Skip to main content

Top US official says its not time to evacuate aircraft carrier dealing with coronavirus — even after its commander pleaded for urgent help

By

Mark T. Esper 2

  • Defense Secretary Mark Esper said the US Navy was not yet "at that point" where it ought to evacuate crew members of an aircraft carrier reportedly with a growing number of coronavirus cases.
  • On Tuesday, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that the commander of an aircraft carrier wrote a four-page letter warning that the "spread of the disease is ongoing and accelerating."
  • Esper, who claimed he had "not had a chance to read that letter ... in detail," said that none of the sailors were "seriously ill."
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper said the United States Navy was not yet "at that point" where it ought to evacuate crew members of an aircraft carrier reportedly coping with over a hundred cases of the novel coronavirus.

"We are moving a lot of supplies and assistance ... out of the carrier in Guam," Esper said during an interview with "CBS Evening News" on Tuesday, referring to the USS Theodore Roosevelt and its crew of over 4,000 US service members.

On Tuesday, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that the commander of the ship, US Navy Capt. Brett Crozier, wrote a four-page letter to the Department of the Navy warning that the "spread of the disease is ongoing and accelerating."

Capt. Crozier urged that he needed a "political solution" and that the Navy needed to take "immediate and decisive action" amid the dozens of service members who were diagnosed with the coronavirus. One senior officer aboard the ship said between 150 to 200 sailors had tested positive, according to The Chronicle.

"We are not at war. Sailors do not need to die," Crozier reportedly wrote. "If we do not act now, we are failing to properly take care of our most trusted asset — our Sailors."

USS Theodore Roosevelt

Crozier requested quarantine rooms in Guam, where the ship is currently stationed, in addition to relocating the majority of its crew members and isolating them for two weeks. The commander emphasized that he understood the extraordinary ask, but that by not doing so would pose "an unnecessary risk and breaks faith with those Sailors entrusted to our care."

Esper, who claimed he had "not had a chance to read that letter ... in detail," reiterated to CBS News that none of the sailors were "seriously ill."

"At this point in time, we are trying to make sure that we contain the virus, that we deploy testing kits, and we get a good assessment of how much of the crew is infected," Esper said. "And then, of course, taking other measures to ensure that we can get the carrier up and ready again to continue its mission."

Esper added that he was "going to rely on the Navy chain of command ... to assess the situation."

The Navy's top civilian leader said there were inherent difficulties in evacuating thousands of sailors from the ship. Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly on Monday stressed that the service needed to take a "methodical" approach so that sailors "can man all those critical functions on the ship."

As of Tuesday, the Defense Department reported that 1,259 employees had contracted the coronavirus. Four of them have died, including an officer in the New Jersey Army National Guard.

Join the conversation about this story »



from Tech Insider https://ift.tt/2R1C8xd
via IFTTT
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Nintendo Switch has been the US’s bestselling console for 23 straight months

By
Photo by James Bareham / The Verge It’s been a good two years for the Nintendo Switch. According to Nintendo, the gaming tablet has been the bestselling console in the US for 23 straight months. And according to data from the NPD Group, it just had its best October ever, moving 735,926 units of both the Switch and Switch Lite in the US. The company says that represents a 136 percent increase compared to last year. To date, the Switch has sold 22.5 million units in the US, and last week Nintendo revealed that more than 68 million units have been sold globally . “We’re excited about our momentum,” says Nick Chavez, Nintendo of America’s SVP of sales and marketing. Chavez puts the company’s big October down to two main factors. One is a better supply of stock; this year in particular, it’s often been hard to find a Switch on store shelves. This has only been exacerbated by increased demand due to a combination of the pandemic and the breakout success of Animal Crossing: New Horizons . ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Instagram accidentally reinstated Pornhub’s banned account

By
After years of on-and-off temporary suspensions, Instagram permanently banned Pornhub’s account in September. Then, for a short period of time this weekend, the account was reinstated. By Tuesday, it was permanently banned again. “This was done in error,” an Instagram spokesperson told TechCrunch. “As we’ve said previously, we permanently disabled this Instagram account for repeatedly violating our policies.” Instagram’s content guidelines prohibit  nudity and sexual solicitation . A Pornhub spokesperson told TechCrunch, though, that they believe the adult streaming platform’s account did not violate any guidelines. Instagram has not commented on the exact reasoning for the ban, or which policies the account violated. It’s worrying from a moderation perspective if a permanently banned Instagram account can accidentally get switched back on. Pornhub told TechCrunch that its account even received a notice from Instagram, stating that its ban had been a mistake (that message itse...
Post a Comment
Read more

MVP versus EVP: Is it time to introduce ethics into the agile startup model?

By
Anand Rao Contributor Share on Twitter Anand Rao is global head of AI at PwC . The rocket ship trajectory of a startup is well known: Get an idea, build a team and slap together a minimum viable product (MVP) that you can get in front of users. However, today’s startups need to reconsider the MVP model as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) become ubiquitous in tech products and the market grows increasingly conscious of the ethical implications of AI augmenting or replacing humans in the decision-making process. An MVP allows you to collect critical feedback from your target market that then informs the minimum development required to launch a product — creating a powerful feedback loop that drives today’s customer-led business. This lean, agile model has been extremely successful over the past two decades — launching thousands of successful startups, some of which have grown into billion-dollar companies. However, building high-performing product...
Post a Comment
Read more