{"id":23815,"date":"2020-04-17T23:43:01","date_gmt":"2020-04-18T06:43:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=23815"},"modified":"2020-04-17T23:43:01","modified_gmt":"2020-04-18T06:43:01","slug":"navy-cdc-to-launch-theodore-roosevelt-coronavirus-outbreak-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=23815","title":{"rendered":"Navy, CDC to launch Theodore Roosevelt coronavirus outbreak study"},"content":{"rendered":"

To better refine how the Navy fights COVID-19, the service and the Center for Disease Control are mounting a study see how the virus spread aboard USS\u00a0Theodore Roosevelt<\/em>\u00a0(CVN-71).<\/span><\/p>\n

Starting Monday, the Navy is going to ask volunteers from\u00a0Theodore Roosevelt<\/em>\u00a0for blood samples and swabs to begin a serology (pronounced: SIR-all-ah-gee) study into the outbreak on the carrier, Navy Surgeon General Rear Adm. Bruce Gillingham told reporters on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is similar to outbreak investigations the CDC and public health professionals do around the world,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cThe results of this outbreak investigation will inform medical professionals to support better public health decisions for the ship. It will also advise the broader COVID-19, surveillance and mitigation strategies for the [Theodore Roosevelt<\/em>], the fleet and our nation. And because we\u2019re doing this outbreak investigation with the CDC, the information gained will add to the growing body of public health knowledge about this virus so that we can better understand it and fight it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The serology tests will take the blood samples and look to see if a sailor developed antibodies for the virus.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll take anywhere from about five to seven days to collect those samples. Those samples will be then transported to the CDC in Atlanta and analyzed,\u201d Gillingham said.
\n\u201cOur goal is to try to complete that process in about a month or so.\u201d<\/p>\n

What the study isn\u2019t going to answer is how the virus came aboard in the first place.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t know for sure how the virus got started,\u201d Gillingham said.<\/p>\n

He said the first cases aboard the carrier were discovered 15 days after\u00a0Theodore Roosevelt<\/em>\u2019s port visit in March to Da Nang, Vietnam.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also know that those sailors were from the aircrew portion of the crew. It certainly suggests that it\u2019s likely that it may have come aboard on the routine [Carrier Onboard Delivery] flights, the supply flights that come out to the ship,\u201d he said. Later in the call with reporters, Gillingham downplayed the connection to the air wing as the source of the outbreak.<\/p>\n

Two Navy officials told USNI News following the call that the first two positive cases found on the carrier were from members of Carrier Airwing 11 embarked on\u00a0Theodore Roosevelt,<\/em>\u00a0not the two C-2A Greyhounds in the COD detachment from \u201cthe Providers\u201d of Fleet Logistics Support Squadron 30 attached to the carrier. Unlike the embarked air wing, the C-2A detachment operates primarily from shore and follows the carrier on its deployment, basing itself at major airports to ferry mail and supplies. The third sailor aboard to have the virus was a member of the ship\u2019s company.<\/p>\n

Officials stressed to USNI News that, with the possible levels of asymptomatic transmissions the service is discovering as part of the outbreak, paired with the tight quarters of the carrier, there may be no way of knowing how the virus came aboard the ship.<\/p>\n

The carrier has been pier-side at Guam since March 27 as the Navy has moved to test and isolate the crew in waves while also disinfecting the ship ahead of returning to sea.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs of today, 94 percent of\u00a0Theodore Roosevelt<\/em>\u00a0crewmembers have been tested for COVID-19, with 660 positive and 3,920 negative results,\u201d according to Friday\u2019s COVID-19 report from the service. \u201c4,059 sailors have moved ashore.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Thursday, the Navy announced the identity of a\u00a0Theodore Roosevelt\u00a0<\/em>sailor who died from COVID-19 complications.\u00a0Aviation Ordnanceman Chief Petty Officer Charles Robert Thacker Jr.<\/a>, 41, is the first U.S. active duty service member to die from COVID-19.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To better refine how the Navy...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health","category-u-s-a"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23815"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23815\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23816,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23815\/revisions\/23816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}