USS Kidd Arrives in San Diego to Treat COVID-19 Outbreak; First Cases Emerged More than A Month After Hawaii Port Visit

USNI News ^ | Apr 28, 2020 | Sam LaGrone

[DannyTN]

"The first sailor began to show symptoms of the virus on April 22, more than 30 days after the ship’s last port visit in Hawaii, according to a status update provided to Congress and reviewed by USNI News. "

Rats. Three possibilities:

• The sailor was infected and didn't show symptoms for more than 30 days. This could confirm the early report out of China of a person not developing symptoms for 24 days after exposure.
• The sailor wasn't infected for 30 days, but brought the virus on board the ship in a contaminated surface. Which he subsequently touched and developed coronavirus.
• If they obtained food supplies while in port. And the virus survives well in refrigerated or frozen conditions.

[pepsi_junkie]

Destroyers don’t patrol the seas alone. They operate as par of a carrier battle group. At times helos will be depoloed, potentially between ships to get parts or whatever. It’s not as totally isolated as it seems at first glance.

[TexasM1A]

So what are these folks conditions?
Mild, severe, on deaths door?
Seems like that would be important to know.

[DannyTN]

Thanks

Wouldn’t the rest of the carrier battle group leave port at the same time?

Of course if the Destroyer had contact with one of the known infected carriers, that would explain it.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Thanks. That seems like a plausible explanation.

Do they do at-sea refueling, too?

[DannyTN]

Possibilities

• One or more asymptomatic spreaders had it before the sailor that developed symptoms. Implying the virus was active the entire time and nobody had more than a 14 day incubation.

[DarthVader]

They also could have been hit with nano-particles at sea like the Teddy Roosevelt might have been too. China don’t like our warships being near their waters.

[DannyTN]

Think they could get close enough to spread virus particles in open seas?

Undetectable biobullet?

[DannyTN]

"So what are these folks conditions?"

From the article:
"Two Kidd sailors have been medically evacuated to the United States, while 15 were transferred to amphibious warship USS Makin Island (LHD-8) for monitoring, the Navy announced on Tuesday.

65 positive cases. 63% of crew tested. Not sure how many crew.

[DarthVader]

Exactly by taking a a very small particle with lots of surface area with virus microbes adsorbed onto its surface. Then distributed as an aerosol and simply breathed in.

[PghBaldy]

Or sailor got it from an asymptomatic crew mate

[granite]

One or more asymptomatic spreaders had it before the sailor that developed symptoms. Implying the virus was active the entire time and nobody had more than a 14 day incubation.

This is the most likely scenario, it also means that most people are asymptomatic!

[Empire_of_Liberty]

I think you solved your own problem of infection, and the case shows well how this virus/disease operates.

Someone else brought it aboard, apparently not becoming noticeably ill. It went through the crew until it hit someone susceptible who showed symptoms.

The numbers of positives, antibodies, crew and time in isolation from this case should give some of the best data available.

[forgotten man]

The Kidd was not part of a carrier group. It was patrolling the drug routes around Central America area, 4th fleet.

[CharlesWayneCT]

Or, some asymptomatic people got it in Guam, and then infected others, and then to others, until it hit this guy who had symptoms.

They are doing “current positive” tests and found 64. He first showed signs on April 22nd, no way he spread it to 64 other people in 7 days, so likely there is some common carrier back a few weeks that was spreading it around.

It will be interesting when they run the antibody test, to see how many people had it, compared to the 64 that are currently positive.

[Pollard]

Last part of one sentence and first part of the next sentence.

“””brought an Abbott machine with a COVID-19 testing ability aboard to start screening the crew.”””

“””From there, the outbreak spread rapidly among the crew”””

Just sounds weird

(note to self - don’t get tested with Abbott machine - LOL)

[CharlesWayneCT]

THey also had underway replenishments, so it is possible that the transfer of “replenishments” was where it was introduced; but I assume they are checking THAT crew out.

[ETCM]

Destroyers don’t patrol the seas alone. They operate as par of a carrier battle group. At times helos will be depoloed, potentially between ships to get parts or whatever. It’s not as totally isolated as it seems at first glance.

We usually deploy with CSG's ARG's, SAG's, etc, but we do break off and steam independently when required. That's what KIDD was doing. She deployed in Jan with the Roosevelt CSG, but obviously, that fell apart. She left Hawaii a month ago to do counter drug ops, AKA a "Crack Pac" independently. But as you said, we still get logistics helos (or the ship's own helo det), with mail, parts, passengers, etc. She might have also met up with a "duty oiler" to receive mail, parts, passengers, food, fuel, etc. It's also possible that she was working with US Coast Guard or foreign Navy/Coast Guard forces, and passenger transfers between them would be normal in "normal times". Probably not so much now.

[PAR35]

Fouth possibility - most likely - he caught it from another crew member who had a mild case and who pushed through the symptoms. Some of the few legitimate numbers out there indicated that most folks are either asymptomatic or have only mild symptoms. But since that doesn’t fit the agenda, it’s pretty well unreported.

[PAR35]

USS Kidd website - https://www.usskidd.com/ Note the big banner “Closed due to Corona Virus”