What will Japan and HAL do with the Westy

[Tampa Girl]

On 2/12/2020 at 3:15 PM, Mary229 said:

I had not booked yet so I did not have to "cancel".   I am not in the worried camp just disgusted by the Japanese response to the situation.  

And how would you have handled the situation were you in a position to do so?

[Mary229]

1 hour ago, Tampa Girl said:

And how would you have handled the situation were you in a position to do so?

I would have allowed them in port to refuel and accept the provisions they had already contracted for.  That is humanitarian.  

[Hlitner]

1 hour ago, Mary229 said:

I would have allowed them in port to refuel and accept the provisions they had already contracted for.  That is humanitarian.  

Japan did just that with the Diamond Princess and has paid a heavy price.  The issue with the Westy getting fuel and provisions was later addressed by the Thai government who did say they would allow the ship to refuel and get provisions although they would not allow anyone off the ship.  Before you toss barbs at Japan you might consider that  other countries including the USA refused to allow the Westy to dock.  The USA you wonder?  Well yes since Guam is a Territory of the USA and refused the ship.  

 

Now perhaps one should look at some facts.  At a minimum, various health authorities have suggested a 2 week quarantine is the minimum and should be followed by sophisticated testing for the virus.  The Westy never did have a quarantine on the vessel and I believe only had 12 days from their last port in Taiwan until docking in Cambodia.  Only 20 passengers were tested and these 20 were simply chosen based on their own self-reporting to the ship's doctor.  Nearly 1000 passengers were allowed to disembark based on filling out a medical form (we all know how honest everyone is on medical forms) and a basic temperature screening which has been shown to be ineffective on the Diamond Princess as many of those who test positive do not display symptoms or have a fever at the time they are tested. And the Westy did not have the necessary test kits to actually test for the virus, so they disembarked passengers based on a best guess that all was OK.   And it was not since one passenger later tested positive in Kuala Lumpur and we heard yesterday that her partner has pneumonia....but tested negative.  Is this a false negative or simply a coincidence that the partner of one who is positive happens to present with symptoms?

 

So as one public health official said yesterday, she fears that the Westy may have inadvertently released a Pandora's Box of passengers...many of whom have now scattered around the world.  Only time will tell.  It sound like flipping a coin.  Heads and HAL wins.  Tails and the world may lose.  You would have to now hope that although up to 2000 passengers and crew spent nearly two weeks on a ship with an infected passenger and nobody else caught the bug.  Looking at what happened on the Diamond Princess that would take a miracle.  We pray for a miracle or the fallout for HAL will not be pretty.

 

Hank 

[Mary229]

The Westerdam had contracts in place in Japan for provisions.  IT would have been no burden for them to be re-provisioned. Cambodia seemed to manage it.  What the @ do you think a ship is to do - float around indefinitely on the ocean?   I guess it has to become a search and rescue before a government can see through the hysteria and render humanitarian aid. 

 

BTW, I had no intentions of sailing to Guam and Guam in a military base.  

Edited February 17, 2020 by Mary229

[Hlitner]

4 hours ago, Mary229 said:

The Westerdam had contracts in place in Japan for provisions.  IT would have been no burden for them to be re-provisioned. Cambodia seemed to manage it.  What the @ do you think a ship is to do - float around indefinitely on the ocean?   I guess it has to become a search and rescue before a government can see through the hysteria and render humanitarian aid. 

 

BTW, I had no intentions of sailing to Guam and Guam in a military base.  

Guam is a military  base the same way as Texas.  The island has some gorgeous beaches, shopping areas, etc.  But HAL tried to get permission to go to Guam which would have been used to disembark their passengers.  The airport's runway could easily handle any type of charter aircraft.  I have actually been to Guam and parts of the island are quite charming.  At one time, just out of college, I considered taking a Federal auditing job on that island.

 

If the Westy had gone to Japan they would have likely had to undergo a strict 2 week quarantine where all passengers would be confined to their cabins.  The Japanese health authorities were convinced that some passengers/crew had the virus.  HAL chose to completely avoid any kind of on board quarantine and go elsewhere claiming that nobody onboard had the virus.  In retrospect, Japan was correct.

 

Hank 

[Mary229]

1 hour ago, Hlitner said:

Guam is a military  base the same way as Texas.  The island has some gorgeous beaches, shopping areas, etc.  But HAL tried to get permission to go to Guam which would have been used to disembark their passengers.  The airport's runway could easily handle any type of charter aircraft.  I have actually been to Guam and parts of the island are quite charming.  At one time, just out of college, I considered taking a Federal auditing job on that island.

 

If the Westy had gone to Japan they would have likely had to undergo a strict 2 week quarantine where all passengers would be confined to their cabins.  The Japanese health authorities were convinced that some passengers/crew had the virus.  HAL chose to completely avoid any kind of on board quarantine and go elsewhere claiming that nobody onboard had the virus.  In retrospect, Japan was correct.

 

Hank 

Hank, this quote was in response to my original quote that I was planning a trip to Japan and was withdrawing my trip from the schedule because..........  I was not singling out Japan.  I feel every country should allow humanitarian re-provisioning especially if it was already contracted.  I understand them quarantining but temporary safe, already scheduled harbor should be part of international law.  As it turns out quarantining in an enclosed environment (Diamond Princess) did not work out as governments predicted, who would have guessed😉

[Hlitner]

26 minutes ago, Mary229 said:

Hank, this quote was in response to my original quote that I was planning a trip to Japan and was withdrawing my trip from the schedule because..........  I was not singling out Japan.  I feel every country should allow humanitarian re-provisioning especially if it was already contracted.  I understand them quarantining but temporary safe, already scheduled harbor should be part of international law.  As it turns out quarantining in an enclosed environment (Diamond Princess) did not work out as governments predicted, who would have guessed😉

As I said, Japan was proven correct on its original assessment of the Westy.   Political pressure did help convince a third world country into accepting the Westy without putting the passengers and crew into forced quarantine.  And this article gives some indication of the fall out:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-health-cambodia-cruiseship/scramble-to-track-cambodia-cruise-ship-passengers-after-coronavirus-case-reported-idUSKBN20B082

 

Hank

[gatour]

21 hours ago, Hlitner said:

Japan did just that with the Diamond Princess and has paid a heavy price.  The issue with the Westy getting fuel and provisions was later addressed by the Thai government who did say they would allow the ship to refuel and get provisions although they would not allow anyone off the ship.  Before you toss barbs at Japan you might consider that  other countries including the USA refused to allow the Westy to dock.  The USA you wonder?  Well yes since Guam is a Territory of the USA and refused the ship.  

 

Hank 

Just a point of clarification.  It wasn't the USA that denied docking rights, it was the Governor of Guam