Since April 5, the U.S. Navy has required fabric face coverings for all service members and civilians where social distancing isn’t possible, such as in the cramped quarters aboard an aircraft carrier or other Navy ship. While they required face coverings, they did not, however, provide cloth masks to Navy crews. The Navy appears to be no more prepared for the pandemic than the rest of the Federal government.

When no cloth masks were forthcoming, sailors aboard aircraft carriers have begun to make their own. Marine Executive reports:

Sailors aboard USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, USS Abraham Lincoln, USS George Washington, USS John C. Stennis, USS Harry S. Truman, USS George H.W. Bush, and USS Gerald R. Ford have started to make fabric face coverings for their crews. The effort is led by aircrew survival equipmentmen, who have sewing skills. Some of the primary duties associated with a Navy aircrew survival equipmentman include maintaining and repairing parachutes, search and rescue equipment, and flight clothing— duties that often include sewing.

This raises two questions. First, will there be enough masks quickly enough? And second, will the masks make much a difference? 

Marine Executive reports that sailors on the Stennis are sewing 30 masks per day, with an expected increase to nearly 50 a day by next week. With around 5,000 crew on the ship, and with no additional support, it will take until mid-July to fabricate masks sufficient for the entire ship’s complement. Given that the virus spread from 3 cases to over 500 on the Roosevelt in a period of about 15 days, the shipboard mask sewing may fall very far short. 

Even if there are enough masks, will they do much good? That is still unclear. Few studies exist that evaluate the effectiveness of fabric at curbing virus transmission. With adequate social distancing, cloth masks have not been shown to make much difference. In cases where social distancing is impossible, cloths mask may help or at least be better than nothing.

Yesterday we posted that as of Saturday morning over 400 of the crew aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt. By yesterday afternoon the number had risen to 550. Roughly 92% of the crew has been tested so the numbers may rise further. 

Three other aircraft carriers have had reports of the virus including USS Ronald Reagan, currently undergoing maintenance in Japan, the  USS Carl Vinson undergoing maintenance in Puget Sound, and the USS Nimitz, which is preparing for anew deployment. The Navy now says that no one aboard USS Nimitz has tested positive for the coronavirus.

On one level, it is encouraging that in a crisis Navy personnel fall back on a modern-day version of marlinspike seamanship. On the other hand, given the severity of the crisis, the Navy and the nation should be more prepared for the long-predicted pandemic.