New study shows "exceptionally low" risk of airborne particles on cruise ships

[brentm77]

Don't know what to make of this "study." The linked document seems a little light on information, and I am a bit skeptical of the quality and motives.

https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/...y-low-risk-of-airborne-particles-cruise-ships

 

[mevelandry]

I noticed that people who sell trips tend to only share articles saying that travelling doesn’t put you at risk of getting COVID... So I’ll take this one with a grain of salt as well.

 

[Intr3pid]

This would probably be a similar result for an empty mall or resort. It's when you fill these places with thousands of people, the bodies become the hosts and carriers.

On the cleaning and filtration front, the cruise lines are already ahead. Check out this story from December:

https://www.disboards.com/threads/tracking-cruising-restart-news-and-updates.3809664/post-62515682

 

[tvguy]

Well, nothing surprising here. Aerosol risk in other studies has been shown to have an exposure time of 15 minutes. But there still is the risk in that 15 minutes. Not sure how realistic the study was on an empty cruise ship that is essentially sealed up. In real world operation, passengers are continuously opening the closing doors to the exterior decks and allowing in hurricane (almost) force winds that would disrupt air flow to the HVAC system on the ship. Which is why some ships at the balcony stateroom level have the HVAC system set to shut off if the door to the balcony is open.
University of Nebraska? Are there a lot of cruise ships in Nebraska?

 

[LAX]

Don't know what to make of this "study." The linked document seems a little light on information, and I am a bit skeptical of the quality and motives.

https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/...y-low-risk-of-airborne-particles-cruise-ships

I didn't read the article, so don't know the details. But with relatively tight quarters in general and maybe less than optimal ventilation on cruise ships, I just can't see how the risk is "exceptionally low" unless one is talking about an uncrowded open deck. I would still be skeptical even if the claim is "no greater risk" than other indoor public places.

LAX

 

[AgentMama]

Given that we've already seen this spread though cruise ships before the infection rates were as universally high as they are now, I'll take it with a grain of salt.

 

[Cruising Engineer]

It's not a published paper that has been peer-reviewed. It's junk. Just go to Google scholar and try to find it. Not there or searching through published papers through the university library system. The format is wrong, no citing of other's work, it's worthless.

 

[Snowwhyt]

It's not a published paper that has been peer-reviewed. It's junk. Just go to Google scholar and try to find it. Not there or searching through published papers through the university library system. The format is wrong, no citing of other's work, it's worthless.

Remember the old days when news was verified as a mater of respect for the establishment that printed/reported it and tabloids were meant for gossip loosely based on the truth. I miss a good Alien sighting. And you never hear about Big Foot anymore.

 

[Wakey]

Yes indoors with thousands of other people in close confines. Risk is bound to be negligible. Just like it was on all those cruise ships including Diamond Princess. Never happened.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Remember the old days when news was verified as a mater of respect for the establishment that printed/reported it and tabloids were meant for gossip loosely based on the truth. I miss a good Alien sighting. And you never hear about Big Foot anymore.

To be completely fair, this is being "published" and publicized on the Royal Caribbean fan blog.

Get science from science sources, not cruise line fan blogs that serve as echo chambers.

A fan blog is a tabloid.

 

[brentm77]

To be completely fair, this is being "published" and publicized on the Royal Caribbean fan blog.

Get science from science sources, not cruise line fan blogs that serve as echo chambers.

A fan blog is a tabloid.

I agree. That's why I put "study," in quotes. It did link to a summary document from a legitimate university, which gives it slightly more weight than a tabloid. But, as far as I can tell, there is not a published peer-reviewed study. So it looked like R.C. paid the university to get what it wanted. As others have pointed out, we know of large outbreaks on ships already. But, hypothetically speaking, this "study" could be accurate and those outbreaks could have happened from close interactions with other people. I don't think that is the case, but I thought this "study" was at least worthy of discussion given the relevance of the topic.

Adding: R.C. used the National Strategic Research Institute (NSRI), which is linked to the University of Nebraska. It appears to be an organization that normally does military research. Seems odd, but maybe they have experience running tests on military ships or ventilation? Another article mentions a 64 page report published from the results, but doesn't link to it. It obvious R.C. was looking for some "science" it can point to to encourage future cruising. It uses that word several times in other releases.

Update 2: NSRI is heavily funded by the feds for military research, but the type of research isn't out of their wheelhouse:

NSRI research director for chemical and biological programs Josh Santarpia says one major area of research has been global public health security, starting with the Ebola outbreak of 2014 and continuing with COVID-19.

"When we had our first real, serious pandemic in the last hundred years, we were able to actually be ready to respond to that. We were able to help air force develop movement plans, and validate systems for moving infected people," Santarpia said. "But we also had the ability to help characterize the virus itself and how it transmits from person to person."

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

All of the above and covid is spread by droplet.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

NSRI is heavily funded by the feds for military research, but the type of research isn't out of their wheelhouse:

Nonetheless, until scientific study is peer reviewed, it is generally underbaked. It could be great science. But that is for peer review to determine, or at least point at. Good science tolerates strong review of approach and assumptions.

 

[Cruising Engineer]

Remember the old days when news was verified as a mater of respect for the establishment that printed/reported it and tabloids were meant for gossip loosely based on the truth. I miss a good Alien sighting. And you never hear about Big Foot anymore.

Don't tell anyone but we still have UFO sightings in NM.

 

[squirk]

I like Matt a lot (and, MAN, do I miss him and the old WDW Today crew), but it feels like his bias is really showing on this.

Frankly, I am getting kind of sick of people latching onto any bit of information - no matter how small, inconsequential, unverified or clearly biased - and using it to trumpet how we should be cruising already, or that cruising is just around the corner.

It’ll happen when it happens. Quit trying to read the tea leaves in every single cup you drink.

 

[Snowwhyt]

Don't tell anyone but we still have UFO sightings in NM.

I was happy with that coverage on the anchor news shows. Not happy it happened of course. But happy that minimal details and no speculation was given. I feel better knowing something happened and nobody forced my thinking. It was “cylindrical” a perfect, no gimmick, comment.
I’m looking forward to more research on air quality safety. It irked me that my/my father’s liver doctor referred to all cruises as Petri dishes. So he doesn’t support our return to cruising, so much as to say “it will never be safe.”

 

[Cruising Engineer]

I’m looking forward to more research on air quality safety. It irked me that my/my father’s liver doctor referred to all cruises as Petri dishes. So he doesn’t support our return to cruising, so much as to say “it will never be safe.”

Most of the research published lately has been based on buildings and filtration because cruise ships have not been accessible to researchers. Here are 3 papers. I find in my research for my Ph.D. that I use the references noted at the end of one person's paper to find more papers that I need:

htthttps://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12199-020-00904-

2ps://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.08.20148775v1.full-text

https://static1.squarespace.com/sta...1fa/1583850883797/SpeculationOnAirFIlters.pdf