Cruise ships kept sailing as coronavirus spread. Travelers and health experts question why.

“To avoid a panic that might collapse the industry, the cruise lines continued to mislead their passengers,” said Ashley Ecker, whose San Diego-based parents are aboard the Costa Luminosa, which continued on a voyage across the Atlantic earlier this month after a woman, later diagnosed as positive for the virus, disembarked with breathing problems. By the time the ship reached a port in France on Thursday, five additional passengers and two crew members had flu-like symptoms.