Dr. Scott Gottlieb, who advised cruise lines on Covid protocols, told CNBC Friday that he believes a safe environment can be created on the ships.
Gottlieb’s comments came a day after Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis said the state had sued the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and demanded that the public health agency allow cruise lines to resume immediately from US ports.
Gottlieb, who co-chaired an advisory panel for Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings and Royal Caribbean, said in ‘Squawk Box’ that the companies have established sensible policies in preparation for when they will be allowed to start operating after a longer Covid hiatus. a year.
“They have committed to such things as mandatory passenger testing. Norwegian Cruise Line recently came out and said they will require vaccination of all their passengers,” said Gottlieb, who served as commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration from 2017 to 2019. in the Trump administration.
Gottlieb also noted that social distance would be possible on the ships, saying “these cruises will not run at full capacity”.
“When you start implementing all of these public health recommendations … you begin to create an environment that could be reasonably safe,” he said. “I believe you can create a safe bubble around that experience, especially when you compare it to other vacation experiences where you can’t control the environment,” he added.
Cruise ships were hot spots for Covid outbreaks last year in the early days of the global health crisis, prompting the CDC to issue its no-sail order in mid-March 2020. order, the agency has yet to specify a date for operators to resume sailing from US ports.
In response to CNBC’s request for comment on Gottlieb’s comments, the CDC said via email that it is “committed to working with the cruise industry and seaport partners to resume cruising following the tiered approach outlined. in the conditional sailing assignment. Resumption of passenger operations in the United States, as shown by many major cruise ship operators and travelers, hopefully by mid-summer. “
The cruise industry is growing impatient, however, as companies raised billions in debt and issued new shares to fund operations while sailing revenues dried up. Late last month, a trading group appealed to the CDC to allow a phased reboot in early July. Operators have said they are seeing strong booking demand, suggesting that people are starting to feel comfortable returning to cruises.
In a CNBC interview Wednesday, Carnival CEO Arnold Donald pointed out differences between restrictions in America and other countries around the world, where cruises have resumed in some places.
“A person can fly from the US to another country today. Get on a cruise ship and then come back to the US whether they have been vaccinated or not,” Donald said on “Closing Bell.” “But here in the US, even if you’ve been vaccinated, you can’t get on a cruise ship right now.”
Donald complimented the Biden administration on its work in distributing Covid vaccines in the US, where approximately 20% of the population is fully vaccinated. He said he believes the cruise industry and CDC will be able to come to an agreement on sailing together.
“The government has made huge strides in vaccinations and getting this thing under control,” Donald said. “We are confident that we can work together and come up with something that would be a workable solution and hopefully we will have sailings from the US this summer.”
Royal Caribbean CEO Richard Fain told “CBS This Morning” on Thursday that he would like the cruise industry to be “treated in the same way as the airlines,” which are allowed to fly. However, Fain is optimistic about the possible resumption of US sailings in the second half of this year, citing President Joe Biden’s goal of bringing society back to a semblance of normal by July 4.
CNBC’s Katie Tsai contributed to this report.
Disclosure: Scott Gottlieb is a contributor to CNBC and serves on the boards of Pfizer, genetic testing start-up Tempus, healthcare technology company Aetion Inc. and biotech company Illumina. He is also Co-Chairman of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings’ and Royal Caribbean’s Healthy Sail Panel.