The mystery is where did this virus come from that has infected cruise ships?  I am concerned for we have invested heavily in a cruise this coming spring.  We do not want to suffer cramps, diarrhea and feeling sick all the while supposedly enjoying the amenities on board a luxurious cruise ship plying the island waters of the South Pacific.

We read about the furious activity of “scrubbing down” all the surfaces of the ships involved.  Those cruise vessels not reporting outbreaks of deadly – but so far not lethal – sicknesses are being very publicly scrutinized and are all but torn apart to find the source for and to prevent the unknown infections from spreading. Where did it come from and why is the ship the culprit?  I venture to guess it is a modern “Typhoid Mary” who is the unwitting but prolific purveyor of putrid pestilence.  I think it is a “Virus Victor” or a “Virus Vicky” who plies the seas in search of a vocation or a vacation.

Since the disease seems to affect the alimentation process it is probably either breathed in or ingested. Surgical masks on everyone would make conversation more difficult but safer.  The new convention of touching elbows instead of shaking hands has joined sneezing into your shoulder or armpit – if you manage to do it in time.  I always am taken by surprise and broadcast it in an alarmingly unexpected and loud fashion. Air-kissing or touching cheeks may be a thing of the past and hugging may just be too close for comfort and ungraceful while holding heads far apart.

Distance between people, particularly strangers you might want to meet, will become greater.  For really, really safe social intercourse plastic but breathable sheaths over the whole body might be extreme but advisable to forestall any real big infestation. An alternative might be for each of us to have a can of spray such as Lysol that we use to make a mist around us for protection or, the convention might become – I spray you and you spray me.

But, really, folks; it is probably just ONE of us who hops on to ships to either work or recreate and travels the world over as a “Virus Victor” or “Virus Vicky. Just as other forms of travel on trains, buses and airlines and getting into public buildings where the individual must pass through a detection device, (and also on the last cruise we took) we might expect blood tests or the very least, a swabbing of the inside of our cheek to see what lurks there. The laboratories will expand and give jobs to a whole horde of people.

All of this is very distasteful to think or talk about – perhaps we will not fly to get to our cruise and might cancel the whole thing. Dang it, V.V. or V.V., why don’t YOU stay at home?