Will the cruise lines follow the QANTAS lead on vaccination policy?

[SelectSys]

Looks like QANTAS will require vaccinations to restart international flights, do you think the cruise lines will follow in establishing this policy.  To me, as I have posted many times,  a vaccination will likely be required for all international travel for the foreseeable future - including cruises.

 

Who will be the first cruise line to announce?  Once a line announces, will all the others follow?  Is cruising dead until vaccines are available?

 

QANTAS story links

https://www.ft.com/content/8a59043d-df0d-45c1-b870-2780f06c5d1e

https://nypost.com/2020/11/23/qantas-to-require-covid-19-vaccine-for-international-flights/

 

[CruiserBruce]

Your first link is behind a paywall.

 

To extrapolate anything beyond Qantas's policy ("cruising is dead", for example) is beyond speculation. You can travel freely and fairly safely by air right now, without a vaccine.

[Roger88]

This particular vaccination policy will not work. Its hard to judge at the moment, but I can assure you that unless we get a working vaccine any time soon, all these policies will not be followed. In any case, its always up to you to follow them or not 

[SelectSys]

24 minutes ago, CruiserBruce said:

Your first link is behind a paywall.

 

To extrapolate anything beyond Qantas's policy ("cruising is dead", for example) is beyond speculation. You can travel freely and fairly safely by air right now, without a vaccine.

 

They all say pretty much the same thing.  Here are some others that might work for you.

 

https://www.executivetraveller.com/news/qantas-mandatory-covid-vaccination-for-international-flights

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw-reopens-to-victoria-as-queensland-flags-border-review-20201123-p56h8j.html

https://www.flightglobal.com/strategy/qantas-likely-to-mandate-covid-19-vaccine-for-international-passengers/141248.article

 

[cruisemom42]

I applaud QANTAS and think this is a necessary step to safely reopen the world to travel.

 

Will cruise lines follow suit?  Probably not solely of their own volition, but they may find that enough countries where they want to stop WILL require it that it will make sense to consider it a requirement for boarding.

[cruisemom42]

8 minutes ago, Roger88 said:

This particular vaccination policy will not work. Its hard to judge at the moment, but I can assure you that unless we get a working vaccine any time soon, all these policies will not be followed. In any case, its always up to you to follow them or not 

 

Your answer is gibberish. It makes no sense. The QANTAS requirement is clearly predicated on the availability of a vaccine. What exactly are you trying to say?

 

[SelectSys]

7 minutes ago, Roger88 said:

This particular vaccination policy will not work. Its hard to judge at the moment, but I can assure you that unless we get a working vaccine any time soon, all these policies will not be followed. In any case, its always up to you to follow them or not 

 

I would be curious to know why you think this policy won't work or is impractical.

 

The vaccine is like start being issued next month and in wide distribution early next year due to governments preordering vaccines and concurrent manufacturing/delivery setup.

 

https://www.biospace.com/article/covid-19-vaccine-rollout-timeline-possibly-beginning-distribution-in-december/

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-55005494

https://www.bostonherald.com/2020/11/10/pfizer-vaccine-distribution-could-start-in-december-states-ramping-up-plans/

[SelectSys]

3 minutes ago, cruisemom42 said:

...

Will cruise lines follow suit?  Probably not solely of their own volition, but they may find that enough countries where they want to stop WILL require it that it will make sense to consider it a requirement for boarding.

 

I think the lines have enough self interest to see that this is necessary - if only to avoid lawsuits.  The steps taken to date really haven't been effective and the costs of all the mitigation steps and total money losers.

 

Fortunately, all of the developments over the last year along with support by governments worldwide will really help out in terms of the rollout.

 

All of the advancement in vaccine development will also pay dividends in the future controlling other/new diseases. Nothing like a crisis and desperate need to inspire creativity!

[sverigecruiser]

 

I think that the biggest reason why Qantas are planning to make vaccination mandatory is that Australia has very few deaths. If the virus is already spread everywhere in a country some extra cases arriving on a flight make less difference.

[iancal]

Yes.  I absolutely believe that other international carriers, air and cruise, will follow. It will become a competitive advantage that others may follow.

 

There is no reason why it will not work.  It is certainly just as easy to bring along our International Certificate of Vaccinations booklet (or any other proof of vaccination) as it is to carry our passports.

 

We fly internationally two-three times, multiple connections,  per year.   Given the choice, we will always select a carrier with this policy vs. one that does not.  Same for cruises.

 

North America might not be in the middle of the covid disaster that we are had we taken a few lessons from our Australian friends.

Edited November 23, 2020 by iancal

[Shmoo here]

3 hours ago, SelectSys said:

Looks like QANTAS will require vaccinations to restart international flights,

YAY! for QANTAS.  

