{"id":42055,"date":"2021-02-09T23:12:55","date_gmt":"2021-02-09T23:12:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2021\/02\/09\/watchdog-navy-didnt-conduct-required-infectious-disease-exercises-before-covid-19-hit\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T19:56:45","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T19:56:45","slug":"watchdog-navy-didnt-conduct-required-infectious-disease-exercises-before-covid-19-hit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2021\/02\/09\/watchdog-navy-didnt-conduct-required-infectious-disease-exercises-before-covid-19-hit\/","title":{"rendered":"Watchdog: Navy didn\u2019t conduct required infectious disease exercises before COVID-19 hit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The U.S. Navy had \u201cpolicies, plans and procedures\u201d to mitigate the spread of infectious diseases like COVID-19, but had not fully implemented such measures before the novel coronavirus pandemic exploded last spring, <a href=\"https:\/\/media.defense.gov\/2021\/Feb\/08\/2002577798\/-1\/-1\/1\/DODIG-2021-049_REDACTED.PDF\" target=_blank>according to a report<\/a> issued Monday by a Pentagon watchdog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In particular, the <a href=\"https:\/\/media.defense.gov\/2021\/Feb\/08\/2002577798\/-1\/-1\/1\/DODIG-2021-049_REDACTED.PDF\" target=_blank>Defense Department\u2019s Inspector General<\/a> found that four out of five Navy component commands didn\u2019t conduct a biennial influenza and infectious disease exercise as required by the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cPrior to the pandemic, the Navy did not fully implement measures intended to reduce the risk of the spread of infectious diseases,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/media.defense.gov\/2021\/Feb\/08\/2002577798\/-1\/-1\/1\/DODIG-2021-049_REDACTED.PDF\" target=_blank>the report<\/a> states. \u201cAs a result of not conducing (the exercises), most Navy component commands did not exercise pandemic response in coordination with their supported combatant commanders.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The IG evaluation, conducted from May to December, looked at the Navy\u2019s response to COVID-19 aboard ships and submarines, focusing on the massive outbreaks last year aboard the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt and the guided-missile destroyer Kidd.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2021\/01\/11\/readying-for-the-worst-pandemics-long-deployments-take-a-hard-toll-on-crews-families-and-ships\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/tr-dub-pump-3.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Readying for the worst: Pandemic\u2019s long deployments take a hard toll on crews, families and ships<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">The pace of operations and Big Navy\u2019s COVID suppression measures are placing added stress and strain upon sailors and raising questions in some circles about retention and the material readiness of Navy ships, compounding issues that existed well before the pandemic.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/media.defense.gov\/2021\/Feb\/08\/2002577798\/-1\/-1\/1\/DODIG-2021-049_REDACTED.PDF\" target=_blank>IG report<\/a> also found that several Navy publications in the past decade had warned about a shortage of personal protective equipment, or PPE, should a pandemic strike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Navy was not alone in getting caught flat-footed with PPE; shortages of masks, gowns and gloves reverberated across the federal government and the globe last spring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One finding from the Navy\u2019s doctrinal publication on expeditionary health service support afloat and ashore warned of potential problems with the \u201cjust-in-time\u201d delivery of PPE for military medical facilities, a supply chain trend that extends beyond the military and deemphasizes mass storage of such supplies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The publication called for \u201calternative solutions\u201d should another PPE shortage erupt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Another Navy publication from September 2014 urged further study and evaluation of supplies following the 2009 H1N1 bird flu pandemic, according to the IG.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In examining the Navy\u2019s response to the COVID outbreak aboard the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt last year, which led to roughly a quarter of the 5,000 sailors onboard getting infected with the novel coronavirus, the IG cites the Navy\u2019s command investigation into how the TR chain of command handled the outbreak in March and April.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It blames \u201cineffective implementation of social distancing and the premature release of sailors from quarantine\u201d as causes of infection on the ship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While the IG report notes the lack of social distancing practices aboard TR, it also acknowledges the difficulties of social distancing within a ship\u2019s close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A decision to release 900 of 1,000 TR sailors from aft quarantine came about \u201cbecause the ship\u2019s leadership believed that conditions in the aft quarantine area was creating \u2018human suffering\u2019 and that the large number of sailors in the aft quarantine area was crowded and unmanageable,\u201d the IG report states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The outbreak led then-commanding officer Capt. Brett Crozier to send a letter asking for more help for his crew and a fast tracking of efforts to get his crew onto land in Guam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That plea was later leaked to the media and led to his firing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The report makes nearly no mention of the COVID outbreak aboard Kidd, which had at least 78 cases onboard before the Navy stopped releasing updates on the ship in April.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The IG report states that \u2018lessons learned\u201d were still being gathered from the Kidd as of August, though the evaluation\u2019s time frame spanned from May to December.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2021\/01\/29\/people-are-scared-covid-19-outbreak-rattles-crew-of-the-warship-chafee\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"188\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/chafee-sailors.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">\u2018People are scared\u2019: COVID-19 outbreak rattles crew of the warship Chafee<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">U.S. 3rd Fleet officials confirmed that some personnel had tested positive for the coronavirus on the guided-missile destroyer, but declined to say how many cases had emerged.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, the extent of the IG\u2019s findings and their consequences remain unclear, as the publicly released report contains several redactions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The reason for those redactions also remains unclear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">DOD IG spokeswoman Dwrena Allen declined to explain the redactions Monday or how IG\u2019s redaction process works, instead referring questions to the Navy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a statement Tuesday, Navy spokeswoman Lt. Emily Wilkin said the report was owned by DOD IG, and that \u201cthe Navy is not responsible for what was or wasn\u2019t redacted.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Allen declined to comment further on the Navy\u2019s statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe Navy fully supports DOD efforts to highlight and incorporate lessons learned across the Fleet related to COVID-19,\u201d Wilkin said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">TR and Kidd\u2019s outbreaks remain the most widespread COVID instances in the Navy, according to the IG, and the sea service has implemented lessons learned from those ships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAlthough numerous Navy warships have had crew members diagnosed with COVID-19 while in port, the Navy ahs continued to deploy warships and submarines without additional widespread outbreaks that would otherwise cripple warships and interrupt their support to the combat combatant commanders,\u201d the report states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The IG report recommends that the Navy update existing infectious disease and shipboard quarantine guidance to reflect lessons learned from COVID-19, and Navy leadership told the watchdog that such updates are in the works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The report also calls for the Navy to ensure its component commands are conducting the pandemic exercises it failed to do before the pandemic, and Navy officials said a tabletop exercise for such contingencies is planned for next month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Defense Department Inspector General report on the Navy&#8217;s response to COVID was released Monday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":40497,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":65,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"2":{"categories":["your-military","news","left-column","home"],"primary_category":"your-military"}}},"categories":[61,101,23,88,12,26,65],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3355],"class_list":["post-42055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-coronavirus","category-daily-news-roundup","category-home","category-left-column","category-news","category-newsletters","category-your-navy"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"4F3V57OH7NAMPGEPJ6ZVFB4J3Q","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-navy\/2021\/02\/09\/watchdog-navy-didnt-conduct-required-infectious-disease-exercises-before-covid-19-hit\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Watchdog: Navy didn\u2019t conduct required infectious disease exercises before COVID-19 hit - Navy Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Defense Department Inspector General report on the Navy&#039;s response to COVID was released Monday.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Watchdog: Navy didn\u2019t conduct required infectious disease exercises before COVID-19 hit\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Defense Department Inspector General report on the Navy&#039;s response to COVID was released Monday.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" 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