“The coronavirus cruise: on board the Diamond Princess – Get Paper Help

Instructions:

1. Please read the article “The coronavirus cruise: on board the Diamond Princess” and pick out a one thing the cruise line did wrong in its crisis communications (1 page)

2. Please read: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/buzzfeednews/bank-responses-fincen-files

Pick a bank response and comment on why it is effective or ineffective. (0.5 page)

Here are 2 examples from my classmate for the bank response

Example#1 Bank of. America

Assessment: I found Bank of America’s response in this case ineffective, weak, and actually suggested (to me) evasion. What I think is really interesting is why I believe that. If I just saw BoA’s response by itself, I might think, “sure, legally, they cannot comment for privacy reasons,” and move on. But, when I see their response next to all the other banks accused of misconduct, their response stands out as dismissive and even evasive. Knowing very little about the specifics, my mind still jumped to “they are definitely hiding something.”

Even if I failed to find some of the other banks’ responses all that effective in convincing me they are trying to take all possible steps to halt money laundering, most at least offered more than a single sentence in response to a seemingly well-established finding from BuzzFeed and the ICIJ. Mentioned in the same finding with BoA, both Citibank and American Express took a similar approach to BoA, but even they offered a solid paragraph-long response. JP Morgan Chase still emphasized privacy laws, but they continued to make more of an effort than the other three mentioned in the finding to (very vaguely) highlight how they work “to comply with laws governing anti-money laundering, terrorist financing, and economic sanctions.”

The ideal outcome of an effective crisis strategy is to have your company come out the other side better than when it when into crisis mode. In this case, BoA appears to either not see this as a crisis, or they hope they can ignore it and it will simply go away. I see it as an opportunity, especially for the banks on the FinCEN list, to showcase the measures they take to prevent financial crimes, offer concrete examples for how they work to counter such nefarious efforts, or highlight the improvements they intend to make to fight issues like human trafficking, terrorism, drug trafficking, among others. I think this is one way they could easily exit the crisis in a largely positive light, even if they have to admit that some things fell through the cracks. BoA missed an opportunity, and I am curious if their approach will have any short- or long-term impacts. Unfortunately, I suspect not… “too big to fail…?”

Example#2 Bank of America

Assessment:

I was particularly struck by Bank of America’s response: “Given the law around SARs, we cannot comment.” While banks cannot comment on relationships with customers due to the law, it is still important that in a situation like this they re-establish their commitment to adherence to the law. The Wells Fargo statement, while it is short like Bank of America’s, did make the point that the bank has “robust anti-money laundering policies and procedures in place.” Had Bank of America referenced its policies or its compliance with the law, its statement would have came off as more invested in this issue. Instead, the statement didn’t try to address the issue at all. In fact, by just basically saying “no comment,” Bank of America sounded slightly guilty and nonchalant about this really important issue.

3/7/2021 Coronavirus – The coronavirus cruise: on board the Diamond Princess | 1843 magazine | The Economist
https://www.economist.com/1843/2020/04/22/the-coronavirus-cruise-on-board-the-diamond-princess 1/22
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CORONAVIRUS
The coronavirus cruise: on board the
Diamond Princess
They came for indulgence, relaxation and bottomless buffets. Then they found
themselves trapped on a ship infected with a deadly virus. Joshua Hunt reports
3/7/2021 Coronavirus – The coronavirus cruise: on board the Diamond Princess | 1843 magazine | The Economist
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Apr 22nd 2020
BY JOSHUA HUNT
Give this article
On January 20th, some 2,500 passengers arrived at the port of Yokohama,
where American sailors had disembarked 167 years earlier, ending more
than two centuries of Japanese isolation. They looked forward to a cruise
that would ferry them from one Asian port to the next, unencumbered by the
demands of self-propelled tourism. Indulgence, at whatever price point they could
a􀂝ord, was their only concern as they left behind their jobs, retirement routines
and cares for two untroubled weeks at sea.
