Is Coronavirus keeping you from booking liveaboard/overseas trips this year?

[Outbound]

I suspect your country's decisions will be the subject of a research paper (Did Italy's shut-down halt the virus spread? Was in unnecessary?). Well, I guess we'll all learn something, but I feel bad for the Italian people suffering such economic and social hardships from this. And I fear what we see in Italy will spread outward in all directions.

The balance between under-reacting and over-reacting to a novel viral outbreak is always a tricky one for public health officials to manage. However, research on the 1918 influenza pandemic has shown that communities that enacted early social distancing measures, enacted multiple strategies (quarantine of suspected contacts and cases, isolation of the ill, school closings, public gathering bans, closing theaters, etc.), and kept them in place for longer had lower epidemic mortality curves than communities that did not. In addition, flattening and spreading out the curve, as Angelo posted, has the added benefit of helping to prevent a surge of cases that can overwhelm hospitals and other healthcare facilities, which still have to deal with other daily health emergencies.

Non-pharmaceutical interventions are like Swiss cheese: each individual one has holes in it, but if you layer them properly you can help prevent those holes from going all the way through.

 

[Interceptor121]

I had a friend cancelling all trips until further notice and 4 people on my boat cancelling because of Corona virus that sucks

 

[Graeme Fraser]

Just had a scary moment!

I was in the bank earlier when three guys rushed in with face masks on. Everyone panicked, then one of the guys shouted "this is a robbery", so we all calmed down.

Too soon???

 

[Ram.bipl]

I've just come back from a LOB to Sipadan. One of the positives, if it can be called that, is obviously the prices are low. Also since you're one of the hardy few, the the LOB and the dive sites are fairly crowd free. This is a huge uplifter and adds to the overall experience. Since the precautions in the case of this outbreak are fairly simple viz ( masks, washing hands and an eagle eye on personal hygiene) , the rewards far outweigh the risks.

I'm wondering whether you all are generally holding off on booking liveaboard trips this year, specifically out of concern that foreign travel and/or liveaboard reservations might be impacted by Coronavirus-related travel bans.

Prior to the coronavirus eruption, I had my eye on several potential trips, including the Red Sea, Socorro Islands, and Bali, for this year. I've held off on booking any of them on a non-refundable basis, because I keep seeing travel bans sprouting quite suddenly -- if you've been in Country X, you may not enter Country Y, or you may suddenly find yourself quarantined, or your flight may be cancelled, etc.

My personal impression is that this coronavirus is unlikely to be stopped from spreading worlwide, and that eventually it will just become part of the "normal" flu season. Nobody screens airline passengers for regular flu, even though the regular flu kills hundreds of thousands of people a year. So within a year or so we may have a new normal of sorts.

In the meantime, though, I am wondering about the wisdom of booking a trip that could be affected by sudden panics . . . The flip side of course is that I imagine that availability and pricing for dive liveaboards will be quite good (provided that they are not affected by cancellations themselves).

What do you all think?

 

[Hoag]

I'm doing a photo trip later this spring to Banff Alberta and will be flying from Toronto to Calgary. Would it be considered in poor taste to wear a full HAZMAT suit?

 

[O-ring]

I'm doing a photo trip later this spring to Banff Alberta and will be flying from Toronto to Calgary. Would it be considered in poor taste to wear a full HAZMAT suit?

Drysuit and FFM on the plane. Kills two birds with one stone - keeps you safe and makes sure you are under the baggage allowance.

 

[tridacna]

I'm doing a photo trip later this spring to Banff Alberta and will be flying from Toronto to Calgary. Would it be considered in poor taste to wear a full HAZMAT suit?

Get an Atomics N95 mask in black/red.

 

[nippurmagnum]

I've just come back from a LOB to Sipadan. One of the positives, if it can be called that, is obviously the prices are low. Also since you're one of the hardy few, the the LOB and the dive sites are fairly crowd free. This is a huge uplifter and adds to the overall experience. Since the precautions in the case of this outbreak are fairly simple viz ( masks, washing hands and an eagle eye on personal hygiene) , the rewards far outweigh the risks.

Just curious -- did you book your trip before the coronavirus outbreak? And what route did you fly to get to Sipadan?

 

[Hoag]

Drysuit and FFM on the plane. Kills two birds with one stone - keeps you safe and makes sure you are under the baggage allowance.

Its not a dive trip.

 

[Hoag]

Get an Atomics N95 mask in black/red.

I was thinking something like this: