‘Very Challenging’: CDC Sets Protocols For Cruise Industry To Sail Again

The New York Times: Cruise Ships Can Get Ready To Set Sail Again, C.D.C. Says 
Cruise ships can prepare to set sail again beginning Sunday under a conditional order issued by U.S. health officials that aims to mitigate the risk of Covid-19 transmission at sea by requiring a host of measures, including testing and quarantine, all designed to keep crews and passengers safe. No ship will set sail with passengers immediately, and the cruise tourism industry may not rebound anytime soon. Under new guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday, companies must be certified to sail by proving they can operate safely with crews onboard. To do so, they must carry out a simulated journey, or a number of simulated journeys, with unpaid guest volunteers or crew members playing the role of passengers. (Rabin, 10/30)

In other public health news —

The New York Times: 2 Warehouse Halloween Parties Attended By Nearly 1,000 Are Shut Down 
Two Halloween parties with hundreds of guests dancing and drinking inside warehouses were broken up by New York City authorities this weekend, as officials strive to curb behavior that they worry could fuel a second wave of the pandemic. A party in Brooklyn with nearly 400 people was broken up by city sheriffs early Saturday morning. About 24 hours later, the sheriff’s office shut down another party with more than 550 people in the Bronx. (Zaveri, 11/1)

The Washington Post: A Woman Died Of Coronavirus On A Plane. Her Fellow Passengers Were Never Notified.
When Spirit Airlines learned that a Texas woman had died of covid-19 on one of its flights in July, the airline said it alerted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and received an acknowledgment from the agency. But Spirit spokesman Erik Hofmeyer said it was never asked by health authorities to share passenger manifests to aid in tracking down people who might have been exposed. State health officials in New Mexico, where the woman was declared dead after the Dallas-bound flight was diverted to Albuquerque, acknowledged they failed to investigate, as did the CDC. (Duncan, 10/31)

NBC News: Covid-19 Mourners Are Turning To Facebook For Grief Support
Brian Walter was wracked with guilt after his father died from Covid-19 in May. Walter was a New York City Transit employee who had kept working as the coronavirus surged across the city in the spring and he worried he was responsible. “One of my personal struggles is worrying about the fact that I may have brought it into the house,” said Walter, 46, who lived with his parents in Queens and tested positive for the virus around the same time as his father. (Vago, 11/1)

The Washington Post: Poor And Minority Children With Food Allergies Are Overlooked And In Danger
As Emily Brown stood in a food pantry looking at her options, she felt alone. Up to that point, she had never struggled financially. But there she was, desperate to find safe food for her young daughter with food allergies. What she found was a jar of salsa and some potatoes. “That was all that was available,” said Brown, who lives in Kansas City, Kansas. “It was just a desperate place.” When she became a parent, Brown left her job for lack of child care that would accommodate her daughter’s allergies to peanuts, tree nuts, milk, eggs, wheat and soy. When she and her husband then turned to a federal food assistance program, they found few allowable allergy substitutions. The closest allergy support group she could find was an hour away. She was almost always the only Black parent, and the only poor parent, there. (West, 11/1)

Georgia Health News: After Power Outage, Pay Attention To Food Safety 
With COVID-19 flaring and politicians fuming, these last few weeks have raised anxiety to a new level. Then along came Zeta. As the former hurricane raced from the Gulf Coast up into the mid-Atlantic states and then back out to sea, it hit the Peach State with a vengeance. It knocked out power for hundreds of thousands of Georgians on Thursday and Friday. (Miller, 10/30)

In obituaries —

USA Today: 'American Idol' Alum Nikki McKibbin, Who Competed Against Kelly Clarkson, Dies At 42
Nikki McKibbin, who finished in third place behind Kelly Clarkson and Justin Guarini on the first season of "American Idol," has died, according to a Facebook post from her husband. She was 42. Craig Sadler shared Saturday on social media that McKibbin "suffered an aneurysm on Wednesday" and had been kept on life support before an operation early Sunday morning to give "her final gift" as an organ donor.