The brochures called the Diamond Princess “a precious gemstone on the seas of the
world”, where, “day or night, it’s always an adventure.” The scene for that adventure
was a 116,000-tonne cruise liner the length of three football pitches, which carries
over 1,000 crew members in addition to its complement of passengers. From a
distance it gleams white, with a belt of bright orange lifeboats wrapped around its
id i􀂝 U l th i d k hi h i d l d ith i i l d h t
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midri􀂝. Up close the main deck, which is dappled with swimming pools and hot
tubs, has been painted shades of chemical blue and toothpaste green that manage
to look simultaneously washed out and radiant. On one side of the ship passengers
can shoot nine holes on the putting course; on the other they can run laps of an
outdoor track or complete their round of golf in a simulator.
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The Diamond Princess exists in a strange historical limbo. Though the Wi-Fi is highspeed,
there are nightclubs and bars with retro names like Skywalkers, Club Fusion
and Wheelhouse, that combine live music, mood lighting and the ino􀂝ensive
ennui of the international hotel aesthetic. In Churchill’s Lounge you can bathe in
cigar smoke amid an array of upholstered leather armchairs. For the kids there are
crèches and youth centres 􀂤lled with games, gadgets and guitars. Parents can
recuperate in the “sanctuary”, an adults-only retreat within a retreat. Guests can
skip from concerts to the casino, watch comedians and magicians, take part in
quizzes and art auctions.
Then there’s the food. The Diamond Princess has a steakhouse, a pizzeria and
restaurants specialising in sushi and Italian cuisine. Bu􀂝ets o􀂝er prime rib,
escargots and crème brûlée, all served in gigantic portions at every hour of the day
or night. The ship has its own mixologist, sommelier and chocolatier.
The Diamond Princess is one of about 300 cruise ships that circle the globe each
L t th i d th h h lid th t t b l t
3/7/2021 Coronavirus – The coronavirus cruise: on board the Diamond Princess | 1843 magazine | The Economist
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year. Last year they carried 30m passengers through holidays that seem to belong to
another time, before travellers prized authenticity over luxury, sustainability over
excess and adventure over sedentary stimulation. However outdated the cruise
experience may seem, more passengers are enjoying it than ever before. Last year
Carnival Corporation, the world’s largest cruise-ship conglomerate, which owns
Princess Cruises along with eight other lines and carries half the world’s cruise
passengers each year, brought in record-setting revenues of $21bn.
Some cruise companies devote themselves to constructing the biggest possible
ships in which to cram a near-inexhaustible supply of choices for dining and
entertainment for as many people as possible (Symphony of the Seas, the world’s
largest cruise liner, can accommodate nearly 7,000 passengers). Princess Cruises
prides itself on the personal experience it provides. Jeraldine Saunders, a former
Princess employee, wrote in her memoir “The Love Boats” in 1974 that the ship’s
cruise director – her former role – was “the one person aboard every luxury liner
who is responsible for keeping everyone happy”. (A long-running tv series, based
on that book, followed the romantic exploits of the 􀂤ctional passengers.) Decades
on, the purpose of a Princess cruise remains the same: to encourage customers to
socialise with the crew and fellow guests, rather than merely cleave to the friends
and family with whom they boarded.
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For people who have never taken a cruise, the world can be neatly divided into two
groups: those who would pay for such an experience and those who would pay to
3/7/2021 Coronavirus – The coronavirus cruise: on board the Diamond Princess | 1843 magazine | The Economist
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groups: those who would pay for such an experience and those who would pay to
avoid it. But cruise-goers know that each ship contains a hierarchy that mirrors
society at large. You can book a suite with an ocean view or choose a small cabin in
the bowels of the boat. Many passengers are retired professionals with modest
pensions, who can a􀂝ord to travel for weeks at sea each year if they get the
cheapest, windowless cabins and spend all their time up on deck. In the most
cramped quarters of all, an army of waiters, cleaners and cooks sleep when they
can, and otherwise devote themselves to pampering the ship’s guests. They
encourage passengers to enjoy extras, like boozing, gambling, high-end jewellery
sales and art auctions, on which Princess Cruises makes much of its money.
