Mrs. Thomas

YES A THOUSAND TIMES!!! I would never leave the MDR! my family loves shellfish.

I hope they don't. I've never tried them and would really like to. I hope they leave the steak, shrimp cocktail, and the chicken caesar salad. You gotta have some "normal" things on the menu when you have kids and un-adventurous eaters. Though I do love all three of those things myself. :D

It will be interesting to see what happens here. Also, with the long incubation period it is near impossible to know if a person is positive or not before they got on board. By the time symptoms show (if there are any) they could have been around hundreds or thousands of people even before boarding. If a person is found to be positive after a cruise, there is no way of knowing if they had it before the cruise or got it while on it. At some point everyone is going to have to stop and look at things from a different perspective. Unless the virus just basically disappears (which is possible but not probable) then we must look at it as we do other sicknesses. As in, yes you could get sick with it, but what is the actual recovery rate? In the US it is about 94% and that is without any kind of FDA approved medication/treatment if you aren't in a hospital. Worldwide the recovery rate is 90% and when you factor in that some of the places don't have good healthcare at all, it is still pretty good. I'm not saying we all jump on board now, but we need to realize that this is something to think about. Also, they need to start looking for treatments and not just a vaccine. A virus isn't like a bacteria or germ. A viral infection doesn't work the same. I wish people would drop the politics and just start clinical trials on certain medications that may help. Try meds that people use for the regular flu, SOMETHING! People are sick and playing politics is just cruel when some truly are dying.

Truly, do we have good numbers for the societal cost of retail being open?

I'm not going to pretend to know the intricacies involved in clinical trials, but as a scientist I know the importance of getting good data and using strong analytical techniques to draw conclusions from it. The reason so many of us feel like we have whiplash regarding advice we've been given about the virus is because we're discovering new things nearly every day. You can see that born out in the falling mortality rate as doctors continue to zero in on a standard of care that works. 
The process may seem slow, but it is complex and despite all the shortcomings here in the States, history will probably judge the world's response to this as relatively rapid (and hopefully it gets us to lay the groundwork for future, faster response efforts).

It will be interesting to see what happens here. Also, with the long incubation period it is near impossible to know if a person is positive or not before they got on board. By the time symptoms show (if there are any) they could have been around hundreds or thousands of people even before boarding. If a person is found to be positive after a cruise, there is no way of knowing if they had it before the cruise or got it while on it. At some point everyone is going to have to stop and look at things from a different perspective. Unless the virus just basically disappears (which is possible but not probable) then we must look at it as we do other sicknesses. As in, yes you could get sick with it, but what is the actual recovery rate? In the US it is about 94% and that is without any kind of FDA approved medication/treatment if you aren't in a hospital. Worldwide the recovery rate is 90% and when you factor in that some of the places don't have good healthcare at all, it is still pretty good. I'm not saying we all jump on board now, but we need to realize that this is something to think about. Also, they need to start looking for treatments and not just a vaccine. A virus isn't like a bacteria or germ. A viral infection doesn't work the same. I wish people would drop the politics and just start clinical trials on certain medications that may help. Try meds that people use for the regular flu, SOMETHING! People are sick and playing politics is just cruel when some truly are dying.

I believe that is a much, much smaller cruise ship in the news than that number.....Most Home Depots easily have hundreds of people in them daily....

It would be a very interesting exercise if someone tracked a sick person at Home Depot and did contact tracing.  I wonder how what would work out....My point is that we already have uncontrolled spread going on a myriad of other ways.  I find it comical how this is picked on while a zillion other issues are unaddressed.

Completely disagree with you about the seriousness of the disease and what we should be doing in the short term, but I agree that eventually we will all probably get it and soon we will just assume the risk as we rush back to normalcy.
I'd just like to share that there are over 600 compounds under investigation for treating COVID (including 255 clinical compounds, nearly 100 of which are in Phase III or IV), and the FDA has expedited much of the approval process for starting trials (using the Coronavirus Treatment Acceleration Program). All of that to say, most people who could possibly help us find a treatment or a cure are doing so, and there are lots of good reasons to wait a few more months to give them some time to do so.
(The link is at www.bio.org if you want to see the status of the trials... Updates every Monday and tracks vaccine development as well.)

Have we closed the Home Depots and everything else due to someone working there ever testing positive?  Or a customer?
 
Just wondering......

One word:  CONTROL

It brings up what eats at me, which is...the reason behind the double standard affecting the cruise industry so disproportionately...is it pandering? Is it sensitivity to louder critics, the press, their Washington overlords? Combine it with the CDC director's reported admission that there is a financial incentive for hospitals to report cases...the unreasonable repatriation measures from the U.S., IMO. I could go on and on...

Good argument made, and I agree with all of your points. Ultimately if the virus were handled better, this wouldn't be an issue for the agency.
The issue I find with the CDC isn't that they are being unfair to the cruise lines, just that the cruise industry is treated with great scrutiny (which is fine) but so many other aspects of travel are not.  That double standard is what irks me, not that the CDC is going after cruises.

@crisgold52 You have been blessed to have the funds to do such traveling. Many have not been as blessed as those of us who can travel. I haven't done as much as I would like, but I have been to a few places. I see you went to big cities. Have you ever been to the little towns in places like the NC coast or parts of Louisiana? They have a culture and even language all their own. Big cities are all the same. Little towns, like where I live, are, or can be, a completely different experience. They are often dismissed, but are rich with history. I never said people shouldn't travel outside the US or that Americans don't because they dislike the idea. All I'm saying is that there are many things that most Americans are trying to see first. We want to see what is in our own backyard. This country is falling apart (partly, and please let's NOT go into politics. I hate it.) because many don't go out and meet people that live in the same country and have meaningful conversations.
"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime." ― Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad / Roughing It

That is why I say that you can love your country but hate your government. LOL We are blessed with a beautiful nation that has a lot to offer. Many people from other countries think that Americans don't travel to other countries because we are arrogant. I think for many of us, we just have so much to see here that we don't get a chance to do worldwide travel. I hope that this virus stuff gets taken care of soon so we can travel freely in our own country again.

I hope they don't. I've never tried them and would really like to. I hope they leave the steak, shrimp cocktail, and the chicken caesar salad. You gotta have some "normal" things on the menu when you have kids and un-adventurous eaters. Though I do love all three of those things myself. :D

You just put a place on my bucket list. LOL I even love the name of the town. :D
@krhardy You are exactly right! Ice cream has always been my favorite sweet treat.

I was actually thinking the same thing the other day. Maybe canceling cruises to the end or near the end of hurricane season won't be a bad idea. I will say that if the islands are hit hard that they will need the tourism industry to come back pretty bad. Though, I don't wish that at all!

Looks like the ship styling from cruisemapper.com!

Or maybe rethink a run in 90+ degree weather!!

There is NEVER a bad time for ice cream! (OK, maybe if you're about to go for a run in 90+ degree weather...then just eat it afterward!)

The Short Stop Grill - Garfield Arkansas.
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g31606-d3190968-Reviews-The_Short_Stop-Garfield_Arkansas.html

Must find this ice cream location.....

I think I'd love something along these lines - maybe not this food, but a "choose your own" (adventure) type menu. Protein, carb, veg. Pick your main and sides. Maybe a few of the classics for the people who hate change or making decisions. Some local to the areas you're traveling to.

Ah, that explains why there's second breakfast and elevenses...