With the worldwide outbreak of the coronavirus, much of the news is filled with reports of the number of patients with the deadly illness and the number of deaths. At the time of this writing, there are already 800 deaths in China, including one American.

I recently wrote about the possibility that China intentionally released the coronavirus in order to disrupt and destroy world economies. Over the weekend, Fox News reported that despite a strong jobs report, stocks in the US lost over 277 points last Friday due to concerns over the coronavirus.

One of the many reports concerns the Diamond Princess cruise ship with 3,700 people that has been quarantined in Japan due to the coronavirus. Currently, the quarantine is a 14-day quarantine that is literally keeping passengers and crew confined on board as the deadly virus continues to spread. At the time of this writing, over 60 passengers and crew tested positive for coronavirus. On Friday alone, an additional 41 new cases were confirmed.

NPR reported:

People who are quarantined aboard the Diamond Princess in Japan have been wondering how long their isolation would last. On Friday, a health official gave an answer they might not like: the quarantine would be extended every time a new case of the Wuhan coronavirus was confirmed on the ship.

The coronavirus quarantine that has kept some 3,700 people aboard the cruise ship had been set to expire on Feb. 19 – but that date would be reset if any new samples from people on the ship test positive for the virus, Dr. Michael Ryan, executive director of WHO’s Health Emergencies Program, said Friday.

An additional 41 cases were confirmed early Friday, bringing the total among passengers and crew to 61. Those samples were part of the initial screening — meaning those confirmations didn’t require a new 14-day quarantine to begin.

Then on Saturday, officials announced they had confirmed three more cases, for a total of 64.

Princess Cruises had announced that the previous group would end their quarantine on Feb. 19. Among those people, Japan’s health ministry had taken samples from just 273 individuals who were deemed to be in an at-risk group, based on their recent travels.

Note that the Japanese officials only tested 273 of the 3,700 people on board the cruise ship. That’s only about 13.5% of the total number of people on the cruise ship and out of that 13.5%, there has already been 23.4% who have tested positive for the coronavirus. If that figure holds up, that could indicate that as many as 865 people could end up infected.

How would you feel if you were one of the many confined to that cruise ship, knowing that the deadly coronavirus is rapidly spreading on board ship? You would be asking what your chances of getting the virus are? Is the food safe? Is the water safe? Is the air safe? Is it safe to go out of your quarters?

Last week, I spoke to a woman who was on a cruise ship in the Caribbean and she told me that every single passenger left the ship with a bad cold. She heard that one person boarded the cruise with a cold and by the end of the cruise, everyone else on board had been infected.

A few years ago, I spoke to a couple who had been on a cruise ship and they told me a similar tale, only on this cruise, someone boarded the ship with the flu and by the time they docked back home, several hundred people had the flu. The husband ended up in the hospital for a week, trying to recover from the flu he contracted while on the cruise. They told me it would be the last cruise they ever take. They told me that it’s not much different than being in an elevator for a prolonged period of time with someone who is sick.

I’ve heard from more than one cruise ship veteran say that taking a cruise may be exciting and a great vacation, but the risk of catching something from a cold to the flu to the coronavirus can far outweigh the benefits of the entire experience.

Think about it before you book a cruise ship.