Come Aboard, We're Expecting You

Over the weekend, plans were announced to have the folks on board disembark into Oakland. The Grand Princess, with her three thousand five hundred passengers, was supposed to land at its home harbor of San Francisco on Saturday morning, but conditions would not allow. Not weather or other navigation trouble. This was a group of tourists stranded because of an outbreak of the coronavirus. Last week, California Air National Guard troopers were lowered down onto the ship to test those that had showed signs of having contracted the dread disease. Nineteen crew members and two passengers tested positive.
So they weren't allowed to land in San Francisco. Instead, the powers that be directed the Grand Princess all aboard across the bay where passengers would get off the boat. The sick ones would be taken into isolation while the others would figure out what to do next. While they were waiting for that directive, they had been told they could have lunch at any of the fine eating establishments on board. Then they were told to return to their cabins and not leave until given further instructions. News of the outside world trickled in anyway. No one jumped ship. There was no mutiny. There was no shuffleboard on the Lido Deck. Their last port of call was Oakland.
Why not San Francisco? Twelve miles away? How about room service? Free Internet? How about Oakland? And once you get there, you might not get off right away. Instead, you can feel free to stick around for more of that good food and free calls to those on the shore. While the Grand Princess sits offshore, its legacy of plague ship growing by the day. Many cruise passengers are elderly, and sure enough, when dropped into a floating bathtub of germs, several of them have become ill. Quarantine ill. Gravely ill.
San Francisco has banned all non-essential gatherings of more than fifty people for the next two weeks. Meanwhile, the Grand Princess will drop anchor at a closed dock just down the street from me. A charter school here was closed last week as administrators took "a conservative approach" to containing a possible outbreak. Better to be safe than sorry. Or on a cruise ship.