3/7/2021 Coronavirus – The coronavirus cruise: on board the Diamond Princess | 1843 magazine | The Economist
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As the Diamond Princess prepared to depart Yokohama on January 20th, the
authorities in China were struggling to deal with an outbreak of a new coronavirus
that had been identi􀂤ed in Wuhan, a city in central China. The virus appeared to
cause severe pneumonia in some people a􀂢icted, and was spreading rapidly. In
the 􀂤ve days that it took the ship to sail from Yokohama to Hong Kong, the number
of con􀂤rmed covid-19 infections worldwide more than quadrupled to 1,320 cases.
Most of these were in mainland China; 􀂤ve were in Hong Kong.
Carlos Soto and Yardley Wong boarded the Diamond Princess in Hong Kong on
3/7/2021 Coronavirus – The coronavirus cruise: on board the Diamond Princess | 1843 magazine | The Economist
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January 25th, the 􀂤rst day of the Chinese New Year. It was a family holiday. Along
with their young son, they were joined by Wong’s parents and an aunt and uncle.
Wong had booked the trip months before and the couple were preparing to
celebrate their wedding anniversary aboard.
With the coronavirus outbreak already encroaching on Hong Kong, Soto and Wong
worried about infection and packed plenty of face masks and hand sanitiser. They
had to answer a health questionnaire before they boarded. “But once we got on the
ship, we found that people weren’t really wearing masks,” Soto said. “Life on the
ship was very lively – lots of shows, lots of entertainment.”
The burgeoning epidemic in the region was re􀂧ected in some small gestures.
Guests were reminded to wash their hands before eating. Some doors were left
open, so people didn’t need to touch the handles. But when the couple saw that no
one else was taking any further precautions, they stowed their masks and hand
sanitiser in their small, windowless cabin and spent their days jostling with other
passengers in the dining halls and auditoriums. From February 1st, rumours began
to circulate that someone who had disembarked in Hong Kong had tested positive
for covid-19. Wong and Soto immediately thought of all those meals they’d eaten
and shows they’d watched at close quarters. The unused masks that they had
brought aboard preyed on their minds.
3/7/2021 Coronavirus – The coronavirus cruise: on board the Diamond Princess | 1843 magazine | The Economist
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On the evening of January 27th, as the Diamond Princess sailed out of the port
of Chan May in Vietnam, Spencer Fehrenbacher, a 29-year-old Canadian
from Vancouver, began to feel feverish. His body ached, his head burned
and he kept breaking out in cold sweats. For the next 24 hours, while other
passengers disembarked at Ha Long bay, an expanse of emerald-blue waters dotted
with lush forested islands, Fehrenbacher curled up in his bed. His American
roommate took the decision to sleep on the 􀂧oor of the cabin next door, with their
two other travelling companions. On the evening of the 28th, as the ship made its
way towards Taiwan, Fehrenbacher started to feel like himself again.
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Fehrenbacher had travelled from Tianjin, a city just south of Beijing, where he’d
enrolled in a graduate programme in international business studies a year earlier.
By the time he and his friend joined the ship on January 20th, they had heard
stories about the new coronavirus. Ten days earlier, the 􀂤rst death in Wuhan had
been announced.
“I felt like we were a bit more aware of the seriousness of the coronavirus because
we’d been living in China,” Fehrenbacher said. In Kagoshima, the Japanese city
where the ship docked on January 22nd, the group “stopped by a 7-Eleven and
b h i l k hi h ill 􀂤 d i k b k
3/7/2021 Coronavirus – The coronavirus cruise: on board the Diamond Princess | 1843 magazine | The Economist
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bought some surgical masks, which were still easy to 􀂤nd in stock at any store back
then”. But like Soto and Wong only days later, they were seduced by the untroubled
demeanour of their shipmates and laid the prophylactics aside when they returned
aboard.
Cruise-ship life was a chance “to do nothing for two weeks”, apart from some
mellow partying. Fehrenbacher’s oceanview double on the ship’s Baja deck became
a waypoint between quiz nights and trips to the jacuzzi. Fellow passengers called
the group the “Baja boys”.
