Imagine this: Your parents are in their 80s. They both have chronic health conditions. And they’re stuck on a cruise ship with people who have the coronavirus — and they can’t get off.
For Anchorage resident Erin Jackson, this isn’t a nightmare — it’s reality. Her parents were on the Grand Princess, the cruise ship kept at sea for days off San Francisco as officials debated what to do with the passengers.
Jackson said her parents had heard about the virus before leaving on the trip to Hawaii and Mexico, but without a stern warning from federal health officials, they decided to go anyway.
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Jackson’s parents were supposed to leave the ship Tuesday, but she doesn’t know whether or where they may have to be quarantined.
Nathaniel Herz is an Anchorage-based journalist. He's been a reporter in Alaska for a decade, and is currently reporting for Alaska Public Media. Find more of his work by subscribing to his newsletter, Northern Journal, at natherz.substack.com. Reach him at natherz@gmail.com.
