about the safety of cruises.
And military ships - like the USS Theodore Roosevelt - at sea as cases of COVID-19 were being confirmed among members of its crew. The situation became so dire that the ship's captain eventually felt compelled to make the his vessel's plight public in an effort to force his superiors to acknowledge the crisis and take action.
That naval drama resulted in the captain being relieved of command after taking his ship into port in Guam, nearly two hundred sailors (at last count) who were on board testing positive for COVID-19 - as well as the captain himself - and the Acting Secretary of the Navy being forced to resign after referring to the captain as being either "naive or stupid."
Today Rachel Maddow of MSNBC is reporting that yet another US aircraft carrier has left port with sailors on board who are suspected of being positive for COVID-19.
And somewhere a cruise ship company is busy planning a special promotion to get tourists back to sea.
And somewhere hundreds of the world's downtrodden are crowding onto ill-equipped vessels to make a valiant attempt to reach a better life.
The floating hells will survive this awful plague - and they will be in place and ready to help spread the next one.
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