Cruise Ship in St. Lucia Quarantined Over Confirmed Measles Case (nbcnews.com) 167
A cruise ship with nearly 300 passengers and crew was ordered quarantined in the Caribbean port of St. Lucia after a case of measles was confirmed on board, island health officials said Wednesday. From a report: One female crew member has a confirmed case and St. Lucian authorities said they've been working in close consultation with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA). The ship has been under quarantine since Monday morning, officials said. "Measles in a highly contagious disease. Anyone who is not adequately immunized against measles can contract the disease, if there has been close contact with a confirmed case," according to a statement issued Wednesday by Dr. Merlene Fredericks-James, the island nation's chief medical officer. "It is therefore likely that other persons on the boat may have been exposed." "The ship's doctor has the confirmed case in isolation on the ship," Dr. Fredericks-James added. "The individual is in stable condition." St. Lucian health officials declined to name the ship involved. But St. Lucia Coast Guard Sgt. Victor Theodore told NBC News that the vessel involved is named "Freewinds," which is the name of a 440-foot cruise ship owned and operated by the Church of Scientology
Scientology cruise (Score:3, Informative)
Thatâ(TM)s the cruise ship full of gullible Scientology people.
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And by pure coincidence, the captain is named "Tom Cruise Ship".
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At least it's not full of autistic people.
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Why? Is there an issue with autistic people going on cruises?
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I guess they need OT9 to become immune to measles.
Re:Scientology cruise (Score:5, Funny)
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Thatâ(TM)s the cruise ship full of gullible Scientology people.
Gullible at first but not on the ship. I thought that ship was where they sentenced people who had tried to come to their senses and leave. They get put on it and floated around the Caribbean. Hard to leave the organization when you're out at sea.
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Re:Scientology cruise (Score:5, Funny)
That's the cruise ship full of gullible Scientology people.
Gullible's Travails ?
Re: Scientology cruise (Score:1)
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Like the question of the dyslectic existentialist? Sit here a dog?
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I wonder if there's any babies on board?
Babies who are too young to be vaccinated but are plenty old enough to get brain damage from measles.
So, a Tom Cruise Ship? (Score:5, Funny)
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Don't apologize, it was a pretty good one.
Tell me, would a Tom Cruise ship have a closet in every cabin?
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No, but the couches double as trampolines.
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You are aware of the UK slang meaning of "Tom", I take it? Might explain how it spread...
It was a pretty good one (Score:2)
Though I enjoyed it more in the original Twitter a day or two ago... attribution would have been nice.
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What is "Twitter"? It sounds like a coffee shop for homosexuals.
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And the ship belongs to... (Score:2)
From orbit (Score:1)
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Seems you are clueless.
Too bad (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Scientology eschews modern medical care, eh? (Score:5, Informative)
I don't believe they have an official opinion but one would assume since they reject many medications they would do the same for vaccines.
I think the CoS only objects to psychiatric medical treatments. Perhaps because they consider it competition. Or an antidote to their madness.
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"You've been to a psychologist and they didn't help you? We feel your pain and can help....."
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Truth and religions don't mix, news at 11.
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Scientology was originally a guaranteed cure for cancer and everything else, and was finally raided for fraudulent medical claims. It was lat this point that they came up with the "we're a religion" scam to avoid prosecution. Look up the FBI raids on what switched from straight scam to a cult.
LRH's book that started it all was "Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health" (emphasis mine).
I don't doubt that the CoS has made outrageous claims regarding general health (I recall that LRH was supposed to live forever or something) but effectiveness aside, their main focus has been mental health.
They have always been a scam. And they have always been a cult: doctrine over person, no dissent permitted, a small group of people exploiting and mistreating their followers, accumulation of wealth, ruthle
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Sea Org (Score:1)
Scientology has an even more cult-like inner organization called the Sea Org. It was some crazy thing that L Ron created when he had all these problems with various governments. I'd make a guess this ship is part of the sea org. They're even weirder, and more insular than the regular Scientologists.
Business not a true religion (Score:5, Informative)
Scientology is a money making enterprise business and not a real religion completely made up by L Ron Hubbard a science fiction writer that fraudulently dupes dimwitts into forking over their money. Owns cruise ships to make money and promote their nonsense!
It is a crazy weird religion that believes in space aliens and other nonsense. Maybe you've seen the horribly bad movie Battleship Earth with John Travolta?
Great site Operation Clambake tells you all about their nonsense: http://www.xenu.net/
Watch a video about their weird beliefs of Xenu warlord and throwing people in volcanos and nuking them and generating evil spirits that need to be exercised. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_s3gIthXHJU
You've probably seen the weird science fiction turned pseudo truth Dianetics book that L Ron Hubbard wrote:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_Scientology
Run! Don't walk away from this crazy cult! Sadly so many people are trapped into this cult that threatens you if you leave just as Muslims do. Pro tip: any religion that threatens you if you leave is a false religion.
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Scientology is a money making enterprise business and not a real religion
So... exactly the same as any other organized religion.
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> the weird science fiction turned pseudo truth Dianetics book that L Ron Hubbard wrote
While Elron did write the weird science fiction that is the basis for the 'religion' that is Scientology, it is asserted that the Dianetics book was a translation of a book written by a frenchman in the late 1920s/early 30s that the author self-published a hundred or so copies. Elron found a copy in a second hand bookshop in Paris in the late 40s/early 50s and translated it.
The whole point of Dianetics and thetans is t
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Was with you for the first clause, but not the second one.
Interesting. Do you have an example of a real religion? One that doesn't generate money and doesn't threaten you if you leave?
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Touche.
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Scrolling down the wikipedia page on apostasy is interesting. Screenfuls on Christianity, Islam and Judaism. Two sentences each for Hinduism and Buddhism.
This day and age... (Score:5, Insightful)
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For now. I wouldn't underestimate the stupidity of USians if I were you though...
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Waits for Anti-Vaxxers to storm the laboratory that holds one of the last remaining samples of Smallpox demanding to be allowed to give it to their kids so that they can develop "natural immunity."
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you do know that the USA, Russia, China, and probably several other nations all have weaponized strains of Small Pox hidden in some lab somewhere right?
It was only wiped out in the wild.
Wrong (Score:2)
Aside from the extremely rare, freak oversight [sciencemag.org], only Russia and the USA have the strain - in one location each.
Since it was eradicated long before China had any clout in the world (1980), there's no way Beijing has any secretly (and illegally) stored anywhere.
Ship is in port (Score:4, Informative)
According to MarineTraffic [marinetraffic.com], the Freewinds is indeed in St. Lucia's port. The other passenger vessel there right now is the Carnival Fascination, which carries about 2500 passengers.
I wonder how Carnival's executives are taking the news...
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If it does jump across, they'll do the necessary. When I worked on cruise ships, we had a couple outbreaks that were kept quiet -- flu of course, not really any way to avoid that with people flying in from all over the world to get on a ship -- but also chicken pox. We had local quarantines where sick crew members were isolated to their rooms, and anyone who hadn't either had it or been vaccinated against it was also quarantined until the incubation period had passed.
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How is that any different from a small island resort where people don't leave because everything outside is slums by western standards? It seems to me like those would be even more dangerous, because the workers are living in that more contagious environment without the same level of scrutiny.
Vaccine deniers create plague ship (Score:5, Insightful)
alternative headline
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No mod points today, so here's a +1
Where's the CDC? (Score:2)
Oh, that's right. They are more interested in scooter injuries [slashdot.org] than DISEASES.
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The CDC is busy not intervening in foreign countries that did not ask for their help.
You do realize it's a domestic US agency, right?
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The CDC has offices and staff around the globe [cdc.gov].
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So does the US military, but there's generally a bit of trouble if they intervene in local affairs without an invitation.
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So does the FBI. Doesn't mean the FBI gets to jump in to criminal investigations outside the US without a request from that nation.
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The first "C" in CDC stands for "Centers". There are multiple organizational units that handle different kinds of diseases, like occupational accidents, vector borne diseases, noncomunicable diseases like diabetes or birth defects, and of course, communicable diseases like measles. It is an 11 billion dollar agency with over fifteen thousand employees.
This kind of whataboutist argument is bullshit. This is a massive and highly capable agency more than able to walk and chew gum at the same time. People hav
Eradicated (Score:2)
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Measles was never consider totally eradicated. It was considered all but gone in the US, but people visiting other parts of the world could still bring measles back to America with them. (Worst. Souvenir. Gift. Ever!) The vaccine wasn't intended to prevent against the tons of in-America-originating measles cases, but to prevent one tourist from turning into a plague. (Which is what's happening now. Thanks, Anti-Vaxxers.)
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You got it completely reversed.
Measles is an export hit of the USA to the rest of the world. (Thanx anti vaxxers).
Thank you.
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It doesn't help when people apply the colloquial definition of "eradicated" when discussing the public health definition, which roughly means "no outbreaks from domestic sources".
Admittedly, the CDC will probably "undeclare" measles eradicated from the US soon given the current trend.
Not "Eradicated" (Score:2)
I'm not an anti-vaxer. And I added "from earth" to get my point across - I don't know whether it was ever actually stated that way. My point was that I can see how the average person (who isn't going to deeply investigate such statements) would think that such diseases are "nothing to worry about anymore". In my opinion, such definitive terms should NEVER be used here (especially since it can't be prove
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Why would anyone get immunized against a disease that doesn't exist?
Most people don't get immunized for smallpox these days, for that exact reason. A few people still get immunized for smallpox because it hasn't been entirely eradicated.
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It gets better ... (Score:2)
... this is THE ship. If you give them a lot of money, they make you immortal. You'll never die! Really! And this is the ship where that happens.
