The cruise left on March 7th. For reference, SXSW got cancelled on March 6th and lots of people were thinking that was an overreaction. The US had 400ish cases at the time. No one had closed businesses yet or put stay-at-home orders in place. No international travel had been cut except China.
We mobilized our entire military to deal with the F-ing caravan in Mexico but they can't move a muscle for this type of crisis? The military could overnight operate at these ports to process infected cruise ships & quarantine appropriately. Rejecting this and other cruise ships by not even letting them dock is ridiculous.
betcha Cuba saves them This ship disembarked on March 8th ... when we had “240” cases nationwide and Argentina (from where it left) had 8. It also happens to be the same day Trump said this about the Grand Princess getting ok to dock in Oakland. "I'd rather the numbers stay the same." [pet-peeve alert] Was anyone else ultra-annoyed the way he said "that's a very good question." this time he’s saying Florida should take them
I brought this up in another thread but the state of Florida has benefited quite a lot from the cruise industry and has built a lot of infrastructure for them. I know the ship is foreign flagged but if it's port of embarkation and return is the a US port then that should be where they should dock, especially if they most of their passengers are Americans. That doesn't mean the cruise line is off they hook and have no problem with sending them a bill to cover some of the cost. That said I don't think it's humane or practical to send a cruise ship sailing in the Caribbean carrying a lot of Americans to Rotterdam. [Edit] Forgot that they left from Argentina. I still think there is a humane duty and it is in our national interest to let it dock in Florida, even if just for the American citizens. Argentina should bear some responsibility. Maybe not have the ship sail back there but have them contribute to the care of disembarking and quarantining the passengers.
Unfortunately the military has their own problems with the USS Theodore Roosevelt https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Exclusive-Captain-of-aircraft-carrier-with-15167883.php
Yep, makes no sense that they can't set up a containment zone and get most of the crew off that ship. Maybe the limitation is that it's Guam, and housing 4,000 people there can be a problem, but there has to be protocols in place for something along these lines there. I know they have Disaster plans and go through Exercises related to things along these lines...maybe they just weren't prepared for 4,000 additional servicemen to be there? Just seems strange that it had to come to that and really shows a lack of leadership (and I'm not talking about Trump) by those on the ground there.
Yep, and fwiw: One of my previous company’s clients who ran my software on each of their ships was Carnival Corp, including this ship. Carnival owns Holland America and is headquartered in Miami. So, Florida is parent headquarters for this ship, as well as headquarters for Carnival Cruise Lines...shared campus. btw: this ship is being escorted by another Holland America ship...who took some of the passengers. I think the escort is their flagship, actually.
I assumed it was one of those 14 day cruises, which puts the timeline a a few weeks ago. But by March 7th the news of the ship off Japan was headline news so the possibility that the same thing could happen was out there. I wouldn't have gone. Either way, the U.S. needs to do the right thing. It looks like Trump is saying the same thing but the dbag in Florida is holding things up. Keyword: International Cruise. (I'm watching the news now). Other keyword: Foreign Nationals My wife has a friend who couldn't decide if she wanted to cancel her planned cruise because, as someone previously mentioned, she was 'pot committed'. This was about the time the ship was docked off Japan. She ultimately decided not to go. I still believe the Cruise-lines has some culpability.
Those negotiations can take place at a later time. We can discuss cruise ships dodging taxes at a later date. Can we focus on helping out human beings that need our help? I think it's pretty cruel of a developed nation to be sending these people away. We are a nation that can help others. I understand that we are currently stressing our system, but we have to find room for these people. We aren't monsters and I personally don't want my country to be known as such.
Carve a waterway path to Ohio so that the Ohioan folks can be taken off the ship at the Ohio's border.
The first paragraph in the OP link gave the information saying it left "more than three weeks ago" -- further down stating the March 8th departure day. but yes, it was supposed to be a 2-week cruise.
This is horrible. President Trump needs to step up as a humanitarian to help these people out. Doesn’t he know someone, somewhere, that maybe owns some hotels to put these people in. Big, beautiful, magnificent, powerful hotels.
Trump spoke on this situation this morning .... They are allowing them to dock and the non-Americans on board are being handed over to their consulates to transfer them to their home countries. Americans will be quarantined ....