[clo]

1 hour ago, iancal said:

North America might not be in the middle of the covid disaster that we are had we taken a few lessons from our Australian friends.

 

[navybankerteacher]

3 hours ago, Roger88 said:

This particular vaccination policy will not work. Its hard to judge at the moment, but I can assure you that unless we get a working vaccine any time soon, all these policies will not be followed. In any case, its always up to you to follow them or not 

It is not “always up to you to follow them or not” .  If the policy is “no vaccine = no boarding”  you WILL follow them, or you wil stay home.

 

 

[sail7seas]

IMO,

 

It is highly unlikely anyone here can correctly answer these "  (many) what  will the ships do questions "   until each cruise  company announces or makes i t  known what their policy will be.

 

 

 

 

[chengkp75]

3 hours ago, cruisemom42 said:

Your answer is gibberish.

Most of his are.

[sail7seas]

Yes,  ^^^  that

 

Rules of that sort apply to everyone.You  comply If you want to sail a ship   that has such a r ule

 

17 minutes ago, navybankerteacher said:

 

 

 

[chengkp75]

3 hours ago, cruisemom42 said:

Will cruise lines follow suit?  Probably not solely of their own volition, but they may find that enough countries where they want to stop WILL require it that it will make sense to consider it a requirement for boarding.

 

3 hours ago, SelectSys said:

I think the lines have enough self interest to see that this is necessary - if only to avoid lawsuits.

We have seen over and over again, over many years, that the cruise lines don't have enough self-interest to keep from violations and fines, bad PR and the like.  Look at what progress they made with covid response measures until they realized that even without a NSO, the requirements of that NSO would remain.  Nope, I agree with cruisemom that unless they are forced by governmental regulation, they won't take a single step towards requiring a vaccine.

[sfaaa]

I support mandatory vaccination. 

[mom says]

I also support mandatory vaccination.  Problem is that a majority of the population would have to have access to the vaccine before such a mandate could be fairly implemented. That's not going to be for quite a while, despite what the rose colored glasses segment may say.

[clo]

58 minutes ago, sfaaa said:

I support mandatory vaccination. 

For the whole world? (I'm not disagreeing with you.)

[Hlitner]

I have posted for months, my sincere believe that the only option for cruise lines will be to have a mandatory COVID vaccination policy (a valid antibody test would be also OK) and might even apply a similar policy to several other vaccines such as MMR and Flu.   It is likely that many governments will also mandate COVID (and perhaps other vaccines) as a requirement for entry.   Those that have an issue with vaccines will simply need to forgo certain activities (such as cruises).  

 

Hank

[sail7seas]

WHICH government?  which  countries'    governmental regulation?

 

[Mary229]

The only issue I have with the Qantas policy being used in the US is instead of saying international it should designate a time limit to fly without a vaccine.   I certainly can be in Cancun faster than I can be in Anchorage.  
 

i would cruise now with stringent enforcement of the guidelines but it definitely would be smoother sailing if all are vaccinated.   

[dogs4fun]

3 hours ago, chengkp75 said:

Most of his are.

I have wondered if English is not his native language. Sentence structure and lack of clarity lead me to suspect that there is a disconnect somewhere - I’ve wondered if it is due to language.

Edited November 24, 2020 by dogs4fun

[SelectSys]

2 hours ago, mom says said:

I also support mandatory vaccination.  Problem is that a majority of the population would have to have access to the vaccine before such a mandate could be fairly implemented. That's not going to be for quite a while, despite what the rose colored glasses segment may say.

 

I think you will be surprised.  Canada has secured over 10 dose of vaccines per citizen (highest in the world!) via bilateral contracts with vaccine manufacturers for delivery in 2021.  I guess Canada is putting its citizens first in ensuring that vaccines are going to be available at home!

https://globalnews.ca/news/7467507/canada-coronavirus-vaccines/

 

The same holds true for the EU and US in terms of securing bilateral deals.  It it's funny that the story I found on this subject is specifically critical of the US  while acknowledging other countries are doing exactly the same thing without garnering the author's ire.  What else is new?

http://peninsulapress.com/2020/11/23/u-s-refusal-to-join-covax-puts-worlds-poorest-at-risk/

"Throughout 2020, the United States negotiated a bilateral agreement with Pfizer for 100 million doses and an option to purchase an additional 500 million. It also has deals guaranteeing 100 million vaccine doses with AstraZeneca, NovaVax, Johnson and Johnson, and Moderna, respectively.

The EU has similarly secured over 1 billion vaccine doses on a number of bilateral deals with vaccine manufactures."

 

One issue noted in the this CBC story is that Canada is expecting more logistics issues in terms of distribution and perhaps this is your concern rather than basic availability.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/covid-19-vaccine-rollout-hurdles-1.5811906

 

 

 

Edited November 24, 2020 by SelectSys