Ironic, that.
Measles patent recently expired (Score:1)
It's a Scientology ship? (Score:2)
I think I have a cure [wikipedia.org].
Re:Thanks America (Score:4, Insightful)
You mean the orthodox Jews in Israel and Ukraine and the ones in NY that visited them, pretty sure they didn't get their beliefs online.
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actually it wasn't even their religion that told them not to get vaccinated. Their own Rabbis say there is no problem with getting vaccinated, nothing in the religion speaks against it and a principle in their religion supports watching out for the well being and health of others!
Yes somehow, they still chose to be backwards and dumb-asses about it.
Truly should get a kick in the ass, and a jab from a vaccination needle for their stupidity.
Re:Thanks America (Score:5, Interesting)
As a Jew who has gone to Orthodox temples in the past (even though I'm not Orthodox myself), I can confirm. Protecting life is the biggest commandment of all. If a life is at stake, pretty much any other rule goes out the window. For example, Orthodox Jews don't drive on Saturday in observance of the Sabbath. If there's someone having a heart attack, though, the most Orthodox rabbi will load them in his car and drive the person to the hospital on Saturday to save the person's life. He might stay there and not drive back until after Shabbat is over (because there's no life at stake at that point), but the "no driving on Shabbat" rule is WAY less important than "someone might die."
Even if there was some rule in Judaism (which there isn't to my knowledge) that forbade something in vaccines, the fact that it saves lives would easily override this rule. The Orthodox Jews who are prioritizing some weird "no vaccines rule" that they're getting from who-knows-where over people's lives are actually committing huge sins as far as most of Judaism is concerned.
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I only see two vaccines where porcines are involved, for one of the two shingles vaccines (though the other has hamster ovary and shark oil) and for rotavirus (though China has a lamb-produced one).
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I think the only religions that removed the "saving life" clause from their exceptions to ridiculous rules is the various flavors of Christianity, including the JW and their refusal of blood transfusions.
Re: Thanks America (Score:1)
Intrinsically safe switches do exist.
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Is the car ban related to ban of lighting fire on sabbath?
Mostly, though the prohibition of carrying things and, if I remember correctly, traveling in general are also involved.
Just as a true orthodox can not himself turn on house lights or operate elevator, as on the electrical switch there may be a spark?
It's not just that there might be a spark, it's that electricity is considered equivalent to fire. We know that scientifically that isn't true, but when the question was first considered, the only common use of electricity was for light bulbs. Since incandescent light bulbs give off both light and heat, it was deemed to be the same as starting a fire. There's also the fact that operating el
Re: Thanks America (Score:1)
You mean like secularism did for the massive STD breakout at Cochella??
People are idiots regardless of race, color, or creed. It is long past the day when it could be simplified down into a group or people believing in a religion in general. If there were truly more intelligent people outside of religion, they'd be smart enough to know that. That without religion, people are still going to be people....like they were with religion.
Fecking tribalism needs to die. And athieism is just another tribe who likes
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And athieism is just another tribe...
You've clearly never met an atheist.
We don't agree on anything and the closest we would ever get to being a "tribe" is when we stop yelling at each other.
Re: Thanks America (Score:2)
Well we agree that there's no good reason to think that any gods exist. But yeah, that's about it. Not exactly something you can build a religion around.
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That's what's apparently hard to get past the skull of someone believing in gods. That ALL the label "atheism" means is that someone said "nope" to the claim of the existence of deities.
There would actually not even be a word for it, let alone people being identified as atheists, if there wasn't the prevalence of grownups with imaginary friends. There is a reason we don't have words like aleprechaunist and afairyist, mostly because there is no cult about either of them that tries to push their bullshit into
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I'm an Atheist!
But not an "aleprechaunist and/or afairyist",
you insensitive clod!
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Well we agree that there's no good reason to think that any gods exist.
No, we don't agree on that.
I have no fucking clue why you "believe" or are "convinced" or are "certain" that there is no god. No ave you any clue about me.
Re: Thanks America (Score:2)
And athieism is just another tribe who likes to attack those who aren't like them. They lack the self restraint to be agnostic and the intelligence to be any better than the religious nuts. They are every bit as bad.
You know what's far worse than atheism? The "agnostic" idiots who attack atheists because they think atheism and agnosticism are mutually exclusive.
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And athieism is just another tribe who likes to attack those who aren't like them. ... feel free to link dictionary or wikipedia articles.
If you meet people like that, point out to them, they are not atheists
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Not being religious does not automatically make you smart. Just because it takes a certain kind of gullible to believe in fairies, healing crystals and magical men in the sky doesn't automatically make the reverse true, i.e. that rejecting any of these things makes you an extremely rational being, controlled only by reason and logic.
Or, in the words of my math prof, it's required but not sufficient.
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There are some pretty nasty non-fatal side-effects and some of them are permanent. They are a _lot_ more likely.
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