“It was a little weird at 􀂤rst, you know, being the only unmarried millennials on a
cruise where most people are over 50,” Fehrenbacher said. “But after a few days of
enjoying the drinks and the food, we started getting to know some other people.”
When the Diamond Princess arrived in Hong Kong, Fehrenbacher was alarmed to
see that everyone on shore was wearing masks. A couple of days later his fever only
increased his anxiety. Though it broke shortly afterwards, he developed a sore
throat over the following days. He avoided leaving the ship when it made
scheduled stops in Taiwan and Okinawa, worried that he wouldn’t be allowed back
on board if he displayed any signs of illness.
At 6.30pm on February 3rd, as the ship was steaming back to Yokohama, the
captain made a special announcement over the intercom. His voice was broadcast
into every lounge and cabin: “Please be advised that we have been noti􀂤ed by the
Hong Kong public-health authorities that a Hong Kong resident who travelled for
􀂤ve days on the Diamond Princess…disembarking in Hong Kong on January 25th,
tested positive for coronavirus on February 1st, six days after leaving the vessel,” he
said.
Passengers were told to expect some delays after they arrived in Yokohama, where
Japanese health o􀂠cials would screen each passenger before disembarking. In the
meantime, anyone who had experienced any sign of illness during the cruise was
instructed to report to the medical facility, which sat on the ship’s lowest deck.
Medics would take their temperature and they would answer a health
questionnaire.
Fehrenbacher was shocked – and convinced that he must have caught the virus.
But he couldn’t decide whether to comply with the request. “One worry was that if I
3/7/2021 Coronavirus – The coronavirus cruise: on board the Diamond Princess | 1843 magazine | The Economist
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already had the virus, they’d quarantine me and I’d be unable to travel home,” he
said. “My other worry was that if I didn’t have it already, I’d be walking into a small
room 􀂤lled with every coughing, feverish person on the ship.” He paced his cabin
before confessing to his roommate that he was going to ignore the order. His friend
was visibly upset. “He helped me realise that I had an ethical obligation to report
myself,” said Fehrenbacher. “And maybe a legal obligation as well.”
So Fehrenbacher descended into the depths of the ship to squeeze into the packed
waiting room, which held double the number of people it was designed for. Many
passengers were hacking away, sneezing or visibly ill.
Shortly after 11pm, Japanese health o􀂠cials dressed in cotton overalls began
knocking on doors, selecting the people who they deemed most in need of testing
for covid-19. It was 4.30am by the time they got to Fehrenbacher’s room. They
questioned him about his symptoms and recent travel, asking, in particular,
whether he had been to Wuhan. Then they headed o􀂝 to the next room. Later they
took a throat swab, telling Fehrenbacher he would have the results within six
hours. In the 􀂤rst round of testing, they took swabs from 253 people.
When morning dawned on February 4th, the experience seemed like a dream to
Fehrenbacher. The dining halls were full of passengers grazing at the bu􀂝et
breakfast. Later people began drinking in the ship’s lounges. Throughout the day,
guests of the Diamond Princess ate, chatted and enjoyed the on-board
entertainment. The health o􀂠cials continued making their rounds. At Club Fusion
the band played on.
The party came to an abrupt halt on the evening of February 4th: “I’ve just
received instructions from the Japanese quarantine inspectors,” the captain
announced over the ship’s intercom, in a monotone that gave little
reassurance to passengers. “At this time, all our guests must remain in their cabins
and wait for further instructions.” Another announcement followed later on. The
ship had been quarantined and passengers were con􀂤ned to their cabins for at
least the next 14 days. The corridors of the ship were soon 􀂧ooded with people
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whose 􀂤rst instinct was to commiserate, face-to-face, with their neighbours.
“Bummer!” was the judgment of one.
