U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal has suggested that the cruise industry shut down again, posting on Twitter that “Cruises are repeating history as petri dishes…”.
“Our warnings have proved sadly prescient & continuously compelling. Time for CDC & cruise lines to protect consumers & again pause—docking their ships.,” the Senator said in a Twitter post. “Cruises are repeating recent history as petri dishes of COVID infection.”
The Twitter post comes after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its cruise ship color status tracker. As of this posting, the tracker as updated on December 29th with data submitted on December 28th.
Editor’s Note: While caution needs to be exercised, shutting down an industry that spent much of 2020 and part of 2021 shut down seems an over-reaction. While many ships are in the Yellow status (meaning the reported cases of COVID-19 have met the threshold for CDC investigation), there are no ships in the Red Status (meaning that reported cases of COVID-19 are at or above the threshold for CDC investigation and additional public health measures are in place). In fact, there are some in Green status (No reported cases of COVID-19) and some in Orange status (Reported cases of COVID-19 are below the threshold for CDC investigation). The cruise industry has been one of the hardest hit during the pandemic and needs to be given the opportunity to show that they will do everything they can to ensure the safe travel of the public.
