Florida’s attractive “beyond the strange” vaccination mandate; It’s shameful ‘: CEO of Norwegian Cruise

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Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCLH) resumed operations on Sunday for the first time in 18 months, with a 100% vaccination mandate for all guests and staff.

CEO Frank Del Rio told Yahoo Finance he hopes other companies follow suit, and says it’s a failure of leadership in the country not to have a similar vaccine mandate nationwide .

“Our leadership has failed us,” said Del Rio.

“Can you imagine if 700,000 people died from something other than covid, the outrage that there would be, what government would do to stop that? And that government, whether we speak local, state or federal – and I don’t am not I’m talking about Republicans, I’m not talking about Democrats, I’m talking about government, ”Del Rio said.

In addition to the lack of federal mandates, the company had to fight state leadership to implement the mandate.

Cruise ship Norwegian Gem is shown docked on Monday, August 9, 2021, at PortMiami in Miami. A federal judge has temporarily blocked a Florida law that prevents cruise lines from requiring passengers to prove they are vaccinated against COVID-19. Judge Kathleen Williams says he does not protect people even though it appears to violate the free speech rights of cruise lines. She says Norwegian Cruise Lines has shown that without proof of vaccination, the cruise would endanger public health by potentially causing

Cruise ship Norwegian Gem is shown docked on Monday, August 9, 2021, at PortMiami in Miami. A federal judge has temporarily blocked a Florida law that prevents cruise lines from requiring passengers to prove they are vaccinated against COVID-19. Judge Kathleen Williams says he does not protect people even though it appears to violate the free speech rights of cruise lines. She says Norwegian Cruise Lines has shown that without proof of vaccination, the cruise would endanger public health by potentially causing “super-spray” events wherever passengers disembark. (AP Photo / Wilfredo Lee)

The company won a legal battle with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, which banned vaccine passports in April. The cruise line won in federal court, but now faces an appeal.

“It’s more than weird. It’s shameful,” Del Rio said.

“I mean, come on, give up. This is a pandemic we’re talking about, people are dying every day, Florida is now the epicenter of the epicenter. What does it take for common sense to prevail? ” he added.

The cruise line also has 74 protocols in place to ensure the safety of guests and crew. But Del Rio laments the government’s lack of leadership at the federal and state levels.

“Here is a state that is built on tourism; it is the number one industry. And the number one priority of any hotel business is protecting its guests,” he said.

Del Rio is baffled by the fact that “the leaders of this country have not resisted the realities of this pandemic, demanding vaccinations is beyond me.”

Meanwhile, he is hopeful that the push caused by the variant will ease soon and business can return to normal.

“It’s never going to go away, it’s going to become an endemic situation,” Del Rio said.

“Society has learned to live with this virus,” he added.

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