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Fehrenbacher found that his mood turned on whatever he had last read online
about coronavirus. When he didn’t hear from health o􀂠cials by the time the sixhour
deadline for his results had passed, he presumed his continued presence on
board meant that he didn’t have the virus. But the more he read, the less certain he
became about that. The outbreak on the ship had become international news and
when Fehrenbacher watched a cnn report on February 7th saying that there were
41 new positive cases of covid-19 on board, he convinced himself that he was
among them. He recorded a short video for his family, so that he could send it if he
was taken away to the hospital without advance notice.
“If you’re seeing this video, I have tested positive for the coronavirus and am being
taken to a Japanese hospital somewhere,” he said, visibly choking up. “I’m making
this video just as a way of saying ‘hi’, saying, you know, ‘I love you’ to my family and
friends, and just making this in advance in case I don’t have time to…in case.”
Later that day, when Fehrenbacher 􀂤nally found out that he had tested negative, his
despair transformed into elation. That delight was enhanced by copious amounts
of alcohol: on February 9th Jan Swartz, chief executive of Princess Cruises,
informed all passengers that, in addition to a full refund and a free cruise in future,
for the duration of their quarantine they could order drinks at no charge.
Fehrenbacher and his roommate sent for wine and beer.
For those who’d been able to a􀂝ord rooms with balconies, having that outside
space o􀂝ered a respite from the monotony of washing laundry in the bathroom
basin and the smell of days-old rubbish that began to accumulate in cabins as the
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crew struggled to manage the needs of their captive guests.
Fehrenbacher and his friends watched the sunset each day on their shared balcony
and chatted to the neighbours, usually about how much luck they’d had placing
drinks orders, which had been constantly backed up since becoming
complimentary. The best method, passengers soon learned, was to scrawl an order
on a piece of paper and leave it in the hallway with some cash peeking out
underneath. The combination of free alcohol, and the feeling that they had broken
bread with a killer and survived, led many other passengers to share
Fehrenbacher’s feeling that quarantine was in some ways an extension of their
holiday.
One sunny day passengers with cabins facing out to sea were drawn outdoors by
the sound of Japanese pop music, which accompanied an impromptu performance
by a gang of jet-skiers. For ten or 15 minutes they performed stunts, while
passengers stood on their balconies, cheering them on, drinks in hand. When the
music stopped and the jet-skiers departed, Fehrenbacher found himself desperate
to prolong the moment. He and his American roommate started a Mexican wave.
“Eventually we got it going down from one end of the ship to the other,” he said. “It
felt so nice to see all these people connecting in the midst of this really di􀂠cult
time.”
A week into quarantine, Fehrenbacher was feeling reassured. He’d received a letter
from the American Centres for Disease Control telling him that, based on the latest
available information, “remaining in your room on the ship is the safest option to
minimise your risk of infection.” He also noticed that, for a few days in a row, the
captain hadn’t mentioned any new infections among the passengers in his daily
announcements over the intercom. By February 13th Fehrenbacher began to think
that the quarantine might come to an early end. But two days later, as he was
preparing to be interviewed by a Canadian news programme, he was shocked when
he heard the introduction to the segment about the Diamond Princess.
“Did you just say that there are 67 new cases?” Fehrenbacher asked. “Is that what I
heard?”
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The news anchor told him this was indeed true. This meant that the total number
of con􀂤rmed infections on board the ship had risen to 285. “Okay, uh, I had not
been made aware of that,” he said. The captain, it turned out, had simply stopped
informing passengers about new cases. (In a request for comment, Carnival
Corporation said it did “everything possible to be open, honest and transparent,
and to provide for the health and well- being of our guests and crew”.)
Fehrenbacher felt a return of his earlier dread. On the same day, the Diamond
Princess brie􀂧y headed out to sea to run its engines. When it returned to port a few
hours later, it docked in the opposite direction. Fehrenbacher’s balcony view of
Mount Fuji and the open seas had been replaced by one of an ugly port overrun
with ambulances and men dressed in hazmat suits.“That’s when it 􀂤nally hit us
that people were getting sick and dying,” he said. “That’s when we stopped drinking
and started wearing our masks and taking things more seriously.”
