Nightmare continues for thousands stranded on cruise ships amid COVID-19 Coronavirus outbreak

CNA ^ | Feb. 12, 2020 | CNA

[Texan4Life]

The nightmare at sea continues for thousands stranded on cruise ships in Asia due to concerns over the COVID-19 outbreak. The number of infections on board the Diamond Princess docked in Japan has jumped to 175, after another 39 cases were confirmed. A Japanese health official who was surveying those on board has been infected. He had been wearing a mask and gloves but not a protective suit. Meanwhile, the MS Westerdam remains adrift in the Gulf of Thailand. It was turned away by several ports, despite no confirmed infections on board.

[Texan4Life]

A very long 'vacation' for some.

[bgill]

How many will take the cruise line up on a free cruise if they offered?

[devane617]

May as well sink the ship once this is over. NO ONE will ever board that ship again.

[antidemoncrat]

So every time someone contracts the virus the clock is reset to 14 days. And then someone else gets it on the 13th day and the clock is reset to 14 days and so on and so on and so on.

[devane617]

I write before that I will NEVER get on a cruise ship. They are nothing more than floating petrie dishes full of germs.

[proust]

A real black eye for the industry. Expect class action lawsuits, justified or not.

[Steely Tom]

Monster opportunity for an army of cleaning and disinfecting robots. Crawling though everywhere, all the time.

You heard it here first.

[hanamizu]

“Expect class action lawsuits, justified or not.”

---

But where do you sue in such a case? Panama, Malta, the Bahamas?

[Bonemaker]

“They are nothing more than floating petrie dishes full of germs.”

Same for planes.

[null and void]

In before bring all those poor, poor sick people here for treatment! </obama>

Bring Out Your Dead

Post to me or FReep mail to be on/off the Bring Out Your Dead ping list.

The purpose of the “Bring Out Your Dead” ping list (formerly the “Ebola” ping list) is very early warning of emerging pandemics, as such it has a high false positive rate.

So far the false positive rate is 100%.

At some point we may well have a high mortality pandemic, and likely as not the “Bring Out Your Dead” threads will miss the beginning entirely.

*sigh* Such is life, and death...

If a quarantine saves just one child's life, it's worth it.

[Eric Pode of Croydon]

I used to work at a hospital in Miami, we had the contract to handle sick call for the crews on a couple of the big cruise lines.

The pathology teaching docs LOVED it, they got to show their students and residents some bugs you'd never see in a US population in twenty years.

[chronicles]

We were on a 19 day cruise on Princess out of Bangkok in Nov. of 2000. I got sick with a high fever for the first week but no one got alarmed. I don’t even remember seeing the ship’s doctor. My husband would get off the ship while in port and buy classic coke and bottled water. He bought many small packets of Tylenol in the cruise shop and that is what got me through it. No one else got sick that I know of, but it could have gotten bad pretty quickly because we docked at Kuantan and Kuala Lumpur Malaysia, and Singapore while I was ill. I was even allowed to take shore excursions when I felt up to it. By the time we docked in Perth Australia I was almost over it, just weak.

[Captain Compassion]

Plague ships.

[AndyJackson]

the MS Westerdam remains adrift in the Gulf of Thailand

"Adrift" means a vessel not at anchor, not "under command" e.g. the control of its crew, can't make way and maneuver, at the mercy of winds, tides and currents.

It doesn't mean steaming around because it cannot find a port that will open itself to the spread of contagion.

If the WHO wants to address an issue why doesn't it figure out a solution to this problem? Why doesn't the Red Cross offer to set up a mobile land based quarantine camp and provide food, shelter and medical treatment.

I am guessing there are other political agendae at play here.

BTW is Trump still an Orange insane unbalanced maniac who is threatening world peace and well-being? Just asking.

[oldasrocks]

I told my friend, who is leaving on a prepaid no refund cruise, that I had Good News for her and Bad News.

Good News: They have removed all the chinese crew members.

Bad News: She now has to cook for 4,000 people every day.

[DownInFlames]

Yes

[Don Corleone]

I will NEVER get on a cruise ship. They are nothing more than floating petrie dishes full of germs.

Years ago, on another planet in a different time cruises were fun and enjoyable. Not now nor it seems in the foreseeable future. Well I've been everywhere I wanted to go anyway.

[donozark]

Cambodia just announced it will let the Westerdam dock. Oh the joy...

[DannyTN]

Does Cambodia have the medical resources to handle this?

What, they couldn’t dock in Somalia and find a witch doctor?

All of the countries that they were close to, that didn’t let them doc and get medical care should get sued.

[nerdgirl]

The most important aspect of the Diamond Princess story is that 4 people are in the ICU. So keeping people on this plague ship, where the infection appears to actually be spreading as we speak... could kill some of them. Graphic I made for twitter that got more play than anything I've ever put out...