The coronavirus is continuing to spread throughout the United States and in many parts of the world, and a lot of us are scrambling to find out what we can do to help others. Carnival Corporation (aka the giant umbrella that houses Carnival Cruise Line, Holland American Line, and Princess Cruises) came up with one solution: Its giant cruise ships could be turned into mobile hospitals for patients.
The corporation issued a statement that reads:
“With the continued spread of COVID-19 expected to exert added pressure on land-based healthcare facilities, including a possible shortage of hospital beds, Carnival Corporation and its brands are calling on governments and health authorities to consider using cruise ships as temporary healthcare facilities to treat non-COVID-19 patients, freeing up additional space and expanding capacity in land-based hospitals to treat cases of COVID-19. As part of the offer, interested parties will be asked to cover only the essential costs of the ship’s operations while in port.”
That’s pretty cool, right? The idea is modeled on reports that two US Navy ships are going to be used in the same way. However, experts who study disease are telling Carnival to cool its horses — the idea might not pan out the way the corporation thinks it will. Here’s why:
First things first: Carnival Corporation clearly put a tremendous amount of thought into the idea. Its press release goes on to explain:
“If needed, cruise ships are capable of being quickly provisioned to serve as hospitals with up to 1,000 hospital rooms that can treat patients suffering from less critical, non-COVID-19 conditions. These temporary cruise ship hospital rooms can be quickly converted to install and connect remote patient monitoring devices over the ship’s high-speed network – providing cardiac, respiratory, oxygen saturation and video monitoring capabilities. The rooms also have bathroom facilities, private balconies with access to sun and fresh air, as well as isolation capabilities, as needed.”
“Additionally, cruise ships being used as temporary hospital facilities to treat non-COVID-19 patients would have the ability to provide up to seven intensive care units (ICUs) in the ship’s medical center equipped with central cardiac monitoring, ventilators and other key medical devices and capabilities. Similar to land-based health facilities, cruise ships can also house multiple medical functions in disparate locations by using different decks on the ship to separate each required medical area.”
“The temporary hospital cruise ships would be berthed at a pier near the community in need and operated by the ship’s crew, with all maritime operations, food and beverage, and cleaning services provided by crew members on the ship. Medical services would be provided by the government entity or hospital responsible for fighting the spread of COVID-19 within that community.”
And like many of us, I thought the plan totally sounded amazing. I know that when I read the headline, I was immediately enthused. However, Dr. Robert Norton, a professor of public health at Auburn University, says the idea isn't as easy as it sounds, because cruise ships in and of themselves are inherently problematic when it comes to diseases that are easily spread.
Dr. Norton explained to People magazine, "The individual state rooms in a cruise ship, even though equipped with bathrooms, make nursing care far more complex. The design also makes cleaning and disinfection more difficult, in that there are lots of little spaces, rather than several larger spaces."
Dr. William Haseltine, another expert who studies infectious disease, backed up these claims. He said that, as we've seen through reports of viruses spreading quickly onboard cruise ships, the vessels "are incubators. Everybody’s close together, packed in all the time. One person gets sick, a lot of them got sick. It’s a very unfavorable environment for disease transmission."
It could also prove quite difficult to feed everyone on board, as the kitchens on cruise ships are designed for people who aren't sick. Also, sadly, while the US is facing a lack of available hospital beds, we are also facing a lack of healthy health care workers. There are lots of people already working in hospitals, but not a lot of extra people to staff ships.
"There is no excess local, state, federal or Department of Defense medical systems surge capacity of personnel or equipment that can be shifted to cruise ships," Dr. Norton says. "In order to put a nurse or a physician on a cruise ship, you would have to take them from an existing medical facility. That is not going to happen."
He also carefully explained the difference between a hospital ship and a cruise ship turned into one. "Medical ships are floating hospitals. They have the staff, the equipment and the facilities to act as hospitals, spanning all ranges of patient care and even major surgery."
Having said that, it's also probable that the federal government is considering the offer from the cruise line.
However, Dr. Norton still says the idea shouldn't play out in reality. "Given what I know, I don’t see cruise ships as a viable alternative."
Americans are currently under advisory to avoid all travel on cruise lines, so this might be another way to keep the cruise corporation afloat (sorry, bad pun) as well.