On the inside of the brochure for the Diamond Princess, just past the promises
of exploration and renewal, there is a page that lays out the hierarchy of the
cabins in descending order: grand suite with balcony, suite with balcony,
mini-suite with balcony, oceanview double with balcony, deluxe oceanview,
oceanview double, interior double.
Aun Na Tan’s interior double was on Deck 10, one 􀂧oor below the Baja boys. She
slept on a single bunk beneath Kaitlyn, her 16-year-old daughter. On another bunk
an arm’s length away, her husband Je􀂝 Soh slept beneath Xander, their 19-year-old
son. The entire cabin, which was windowless and without mobile-phone
reception, measured 15 square metres. Nonetheless, as with all the other cabins,
cruise sta􀂝 always referred to it as a “stateroom”.
It had seemed like a tremendous bargain. For less than $1,000 per person, the
family of four enjoyed two weeks at sea. They didn’t mind the cramped quarters –
they did little other than sleep there. Kaitlyn spent much of her time at the youth
club, while her parents exercised. At midday the family often met up for lunch. In
the afternoon, Tan napped, her husband would go to an art auction and the kids
would watch a 􀂤lm. After dinner, they’d usually go to a show together.
Quarantine necessitated a new routine. Breakfast bu􀂝ets were replaced by fruit
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y
cups and yogurt. The mornings were now spent playing sudoku and board games.
Gone was the magni􀂤cent choice of food: for lunch they had to pick between stir
fry with chicken or stir fry with tofu.
Once the Wi-Fi connection had been boosted to handle its near constant use by the
3,000-plus people aboard, Tan’s husband was able to use his laptop to work
remotely, in his job as a project manager for a bank in Australia. Tan spent the day
rallying her children’s spirits with games, exercise and impromptu renditions of
pop songs. “I think the kids were a little annoyed with my attempts to keep them
optimistic,” she said.
They humoured their mother, transforming their cabin into a karaoke booth,
cinema, gym and dance studio. They did sit-ups and press-ups in the tiny space
available. Xander and Kaitlyn, both dancers, practised hip-hop moves. And they
managed to stream the Oscars. Even the boxed meals didn’t really bother them that
much. “We are not afraid of repetitive food,” Tan said. “We quite often have the
same food over a few days since I cook in bulk so often at home.”
On February 7th crew members delivered masks, rubber gloves and instructions on
how to keep a safe, “social distance” from other passengers. Tan and other
passengers in “inside” cabins with no window or balcony had not tasted fresh air
for nearly three days at that point. Now they were allowed to stroll along the ship’s
main deck for 30 to 40 minutes each day, as long as they kept two arms’ lengths
from other passengers.
Tan found complying with the instructions surprisingly di􀂠cult. She would doubt
whether she’d touched a rail before or after she rubbed her eye. She wondered if
people were veering too close to her and whether it would be rude to ask them to
move away. Did it matter, she thought, that we’re walking into the wind with all
those people in front of us?
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Three days into the quarantine, Tan received a sobering phone call from another
Australian on board, who had tested positive for coronavirus. Shaken by the news,
she became strict about the family’s hygiene. They all washed their hands
constantly and disinfected the cabin regularly. “We cleaned the trays our food came
on and we washed and cleaned the raw fruit and vegetables,” she said. “We wiped
down the outer containers as much as we could.” Other passengers had similar
anxieties: one turned away from the door each time a meal was delivered, worrying
that a blast of infected air might contaminate her room.
As quarantine dragged on, more passengers fell ill and were carted o􀂝 to hospital.
The remaining holidaymakers were trapped on board, obsessed with the possibility
that the virus was spreading through the air vents. This theory gained greater
traction after the captain began assuring passengers in his announcements that
only clean air passed through the cabins. Many people had stopped trusting the
cruise company by this point. (Even now, scientists are uncertain about the extent
to which coronavirus is transmissible through air.)
