On December 30, The U.S. Centers for Disease Control released an official statement warning holiday travelers not to get on cruise ships, pointing to the fact that about 5,000 COVID-19 Cases were reported on cruise ships from December 15-29. A lot of people, especially those who are regular attendees of cruises, are saying that the CDC is being too hard on cruise companies, and, honestly, I agree with them. In the CDC’s official statement on cdc.gov, while they might have warned people against going on cruise ships, they did not warn people not to go to large-scale group events, like sports games or concerts.

     However, there are other people who disagree with my opinion, like Tracy Johnson, a Senior at SHHS. “I do not believe that the CDC is being too hard on cruise companies because when you go on a cruise, you are in a very compact place and it’s really easy to transfer any type of disease or sickness to other people. And so putting in place the rules that they did, which for my cruise was we had to wear masks indoors and outdoors, we were allowed to have the choice to wear a mask or not. And we were socially distanced at almost all times for any type of event,” Johnson said.

     But still, a good percentage of people think that the CDC should lift some of their restrictions, like having to wear a mask in certain areas that are designated for age-based gatherings. Though, there are others who think that the CDC should stop pressuring cruise companies with restrictions so hard.  According to a News Brief on cnbc.com given by a spokesperson of the cruise industry, cruise attendees that have been identified with COVID make up a small percentage of those on board the ships in total, and, of that small percentage, most of them are asymptomatic, meaning that they pose little to no threat to others onboard.

No matter what others say, I stand strong in my belief that the CDC needs to lighten the restrictions on cruise companies. If the people with COVID are no threat to others, then what’s the purpose of quarantining entire cruise ships just because of a few cases? The CDC is being too strict and putting a lot of stress on cruise companies; Stress that’s unwanted and unneeded. They just need to lighten up with everything.