With all the media attention the DR is getting right now, what are y’alls thought on the number of deaths? Would you avoid going or if you had plans to go would you cancel? I have no plans to go now or in the future but it has nothing to do with the country itself. I do think the government’s tone deaf response to the issue is going to harm the tourism industry there in the short term for sure, but possibly the long term also, depending on how things are handled going forward.
I'm guessing it is the overuse of powerful pesticides in the rooms that are causing a lot of this. The DR is reasonably safe. The wealth inequality is pretty bad which does lead to some risk in some places, but the people are generally friendly. That these things are occurring at resorts is why I think at least the majority of the incidents are accidental and not a malicious act. When I was there last, it was clear that they went to the umpteenth degree to give Americans and Europeans the experience they desired, which includes being free of any insect pests. Well, there are a lot of insects in a tropical environment and the biodiversity is relatively low which means you get ultra-aggressive massive colonies of ants, voracious mosquitoes, and man-spiders that are all generalist SOBs that will readily move from the field to the forest to the desert to your resort. I threw a shoe at a tarantula (same island) and I swear it almost threw it back. Most aggressive mosquitoes I've ever encountered. Not the most numerous, but definitely the most aggressive. So they spray great quantities of stuff around the rooms, the compounds, etc. And if it is done in a way that a guest is exposed (like it being on a counter or bedding) they start feeling sick. And if you are sick, you stay in bed in your room, getting more exposed... That's my hypothesis, partly formed by my visits to that island. Though I was never in one of the walled off resorts.
There are a lot of people who live in the DR that used to or still do for part of the year live in the US. Particularly NYC and Florida. Plenty of dual citizens, expats, etc.
That doesn't track for some of these, I think. Some of them never went to the bar and only was in their rooms.
The house I slept in in Port-au-Prince had problems with tarantulas getting in. I was sleeping on the floor and there was a yorkie roaming around all night, I nearly smashed that dog about 10 times. Luckily they’d figured out how they were getting in and fixed it
after reading this i think i'll skip going soon: https://nypost.com/2019/06/21/two-more-americans-reported-dead-after-dominican-republic-vacations/
You can see why I think it is a pesticide or chemical thing. It looks like poison, but who is benefiting from poisoning them? Seemingly no one.
This is where I am. I really believe the chemicals are getting into the ductwork or something like that and that there is no malicious intent although the guests are still just as dead either way. I do think the authorities in the DR need to take a more proactive approach and focus on a solution rather than deflecting blame and acting like there isn’t a problem. Blaming the guests (especially the woman who was so brutally beaten, ostensibly by a resort employee) isn’t doing anything to help their image, and if tourists start deciding to go elsewhere in greater numbers it will be because of the way they’ve handled this situation up to this point.
The fact that authorities are pressuring families of the deceased to cremate the bodies is telling. More than a few families have reported this so it’s not an isolated thing...
Although part of it is that it is extremely expensive and complicated to move a civilian body from overseas to the US.
So walk me through it. A staff member poisons a bottle? Or laces the glass? Person gets sick and then... ?
see, I think that tracks with the accidental chemical/pesticide exposure. If they're spraying the counter and everything else, and the glass is set upside down on the counter or is rightside up and empty collecting droplets... You get the picture.
