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covert outbreaks on cruise ships are
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front-page news however two coveted
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incidents on large cruise ships in
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have in the past weeks largely been
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i'm gary bembridge and i'm going to look
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why you likely didn't hear about them
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and most important of all
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why i think both of these have really
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big implications for cruising
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and for us as cruise passengers first
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off what are the two incidents well in
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the tui cruisers and royal caribbean
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joint venture mine shift on their mind
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which had 1 000 passengers and 800 crew
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they discovered some covered positive
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on one of their canary island cruises
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four guests actually tested positive for
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nine guests and 11 crew members were
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identified as persons who had come in
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with those passengers through their
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contact tracing process
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on board so all passengers and all the
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were then tested and they're all found
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to be negative before they were allowed
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to finish their cruise and eventually
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and return home to germany those
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in close contact and those infected were
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then isolated initially on the ship
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and then they went into hotel quarantine
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in the canary islands at mine
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shifts expense to basically run through
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the second incident was not much later
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on one of their seven eye cruises out of
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now a passenger on this ship tested
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picked up in the regular processes and
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screening on board the ship
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while his wife eventually tested
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negative again the close contacts of the
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couple were identified using onboard
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contact tracing which in the case of msc
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a wearable device use of cctv and face
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recognition and regular swiping of
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in our different venues so all of those
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guests who were identified as being
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close contacts were isolated
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ones that the available line had
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established and negotiated
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deals with to have isolation and medical
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arrangements and it was all done
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as part of their return to sale planning
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this protocol msc they made a short
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technical call on the port of palermo
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and they transferred the guest and his
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wife to one of those facilities
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and again everyone was tested negative
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and the unaffected guests they basically
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continued as normal they're all
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tested as i said that they were negative
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now these incidents both these incidents
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and how they play out tells us a couple
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really really important things with big
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as we look at cruising returning in the
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united states in the uk
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in spain australia and so on first
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may have been pretty much non-existent
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in english-speaking media because there
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were no u.s or uk guests
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involved i do hope and i really do
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shows the start of media getting a much
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better perspective and a
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clearer understanding of what the cruise
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industry actually now has in place
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to minimize covert 19 coming on board
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if it does come on board and managing
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the whole process without having to
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lock down the entire cruise put all the
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passengers in quarantining basically
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lock down and isolate the ship
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now in the context of what has and in
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fact is still happening on land
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it makes these two curved events on
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ships and how they were managed look
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so much more ordered so much more
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controlled and extremely
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thorough because in both cases there was
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not a big dramatic story to tell which
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of course is why it may also have been
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ignored by the media because the story
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is that the protocols spotted the issue
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through onboard testing capability and
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contact tracing meant those at risk were
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and quarantined those that were positive
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entered very specific
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cruise line funded facilities and the
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cruisers able to continue
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with everyone who's not affected not at
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that media like when it comes to
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cruising you could of course
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argue secondly which is key to this
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incident while testing can of course
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minimize the risk of covet coming on
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i think everyone accepts that it's
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realistically going to be impossible
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to stop curving coming onto ships as it
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is to stop it coming into events or
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premises on land so the key here is how
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it gets managed the protocols on mind
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shift and msc cruisers
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meant one they have testing of all
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and all crew before the cruise before
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boarding to minimize the risk of it
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two they are then able to identify
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suspected infected guests who may
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not have been picked up in that
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pre-board testing for whatever reason
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through the on-board ongoing constant
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three they're then able to confirm the
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with onboard testing capability which is
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right there now installed
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on the ship four through active contact
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tracing which as i mentioned
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involves of technology and they know
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exactly who the close contacts were
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so they're able to focus and isolate
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only on those people so in the case of
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mine shift that was around 20 people
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and it was actually much fewer for msc
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grandiose they don't have to disrupt
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and lock down everybody on the whole
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can then remove the infected guests into
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pre-agreed medical and isolation
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so away from the ship and then sixth
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they can use the process
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again agreed with local health
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authorities to test and make sure that
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everyone else is clear
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they can let the cruise continue and
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finally of course for
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travis to spa disembark as planned from
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home it's a process covering all stages
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now despite some well-documented
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missteps by hutter gruten
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and seadream the cruise industry has
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many many sailings in summer
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real life tested and constantly
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these protocols and these processes to
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minimize identify contain
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and manage issues and outbreaks this
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is in place not only for mine shift and
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msc cruisers but other lines selling in
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europe so you've got lines like
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costa cruisers and then you've got those
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across in asia like royal caribbean
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and dream cruises and those in japan and
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end-to-end process to identify contain
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manage covert when cruising and also
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to be happy with them they understand
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them and they appreciate
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what it's doing to make this process
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much more containable
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so richard feyn chairman of the royal
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caribbean group talking about the
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singapore sailing specifically
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and has now been extended to the middle
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of the year he said i'm going to quote
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it's quite important what he said guests
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very positive reviews and we're also
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seeing a higher proportion of
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first-time cruises than expected we
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that these cruises even before the
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availability of vaccines
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are helping us learn and demonstrate to
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others how we can operate successfully
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curved 19 environment for me one of the
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key achievements of the protocols is
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unlike early 2020 when the pandemic was
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cruise lines have now shown that the
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virus does not sweep the whole way
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they're able to contain it pre-pandemic
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that was just not possible
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as an aside the protocols have been so
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successful they're even discussing
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with singaporean officials now
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increasing our world capacity from 50
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to 65 is there risk with these of course
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as there is on land with places where
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people come together and
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interact however the protocols in place
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are beyond what is happening and in
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so it looks very promising as we look at
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and what we can expect when cruising is
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able to resume globally
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as these protocols have all formed the
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basis of the proposal submitted all
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around the world including the united
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the uk and australia specifically now of
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course some of the protocols like mark
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controlled line and excursions limits on
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the ability to meet and die with
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strangers these are not ones that
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everybody is going to want to cruise
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and so the group of people will want to
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stay away but for those
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of us who do want to cruise and are
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willing to accept these
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there does appear to be lots of hope
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that we should be able to with
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greater confidence than ever because
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these protocols are pretty much been
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road tested of course also the
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accelerating rollout of vaccines
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will no doubt be factored into all of
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this too how exactly it's still
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a matter of a debate it's still unclear
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but it does seem possible
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they are going to be included in some
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way as i've covered in other
8:43
episodes so what do you think about my
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thoughts on what these covet incidents
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and the reaction to them mean for us as
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cruisers i'd love to know what you think
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if you found this interesting and
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entertaining i have hundreds more
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