Renate

Waaaytooo, I'm leaving this blog, twice now the posts I've posted have been removed, they both had articles showing how even those vaccinated are coming down with the virus, and I had placed links to articles to back up my statements. I get enough censoring from Facebook, I'm not about to stay in another forum that refuses to allow the truth to be told. Due to the newest email from Royal about the Virgin Islands not allowing their ships to dock with unvaccinated passengers (something I highly suspect was arranged through corrupt officials) my husband and I will be asking for a full refund. It will probably be a very long time, and possibly never again, before anyone in my family sails on a cruise ship.

I’m willing to bet out of the 3 Eleventh Circuit Court judges randomly chosen to be on the panel who made this decision ….. that the 2 who voted in favor of allowing the CDC to continue screwing with the cruise lines were originally appointed to the court by either Obama, Clinton, or Bush and the 1 who voted against the CDC was a Trump court appointee.  
 
 

That judge has apparently never been in a grocery store since March of 2020
Come spend a day in my boots xxxxxxx then tell me how cruising is more of a threat. 

From the CDC’s point of view:
"The undisputed evidence shows that unregulated cruise ship operations would exacerbate the spread of COVID-19, and that the harm to the public that would result from such operations cannot be undone."
1. Why do they act as though the cruise lines will just go wide open, abandon all protocols, and not self-regulate?
2. When are they gonna stop using the Diamond Princess example from 18 MONTHS AGO as evidence of “unregulated cruise ship operations”? No one had ANY protocols or mitigation measures at that time. It is NOT a fair comparison!

US Court of Appeals votes to stay judge's decision ruling that CDC cannot enforce COVID cruise ship rules after July 18
 
“A federal court voted to stay a judge's decision ruling that Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cannot enforce COVID-19 cruise ship rules after July 18.
The CDC win came after the state of Florida had sued the agency claiming that its restrictions on the cruise industry during the pandemic effectively blocked most cruises - harming the state's livelihood.”
 
 
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9799441/Court-stays-judges-ruling-CDC-enforce-COVID-cruise-ship-rules-July-18.html
 
 

I feel the same way ... but I don't plan to cancel and lose money. After consultation with RCCL, they intend to offer FULL refunds (including FCC) for those that don't agree with their restrictions. In my case, I will lend them the final payment amount for a few weeks in order to recover all of my funds. I would rather cruise, but I suspect they don't want my business currently  ...

This is precisely what we are doing.  Make final payment then get a full refund, including cash for FCCs. I’d rather be cruising but until the protocols are more reasonable, I’ll just keep stuffing money back in my pocket.

JeffB, we are booked in October, no way are we going to PAY to be treated like second class citizens for refusing to divulge medical information that it is specifically illegal to ask for in the State of Florida. You think the work around is "good accommodation", I say it isn't. We will have to pay hundreds of dollars extra to still be treated like lepers, and those PCR tests aren't even accurate, there's a 30%+ false positive and false negative results for them, not to mention they are painful as hell, and a false positive could ruin the rest of the cruise for us. We're not going to take that chance. If the rules don't change between now and October we will cancel the 2 cruises we have booked and ask for our money back. Btw, my sister works at a doctor's office, they all wear masks all day, they've all been vaccinated, yet they just had an outbreak of Covid in their office, 12 employees got sick all at the same time, one of them a doctor who wears the medical grade N95 masks. Several of them, including my sister ended up in the hospital, so the vaccine doesn't even make the virus "less lethal" or "milder" if you catch a variant of it.  https://www.acc.org/latest-in-cardiology/journal-scans/2020/05/18/13/42/variation-in-false-negative-rate-of-reverse
 

JeffB, we are booked in October, no way are we going to PAY to be treated like second class citizens for refusing to divulge medical information that it is specifically illegal to ask for in the State of Florida. You think the work around is "good accommodation", I say it isn't. We will have to pay hundreds of dollars extra to still be treated like lepers, and those PCR tests aren't even accurate, there's a 30%+ false positive and false negative results for them, not to mention they are painful as hell, and a false positive could ruin the rest of the cruise for us. We're not going to take that chance. If the rules don't change between now and October we will cancel the 2 cruises we have booked and ask for our money back. Btw, my sister works at a doctor's office, they all wear masks all day, they've all been vaccinated, yet they just had an outbreak of Covid in their office, 12 employees got sick all at the same time, one of them a doctor who wears the medical grade N95 masks. Several of them, including my sister ended up in the hospital, so the vaccine doesn't even make the virus "less lethal" or "milder" if you catch a variant of it.  https://www.acc.org/latest-in-cardiology/journal-scans/2020/05/18/13/42/variation-in-false-negative-rate-of-reverse
 

JeffB, we are booked in October, no way are we going to PAY to be treated like second class citizens for refusing to divulge medical information that it is specifically illegal to ask for in the State of Florida. You think the work around is "good accommodation", I say it isn't. We will have to pay hundreds of dollars extra to still be treated like lepers, and those PCR tests aren't even accurate, there's a 30%+ false positive and false negative results for them, not to mention they are painful as hell, and a false positive could ruin the rest of the cruise for us. We're not going to take that chance. If the rules don't change between now and October we will cancel the 2 cruises we have booked and ask for our money back. Btw, my sister works at a doctor's office, they all wear masks all day, they've all been vaccinated, yet they just had an outbreak of Covid in their office, 12 employees got sick all at the same time, one of them a doctor who wears the medical grade N95 masks. Several of them, including my sister ended up in the hospital, so the vaccine doesn't even make the virus "less lethal" or "milder" if you catch a variant of it.  https://www.acc.org/latest-in-cardiology/journal-scans/2020/05/18/13/42/variation-in-false-negative-rate-of-reverse
 

