Yesterday I had an e-mail exchange with a good friend about the coronavirus (Covid-19) situation. He was a little worried about it because of all the current news coming down about cruise ships. Not necessarily about the cruise we are both going on next week, but for the long run. Believe me, I have heard some of the same things from other friends who cruise. Plus being someone who sells cruises and is going to be boarding a cruise ship a week from Friday, I have been hearing a lot lately. To those people who are worried and asking why I still want to cruise, here are some things to think about:
- The quarantined ships we see in the news predominately sail in Asian markets and the cruises on those ships are being sold and marketed primarily to Asians.
- There are a few Westerners who take those cruises because that is when they can cruise but our news media knows that we relate better to people who look like us, so they cover people from US, Canada, Great Britain and Australia. This makes it look like there are bunch of Westerners on board when there are actually very few. The fact that pretty much every news item I have seen on television is the same woman from the Princess ship who has been diagnosed with coronavirus.
- The ships with problems originally sailed and visited Chinese ports before anyone knew there was a coronavirus (Covid-19). That’s why we are seeing so many people on that Princess ship that have contracted the virus. You should note that there have been no other ships with that number of cases. That’s because there is a 14 day incubation period and it is barely 14 days since this all started.
- Driving to an appointment this morning and listening to news radio, there was a spokesman from the CDC who stated that all current US cases were either someone who had been in China in the last three weeks or was closely related (spouses and children at this point) and living with someone who came back from China in that time frame..
So I am still going on my cruise next week. We did receive an e-mail from the cruise line saying that they would be doing some extra screening when we boarded but friends boarded that same ship yesterday and they let us know that the only “extra screening” they received was asking them if they had traveled in China within the last month. That works for me.
I tend to stay with the panic. I embrace the panic. —Larry David
COVID-19 is the new name for this NASTY virus. Jim I think you should edit to show that in your article. I only hope that people around the world remain active and act properly in what has to be done to control the spread. Meanwhile I agree those of us cruising in the near future from North America returning to the same port will be likely not be at risk. I have been on a ship with norovirus and having to deal with the issues of that, was no holiday I would not want to repeat and we were not ill ourselves.
I have added (Covid-19) throughout.
Everyone, including those who are traveling, should be more concerned about the flu. Their chances of contracting the flu are much more likely than the Covid-19 virus. Be sure to get your yearly flu shot!
Amen to that Carol…and people, she is a nurse and has been a long time and she should know!