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USS Reagan |
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USS Theodore Roosevelt |
April 2 update:
The commander of the USS Theodore Roosevelt, Captain B. Crozier, has just been fired by US Navy officials for going public about coronavirus onboard his vessel.
April 5 update:
Captain Crozier has tested positive for the virus raged across his ship.
April 9 update:
Stars and Stripes reports that over 400 sailors on the USS Theodore Roosevelt have gotten the virus.
April 13 update: hundreds of sailors who tested positive in hospital, the 1700 who tested negative are isolated in hotels on Guam.
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Crozier enjoys the support of his sailors |
According to US Coast guard as reported by AP on April 4:"there are 114 cruise
ships, carrying 93,000 crew members, either in or near U.S. ports and
waters. That includes 73 cruise ships, with 52,000 crew members, moored
or anchored in U.S. ports and anchorages. Another 41 cruise ships, with
41,000 crew members, are underway and close to the U.S."
Dozens of cruise ships around the world have been impacted by coronavirus outbreaks, and many of them have been implicated in spreading the disease, but what about the big naval ships that ply the seas?
Whether a ship's mission be dedicated to national defense or drinking and dancing at sea, a big ship is a contained environment with an inherent risk of onboard contagion. Once the virus strikes, there's no way to get away, no place to hide.
Some of the earliest infection clusters in the US and elsewhere can be directly traced to tourists living it up aboard ships during the unfolding of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Even as the news of the sick ship Diamond Princess riveted the world, cruise ships continued to promote their profitable business and passengers continued to insist on their right to "get away from it all" at sea.
Pleasure-seekers were still boarding the behemoth floating hotels with elevators and casinos even after the coronavirus had hit five continents in pandemic proportions.
At least 32 passenger cruise ships have been jinxed by the coronavirus in the last month or two. Brittany Chang at Business Insider put together a useful list of impacted cruise vessels noting itinerary changes, denial of port detours, delayed docking and reports of infection spread as of March 25, 2020.
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Zaandam looking for a port to put in to |
The drama of the coronavirus-stricken Zaandam cruise ship, initially denied entry to the Panama Canal, has only heightened in the last few days. It's having a hard time finding a port to dock in because it carries four dead and numerous coronavirus infected passengers.
Passage through the Panama Canal was reluctantly granted on March 30. The ship is now heading to Florida where it hopes to dock shortly.
Meanwhile, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis wants nothing of it. About Zandaam's scheduled Florida visit he snapped:
“We view this as a big, big problem and we don’t want to see people dumped in southern Florida right now.”
It's not unreasonable for a state official to have concerns about a big cruise ship with coronavirus raging onboard dock in one's jurisdiction, but it is rich in irony coming from DeSantis, a Trump intimate known for his recalcitrant refusal to close Florida's beaches during spring break even as other states were closing schools and businesses and issuing shelter-in-place and stay-at-home mitigations to slow the spread of the virus.
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Partying during a pandemic, Florida-style |
Spring break involves a great deal of drinking, crowding and careless behavior, and in giving the green light to this, DeSantis jeopardized the public health of his entire constituency. What's more, spring break revelers hail from all over the East Coast, which served to spread contagion on the rebound when they all clambered home, as the telephone tracer map below shows:
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Tracing travels of spring break revelers |
Thus it was height of hypocrisy for DeSantis to complain only a few days later about New Yorkers "bringing" the disease to Florida when it already had a nasty outbreak of its own and was indirectly hastened the spread elsewhere.
Despite the facts, Florida has been slow to act, choosing instead to point the finger elsewhere. Even after California, Illinois, Ohio, Massachusetts, New York and other states had put strict social distancing measures into effect, Florida was still just fiddling around.
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Zaandam cruise with sick and dead aboard stranded at sea |
The fate of the unlucky Zaandam remains unknown, but now passage through the canal means it is no longer stuck in the Pacific and can hope to find an Atlantic port willing to permit docking and disembarkation, most likely in Florida.
