Disease Outbreaks Could Get Worse on Cruise Lines — Here's Why

We love sailing on a cruise as much as the next person, but we know many people have been hesitant to book their next vacation this year amid the large number of disease outbreaks that have happened on cruise ships this year.

Disney Treasure stateroom

In February, a third norovirus outbreak had already occurred on one singular cruise line, and earlier this month, nearly 240 people got sick with norovirus aboard the luxury Cunard Queen Mary 2. While Disney Cruise Line has thankfully been spared from these outbreaks at this time, many other cruise lines have struggled with them, and despite this being a particularly bad season for outbreaks, CDC cruise ship inspectors have just been let go from their positions.

CBS News has reported that all of the full-time employees of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Vessel Sanitation Program are now without a job, which will, in turn, gut the agency’s ability to investigate outbreaks and conduct health inspections on cruise ships to avoid future outbreaks. This leaves only 12 U.S. Public Health Service officers remaining. The epidemiologist tasked with leading the agency’s outbreak response was also let go.

©Carnival

To put into perspective how intense this season of norovirus outbreaks has been across the cruise line industry, there were 18 total disease outbreaks recorded in the entirety of 2024 on cruise ships. This year, a dozen outbreaks have already been reported, mostly due to norovirus. A new strain of the virus has been running rampant, resulting in the United States dealing with a record surge of cases.

©Royal Caribbean

These cuts were made due to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s layoffs across the nation’s public health agencies. An official for the Department of Health and Human Services stated that cruise ship work will be able to continue, saying, “Critical programs in the CDC will continue under Secretary Kennedy’s vision to streamline HHS to better serve Americans. CDC’s Vessel Sanitation Program (VSP) continues to monitor and assist with gastrointestinal outbreaks and track and report these illnesses.” However, the CDC is warning that this will be incredibly challenging for an already short-staffed program to avoid any cuts.

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At this time, only one epidemiologist remains on the team to investigate outbreaks, and they’re still in the early stages of their training. It takes around 6 months to train new inspectors of cruise ships, and finding people to fill these positions isn’t easy “given its demanding schedule of travel to inspect cruise ships and respond to outbreaks.” Agency staff were also in the middle of investigating two outbreaks when the layoffs occurred, which potentially means those inspections will take much longer or be left incomplete.