Target: Jayanta Bhattacharya, Acting Director of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Goal: Enhance response preparedness for cruise ship viral outbreaks.
Three passengers on a Dutch cruise liner died of hantavirus–a disease that carries a 40 percent mortality rate. For several uncertain days, passengers were quarantined on the boat with nowhere to disembark. Thus began the latest odyssey of uncontained viral outbreaks aboard ships. And for many of those days, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was nowhere to be found, despite several passengers returning to America and being advised to monitor their health conditions for over a month. But the deficiencies at the Trump administration’s CDC in regard to cruise ships go far beyond delayed response.
One year prior to the hantavirus outbreak, the CDC fired its entire roster of cruise ship inspectors amid government slashes. The layoffs came during a then-record number of cruise ship outbreaks of norovirus: an easily transmissible gastrointestinal illness that can cause severe vomiting and diarrhea. As evidence of the threat of norovirus on cruises, two ships recently experienced outbreaks that sickened hundreds of passengers. Among the firings was the chief epidemiologist responsible for responding to and monitoring outbreaks on ships.
Although the CDC publicly claims its inspection and sanitation program is fully functional, reports indicate otherwise. Sign the petition below to demand the agency responsible for safeguarding America’s public health address some of its most glaring and dangerous deficiencies.
PETITION LETTER:
Dear Dr. Bhattacharya,
The threat to the general public from the hantavirus outbreak may remain low, but circumstances and diseases can always drastically change the narrative, as this agency should know better than anyone. The next outbreak may not be so manageable, and who at the CDC will be there to answer the call to action? Will it be the terminated members of the Vessel Sanitation Program? Will it be the epidemiologists who were likewise let go for “budget reasons,” heaving a critical shortage in expertise? Or will it be newly hired cruise ship inspectors who must have six months minimum of training before they can execute the duties of their jobs?
You must stop worrying about PR soundbites and instead focus on restoring and strengthening the teams that should be ensuring the cleanliness and safety of America’s cruise industry.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here0
Photo Credit: AcfiPress Noticias Canarias