Tan’s measures to decontaminate food deliveries would prove prescient. The 􀂤rst
crew member to test positive for covid-19 was a food-service worker, who came
down with a fever on February 2nd. Crew members shared one large dining hall
and lived together in dormitories with bunk beds stacked three high. By the time
the fever-ridden employee disembarked two days later, he’d infected others around
him. Fifteen food-service workers had tested positive by February 9th, which may
well have hastened the spread of the virus among passengers, since these people
prepared, boxed up and delivered all meals.
Isolated in their cabins, with no consistent communication from the Japanese
government or Princess Cruises, emotions ran high. “Either things were fantastic
and it felt like an extension of my vacation, or it felt like the end of the world,”
Fehrenbacher said. “There wasn’t a whole lot in between.” Each day, passengers
learned through phone calls, text messages or news reports that friends they’d
made on board had now been whisked away after testing positive. The virus was
encroaching.
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Kent Frasure, 42, and his wife Rebecca, 35, are experienced cruise-goers. The co
from Oregon have taken 11 cruises, ten of them aboard Princess vessels.
They had seen enough, they reckoned, to know when things were going
wrong at sea. Even after the captain announced that a Diamond Princess
passenger had tested positive for covid-19, they didn’t think it was very serious.
Some years before that they’d been on another Princess cruise during a norovirus
scare. “In that case the captain immediately implemented new protocols for meal
service, and the crew gave passengers instructions on how to protect themselves,”
Kent said. During that earlier cruise there had been a palpable change in mood as
passengers busied themselves trying to avoid contamination. “This time none of
that happened, so it didn’t seem like a big deal to me,” he said. The only di􀂝erence
Kent noticed was that passengers who went to quiz nights were asked to keep the
pencils they’d been given to write down their answers, rather than handing them
back at the end.
Once quarantine began, he and his wife were among the 􀂤rst group of passengers
to be tested. Over the next few days they watched from the balcony of their suite as
passengers with con􀂤rmed infections were hurried o􀂝 to hospital. “There was a
covered tunnel that prevented you from seeing how many people got o􀂝 the ship,”
said Kent, “but you knew what kind of a day it was going to be by counting the
number of ambulances that arrived.”
They also joined a private Facebook group that quarantined passengers had
created. Unfortunately, Kent said, it quickly 􀂤lled up with “complaints and
conspiracy theories”. The lack of consensus about the danger posed by covid-19,
combined with poor communication from the Japanese authorities, fuelled wild
speculation among the Facebook group’s most active posters. Some accused the
Japanese government of lying, carrying out 􀂧awed tests or unreasonably holding
passengers on board. When another guest tried to tamp down the “rumours and
hysteria”, he was accused of being in the employ of the Japanese. Despite this, the
Facebook group became the most reliable way to keep tabs on how many
passengers had tested positive for covid 19 as many members posted their results
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passengers had tested positive for covid-19, as many members posted their results
there or reported that their neighbours had now been taken away.
On the morning of February 7th, Japanese o􀂠cials arrived to tell Rebecca Frasure
that she had tested positive. She was told to pack a bag quickly with everything
she’d need for the next three days. Kent, who did not have the virus, had to stay
behind. “We couldn’t believe it, because aside from a very mild sore throat, she
didn’t have any symptoms,” Kent said. “But they said she’d only be gone three days,
so we 􀂤gured maybe it was just a precaution and not a big deal.”
Rebecca never became seriously ill, but the experience was unsettling. The food
she was given at the hospital, including 􀂤sh, rice and pickles for breakfast, was a
far cry from the sushi and grilled meat she had previously enjoyed in Tokyo. She
was anxious about being separated from her husband, and upset to learn soon after
arriving that she would be there for at least 12 days, not the three that she had
initially been promised. She struggled to communicate with the doctors and
nurses, as she didn’t speak Japanese.
From the day they were separated, Kent waited alone in his cabin. The number of
positive tests rose from 61 cases on the day his wife was taken to hospital, to 218 a
week later. He used Facebook Messenger to keep in touch with Rebecca, swapping
jokes and photos of their meals. Occasionally, in the midst of a comforting chat
with his wife, Kent would receive abusive Facebook messages from strangers back
in America. “Stay the fuck out of the us make a new life somewhere else because if
you come back and spread it you’re sel􀂤sh,” one man from Portland wrote. “Keep
the innocent kids with years of life happy and safe corona free stay away.”
