by KYLE MIZOKAMI
The U.S. Navy announced today that a four-month humanitarian cruise in the South Pacific has been canceled due to the H1N1 virus. One sailor assigned to the USS Dubuque, pictured, an Austin-class amphibious transport dock ship, has been diagnosed with the virus and 49 others developed symptoms. The remaining crew is being subject to a 10-day prophylaxis course.
Dubuque was scheduled to leave June 1 for her soft-power cruise of the South Pacific, which was to be much like the African Partnership Station cruise our own David Axe observed just last month on USS Nashville. The ship, a key component of Pacific Partnership 2009, was to visit Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Samoa, the Solomon Islands and Tonga, delivering humanitarian supplies as well as medical, dental, engineering and veterinary aid to the remote islands.
The Navy is considering other options.
(Photo: Navy)
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This is just ignorant. The REST of us come down with influenza, languish in bed for a day, take our Tamiflu and voila; it’s business as usual within 48-72 hours. Rare exceptions excluded. To trash a long planned mission – a month in advance – because there MIGHT be a problem is simply paranoid. The admiral should just order up a bigger stockpile of Tamiflu and Relenza and carry on! All these people will be in effective quarantine and easily treatable even if there’s an influenza breakout.
[...] 27, 2009 · Leave a Comment “Soft Power Cruise Dead in the Water, Due to Flu“, May 6th,2009 [...]