It seems only fair that all additional costs associated with a safe and controlled disembarkation and necessary quarantining should be borne by the wealthy cruise ship owners, not the receiving port.
On the other side of the world, the MV Artania, initially denied entry to Australia (which has over 500 cruise-related coronavirus cases) will now be evacuated by air from Perth to Frankfurt via Phuket.
A twist on the cruise ship as floating petri dish meme is the fate of naval vessels around the world, including the nuclear-powered carriers.
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Sudden change of course for a big carrier at sea |
Aircraft carriers, like the big, hulking cruise ships, can carry as many as 5000 people on board but in decidedly less luxurious conditions. A working ship that includes nuclear power facilities, many dozens of jets, live bombs and needs to devote most of its upper deck for use as a dangerous runway, is focused on function, not the "experience" it provides for its sailors who work, sleep and eat in tight quarters.
The USS Theodore Roosevelt and USS Reagan are two carriers known to have suffered outbreaks and both will be docked for the interim. As the coronavirus spreads, military preparedness will be impacted around the world. It can be surmised that future reports on outbreaks involving naval vessels and land forces will be subject to tight information control and censorship if operational capacity comes to be questioned.
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USS Theodore Roosevelt stricken in the Pacific |
The US Navy, the world's most awesome armed armada, and arguably one of the most intimidating killing machines assembled in the history of man, is now at risk of being idled on account of a microscopic virus.
Outbreaks are an ever-present risk both at sea, where there is no escape from fellow shipmates and in port, where barrack-like conditions and host country contagion come into play.
The USS Theodore Roosevelt has over 200 positive cases to date and the testing continues. However, in a turn worthy of a third-rate authoritarian government, the US Navy has fired Captain B. Crozier who brought public attention to the plight of his sailors. Crozier, went public as a last resort because he was getting no help for his men. Sadly, he lost his command due to the Trump administration desire to control the narrative from afar.
The mighty carrier is now likely to remain idled in port at Guam, instead of strutting its stuff in the South China Sea and elsewhere in the Pacific.
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USS Reagan at sea |
The USS Reagan, based in Yokosuka, Japan, might also be said to be an ill-starred ship. It has lost a jet to a dangerous skid off the deck and once found its condensors clogged with 1900 pounds of jellyfish, impacting the vital reactor coolers. Positioned off the east coast of Japan during the tumultuous week of March 11, 2011, it suffered the indignity of sailing through part of the poisonous radioactive plume created by the meltdown of the Dai-ichi nuclear power plant.
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Fukushima's toxic plume |
Dozens of sailors suffered symptoms of radiation poisoning even after the ship changed course and complaints linger. Now the enormous USS Reagan has again been struck, this time with a virus as stealthy and invisible as radiation, and arguably more dangerous to everyday operations.
Testing is underway for thousands of sailors on the USS Reagan, but an outbreak of the coronavirus in home port of Yokosuka complicates mitigation.
The only bright side in this saga of ships and COVID-19 comes with the news that hospital ships have just arrived in New York and Los Angeles respectively to offer medical aid to cities suffering from the outbreak.
The shocking decline of health conditions on the Diamond Princess as it was docked in Yokohama Japan where it saw its coronavirus case count jump from a mere handful to over 700 in short order suggests a ship is not a good place to deal with this particular illness.
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USNS Comfort enters NY harbor |
Mindful of this problem, the off-shore hospital ships are being set up to deal only with non-coronavirus related issues and strict testing is required for all on board, medical staff and patients alike.
As general practice hospitals in New York, LA and other big cities are by necessity being reconfigured as coronavirus care centers due to the enormous case load and fear of secondary infections, it certainly is reassuring to imagine coronavirus-free facilities, such as hospital ships docked offshore, to complement land facilities that are stressed out and over-taxed by the virus.
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USNS Mercy heads to LA |
The symbolic value of ships coming to the rescue is considerable, but
how much of a practical difference they will make remains to be seen. If
numbers continue to climb, and strict social distancing measures are
not respected, there are not enough ships in the world to save us.