Forbes March 28, 2020
The dramatic presidential send-off of the hospital ship USNS Comfort (T-AH-19) to a virus-stricken New York and the recently announced quarantine of the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) for COVID-19 offers the Navy an undeniable justification to reinsert disease control and public health into modern naval warfighting strategy.
Disease control and public health need to return to the forefront of military thinking. Thanks to decades of relative safety due to antibiotics, vaccines and other effective medicines, the Navy has long downplayed and dismissed the threat of communicable diseases. And while no disease can physically sink a Navy ship, even a simple flu outbreak can temporarily reduce the military effectiveness of any vessel.
And that reduced effectiveness could...
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