Are Cruise Ships Coming Back to Santa Barbara?

Especially with all the people around who whine about wearing masks.

I think you nailed it Shasta! Want to live in a place that ferociously fights against change and innovation? Want the join a community that ostracizes anyone who dares to think differently? Are you a dedicated believer in NIMBYism? Do you like to get all authoritarian and force other people to comport with your beliefs? Santa Karen is the city for you!

554pm - what OW was getting at is that it’s silly to think cruise ships are a Covid issue/problem for sb. Odd that two years into this people would have this abject fear. These are fully vaccinated and tested tourists that are coming they represent a spectacularly small percentage of the tourists that we get daily… all the rest of whom are untested and unchecked.

Contractor: It's not like you have an independent opinion on this subject. But consider that hospitals are the epicenter of sanitation and yet no one I know wants to be in that environment right now unless absolutely necessary.

1105am - You are right...it is apples to oranges! The cruise ships are requiring vaccination and negative tests while the bars and nightclubs are doing neither. So it truly is apples to oranges...just the complete opposite of the way you are stating it.

Actually it’s just logic. Should we also cancel all flights that aren’t emergencies?

Actually no… it’s silly irrational fear. We’re talking 100-1500 people once or twice a week that are al vaccinated and tested. It’s a literal and complete nothing…

Duke : Typical "whaddabout this" comparing apples and oranges. Bars and restaurants are already here, employ locals, pay taxes. Floating bars, restaurants don't, and are also proven disease vectors. Who needs to add contamination, pollution and extra crowds?

Irrational alarm and fear. Should we close all bars, restaurants, beaches And hotels too?

Uponthehill, That’s actually a sensible suggestion.

Joe is angry that tourists are taken to where they want to go rather than being shuttled to his store.

ANGRYJOE - did you seriously just wish for the deaths of thousands of people? Sick.

So then what’s a nightclub no or packed …? a non floating Petri dish?

David0593, you're absolutely right. Tourists coming ashore from their cruise would be a lovely addition to local tourism. I hope the cruise ships come to SB.

SacJon: It was the added "Who the he** do you think you are?" sentence that was offensive. In my opinion, unnecessary and petty. It's a comment board for commenting, and not a dialogue back-n-forth kind of thing. Adding questions in comments is a cry for a response....and that response is often just another piece of fodder to be mocked. I made my living as an artist for many years, and never once did I ask anyone if they liked it or what they thought about it. When someone bought my art, I assumed that they liked it. If they did not buy my art, I never assumed that they did not like my art.

Curious to hear from the folks who disagreed with my 9:15am comment. What do you disagree with? The fact that 842,873 people in the US are dead from COVID or that their spouses, children, parents, siblings, friends should might have been concerned? Come on, man up and tell us what's wrong there.

DAVID - "Covid is of no concern at all." - Tell that to the spouses, children, parents, siblings, friends of the 842,873 people who have died from it in the US as of January 12. Who the he** do you think you are?

But that “recklessness” is truly and completely just toward themselves.

If they are traveling by cruise ship at this time? Absolutely.

8:29 and 11:39

Perhaps those with no knowledge of virology shouldn't pontificate.

Exactly. Coronavirus has been around for decades.. this particular virus is novel and will eventually become a common cold virus. It will continue to mutate over and over again.

Wrong. They only replicate within people they've infected. The whole premise of flatten the curve is tamping down the infection rate, through vaccination and nonpharmaceutical interventions. The fewer people who are infected, the less chance for variants to arise. The shorter the infection in an individual, thanks to vaccination, the less chance for a variant to arise. That is truly basic virology, which you don't understand at all.

Basic know nothing about virology or any other science and his claim is a flat out lie.

Then what Achoo? For how long show we focus so much effort on reducing transmission? What is a reasonable metric exiting this emergency?

9:02 AM, we can’t stop transmission, but we can reduce it. This is not an all-or-nothing issue.

We have no way of stopping transmission, that should be clear at this point.

I’m no virologist and don’t pretend to be. But my understanding is that viruses mutate when they replicate. The more they replicate, the more they mutate. That could happen a lot in a short period of time, or the same amount over a long period of time. Ideally we will get a vaccine that prevents transmission. Until then, stopping transmission by other methods seems like a wise move.

Which 7:15 must have flunked.

No herd immunity so far. Those that are infected get reinfected. How many shots (pun) will it take for us to develop herd immunity from exposure? We know that death and serious illness is much more associated with the unvaccinated (including those with a hx of covid itself). Deny science/medicine and learn the lessons of the plague years all over.

Yeah, Duke, I was just responding to Chip’s “reasoning” about the merits of vaccination. Cruise ships have a deserved reputation as incubators of disease, but infected people arrive by car and plane as well.

But how does stopping a thousand fully vaccinated old people who tested negative from stopping in sb help?? There is more than that in from LA hanging out in the 400-600 block alone of state street partying every night … and they are untested and obviously no vaccination record is checked. TKe a step back and realize the silliness of this faux outrage.

In case you hadn’t noticed, omicron breaks through vaccine (and natural) immunity at fairly high rates. The less the virus spreads, the fewer variants will arise. Yes, we will probably all get Covid-19 at some point, and vaccinated people are less likely to die. But right now we need to work on the old “flatten the curve” thing. And we still want to reduce spread, to reduce mutations.

BC, wrong. That number is so inflated, the local business need the money? Which business are you referring to? It's not retail as we hardly have any. So they will line up at what...Marshalls? Or buy some sunglasses from the christian guy, or maybe something from World Market? A deck of cards from the Game Keeper? Food and drink? They already pay for that on the ship and they get as much as they want. Our restaurants aren't all that good anyway. I have sat down with the business director at the waterfront. he's delusional and thinks millions are spent on retail in town. although he couldn't produce any evidence of this, nor did he have data to back it up.
Want to know what I think? Ok i didn't think so, but i'm going to tell ya anyway...i think that guy is getting paid by the industry lobbyists to bring the boats to town.
I've talked to several restaraunt owners and know what? They haven't ever seen 1 cruise ship customer. These are places on lower State near the beach, and places along downtown state too.