Traveler

Symphony OTS - 4-Sep-2021 Symphony OTS - 11-Sep-2021

Some good news , There might be more Pfizer vaccine portion than we thought. In each bottle after preparing it there suppose to be 5 portions of the vaccine but it found out that there is between 6 to 8 portions. The FDA approved yesterday the use of the extra portion in each bottle as they consider it to be safe and effective. Pfizer said as long as you inject 0.3 mm of the prepared vaccine its OK . so it might be that if in average there are around 7 portion in each bottle and US bought 200 M portions extra 40 million people will be able to get the vaccine

As you might see in the different threads I am trying to be very optimistic and believe the vaccine will help to go back to normality which part of it will be ability to cruise again, but I think there might be one problem that can create some setbacks in returning to cruise. While we are still discussing how fast everyone will get the vaccine in US /Canada/UK and other places (hey , in my country they are talking about almost 50% of people to get the vaccine by April) its seems that its not going to be that fast in the countries were the majority of RCL employees coming from ... As the vaccine currently not being sold to private companies I do not even see how the cruise industry buy it for their employees , I know that Indonesia is starting to use one of the Chinese vaccines but not sure how fast , India trying to develop their own vaccine but it still at early phase. I wonder if companies like RCL will try to buy some vaccine (the Sputnik5 is for sell maybe ? ) I do see issues like fake certifications which might be avoided by requirements for serologic test ? That might be a problem, which I hope will be solved (best by heaving all the people in the world who wants to get a vaccine will be able get it)

Moderna is next to get the approval , https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/15/health/covid-moderna-vaccine.html#click=https://t.co/C2rHRZieHZ "The review by the F.D.A. confirms Moderna’s earlier assessment that its vaccine had an efficacy rate of 94.1 percent in a trial of 30,000 people. Side effects, including fever, headache and fatigue, were unpleasant but not dangerous, the agency found."

Now we need to do the same survey among cruisers ...

Well it started today in NYC , 1 down 382199999 to go ?

people with allergies will be getting the vaccine later, even now for other vaccine they can get it but under medical supervise for few hours we will see what will be done in Pfizer vaccine , maybe other vaccine will be more suitable. Now , after the FDA approved the Pfizer vaccine we will see how fast the process will be and how many people will be willing to get it .

If that what will allow me to cruise I will not have a problem wearing a mask , same for my spouse. We are leaving in a country were it's require to wear a mask everywhere beside when doing outdoor sport activitys. I wear it at work (beside when I am seating alone in the office) . The only thing that bother me is the fog that starts sometimes over my eyeglasses ? . I also believe in wearing mask as my brother was attending a meeting for one hour in a conference room with many people all wearing masks , a day after the meeting it was found that one of the participants tested positive with C19 , noon of the other participants were infected and they all been tested twice in a two weeks period.

Yes , the anti vaccine voice (do not forget the chip theory ? ) Here many people are saying they would like to get the vaccine (we already got some of them yesterday and today) but many wants to wait for other to get it first ? but I think the numbers will be 80% + anyway , that may let me have the vaccine sooner . Since we cannot force people to get the vaccine one of the thing our government considering is to have some kind of a certificate that will allow people that got the vaccine to enter events like concerts , sports game , movie theaters and so on. Also people that will get the vaccine will not be require to be quarantined even if they might be expose to someone that carry the C19 or came back from a "red" country. Maybe it can also work in the US , not sure , what I do think is that the percentage of people that like to cruise will be higher than the general population .

The impact might be faster than we think . The plan is to give the vaccine to the older people and to people with pre conditions . they are the people that mostly get the severe side of the C19 and need to use the hospital service . If the sensitive population will get the vaccine in the early stage it might be that the risk from C19 will reduce (both risk to suffer from sever cases and the risk that hospital will not be able to handle so many cases). IT will also reduce the R factor. This is what they are doing currently in UK. The second thing is the efficiency level , the herd immunity percentage is based on vaccine like flue and other that are between 60% to 70% while the C19 is around 95% which may result in lower require herd percentages numbers. Yes I know I am optimistic and there are many factors to be taken .

The FDA committee will be held today 9 am EST . Here is the link for live feed from the committee if anyone want to watch it. https://www.fda.gov/advisory-committees/advisory-committee-calendar/vaccines-and-related-biological-products-advisory-committee-december-10-2020-meeting-announcement

Canada just approved to use the Pfizer Vaccine , in two weeks they will start to give the first shots. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-55251830

'The good news the protocol worked , People were allowed to disembark from the ship and so far RCL planning to have the next cruise tomorrow as planned .For sure lesson learn need to be done but I see it as good results , we have a prove that even if you find one sick person on the ship its not the end of the world.

Most of all the other companies got research money from the US government , Pfizer did not so they have more flexibility.

Good news - FDA finish to go over Pfizer test detail and it seems there is not any issue to approve it on Thursday meeting. Bad news - US only bought 100 Million of the Pfizer vaccine and now Pfizer saying they are already committed to other countries therefore extra portion can be available only during June/July .

Yes they are as the vaccine is not 100% so you actually have now 10% risk comparing to less than 5%

Very simple , if the vaccine is 95% effective and we have 8000 people on Oasis Ship it means 400 people may be under risk of being infected ... Now the questions will be , lets say its not a big number that one person did not took the vaccine , are you suggesting the cruise ships will have quota on each cruise for people with out vaccine ? if yes what are the numbers ? how you defined who is allowed and who is not ?

Already today there are countries that ask you to get vaccine before you can enter. For example , if you traveled to Brazil and you want to enter India after (and not just India) they can ask you to show proof that you got yellow fever vaccine otherwise they can ask you to be quarantine.

That's should not have impact on 2021 Fjords cruise ? different ports

I guess it's all depends on how fast and how many vaccine portion will be available. If there will be many of them available soon than I guess given vaccine to all is the easiest way. We might get here enough portion to give for 25 precent of the population we will see how it will go.

The 180 days rule will be gone once the vaccine program will start. Masks and social distancing will stay with us for a while until the time that finding someone that is positive after a cruise will not consider as the end of the world and a full stop for the industry again.

For July - Aug you also have the Scandinavian and Russia cruise - ST Pittsburg is a very nice city we enjoyed our visit there and I want to visit it again, , but remember if you are not getting an organized excursion you will need a Visa to enter by yourself (for US passport not sure about Canadian) .The nice thing it is with the VOTC and not a small ship as it used to be. The second thing is the Greek Island from Rome with Odyssey OTS , but than make sure to have or the key , or suite or even better to get any tour from the ship were you are tendering as I guess queues will be quite long for such big ship. the nice about this itineraries is that you can visit Rome first for few days (or after). There always the regular Oasis class route (with Allure this time) From Barcelona .

I think the one that has the Geiringer fjords as this consider to be one of the most picturesque fjords which ships getting into .

Interesting - Anthem of the seas going for a the Fjords again but that time its going to include Geiringer which until now only small ships were going into. Well if this year RCB cruise will be candled for some reason I think its a good option ?

That's making sense , we just need to be careful that it will not start any conspiracy theory regarding the vaccine that is offered for the developed countries comparing to other countries ... Anyway , we can also expedite the vaccine process by first do serologic test for people since someone that already have antidotes can wait with the vaccine for few month.