Due to cuts by the Trump Administration, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is now lacking the staff and resources to continue cruise ship health inspections under the Vessel Sanitation Program (VSP).
“Restructuring plans” by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (RFK, Jr.) wiped out the VSP’s ability to control and monitor illness outbreaks on cruise ships.
Cruise Industry News reports that there were significant layoffs earlier last week in the CDC’s Division of Environmental Health Science and Practice, which oversees the VSP.
Cruise Industry News reports that “the VSP was put in place to inspect health standards on cruise ships, issuing a very public score on how well ships are operating and maintaining public health standards across eight areas. It also monitors data on illnesses onboard and responded to outbreaks.”
The cut back comes at a crucial time for the cruise industry which is experiencing an unprecedented number of gastrointestinal outbreaks on cruise ships.
As we reported last week, this year there have been 12 outbreaks of gastrointestinal illness on cruises calling on U.S. ports. Ten of these outbreaks were caused by the very contagious norovirus. Last year (2024), there were 16 gastrointestinal (GI) outbreaks on cruise ships. In 2023, there was a total of 14 cruise outbreaks. At the current rate, on an annualized basis there will be 48 GI cruise ship outbreaks if the cruise sicknesses continue at this record rate.
The Street reported “with the recent uptick in cruise ship norovirus outbreaks, the loss of a program designed to prevent and control public health issues on cruise ships is concerning news for cruise passengers.”
CBS News reported that the most recent outbreak report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention founds that 224 of 2,538 passengers became ill from norovirus while on board the Cunard cruise line ship Queen Mary 2, along with 17 crew members. The outbreak comes on the heels of the worst year for cruise ship-based gastrointestinal outbreaks in over a decade, according to CNN.
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April 13, 2025 Update:
This story has been picked up by the national press:
CDC Cuts Cruise Ship Health Inspectors as Puke-Filled Year Rages On
CDC’s cruise ship inspectors laid off amid bad year for outbreaks
HHS Lays Off All Full-Time Cruise Ship Health Inspectors Amid Illness Outbreaks: Report
Image Credit: Queen Mary 2 – Ahecht CC BY-SA 4.0, commons / wikimedia; gastrointestinal outbreak – CDC VSP.