Cruise lines were one of the first casualties of the Wuhan virus.
Images of passengers dying of COVID early on in the pandemic and being trapped on cruise ships with COVID-positive cruisers for several days were reported by our dishonest media as though the cruisers had been infected with ebola or leprosy and were facing certain death.
Norweigan Cruise Lines is now suing Florida Attorney General Dr. Scott Rivkees over an executive order signed by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis in April that prohibits companies from demanding that customers and employees take the COVID shot and show proof of the one or two-dose shot before they are able to board their vessels.
To date, 159,499,224 people, or 49% of the population, have been fully vaccinated. Will cruise lines be able to prohibit 51% of the population from traveling with them and still stay afloat (pun intended)?
While it’s true that COVID in its earliest form killed hundreds of thousands, so does the flu, and no one is being forced to show proof of the flu shot before boarding a cruise ship.
CNN reports – According to the complaint filed Tuesday, NCLH says the lawsuit is a “last resort” because Florida had indicated it would prevent the company from “safely and soundly resuming passenger cruise operations” next month. It described the state law as an “anomalous, misguided intrusion.”
Senate Bill 2006 was signed into law on May 3, making that executive order official. “In Florida, your personal choice regarding vaccinations will be protected, and no business or government entity will be able to deny you services based on your decision,” DeSantis said.
The cruise line, though, wants documentation that all passengers and crew members have been fully vaccinated.
“The upshot places NCLH in an impossible dilemma as it prepares to set sail from Florida: NCLH will find itself either on the wrong side of health and safety and the operative federal legal framework, or else on the wrong side of Florida law,” the complaint says.
NCLH is set to resume cruises from Florida on August 15 “in a way that will be safe, sound, and consistent with governing law,” the complaint says, citing regulations set by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“The risk of transmission of COVID-19 among the unvaccinated in the close quarters of cruise ships coupled with the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines in preventing the spread of COVID19 and in reducing the deaths caused by COVID-19 makes transmission of information about COVID-19 vaccines a matter of life and death,” the complaint says.
What do you think? Should cruise lines be exempt from the Florida law that applies to every other business in the state of Florida?
