To nobody's surprise, there's another norovirus outbreak on a cruise ship. This time, the lucky passengers are onboard the MS Iona, an "Excellence-class" (also called "Excel-class," described in this article) cruise ship operated by P&O Cruises (a Carnival subsidiary) that can can carry over 5,000 passengers and 1,800 crew members. The Iona set sail on February 15 from Southampton, England, for a seven-day cruise across northern Europe. Shortly into the journey, passengers began to, as News18 reports, "drop like flies" from what's suspected to be norovirus.
One passenger on board painted a vivid picture of the vomitous scene unfolding: "People [were] throwing up in restaurants, on decks, outside cabins." Another passenger recounted their difficulties with getting help or medicine:
"What was also incredulous was the inability to buy or get hold of any medication onboard to help with the symptoms. Not one shop or medical centre onboard could supply guests with gastrointestinal suspension medication or replacement salts/fluid sachets."
Norovirus is also running rampant across England. Last week, a record number of patients were admitted to English hospitals with norovirus. BBC reports that NHS England recorded 1,160 patients a day on average in the hospital with norovirus last week, which is twice the number from the same time period last year.
The descriptions of this horror remind me exactly of the absurdly grotesque vomit scene from Director Ruben Östlund's Triangle of Sadness, which Variety describes:
The film's second act takes place aboard a luxury yacht, culminating with the Captain's Dinner. Ill-timed with a raging storm that violently rocks the boat, the dinner causes nearly everyone on board to succumb to seasickness, namely projectile vomiting. It begins slowly at first, but the increasingly chaotic scene spans 15 minutes and ends in a swirl of vomit, diarrhea and raw sewage.
If you're a fan of Triangle of Sadness (I personally loved the film!), and want to know more about how director of photography Fredrik Wenzel and production designer Josefin Åsberg actually created the infamous vomiting scene—which was the culmination of two years of planning—Variety published a fascinating (and revolting) deep dive into its production. Here's a short gem from the article:
In order to build to a crescendo that includes exploding toilets, flooded staterooms, and people sliding in vomit along corridors, the action needed to start slowly. The actors were outfitted with tubes attached to their faces through which the SFX team could spew realistic-looking materials and create the desired effect. Åsberg remembers the many conversations she had with Östlund about color and consistency, including pieces of octopus for one passenger and bits of shrimp for another, as well as the right shades for the raw sewage that would burst from the toilets.
I truly wish all passengers on board the MS Iona who were affected by norovirus a full and speedy recovery. And I am now even more fully convinced that I will never again step foot on a cruise ship. My advice? Skip the cruise (and the accompanying norovirus!), and just watch Triangle of Sadness instead.
