What Is Your Preferred Liveaboard COVID-19 Policy?

[OMyMyOHellYes]

#4. Yeah.

And that hasn't wavered since around 01 APR 20. Yeah, sometime around that date...

I don't particularly care to catch a virus - I took the shots just like I took the polio, MMR, smallpox, yellow fever, hepatitis, every decade or so tetanus, and now annual flu shots. Risk management. But I won't subscribe to virtue signaling and hysteria that has surrounded this for two and a half years.

If I get sick, there's a 98-99 percent plus chance I'll feel lousy for a couple of days (or, not really that lousy) and then get over it and feel fine. I assess the risk and move forward accordingly.

Some are baffled by my stance. They may call me a dooky head. Fair enough. I'm equally puzzled by their, well, I'll be charitable in the description of my estimation and just call it "superstition."

OMMOHY

 

[Eric802]

Are we going to require testing for colds and influenza for the rest of eternity too? Because if you're not, it seems a little silly to continue treating COVID like it's something special.

 

[drrich2]

I'm surprised that the majority are so callous that they would not do a self test and let other know if they had Covid when they are symptomatic.

Interestingly, some people wouldn't want to be told because of the bind it would put them in. Let's say you're on a liveaboard with a randomly assigned room mate named Bob. Bob notices you're a little bleary eyed, sniffly and intermittently cough for 3 days or so; nothing awful, but he suspects you're sick. Let's also say Bob has a COVID-19 home test kit in his things.

Bob might not want to bring that up and offer it. If you turn out to test +, he might miss out on dives, have to miss his flight or lie on pre-flight screening to go, etc... If you don't, well, Bob knows he's vaccinated and boosted, and figures in the highly unlikely event he gets seriously ill, he can test then. But not risk a much higher likelihood of ruining his and other people's trip over a mild illness (in the big majority of vaccinated people, and vaccines are widely available).

Some would take this as callous indifference to spreading a dangerous virus around. Some others would consider the virus already in wide circulation, and even the people on the plane, when they go out in public, enter a situation where they'll get exposed periodically.

This is one of those topics where people will disagree strongly. My point is the reasoning 'the other side' uses to arrive at their choice may not be as villainous as it first seems.

 

[Brett Hatch]

Sounds like Bob's not really thinking things through.

Covid kills something like 1% of the people who get it. It seems like a lot of people hear that 1% number, and just kinda round it off to 0% in their head.

If your brother, or your wife, or your child was thinking about playing a game of russian roulette with a gun with 100 chambers on it, you'd talk him out of it, wouldn't you? I don't see the difference.

 

[lexvil]

Don’t care, I’ll avoid the confined situation for a while longer.

 

[SetheryJ]

Don’t mind me…I’ll be over here licking door knobs. Vaxed boosted and had it twice already. Can we give up this dumb **** and move onto the next pandemic already???

 

[drrich2]

Sounds like Bob's not really thinking things through.

Covid kills something like 1% of the people who get it.

Early on that was true, leaning very heavily toward the elderly, particularly with comorbidities.

Now we've got widespread vaccination, and the odds are drastically lower. Yes, there's still some risk, although that's true with quite a range of illnesses.

Even many of the unvaccinated have had the virus at some point; of those who haven't, I imagine the growing sentiment has become that they have made their choice (plus they're going to get infected anyway).

If they are symptomatic in a boat they should be taking precautions to keep others from getting sick anynow, no matter the sickness. But I see no reason to test.

Interesting point. I suspect the Law of Unintended Consequences may come into play. If partway through a trip a diver suddenly starts wearing a mask, it's going to make some of the other people nervous, and might lead to a demand (e.g.: by captain) he be tested (this could be driven by policy or liability risk perception). That's a disincentive for that diver (who doesn't want to be tested) with the scratchy throat, for example, to start masking up, even if he'd otherwise be willing to do it.

And that's sad. I wish people could reliably admit feeling a bit unwell and mask up without fear they'd be pressured (or coerced) to get tested. It might be better for us all.

 

[Lorenzoid]

I treat it as if its the cold. I don’t run around telling everyone I have a cold and I don’t expect them to act that way either. YMMV. I’m a teacher and am around Petri dishes daily. Same as the flu and cold season. I take reasonable precautions during cold season, as I have done for years, even when I was in medicine. We are not getting rid of it so let’s move on.

I'm with you on the second part--taking reasonable precautions, as we have done for years during cold and flu season. But as for the first part, if I have a cold, I DO tell people in the office or I'm otherwise in close quarters with, advising them to keep their distance, not touch anything I touched, etc., and I would do the same if I were to come down with a cold on a liveaboard. If I see someone sniffling and blowing their nose all the time I'm going to pick up on those cues and keep my distance, but I would hope that if they were to see me pass by they would tell me they have a cold, advise me to keep my distance, not touch anything they touched, etc. If on a liveaboard I felt symptoms that might be a cold or might be covid, I'd take a covid test immediately. I believe others around me should know if it's likely I have a communicable disease and what it might be, common cold, covid, monkeypox, or whatever.

As far as I understand, despite the help (to whatever extent--keep on debating) from vaccines and masking, covid remains more transmissible than the common cold viruses, and plenty of fully vaccinated people suffer symptoms that would keep them from diving.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Are we going to require testing for colds and influenza for the rest of eternity too? Because if you're not, it seems a little silly to continue treating COVID like it's something special.

I wish we could! I would happily take a battery of tests and wear a hazmat suit to the boat from my hotel, where I quarantined for three days, if it would lower the odds of me missing dives. Are we willing to pay $5000-$10000 for a liveaboard on the other side of the globe but not any extra to boost the probability of remaining healthy enough to do all the dives?

There are some here who have the means to go on liveaboards every month, but for me, every precious liveaboard is an event I have been waiting years for and do not want to miss out on. Travel insurance may cover monetary loss but it can't give me the experience of those dives I missed. I don't care about the money; I want to do the dives I have been looking forward to for years.

 

[drrich2]

Are we willing to pay $5000-$10000 for a liveaboard on the other side of the globe but not any extra to boost the probability of remaining healthy enough to do all the dives?

Fair point. Ironically, people avoiding testing and keeping their symptoms to themselves may have the same goal and come at it from the opposite direction. They think they'll probably be healthy enough.

I think many people, if they'd made it to the liveaboard and had unknowingly had SARS-CoV-2, would prefer that remain unknown and try to get on with their dive trip. Particularly fully vaccinated people.

As for people who'd test positive 2 days beforehand if tested, but prefer not to be tested, I suspect a similar train of thought...I feel okay, I can clear my ears, I've waited this long and paid this much, let's do this.

You bring up an interesting angle on this; putting aside concerns of social responsibility for sake of analysis, focusing on his/her own wants/needs, would a diver prefer to let ignorance be bliss and try to get through the trip as is, or would he/she prefer to find out a couple days before the trip and deal with the hassles of trying to get rescheduled with the liveaboard and airline itinerary, perhaps try to get a refund from a travel insurance company, try to get time off from work approved, etc...?

This doesn't have to remain hypothetical. Those of you who plan a liveaboard trip where testing is not required and, to the best of your knowledge, are not sick 2 days before boarding, have the option to do an in-home COVID-19 test. You could even take a 2nd test with you and test yourself shortly before boarding.

Question: How many people in such a situation do either one, if it's not required?