My view about the case and how it has progressed goes beyond cruising.  Cruise ships fell through a crack and the CDC got away with exceeding their powers.  Emboldened by that they ramped it up and it got worse.  Unchallenged after that they extended it and took it up a notch.  No one stopped them.  How giddy they must have been.
I've long said that if the CDC could have, they would have locked us all in our homes very early on.  
The progression of this case has impact beyond cruising because in next public health emergency we would have seen the CDC attempting those types of locks down in so many other aspects of our lives except now they have had their magic undue powers put back in the bottle. They would have looked at how they got away with killing this industry and adapted to take on another.  No airlines left after the next PHE.
It's a major wakeup call for everyone - there was no check or balance to what the CDC did with the cruise industry.  
Look to the future and where the CDC would have gone...
Without this ruling if the CDC didn't like the way a flu season was progressing they would lock down the cruise industry.  
Without this ruling if the CDC didn't like some other virus with negligible impact to society the CDC would lock down the cruise industry.  
Without this ruling we all might find ourselves locked in our home in 20 years time if the government is fearful something might happen.  "Could be a virus next year, better lock up America 'cuz the CDC says so."
That's not freedom and that's not American.  

Looks like he is trying to resolve the central issue without adding any decisions that could be appealed and cause further delay or bring in more parties that could bring in issues not directly related to solving the main issue.  I might not agree with his ruling, but I admire his speed and attempt to keep the focus on the main problem.   He sounds like a very intelligent, practical, though irritable, Judge.

Cheers to this! 
Although I would rephrase slightly to say, “Government should do what it doesn’t do best, get out of the way.”

The preliminary injunction finds that in the present scheme regulating the cruise ship industry CDC has acted athwart the Administrative Procedure Act and exercised authority not granted to CDC by statute. CDC’s motion (Doc. 96) for a stay — a stay that would serve to extend the unwarranted, unprecedented, and injurious exercise of governmental power by one person, the Director of CDC — is DENIED.
 
I thought that it was great that he called out the Director of the CDC in his brief and that he stated the CDC had no authority granted to them by any statute to do anything they have been doing. 

CDC just got benchslapped. 

This right here is what has bothered me for months and still makes me so frustrated with the CDC and anyone who defends the CSO a under the guise of health safety. The lines had facts on their side of protocols working from outside the US...not guesses (even very educated guesses like for instance “6 feet for proper distancing”). But instead of looking at those facts of successful protocols that lines were executing without outbreaks in order to maintain positive PR/protect their fragile brands after the early pandemic, the CDC and naysayers still believed the myth that cruises were not capable of sailing safely. Then came the test cruises, etc, etc. 

All this means is the CDC can't stay the CSO while they appeal to the USCA. They wanted to keep the CSO in effect until the appeal was heard. Judge Merryday said 

It's that simple though. THe CDC does have power to issue such a decree. But it has to be one that is backed with facts and not one that oversteps their legal authority.

But that still does not explain why they would have the power if he approved of how they used it.  He even states that he gave them a chance to create a new CSO that he thought was reasonable.  So either they have the power to create a CSO or they don't.  So he is effectively saying is that if he does not agree with their CSO they are misusing their power, but if he agrees with it it is suddenly within their power.  So it really is about what health precautions against COVID-19 are necessary or helpful. If not, then why the "invitation" to write a new one?

WOW Merryday has had all he wants from these clowns.

Hilarious.  That's only 3 pages, but that's one hell of a smackdown by the judge.
 

Well, that's fun. Scathing, even. The judge just denied the motion for a stay on the preliminary injunction.
https://www.2150.com/files/cc/8_21-cv-00839-SDM-AAS/98_047023202056_Order.pdf

Like wait...just two more weeks? Is this another 15 days to slow the spread? 
 
 

Or is the finish line continually being extended because the race organizers don't want the race to end?

Correction: In my post above I incorrectly sequenced how the USCA will review the defendant's appeal. The first step is to review the request for a stay of the injunction pending a review of the appeal. Reverse those two steps. The motion for a stay gets reviewed first  
The CDC's basis of the motion for a stay is that things are going along smoothly with regards to the cruise lines restarting in compliance with the CSO, i.e., the cruise lines operations  make the case for the CSO. The CDC bolsters this claim with their continued claim that cruise ships are inherently riskier, wrt disease transmission, than other forms of public conveyance. The emerging facts don't bear that claim out. 
Other than those stubborn facts that keep arising and causing the CDC's lawyers problems, there is nothing fundamentally wrong with this basis or documentation that bolsters it. Where there is another obvious problem is the restrictions on full cruise ship operations both in the past (the FL lawsuit notes that harm was done to the state and Meryyday concurred) and going forward. These will continue under the CSO with the attendant loss of revenue to FL unless that document is enjoined according to Merryday's ruling.
More precisely, if the cruise lines had been able to restart almost 6 months ago under the guidelines of the Healthy Sail Panel - which have very obviously worked outside the US - none of the economically costly cold and warm storage of cruise ships would have happened. None of the staggering global impact on the economic engine that the cruise line industry is would have happened. A more robust and less expensive, less complicated cruise ship restart under the Healthy Sail Plan alone, without the CDC riding herd, would have occurred. More cruises from FL, the more the tax revenue. More cruise ships that restart the quicker the cruise lines reverse the global economic and unemployment nightmare created by the CDC's unnecessary and unlawful NSO and subsequently the CDC's CSO. 
A stay continues that unfair and costly happenstance until the appeal is reviewed and acted upon. My previous argument that the CDC's appeal is weak and will fail on it's own makes a successful appeal on review by the USCA unlikely. For heavens sake, don't grant a stay to prolong this craziness.