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The Freewinds is currently moored in St. Lucia, its 300 crew and passengers are locked inside; the boat served as the venue for Tom Cruise's 42nd birthday party.
A confirmed case of measles aboard a cruise ship from the Church of Scientology resulted in a quarantine in the port of St. Lucia, in the Caribbean.
The 300 passengers and crew members on board were ordered to stay inside the ship after the discovery of a member of the female crew on Monday who had contracted the disease.
"We thought it was safe to quarantine the ship," said Dr. Merlene Fredericks-James, Chief Medical Officer of the island nation, in a statement released Wednesday on YouTube.
"We have listened to alerts from the Pan American Health Organization, there are measles epidemics [in the United States] largely because people have not taken the vaccine, "said Fredericks-James.
The epidemic comes amid an alarming number of measles diagnoses in the United States, with 704 cases reported this year in 22 states – the highest number in 25 years.
This is an astonishing increase for a disease that was declared eradicated in the United States by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2000.
The numbers are even more worrisome worldwide: The World Health Organization has counted 112,000 cases of measles in the first quarter of 2019, an increase of 300% over the previous year.
The outbreaks are attributed to the anti-vaccination movement, which has multiplied online and falsely claims that the measles vaccine is causing autism.
Scientology has never made a public statement discouraging members of the vaccination, but the organization's aggressive opposition to other forms of Western medicine, including psychiatry, is well-documented. .
The disease is manifested by a mottled rash accompanied by a high fever. It can be deadly, especially for children under 5 years old. In 1980, the number of measles-related deaths worldwide was 2.6 million. In 2014, this number had dropped to 73,000.
NBC News confirmed to the coastguard representatives of St. Lucia that the vessel in question was a Freewinds boat, a 300-meter-long ship owned and operated by Scientology.
Although no one can disembark from the ship in St. Lucia, nothing prevents her from leaving the port and returning to her home port, Curacao.
According to the official Scientology website, the ship is home to the Flag Ship Service Organization (FSSO), a "religious retreat providing the most advanced level of spiritual counseling in the religion of Scientology".
The ship was purchased in 1986 when it was called Boheme and renamed Freewinds in 1988, intended to provide Scientologists with a place of control and access at the highest level, level of operation eight, l & rsquo; # 39; most enlightened state of Scientology.
He drew unwanted attention when the video of a surprise party on the occasion of the 42nd anniversary of his birthday in 2004 aboard the ship for Tom Cruise, the most famous adherent of the church.
In the video, Cruise is serenaded by singer Stacy Francis with "Old Time Rock and Roll", the song made famous by her movie Risky business, while a montage of clips was projected behind her. We see David Miscavige, leader of Scientology, encouraging them.
But two former Scientologists came later to say that they had been held against their will in the depths of the ship and forced to do hard work, as Cruise and his company pointed out above.
"I've been alone in this little room with a camera monitoring my movements," said one of these women, Valeska Guider, in 2010. "A security guard escorted me wherever I went. I went in. I had to eat in the engine room … not allowed to eat in the control room because it was air conditioned. "
At the time, Scientology said the two women were lying. The church has not responded to a request for comment on this article.
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