[MartynSinclair]

[quote quote=1102086]ust think back to Feb-Apr last year and the COVID cesspits that were Cruise Ships.

This risk profile of a cruise ship docking with a couple of thousand people, all originating prior to embarkation, from different households/locations and who have been in close proximity for days vs a car of say four people who have been in close proximity, likely all coming from a single destination, are not the same.[/quote]

… but “a couple of thousand people” will need to disembark somewhere….

I saw the people of Venice recently tried to stop a cruise ship docking…..

The world has to open up eventually…

[Cedric_Statherby]

[quote quote=1102086]Just think back to Feb-Apr last year and the COVID cesspits that were Cruise Ships[/quote]

If we are going to run our society now on the basis of what life was like 15 months ago, before much understanding of how the virus spread and well before any vaccines, we are condemned to live our lives in perpetual fear and lockdown.

To aim to keep COVID out completely may be possible if you are New Zealand (though even they realise now that such a policy has its costs, and has no obvious exit strategy), but the UK is far too interconnected with itself and with our neighbours for that to be a viable approach long-term. That is why we have spent so much time and effort on a vaccination policy that is working. Knowing the demographic of cruise ship customers, I would guess that the great majority have been vaccinated twice and the ships are absolutely nothing like “the COVID cesspits” of spring 2020.

The bigger danger is that all this excessive caution and negativity risks destroying confidence in the vaccines. The good news on vaccinations is “They work”. This is helping to get doubters and the nervous to take them, and improving the resilience of the whole of society. But the message is destroyed if even after the vast majority have had at least one vaccination and an increasing number have had two, the Scottish government itself does not trust them enough to open their economy.

COVID will not disappear, any more than the flu will or even the common cold. So we are going to have to live with it, and learn how to adapt to it. Living with it means taking sensible precautions and inoculating our citizens, as we are doing and as is working. Hiding from it and closing ourselves away is not a long term strategy, either for the economy or for life in general.

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tomwjsimpson, cwoodward, GivingupBA, Montysaurus, fatbear, MartynSinclair

[NorskSaint]

[postquote quote=1102086]

I’m not sure you can single out any one form of transport, you’re packed in even tighter in an aircraft and yet we’ve continued to allow people to use those throughout the pandemic. While the airline industry will claim that very few cases originated on aircraft, how else was it spread so far and wide than contagious people getting on planes and flying to other places and passing on the virus.

Whilst MSC might not like it, they were informed ahead of time and chose to ignore it. However I wouldn’t have any issue getting on a cruise ship, tend to be far cleaner than the hotels we choose to stay at.

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Speedbird_ABZ

[ASK1945]

[postquote quote=1102058]

As the Forum member who started this thread let me say that I was careful not to blame the Scottish government for its policy. I did not have the facts so I had no opinion about this policy.

What I was criticising was the communication failure between two organisations, to the detriment of ordinary people, potential passengers. Again, the facts are not yet published and until they are I suggest that the blame should be shared.

I don’t accept GreenScot’s cricism of the passengers. No doubt they carried out a risk analysis in relation to a ship which is at only 15% capacity as a maximum.

[Frederic]

sorry to say but the Venice event has strictly nothing to do with opening up… you do not understand the kind of damage those huge ships are doing to the Venice constructions…

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