The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed its new voluntary opt-in guidelines for the cruise industry, sparking an immediate protest.
The guidelines include three tier levels for cruise ships based on vaccination rates, including booster shots.
The CDC kept a Level 4 advisory warning against cruise travel.
It has-been slammed by trade group CLIA.
The tier system is ‘counterproductive to consumers’ and will create confusion, CLIA says.
The agency has set out different rules for each, such as mask protocols and quarantine periods.
CLIA says it is ‘potentially unworkable in practice.’
"We are confounded by the CDC’s imposition of even more complex and unwarranted measures which ignore empirical evidence."
"It appears out of step with the actual public health conditions on cruise ships and unnecessary in light of societal trends away from more restrictive measures."
It also criticized the advisory.
"Against this backdrop, we continue to be dismayed by the CDC’s decision to maintain any Travel Health Notice for cruise. CDC has long recognized the paramount importance of vaccination in protecting against Covid-19 and the vaccination rate on cruise ships is close to 100%."
"It seems unnecessarily discriminatory against cruise to maintain that the chances of getting Covid-19 on a cruise ‘is very high’ even if you are up to date with your vaccines."
