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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsCoronavirus Cruise Crew Pleads for Help: 'Soon We Will All Be Infected'
https://www.thedailybeast.com/coronavirus-cruise-crew-pleads-for-help-soon-we-will-all-be-infected?ref=homeCoronavirus Cruise Crew Pleads for Help: Soon We Will All Be Infected
MATTER OF TIME
Jamie Ross
Updated Feb. 10, 2020 7:01AM ET /
Published Feb. 10, 2020 6:46AM ET
REUTERS
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)Don't they have a legal obligation to stay?
babylonsister
(171,091 posts)healthy people stay but evacuating the sick? I don't know, seems like a terrible position to be in either way.
NewJeffCT
(56,829 posts)they should remove the healthy people and quarantine them in a safe location nearby.
Generic Brad
(14,275 posts)Just spit balling here.
NewJeffCT
(56,829 posts)aren't the essentially confined there with already sick people?
MineralMan
(146,329 posts)Everyone on the ship is quarantined. It has nothing to do with their status as employees. It has to do with a virus.
No doubt many people on those cruise ships are frightened of contracting the disease. Some will, no doubt, but most will not. If they were off the ship, they'd be quarantined somewhere else. At least they have decent quarters where they are.
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)why things wouldn't get much worse if say, two-thirds of the crew got evacuated but the passengers still had to stay.
MineralMan
(146,329 posts)been potentially exposed to this virus on the ship is better for them and for everyone else at this time. The more people who might have the illness go around in public, the more people who are exposed.
So, the decision was made to quarantine them in place. They have their cabins to stay in, there are ample food preparation facilities, and other amenities on the ship. I mean, people pay plenty of money to stay on cruise ships.
If they were required to leave the ship, they'd still get quarantined. Look at those airline passengers for an example. They're being quarantined on military bases, and probably living in barracks right now and eating mess hall food.
The quarantine is necessary because this virus can spread before people have any symptoms of illness. The incubation period for those exposed it up to 14 days.
The quarantine is for everyone on the ship, passengers and crew alike. It could not be any other way, actually, and still be a quarantine.
The ship quarantine could go on for quite some time, actually. Until there have been 14 days without a new case showing up, the quarantine is likely to continue.
MoonlitKnight
(1,584 posts)Is the crew that is preparing and delivering food and water. Granted they have been removing those who show as infected but the way this works there is a very high probability that those still being forced to work have it and could be asymptomatic and spreading it around.
MineralMan
(146,329 posts)However, if you bring new people on, they could get infected, as well. There is no simple answer, is there?
cwydro
(51,308 posts)Last I checked, slavery was illegal.
No one should be MADE to stay at a job.
Proud Liberal Dem
(24,437 posts)Are we trying to create floating "plague barges" or something? Take whatever precautions you need to, but keeping huge numbers of people on board a confined where people are at risk of being exposed to a dangerous illness seems cruel and inhumane to me.
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)2. Maybe I'm just reading something in this story that isn't there, but it reads to me like the crew is only interested in saving their own asses?
moriah
(8,311 posts)And passenger fear, since now more testing on Japan's Monday (so last night for us Americans?) has brought the total (had been 64 before, then with those 6 it went up to 70) from 70 to 135 after those six crew members were identified. I'm assuming they were testing the people those 6 crew members interacted with, because they *still* haven't tested everyone.
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This is also bad news because novel viruses that are forced to spread in an unusual environment -- such as a cruise ship, military barracks, anything that puts the people too close together for too long -- can undergo the "serial passage" phenomenon. The strain of bug on that ship could be progressively getting more virulent, since something obviously is causing person-to-person transmission even with attempts at quarantine.
I know it's a bad bug already, but we don't want strains of it that are far worse because we were too afraid of it as it stands. And doing quarantine wrong has a high, high chance of creating conditions perfect for serial passage.
leftyladyfrommo
(18,870 posts)With a virus spreading from person to person? That would be my idea of hell.
The idea of quarantining all those people in a closed environment was a huge mistake. They should have gotten them some place safer where they could be quarantined but away from the danger of the virus spreading.
I have always hated the very idea of a cruise ship. But this is way worse than being stuck on a ship with 4,000 drunks.