By Rich Moniak
While in Juneau last weekend, a passenger on Celebrity Millennium tested positive for COVID-19. But there was no outbreak among the rest of the passengers and crew. And no one was quarantined.
The game-changer, of course, are the vaccines. Almost everyone onboard had their shots at least two weeks before departure.
The Millennium was also the first cruise ship to depart from a North American port since the pandemic shut the industry down. On their early June voyage from the Caribbean island of St. Maarten, two vaccinated passengers tested positive.
Both stories might have ended very differently if Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was in charge. Because Celebrity Cruises wouldn’t have been permitted to require that all passengers over the age of 16 provide proof of vaccination in order to board the ship.
In early March, DeSantis issued an executive order banning so-called vaccine passports. “Businesses in Florida are prohibited from requiring patrons or customers to provide any documentation certifying COVID-19 vaccination” the order stated. In early May, he signed a bill passed by the Florida legislature that gave the prohibition more force.
In between, DeSantis sued the federal government and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention over the agency’s Conditional Sailing Order. Last week, a federal appeals court sided with Florida. But that ruling had no bearing on the ability of the cruise ship companies to require all passengers be vaccinated.
In fact, the Florida lawsuit touts the wide availability of vaccines as the most significant developments that the CDC didn’t adequately consider when drafting its unnecessarily burdensome Sailing Order. Vaccines are positively highlighted throughout the complaint. It even brags that Florida was ahead of President Biden’s national goal, which was to have 70% of American adults receiving at least one dose by July 4.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy made a similarly proud declaration when he announced Alaska was joining Florida’s legal challenge of the CDC. About the same time, he issued his own administrative order regarding vaccine passports.
That was in April, when Alaska led the nation in the race to get its citizens vaccinated. Since then, that effort has stalled in both states. Florida now ranks 24th and Alaska is 35th. And both governors are prioritizing the individual freedom to choose whether or not to be vaccinated over persuading people to get it.
However, unlike what did DeSantis did in Florida, Dunleavy’s vaccine passport order only states that the Government of Alaska doesn’t “require any person to produce their personal vaccine history … in order to travel to, or around, Alaska.” And the order isn’t intended to “infringe on the rights of private businesses.”
Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings is a private business that believes Florida’s ban infringes on their rights. Claiming it “inexplicably precludes this business from protecting the health and safety of its employees and customers against the extraordinary backdrop of a deadly pandemic,” it’s taken to the state to court where it believes the ban will be declared unlawful.
NCLH argues that they, in partnership with Royal Caribbean Group and “a panel of world-renowned public health experts,” determined the best way for them to reduce COVID-19-related risks on their ships is “to require full vaccination of all passengers and crew alike on cruises.”
Even DeSantis ought to recognize that’s common sense.
“These vaccines are saving lives” he said last week when confronted with the fact that Florida has 20% the nation’s new COVID cases. And 95%of those that require hospitalization are people who haven’t been vaccinated.
Instead, he’s trying out the new Republican idea of small government. Trample on the rights of private businesses by asking that they and their customers accept the risks for the poor health choices other people make.
Cruise ship passengers who have been vaccinated want nothing to do with that kind of government. Many are only willing to sail on ships in which every eligible adult on board has to show they’ve been fully vaccinated. Because even if they feel protected from COVID, being on a ship with a lot of unvaccinated people could trigger an outbreak that leads everyone being quarantined.
That didn’t happen on the Celebrity Millennium. And if some unvaccinated tourists were prevented from cruising along Southeast Alaska’s beautiful coast, that’s their problem.
• Rich Moniak is a Juneau resident and retired civil engineer with more than 25 years of experience working in the public sector. Columns, My Turns and Letters to the Editor represent the view of the author, not the view of the Juneau Empire. Have something to say? Here’s how to submit a My Turn or letter.
