Before hysteria began brewing in response to the cruise ship hantavirus outbreak (a ship that did not originate from the U.S. or dock here), our country’s very own Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pulled the rug out from under a federal team tasked with inspecting OUR ships… Sigh.
Not exactly great timing!
As we’ve been following, the deadly Andes virus variant of hantavirus — the strain that can be transmitted from human to human — has taken over the MV Hondius ship, already tragically claiming the lives of three passengers and causing several others to require medical care. We already know the disease has popped up in Switzerland after a passenger who got off the South American cruise ship traveled back home, and according to the ship’s operator, another 30 passengers deboarded on April 24, returning home to ALL areas of the globe including the US!
It’s hard to tell just how far the virus has spread as it can take up to eight WEEKS for symptoms to manifest, but what we do know is cruise ship sanitation matters — and for any ship docking anywhere in the U.S. (of U.S. origin or not), they are currently NOT receiving the same sort of inspections they used to. Not exactly making things healthy again, are we? And while the ship with the hantavirus outbreak may not have been a U.S. ship, it certainly highlights the need for thorough inspections! Especially as norovirus outbreaks continue on other ships.
Last month, CBS reported RFK Jr. laid off ALL full-time employees in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Vessel Sanitation Program (VSP) in a bid to bring down budgets, leaving just 12 US Public Health Service officers to oversee ALL current and future inspections.
No, this isn’t an unfortunate joke. It’s an unfortunate reality… and what makes it all the more confusing is the fact that the program is reportedly partially funded by the cruise ships themselves, not just solely taxpayer dollars. So it wasn’t even all money from your pockets funding such an important program!
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According to the CDC, each ship that charts foreign territories and carries 13 or more passengers would be subject to receive random inspections twice a year to guarantee they were meeting health codes and standards. Prior to the hantavirus outbreak, there had already been 12 cases of other viral outbreaks on cruise ships just this year alone, most of which being the norovirus. And according to CBS, some VSP agents were in the middle of responding to said outbreaks when they got laid off.
How CRAZY.
The HHS told the Huffington Post the VSP’s “work has not stopped” in the wake of cuts, and that the agency is now mostly staffed “by the Commissioned Corps of the US Public Health Service, who were not subject to the reduction in force.” A VSP spokesperson added the agency “continues to monitor and assist with gastrointestinal outbreaks and track and report these illnesses.”
This comes as ships continue to face norovirus outbreaks.
What are your thoughts on this news now given the context of the hantavirus outbreak?? Let us know in the comments down below.
[Images via MEGA/WENN]
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