Kent found comfort in a WhatsApp group comprising about 20 people he had met
during the quiz nights. They o􀂝ered encouragement to people struggling with the
isolation and banded together to 􀂤nd deliveries of fresh linen and towels, after the
provision of such items fell by the wayside during the 􀂤rst week of quarantine.
By February 16th, four weeks after the 􀂤rst passengers had boarded the ship in
Yokohama, the Diamond Princess warranted its own category in the World Health
Organisation’s daily report on the outbreak of coronavirus. There were 355
con􀂤rmed cases on board, more than in any country apart from China, and more
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than in all those other countries put together.
Among the many infected passengers was Kaitlyn Soh, the 16-year-old daughter of
Aun Na Tan. She had never shown any signs of illness except for a headache, which
her parents assumed was due to dehydration caused by too many hours spent
staring at her smartphone. Tan refused to be separated from her daughter, as the
authorities wanted, and three days passed before they found a hospital that would
allow the family to stay together, though in separate wards. The hospital had no
Wi-Fi, so Tan sent handwritten notes to her daughter. Kaitlyn’s replies had to be
photocopied, since nothing was allowed to leave the “red zone” where covid-19
patients were treated.
“My daughter is pretty tough and she always sco􀂝s at me and her brother for being
softies and crying at movies,” Tan said. “But she later told us that she cried most of
that 􀂤rst night, separated from us.”
Because his quarantine timer was reset on the day his wife had tested positive,
Kent Frasure was forced to remain on the ship longer than most other passengers.
Ten days after his wife was taken to the hospital, he watched from his balcony as
over 300 Americans and Canadians were evacuated. They were put on a bus, driven
to a cargo plane and 􀂧own to America, where they were put into another 14-day
period of quarantine.
Fehrenbacher spent this time at Travis Air Force Base in Fair􀂤eld, California. He
had another test for the virus. “The idea of ending up in an American hospital
really worried me,” he said. “It would have ruined me 􀂤nancially.” Fortunately he
received another negative result.
Kent Frasure was still marooned on the ship when he found out from a news
reporter about the 􀂤rst death of a passenger. “It was so shocking and so sad to think
that this person had gone on a vacation and the next thing you know they’re dead,”
he said. “It just seemed so preventable.” In total, 14 passengers from the Diamond
Princess eventually died from covid-19.
As ever more passengers 􀂤nished their quarantine or were evacuated by their
governments, the Diamond Princess turned into a ghost ship. The only people Kent
now saw were members of the crew who glided by his room at mealtimes,
sometimes forgetting that he was still on board He was one of the last passengers
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sometimes forgetting that he was still on board. He was one of the last passengers
to leave the ship, on February 22nd. He spent a new 14-day period of quarantine in
a succession of Tokyo hotels; twice he was asked to leave when the management
learned where he had been. When he visited Rebecca in hospital, he had to stand
beneath the window of her room and speak to her using FaceTime. On March 4th,
she was released. The couple remained in Tokyo for 􀂤ve more days. They had
hoped to go to Tokyo Disneyland but by then it was closed to prevent the spread of
the virus.
As the Diamond Princess emptied out, a very di􀂝erent but equally international
gaggle of people gathered at its gangway. Most had come from Myanmar, Nepal and
Turkey; a few were Japanese. They were brought in on buses each morning to clean
the ship as it sat idly in Yokohama bay, a monument to the virus now sweeping
across the world. Six days a week, for four weeks, they spent nine hours scrubbing,
cleaning and disinfecting each of the ship’s cabins, and every bar, club, lounge,
youth centre, steakhouse and dining room. They earned ¥10,000 a day (roughly
$95). If they lived too far away to commute, they were put up in a nearby hotel.
“The hotel room is a lot nicer than my own apartment,” one of them told me in
March. “Sometimes it almost feels like I’m on vacation.”
images: getty, jim harrison, phil courter, associated press map: lloyd
parker
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