Tourists Trapped on the High Seas

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

If someone wanted to intentionally contract a case of COVID, the easiest option night be to visit a school classroom in Texas or Florida - or any of a couple of dozen other GOP-controlled states where schools are forbidden to institute face mask mandates, and a large percentage of parents believe that getting vaccinated against COVID will make them magnetic.  

Another way to almost guarantee exposure to the deadly virus would be to book a cruise - because, unbelievably, cruise ships are once again packing themselves full of passengers and setting sail on the high seas.   And, to almost no one's surprise, cruise ships have also begun turning themselves into floating Petri dishes where the deadly virus can spread and mutate in wild abandon - just like it was doing in early 2020 when the cruise ship industry literally sank.

People are back to cramming onto to cruise ships - large, closed environments that are ideal for the spread of contagious disease - of course they are.

Last week Royal Caribbean's "Symphony of the Seas," a "mega" cruise ship, docked at Miami, Florida, with 48 active cases of COVID on board.   This week a second Royal Caribbean "mega" ship, the "Odyssey of the Seas" which sailed from Ft. Lauderdale a few days ago, has been denied entry to the islands of Aruba and Curacao after the ship informed authorities that it had 55 confirmed cases of COVID-19 on board.  The holiday travelers will now be forced to remain on the ship until it docks back in Florida later this week.  The numbers of infected are likely to be higher by the time the ship docks.

Florida passed a state law earlier this year that denied cruise ship companies the ability to require "vaccine passports," or proof of vaccinations for cruise customers, and the governor of the state, Ron DeSantis, threatened $5,000 fines for every instance in which a cruise ship company asked for proof of vaccination.  A federal judge blocked the governor from enforcing the law in August, stating that it would jeopardize public health and was likely unconstitutional.

However, even with vaccine passports and testing in place, COVID is still managing to find its way aboard the large cruise ships.

Royal Caribbean has announced that it is now suspending all cruises until January 10th, at which time the company will limit the numbers of passengers who can board and enforce stricter masking and social distancing policies.

A new year is fast approaching, but that does not mean that we have conquered the disease that has plagued our planet for the past two years.  COVID is still with us, and pretending that it is not only serves to strengthen its resolve to remain and spread even further.

If you've always wanted to play Russian roulette but have a fear of guns, taking a cruise might offer just the thrill that you've been seeking!