Last Thursday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced that the state will be filing a lawsuit against the CDC in an attempt to get cruise ships sailing again. It has been over a year since a cruise ship has sailed from U.S. ports, but thousands of flights take off from U.S. airports daily.
The main argument against the CDC is the one-sided restrictions that are heavily emphasized on the cruise industry. The Florida Governor noted the irony in that Americans can fly to any cruise ship port in the U.S, yet they can’t leave from that port. Further, the cruise ship industry supports some 50,000 jobs in Florida, and all of those have been wiped due to Covid restrictions.
Cruise ship specific restrictions will begin to pose a threat to the U.S economy. Carnival has come out and made a statement that if U.S restrictions are too tight, they will consider moving their home port to a different country. This could lead to a catastrophic snowball effect as other cruise lines leave, taking jobs with them.
Royal Caribbean is attempting to demonstrate that cruises are indeed safe. They have carried over 100,000 guests on their ships in other countries and only had 10 Covid cases. The CDC is yet to comment on when the cruise ship industry will have any leniency to open up.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/08/florida-sues-cdc-to-allow-cruises-to-resume-us-sailings.html?&qsearchterm=florida
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