CDC's Full-Time Cruise Ship Inspectors Were Laid Off One Year Ago amid Record Outbreaks: Report

[orangecrush]

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Vessel Sanitation Program experienced significant layoffs almost exactly one year ago despite record outbreaks at the time, according to a 2025 report from CBS News.

The current hantavirus outbreak on the Dutch ship MV Hondius has sparked fresh questions for many about the sanitation measures that cruise ships must adhere to. While experts believe the current hantavirus outbreak did not originate from a lack of cleanliness on the ship — as passengers are thought to have been infected before joining the cruise — attention is being drawn to the actions cruise companies take to ensure their ships are properly sanitized.

In April 2025, CBS News reported that all full-time employees working for the CDC's Vessel Sanitation Program (VSP) had been fired, leaving a smaller group of 12 U.S. Public Health Service officers. The layoffs came amid a “record” number of norovirus outbreaks in the U.S. last year, per the report.

https://people.com/cdc-full-time-cruise-ship-inspectors-were-laid-off-one-year-ago-amid-record-outbreaks-report-11969485


What possessed this country to sign a suicide pact by electing Donald Trump a second time will be one of the great questions of history.

[Irish_Dem]

1. Firing the US federal workforce was not supposed to hurt rich people going on cruises.

Was only supposed to hurt the groups MAGA hates.

[orangecrush]

2. I get your point but

I know a few people who have gone on cruises who were not rich by the usual definition.

They were middle class people who saved for a long time to do something they dreamed of.

Not my cup of tea, but they earned it.

No one in their right mind will sail under this clown show.

[Irish_Dem]

5. Yes I use sarcastic hyperbole sometimes to make a point.

I know that middle class people go on cruises.

However if you are one of the people who cannot afford groceries or utility bills
then going on a cruise seems like something for rich people.

[orangecrush]

8. Thanks, my friend

Dark days ahead.

[Irish_Dem]

9. I guess most people would never make it in an US Irish Catholic military family.

We live and die by our dry, sarcastic, quick wit.

My major teaching tool is sarcastic hyperbole.

One of my favorite PhD professors used to lecture us that we had to get our students'
attention before anything would sink into their brains.

Oh yes we are in the biggest crisis in US history since the Civil War and WWII.
But most people don't even know it.
Which is due to the brilliance of the enemies who wage the war against us.

Many of us understand something is very wrong, but most don't understand what it is.

[orangecrush]

10. Wish I could do more

But I am compromised by age and many other factors.

It's up to the young now to secure a future for themselves, though I still do what I can do, and I realize posting on a message board does nothing, except perhaps make people aware of things.

I see a long, hot summer on the horizon.

[Irish_Dem]

11. Yes I know.

All we can do is what we can do.

I try my hardest online to get people to wake the hell up.
I get a lot of pushback. To this day so many people think Trump
is just a stupid buffoon. When in reality he is a deadly psychopath.

The other reality is that I firmly believe in We The People, a democracy.
Where I have to admit they have the right to vote in a dictatorship.
Which is what they have done.

[orangecrush]

12. Well said.

Just saw that the VA supreme court decided to ignore the voters

The fix is in

Gonna be a long, very hot summer

Because it appears that is the only avenue they are going to leave open.

[Irish_Dem]

13. Yes the voting process will show be for show like in Russia.

All fake.

[Norbert]

3. Most of my friends have been on cruises.

one of them takes a cruise annually. With a couple of exceptions none of us are even upper middle class.

[Irish_Dem]

6. They can afford food, gas, utility bills, medical care.

To some people this denotes a rich person.

[RainCaster]

4. The rich only use private yachts & jets

They never have to touch the unwashed masses.

[JI7]

7. These cruises are actually budget friendly and people even on low income

can go sometimes.

There are of course different types of cruises and some will be a lot more expensive but many of the people that go on them do so because it's cheaper than a lot of other things.